How to have an Activity Stream load as your site's base URL?

[Clover13]

I'm running into an issue and have a ticket open with IPS support already on this, but figured I'd ask here to see if anyone else is doing something similar and may either have this working properly or be experiencing the same as I am right now in 4.6.3 (really 4.6+).

The setup:

Base URL: https://somesite.com
Custom Activity Stream FURL:  https://somesite.com/discovery/6
Default All Activity Stream FURL: https://somesite.com/discovery

IPS Config:
- Default App:  System
- Default Module:  Content Discovery
- Custom FURL pointing https://somesite.com to https://somesite.com/index.php?app=core&module=discover&controller=streams&id=6

 

Previous to upgrading to 4.6, this functionality worked the way I expected.  When a visitor clicked on the site logo or visited the base URL of https://somesite.com, it would load and display https://somesite.com/index.php?app=core&module=discover&controller=streams&id=6 as desired.

Since 4.6, this functionality has not executed the same consistently, sometimes incorrectly requesting the base All Activity /discovery endpoint and sometimes correctly requesting the /discovery/id endpoint.  It seems most frequent to happen when replying in a topic and then clicking the site logo to return to the site's base URL.  And sometimes happens simply when browsing a topic and then clicking the site logo to return to and load the base URL.

First, does anyone else have a similar setup and if so is it working as you'd expect?

Second, do you have any idea where this could be going wrong or an alternate approach to achieve the same result?

This has been a significant impact to user experience on my site, as it is the site's default landing page and therefore it's frontpage.  I'm dealing with daily complaints, seeing a significant traffic drop, impacting revenue and cannot confidently share anything to try and gain more viewership because of the inconsistent (and confusing for viewers) display.

Edited July 14, 2021 by Clover13

[Adlago]

I'm not sure how you use Activity Stream for the home page, but now I've tried this:
- I set APP System  the default application.
-Then I set  Content Discovery the default modul.
My test site works perfectly with the Activity Stream home page.

[Clover13]

1 hour ago, Adlago said:

I'm not sure how you use Activity Stream for the home page, but now I've tried this:
- I set APP System  the default application.
-Then I set  Content Discovery the default modul.
My test site works perfectly with the Activity Stream home page.

Yep, this is how I have it set as well.  To be clear, it does work...only sometimes in 4.6 as described above whereas pre-4.6 it worked all the time.  In 4.6+ it sometimes loads All Activity (/discover) and sometimes loads my custom stream (/discovery/6).   I updated my original post to include this info.

Also just for more info, we use a custom Activity Stream that shows only topics (i.e. therefore Recent Topics), which is the main area of interest for my members.

Edited July 14, 2021 by Clover13

[Adlago]

5 minutes ago, Clover13 said:

Yep, this is how I have it set as well.  To be clear, it does work...only sometimes in 4.6 as described above whereas pre-4.6 it worked all the time.  In 4.6+ it sometimes loads All Activity (/discover) and sometimes loads my custom stream (/discovery/6)

Is this the case with other users? What do they, other users load when?
Have you tried testing with another account?

[Clover13]

4 minutes ago, Adlago said:

Is this the case with other users? What do they, other users load when?
Have you tried testing with another account?

Yes many members have been complaining about the inconsistent behavior leading to a lot of confusion and explanation, to the point where I've had an announcement posted for a week+ trying to explain it when they visit.

[Adlago]

26 minutes ago, Clover13 said:

Yes many members have been complaining about the inconsistent behavior leading to a lot of confusion and explanation, to the point where I've had an announcement posted for a week+ trying to explain it when they visit.

It really looks like a serious bug in 4.6.x.
Stream has always been a slow feature in IPS and probably in an attempt to improve this, they have allowed the removal of some checks ... I hope they find the problem faster and save you unpleasant experiences.

PS. Have you tried a Rebuild Search index?

Edited July 14, 2021 by Adlago

[Clover13]

15 minutes ago, Adlago said:

It really looks like a serious bug in 4.6.x.
Stream has always been a slow feature in IPS and probably in an attempt to improve this, they have allowed the removal of some checks ... I hope they find the problem faster and save you unpleasant experiences.

PS. Have you tried a Rebuild Search index?

Haven't tried the rebuild search index.  This seems to be a random request pattern where the same URL calls different backing endpoints.  So I'd suspect it's something with the request handler within Streams as it either defaults to /discovery (All Activity) or the one that is configured /discovery/id (Custom).

[Adlago]

9 minutes ago, Clover13 said:

Haven't tried the rebuild search index.  This seems to be a random request pattern where the same URL calls different backing endpoints.  So I'd suspect it's something with the request handler within Streams as it either defaults to /discovery (All Activity) or the one that is configured /discovery/id (Custom).

Yes, but I can't believe it was an random. When I come across such weird software behaviors - I use all the tools available in ACP, cache removal, index search, etc. In many cases, this solves a case. I'm not telling you it will help, but you can try.

[sound]

3 hours ago, Clover13 said:

nctionality has not executed the same consistently, sometimes incorrectly requesting the base All Activity /discovery endpoint and sometimes correctly requesting the /discovery/id endpoint.  It seems most frequent to happen when replying in a topic and then clicking the site logo to return to the site's base URL.  And sometimes happens simply when browsing a topic and then clicking the site logo to return to and load the base URL.

First, does anyone else have a similar setup and if so is it working as you'd expect?

Second, do you have any idea where this could be going wrong or an alternate approach to achieve the same result?

This has been a significant impact to user experience on my site, as it is the site's default landing page and therefore it's frontpage.  I'm dealing with daily complaints, seeing a significant traffic drop, impacting revenue and cannot confidently share anything to try and gain more viewership because of the inconsistent (and confusing for viewers) display.

 

maybe try editing your logo template so the logo links directly to the required url avoiding the redirect

that may help narrow it down

 

Edited July 14, 2021 by sound

[Clover13]

4 minutes ago, sound said:

 

maybe try editing your logo template so the logo links directly to the required url avoiding the redirect

that may help narrow it down

 

It happens any time the sites base URL is visited via browser.  Logo is a common use case, but so are bookmarks, link shares, etc.  

33 minutes ago, Adlago said:

Yes, but I can't believe it was an random. When I come across such weird software behaviors - I use all the tools available in ACP, cache removal, index search, etc. In many cases, this solves a case. I'm not telling you it will help, but you can try.

To that end I did notice significant performance issues after upgrading to 4.6 and following similar steps you described resolved it.  I'll try the search index rebuild and see if it helps.

[Clover13]

4 hours ago, Adlago said:

PS. Have you tried a Rebuild Search index?

Did the rebuild.  Put a topic poll up after and no change for many members.  They are mainly reporting being on a custom stream, clicking a topic then hitting the browser back button and landing at All Activity rather than the initial custom stream page. 

[Adlago]

5 hours ago, Clover13 said:

Did the rebuild.  Put a topic poll up after and no change for many members.  They are mainly reporting being on a custom stream, clicking a topic then hitting the browser back button and landing at All Activity rather than the initial custom stream page. 

For me, I can't reproduce this - I created a custom stream, I created a test poll, I clicked on a custom stream.

 I see a poll, then click on a poll topic, vote, and then use the back button - this action loads my custom stream again.
Or:
..../discover/16/ .... forums/topic/206-poll/......
and after back button again ..../discover/16/

If all streams I use -> ..../discover/....  ...forums/topic/206-poll/...
and after back button - only .../discover/

Ask your members who have such a issue to remove the cache browser, it is possible that this cache creates these issues.

[sound]

9 hours ago, Clover13 said:

It happens any time the sites base URL is visited via browser.  Logo is a common use case, but so are bookmarks, link shares, etc.  

 

 

Quote

 Custom FURL pointing https://somesite.com to https://somesite.com/index.php?app=core&module=discover&controller=streams&id=6

from here it sounds like its the above redirect using the furl above that's failing

maybe try using  htaccess instead?

[Clover13]

Just an FYI for anyone who may try to do something similar, this seems to work now in 4.7.5 👍

Edited November 29, 2022 by Clover13

[Marc]

10 hours ago, Clover13 said:

Just an FYI for anyone who may try to do something similar, this seems to work now in 4.7.5 👍

Glad to hear it 🙂