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broken links again

paleolith

By paleolith
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OpinioNate

OpinioNate

Posted
Posted

I'd be really appreciative to anyone who would send me an email through my player account directly when they see the links break on a cache. I really need to see it for my own eyes because it can't be reproduced at will.

 

Please email me with a link to the cache page and I should be able to respond quickly. Thanks.

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tozainamboku

+tozainamboku

Posted
Posted

I'd be really appreciative to anyone who would send me an email through my player account directly when they see the links break on a cache. I really need to see it for my own eyes because it can't be reproduced at will.

 

Please email me with a link to the cache page and I should be able to respond quickly. Thanks.

I doubt you'll catch it quickly enough. It reminds me of a bug we had on web application I worked on years ago. We had a uninitialized pointer in some call to COM component. 99% of the time the site worked find because the pointer happened to be null or was pointing to memory that had nulls in it. 1% of the time our code was loaded into an area of memory where the uninitialized pointer actually pointed to something other than nulls and component would act strangely and spew out the wrong HTML.

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OpinioNate

OpinioNate

Posted
Posted
my player account

Believe it or not, some of us don't know what account that is. :D

 

 

Sorry, I just meant this account. OpinioNate.

 

So BackBrakeBilly was kind enough to email me with a couple links and I was able to catch it in time. Thanks Billy! Unfortunately the news is not good.

 

Raine checked the database and the <a href= tags were just GONE. No sign of them. It makes no sense that they would be missing but then somehow reappear at a later time. How do they reappear if they aren't saved anywhere?

 

I believe our best bet will be to just replace that control altogether (UBB Textbox). It's really been nothing but trouble from the beginning. I don't know yet if this is the avenue we will take but I fear it may be a while yet before we are free of this problem. I'll try to keep you posted on our progress.

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paleolith

+paleolith

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Raine checked the database and the <a href= tags were just GONE. No sign of them. It makes no sense that they would be missing but then somehow reappear at a later time. How do they reappear if they aren't saved anywhere?

Depending on what interface he's using to check them, it's possible that the same bug which is dropping them on output to web pages is dropping them when he checks them. This in fact could be a strong clue.

 

I believe our best bet will be to just replace that control altogether (UBB Textbox).

Note however that this happens in at least three distinct situations: implicit URLs which become (visit link), explicit bracketed URLs in BBcode, and <a> elements in HTML descriptions. If UBB Textbox handles all of these, it looks guilty. Otherwise replacing it isn't likely to solve the problem. (I have not had a chance to notice whether errors in all three tend to occur simultaneously.)

 

The evidence, to me, points to some kind of output filter. As you say, otherwise how could they go away and reappear? Self-healing databases are not yet state of the art. :D

 

I'll try to keep you posted on our progress.

Thanks.

 

Edward

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jholly

jholly

Posted
Posted (edited)

I was working on new caches tonight. I have the <a href="URL">Linky</a> in the long description box. I can see it, it is there, really. When I save it back (check the two boxes and submit) the cache page is messed up. When I go back into edit the listing I can see it is now "URL">Linky. The <a href= is missing and the > after the URL gets changed to a > . If it helps it seemed like it started around the time the forum backup completes - 11:30ish PST. Now the question is, will it be okay tomorrow morning.

 

And yes, I have the HTML box checked. Other HTML like <font size= > and <font face= > is working.

 

Jim

 

Edit: The answer is at 12:08 they started working again.

Edited by jholly
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geodarts

+geodarts

Posted
Posted

This seems to be a recurring problem. I edited a cache page of mine last week and it lost the <A href= codes.

I was able to fix it the next day.

 

I just edited a cache page and found that the links on the page had again lost the <a href= codes. I hope that it will work again tomorrow and I can fix the page.

 

I have also been frustrated (and learned to work around) the way that the server changes various html codes, inserting extra <BR> codes and the like.

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knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted

I just saw my first example of this bug when I clicked on the new cache notification for GC1EEAD

 

Oddly enough, sometimes it loads correctly. Generally (but not 100% consistantly) when it does load correctly, Decrypting the hint will break it.

 

I get the same behavior from IE7 and from Firefox 3.0.5. Also both browsers show the behavior inconsistantly.

 

Hope this helps!

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KoosKoos

+KoosKoos

Posted
Posted (edited)

I still can't get my links to work in the page I was editing last night.

 

<_<

 

In case anyone's looking for examples. On GC1G269

 

This html:

 


<b>All of the information below (and MORE) is on our dedicated
event web site:</b> <a href="http://www.texaschallenge.info" target="_blank">http://www.texaschallenge.info </a>

 

gets transformed into this:

 


<b>All of the information below (and MORE) is on our dedicated
event web site:</b> "http://www.texaschallenge.info"
target="_blank">http://www.texaschallenge.info

 

and yes, I have the HTML checkbox selected on my cache page form.

 

edit: adding example

Edited by KoosKoos
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Zor

+Zor

Posted
Posted

I still can't get my links to work in the page I was editing last night.

 

<_<

 

In case anyone's looking for examples. On GC1G269

 

This html:

 


<b>All of the information below (and MORE) is on our dedicated
event web site:</b> <a href="http://www.texaschallenge.info" target="_blank">http://www.texaschallenge.info </a>

 

gets transformed into this:

 


<b>All of the information below (and MORE) is on our dedicated
event web site:</b> "http://www.texaschallenge.info"
target="_blank">http://www.texaschallenge.info

 

and yes, I have the HTML checkbox selected on my cache page form.

 

edit: adding example

 

Mine's doing basically the same thing. I went to update the link to my Wherigo cartridge and put this in the listing (xxxx is the code to the cart which I've removed for this post):

 

<p>In order to find this cache, you will need to download and

install the Wherigo cartridge from <a href="http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.aspx?CGUID=xxxx">this</a>'>http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.aspx?CGUID=xxxx">this</a> link.

 

It's translating to:

 

In order to find this cache, you will need to download and install the Wherigo cartridge from "http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.aspx?CGUID=xxxx">this link.

 

First time I've ever seen this issue.

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DrJay

+DrJay

Posted
Posted

Yep... I just came in here to see if what was happening on my pages was happening elsewhere, and sure enough...

 

All of the links on my cache pages have had the a href wiped out of them so the pages that have links are one big mess. I've noticed it from time to time on my profile page too, but not right now.

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TripCyclone

+TripCyclone

Posted
Posted

I have contacted Nate with my information too. This is the second time it has occurred, and I have at least figured out what happened to cause it on mine. Here's my thoughts:

 

I am working on a series of caches and on each cache I have provided a link to all of the other caches so that people can easily get to any of them from any of them. Here's an example of how it is supposed to look:

 

GC1M2NP - A Lesson In Ciphers # 1

 

Now, the first time this occurred, almost a month ago, happened when I had created # 7. All of the first six had working links. Then, a few days after # 7 published, I began updating the previous six so that they would show the link to # 7. It wasn't until after I did this update on every page that I went back to check them all and noticed the same problem everyone else had. So I went through and fixed everything. Most of the caches fixed themselves right away after I went in and reedited the code to replace the lost tags. One of them took three or four tries, but it finally stuck. Problem solved.

 

I got # 8 and # 9 up last week. I updated the links without any problems. Then tonight, I went to add an additional link on # 8 that would serve as a hint of sorts. After adding in the link, I went to check out it came out and noticed the problem had occurred again. *%*% Well, I started trying to fix it like last time and it didn't work. Second, Third, Fourth time and still no results. I started looking at the other caches in the series and they all worked just find.

 

It is this, in combination of how I first saw the problem the previous time, that leads me to think that one possible cause (and I'm not saying it is THE cause, just a possible one) is adding links to cache pages. It doesn't seem to occur every time you do this, but the only times it has happened to me has been when I've tried to add links.

 

Here is what # 8 looks like, with the broken links (if the server has somehow been built by Skynet and fixes itself before you have seen it, then I'm confused):

 

GC1MZ2E - A Lesson In Ciphers # 8

 

I also mentioned the whole issue with <br> codes that has been bugging the heck out of me to Nate, especially since it has been growing worse and adding more of them each time.

 

TripCyclone

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Bohusz

+Bohusz

Posted
Posted

Yes, one of my logs (http://www.geocaching.com/track/log.aspx?LUID=3189ecc9-c8b0-4a05-b836-02440548db22) suffers this this problem, too. (I haven't checked my others logs, there are lots of them using [ url = ... ] .)

 

I've been reminded by the TB owner and checked the problem in Firefox 3.0.6, MSIE 7.0.6001.18000 and Chrome 2.0.168.0 and everythink worked fine. Then, while entering logs, I've noticed rendering problem, so returned to the link above for reference - to find out the correct format. And the link rendering has been broken! In all the three mentioned browsers. The behaviour has changed during an hour or so!

 

I consider this instability vere, very annoying!

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Northmark

+Northmark

Posted
Posted

Im having a similar problem.. On my profile page I put the names of the cachers I have met as a link. When I accessed my profile page yesterday I see that the link isnt there, just the name of the cacher(no underlining or different color to signify the link) Does anyone know why this happened? Thanks in advance!

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paleolith

+paleolith

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Unfortunately, the only workaround seems to be to avoid using links entirely.

 

Well, I suppose one could simply expose the URLs. In descriptions, write HTML but don't use <a> tags, just display the raw URL. The user will have to copy and paste it instead of just clicking on it, and it shows in the text. But at least it doesn't have the broken garbage around it.

 

I think you can do the same in logs by omitting the http://, like this: paleo.org.

 

Ugly, probably 85% as ugly as the broken links. But not 100%.

 

It may be worth noting that <img> tags does not appear to be broken, although that doesn't help with links.

 

Personally I'm leaving mine, but have added an apology at the top of the affected descriptions. And I'm avoiding altering descriptions when possible. (I have a couple which I promised to update weekly, so I can't avoid those.) In other words, I'm assuming that it will get fixed eventually.

 

Edward

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NevadaWolf

+NevadaWolf

Posted
Posted

I tried raw URL's last night, and ended up running into GC.com's habit of changing those into (Visit Link), which of course broke because of the <a href= tag.

 

I left it as is, hoping for a quick fix, but did write a note underneath explaining what to do (copy/paste) while it was ugly.

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Jake39

+Jake39

Posted
Posted

... and here I thought I had a 'computer virus' :)

 

-- Been getting reminders for at least a couple of weeks that some of the links don't work and therefore G.cachers were unable, in some cases, to find the required information in locating a cache.

 

Yes, the <a href=" and </a> have disappeared and some urls have 2 % # @ "; etc. characters added to it so I had to post all new links again. At times I tried the <a href .... a number of times (5,6,7) until I finally gave up.

-- I just hate having to spend endless hours updating my Geocaches and also links on my Waymarks. (Odd that the WAYMARK Categories don't seem to be affected) :)

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