I think my previous post regarding @clearerrors and "error html" is something to take another look at.
If your application was generating an error, but you were using the "Error Results HTML" to handle the error and continue on processing, you would get exactly what you were describing, because Witango would be returning an HTML header containing a 500 stauts code.
I became very familiar with this issue when upgrading to witango because one of my applications gets in a situation where it quite commonly encounters an "error" using the file read action, that really isn't an error. I had to add special code to my app to check the version of witango and fix the http header manually, otherwise i'd get those IE "friendly" error pages.
/John
Wolf, Gene wrote:
Jim,
You may have given us the solution! On my machine I had both Show Friendly Http Error Messages and Show Friendly URL's checked and after unchecking them the program no longer fails. Turning them back on does produce the failure.
I'm going to roll this out to our users tomorrow and see what happens! Thanks a lot for your help!
Sincerely, Gene Wolf
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Kass [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 4:14 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Witango-Talk: Strange problem
Gene,
You need to first narrow down what the 'error' actually is. Also, one BIG difference between IE and other browsers is that IE has a "show friendly HTTP error messages" function that often hides the real error that the webserver is trying to return(in most cases it does show it at the bottom of your screen, but that cannot always be trusted). First thing you NEED to do is to turn that 'feature' off. In fact, you should turn off "show friendly URLS" as well (friendly URLs truncates long URLs, making it difficult to determine where exactly a link on your site is going if you are using scripts).
If you still get an error, I would then "tail -f" both the Tango logs and the webserver logs (while you attempt to replicate).
On any webserver that Tango is running on... Tango takes over all error messages for any filetype that it has been setup to handle. That means that if .htm is not handled by Tango, then the webserver will handle any errors related to those files. Your friendly errors will only mask HTTP error messages, so if you are still getting a webserver error - Tango is not setup properly, or that filetype is not handled by Tango.
Once you have eliminated the 'error' as being related to either tango, the db, or the webserver - then I would consider a DNS problem - but if it is ONLY one file, then DNS or the network is not likely to be the cause.
Hope that helps.
Jim Kass Web Developer
-- Forestweb: The Source for Industry Intelligence Best Content -- Most Relevant -- Best Delivery http://www.forestweb.com (310) 553 - 0008
-----Original Message----- From: Wolf, Gene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 12:11 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Witango-Talk: Strange problem
OK, I'm at the end of my rope and I thought a few more eyes looking at this might be able to give me some ideas as to where to look. We have Windows Professional using a SQL database. For the last 9 months everything has been working smoothly. Suddenly 3 weeks ago we started getting reports that some people, sporadically, could not use the electronic Timecard system written in Witango. Now, this system has been working fine for over 9 months. The first reports we chalked up to user error because after retrying the user was able to make it work. However, the reports continued to come in and grew more frequent.
I can now replicate the error on my system though it is not consistent. What I mean by that is, if I try long enough I can make the error happen, but sometimes it takes quite a while to happen, and other times it'll happen right away.
What we're seeing in the generic page that indicates, This page cannot be displayed, as though we are pointing to an invalid server address. Almost as though there is a DNS error. The other error we see is a totally blank page. The error page is the most common but blank page results do happen as well.
Our location is split between 2 facilities separated by about 6 miles. Witango runs on one server, the SQL database runs on another server. Both servers are up to date, have no virus issues, and have been running this software for the last several months flawlessly. We recently upgraded to Witango Professional but it was running for several weeks, without issue, so we assume this is not the problem. I've copied all of the facts we know below from an e-mail I sent to my management and networking folks this morning with some additions for folks not familiar with our server names. If anyone has any ideas to pursue please shoot them my way. I'm totally stumped by this one!
************** memo sent **************************
OK, I've done everything I know and we still have problems with the timecard system. Here are the issues:
1. It's not dead. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time it does. 2. Some people it hardly ever works for, Marty Jennings for example. 3. Some people it never fails for, Greg Mcelhinny for example. 4. For some people it does not work for, on their personal machine, we can bring up their card and it works fine. 5. Most of the problems seem to be in Melbourne, not Palm Bay, although we have problems here too. 6. I have turned on debugging and the program seems to be doing just what it is supposed to be doing. 7. When it fails we get either Page cannot be found (like it's looking at an invalid IP address) or a blank screen. 8. The program never fails under Opera or Netscape 9. It seems to be only an issue with the Timecard system, nothing else. All other Witango programs are behaving normally. 10. We have updated Alabama with all critical patches as of yesterday. The problem still exists. 11. I have searched the Microsoft Knowledge base and nothing seems to relate to us with this problem. 12. On some systems, like my own desktop machine, the problem is sporadic. Sometimes it will fail, sometimes not.
What I'd like to try to do, if possible, is to trace what Alabama (Witango Server) is trying to access network wise. I'm sure it is not a network issue, but I need to know what Alabama is trying to access in those cases it is displaying the "Page cannot be Displayed" message. At the point that message is displayed my program is out of the loop and there's nothing I can do to determine where it is going. I have traced the program to the end in the cases it fails and it looks like the timecard should be displayed. It isn't. I'm wondering if the Witango server is generating a bad header record that IIS is not handling properly, or whether the browser is not handling properly.
Clay, do you have any kind of network sniffing tool that we can use to look to see just what Alabama is sending out to the network, where it's trying to go, so we can see what it's trying to do?
Other than that, I'm at a loss for what to do in order to fix this problem.
All suggestions are welcomed!
Gene Wolf Business Systems Analyst, TLMN DRS Optronics, Inc. 2330 Commerce Park Drive Palm Bay, Florida 32905 Phone: 321-309-0685 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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