Online Users doesn't always show correctly

[Davyc]

For some reason or other the Online Users widget is not always showing correctly who is online.  For example I just visited my site and although I'm permanently logged in I'm not showing in the Online Users list.  See below:

I'm logged in:

But in the Online User list another member is showing but not me.

Now, if I click the (See full list) link I can see my username and when I go back to the home screen I'm showing in the list.

There is also another issue that has been around for a long while that's never been addressed.  On the rare occasion that the Online User list is working I can see that I'm logged in and there is one guest showing, but that guest is me; how can I be a guest and logged in at the same time?

Looking for help and answers with thanks 🙂

 

[Jimi Wikman]

I have seen that as well.

It got better after I disabled Redis, but it is still cached a bit.

 

[Steph40]

Oh! happens to me too, never noticed.

[Dexter_X]

Since 4.6 we're experiencing that kind of issues. The most annoying one for us is the "Recently browsing" widget does not work as well as on previous versions :

If you see a user on the main logged users list "reading a topic" then you go to that topic, the user is not displayed as "recently browsing" in the topic's list. For example, now I'm writing this post and in the "Recently Browsing" just below I'm not displayed as being here... 😑

🤷‍♂️

[Steph40]

Turning redis off and going to no caching makes it work so clearly seems like a redis issue.

[Davyc]

I don't have redis and it's still an issue lol 🙂

 

[Dexter_X]

I don't have redis neither...

[Marc]

That block is cached, so you would not see it update straight away. This is what you are likely seeing here

[Dexter_X]

ok... so it maybe means in previous versions that block was not cached (?) 🤷‍♂️

[Marc]

9 minutes ago, Dexter_X said:

ok... so it maybe means in previous versions that block was not cached (?) 🤷‍♂️

That is correct. It was added in 4.6

[Dexter_X]

so... it is maybe not a good idea to cache such blocks where we expect more "instant update"...

[Marc]

1 hour ago, Dexter_X said:

so... it is maybe not a good idea to cache such blocks where we expect more "instant update"...

That is indeed how it used to work, however its quite a performance impact unfortunately, so this was changed. 

[Davyc]

5 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

That is indeed how it used to work, however its quite a performance impact unfortunately, so this was changed. 

Which means it's practically useless now as it will always be giving false readings - I understand the performance impact issue, but how much of an issue is it if it wasn't an immediately obvious noticeable impact before it was introduced.  If it's cached then how often is the cache updated and would be an idea to give admins an option as to how often it gets updated and allow them to decide what impact on performance it has 🙂

 

[opentype]

3 hours ago, Davyc said:

 If it's cached then how often is the cache updated and would be an idea to give admins an option as to how often it gets updated and allow them to decide what impact on performance it has 🙂

Haven’t checked the code, but I would except it to use this ACP setting:

[Marc]

38 minutes ago, opentype said:

Haven’t checked the code, but I would except it to use this ACP setting:

You're quite right

[Dexter_X]

sorry, but where is that ACP setting ?

 

Edit : found ! (ACP -> System -> Advanced Configuration -> Server Environment -> Performance)

Edited August 29, 2021 by Dexter_X
found !

[Dexter_X]

ok, I've reduced the caching time, but now it is really an issue considering performances because the who's online blocks do not need the same refresh rate than the other (much more static) blocks... 
A more specific option seems more adapted here or at least maybe a way to patch the code in order to disable caching for who's online concerned blocks (?)

[Davyc]

1 hour ago, opentype said:

Haven’t checked the code, but I would except it to use this ACP setting:

Thanks for that @opentype

1 hour ago, Marc Stridgen said:

You're quite right

Took a little finding as the ACP search returned Zero results for it, but like @Dexter_X I eventually found it.  As I don't use many blocks on my site, I reduced the time to a 1 minute interval and will see how it goes.  I do agree that some additional controls would be good to have that could be set for individual blocks so they can be prioritised and perhaps be less of a hit on performance 🙂

Thanks again for the info - much appreciated.

[David..]

Mine is showing anonymous users logged in but I have that function disabled!

[Dexter_X]

Trying it with 1 minute cache since yesterday : have not seen any significant changes.

[Marc]

11 hours ago, David.. said:

Mine is showing anonymous users logged in but I have that function disabled!

Are you running the latest release there?

 

 

13 minutes ago, Dexter_X said:

Trying it with 1 minute cache since yesterday : have not seen any significant changes.

If you are still seeing issues and on the latest release, please feel free to submit a ticket and we can take a look

[Dexter_X]

yes, I'm on latest release and all patches applied...

[Mark H]

Thanks for posting, and we're sorry that you're having an issue with your Invision Community.

Can you go ahead and submit a support ticket please?

We're going to need to get a little more information about your account to help, and this is best done in a private support ticket.

Thank you! 🙌

[Dexter_X]

done...

[Yamamura]

On 8/29/2021 at 2:10 PM, Marc Stridgen said:

That is indeed how it used to work, however its quite a performance impact unfortunately, so this was changed. 

Why doesn't showing online users affect performance in other forum engines? Enabling caching is not a "problem" solution.
Let the forum administrators decide for themselves what affects performance and what doesn't. The Who's Online block must have a separate caching setting to be able to completely disable caching. My current caching setting is 1 minute, but I still get constant complaints from users that they don't see themselves in this block. With caching enabled, this block is absolutely useless and inconvenient (like the "Recently Browsing" block in topics, which now does not display anyone at all).