session timed out and lost post.

[Space Fractal]

Hi.

I have noticed some trouble with session which have tendend to log me of, instead of posting the message in a thread.

When it do that, I simple lost the thread, and need to write that thread AGAIN.

Now I began to lost trust to write directly in the normal text window, and instead to use Notepad, and then paste/copy it in, so I make sure I dosent lost the text again when this bug appear.

Any clue what happens, since it not the first time?

[sirwoogie]

There could be many factors to your problem. I would not necessarily call this a bug yet as we don't have anybody else experiencing this issue.

The session is maintained by cookie, and has a default timer of 60 minutes. The reason the text disappears is the behavior of the browser when redirected to the login page. When you log in are you adjusting the session parameter at all? Are you composing a message that takes longer than the session timeout variable (whether default or set by yourself)? Do you have any proxy or firewall setups? Some of these answers may help us to alleviate the symptom.

[richms]

Usual cause of this is PC clock issues, so check the timezone too. Used to have loads of people with problems calling the helpdesk that were set to some US timezone since thats the default for windows.

[TOK]

Whenever I do a blabby post, I just highlight the text and Copy it right before sending. If something goes wrong just post again, pasting your info into the message window.

I've only done this on Project Announcement threads where I spend a long time writing and linking images.

[Space Fractal]

I known it a session problem.

But I may does it even smaller messages. I just hoped the message could been found when used back button.

I guess I never used over a hour to compose message, and I diddent have see the issue in a while. It just happens here and there.

I hope they folks at SMF can fix the problem by using the back buttons so the message can been retriwed again, not just lost it, or just show the message again in the next screen, while with the session error, so you have a change to copy the message to notepad, and then login again.....


But I guess you can nothing due that.

[danny_galaga]

Whenever I do a blabby post, I just highlight the text and Copy it right before sending. If something goes wrong just post again, pasting your info into the message window.

same here. actually ive been burnt many a time so i do it for everything. i once wrote a really long email from a library in cuba and accidentally hit some button (they of course have spanish keyboards, so some of the buttons are a little strange for this gringo). man, i was furious. i went back to my room and wrote it all out again on (non-windows powered) paper so it wouldnt happen again...

[sirwoogie]

I hope they folks at SMF can fix the problem by using the back buttons so the message can been retriwed again, not just lost it, or just show the message again in the next screen, while with the session error, so you have a change to copy the message to notepad, and then login again....

This really isn't an SMF thing. This is how the browser handles a form post and the fields used to submit them. If the browser can't remember this, there is nothing SMF can do to help it.

[Space Fractal]

Yep, you can....

Even session (cookie) is timed out, and you got logged of, the form text is still sent to the server. All form sent to a server can been retrieved, using php variable with $_POST[].

The session is of course gone and it wont post it, because it forgot where it was. But the text could still just been shown after posting, and give the user the warning, because it have sent to the server.

That is all I want. It do that rare, but annoying, if you wrote a long text. But if this is a also lost to, nothing can been due, but it should not been happing.

[sirwoogie]

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you on this... but for other reasons. While yes, a post has been sent to the server and it would be possible to capture, the security policy would be violated. Hence, if it doesn't know who you are, then it has to keep the message around as a guest... but then how does it know which guest is which? Ahh by session. But you don't have a session, so what happens then? Well, we could track it by connecting IP address, but then what if for example you are an AOL user behind a proxy? You could have many members hitting the site at the same time... what then?

See, the more ratholes you go down, the more it becomes clear that creating a system such as this would be improbable and probably dangerous. But by all means, I see that you are passionate about this problem. I suggest going to the Simple Machines website, read up on the underpinnings of the code, and create a mod that can accomplish what you are trying to do. If you do, I'd be happy to review it and put it in the forum.

[Space Fractal]

you may misread my post.

All I really want is sent message back to screen using $_POST["subject"] and $_POST["message"], where the text is wrote to when you submit a form (as I can see on the code) on the next page with the warning ONCE (so you have a change to copy/paste to notepad, login again, and the paste the text back). $_POST does not use session anyway and it would been gone on page navigation. Im simply guess it these variable is not checked when the session is gone.

it not fun to write a long post again, if and then it happens.

I have not seen this issue since, but this feature would been rare, and may submit to the forum of the officiel forum at SMF (this feature should of course been can been disable or enabled by the adminstrator).