CodingJungle

On 3/20/2018 at 3:24 PM, SJ77 said:

oh no.. I think it might be a good idea to get download plus working sooner than later.  I doubt much will be changing from beta to final release.  I need download plus ready to go when 4.3 launches. Are you able to help?

Thank you

loaded up 4.3 tonight, and installed dplus, it seems to be the only problem with it was they change \IPS\Content\ReportCenter interface to a \IPS\Content\Reportable trait. changed that, all seems to be working now.

you might also want to check that the "proxyclass" folder is in your projects root and that its not "excluded", if it is, go to file->invaldiate caches/restart, this will force phpstorm to reindex the project (but you will loose localhistory when you do this).

its a proxy class it doesn't copy over the methods.  the properties it creates are DB fields so when you reference them in your code like $this->title_seo it doesn't mark it as a warning and say property is generated dynamically.  so since it's a proxy, it extends the realclass the one with the _ in front of it, it should read the methods that are inherited by the proxy.

this video shows both the generated properties for the proxy class being used (the ones created for IPS\Settings) and the class methods being inherited to the proxy class for \IPS\forums\Forum from \IPS\forums\_Forums as well as it finding \IPS\Db and \IPS\Helpers\Table\Db. so it might be a configuration problem with your phpstorm, as i use phpstorm and it works as intended.

6 hours ago, Unlucky said:

How do I get to that section?

Thanks

ACP->Members->Staff->Administrators

4 hours ago, slushpuppeh said:

Are there any plans to fix proxy class generation for Storm in 4.2?

you will have to be more specific, i just ran the proxyclass generator ins 4.2.8 in storm and it worked without any issues.

1 minute ago, SJ77 said:

oh no.. I think it might be a good idea to get download plus working sooner than later.  I doubt much will be changing from beta to final release.  I need download plus ready to go when 4.3 launches. Are you able to help?

Thank you

with no time table from IPS when 4.3 will go from beta to finale (it really seems to be on a cats meow when they make that decision), i myself can't be certain if downloads plus will be available for the release of it (as i haven't even upgrade my development boards to 4.3, as i'm still working on apps for clients that are still in 4.2.7/8).

It has also been in my experience, that i have had things working in beta 1 of a new release, only for it to go to finale and the app does not work or malfunctions on the last beta or the finale (so its usually not worth the time to get it working on the alpha's or the early beta's). so i usually wait till the finale is available before releasing anyway (due to the changes that i've seen happen from say like beta 8 with the next release being finale and my app not working or malfunctioning between to those 2 releases).

4 minutes ago, jcdesign said:

Download Plus is not working properly with the new IPS 4.3. I have deactivted this to the next update. ?

4.3 is in beta, i don't support the beta releases.

5 hours ago, Unlucky said:

Thanks. Can you remind me where I make someone a moderator in this earlier version?

 

that old of version, they would still be in the Members->groups->edit a group, they will be in the babble tab. the old moderator/admin commands will be in Member->Admins i do believe. they were all over the place back then, why they got redone.

If you have members reporting they can not connect, after the update (and you have updated to 2.6.5) have them clear their browser cache/cookies/sessions/etc.

Checked registration settings, "send me news and updates default" is enabled for new registrations.

I'm using a smtp to send out emails, so they shouldn't be seen as "spam" as i don't use php to send them and i send so few that going to like sparkhost isn't worth it.

I'm not sure how it would've gotten disabled on your account, maybe you unchecked it by mistake or something .

now i'm still trying to figure out this stability problem, it has to be related to the new code added to babble.js, but the error logs are clean and i can't seem to capture an error as of yet.  I'm thinking one of the sites out there is using a very outdated version that is missing the time and/or version variable for the member data and that is causing it to crash. i now have them wrapped with try/catch blocks, so with any luck this problem will not be happening again. knocks on wood.

i do not know, i didn't show any of them failed to send. check your spam folder? if you find them, they are either sent under cju@codingjungle.com or donotreply@codingjungle.com (maybe whitelist them in your spam settings to be on the safe side). the only other thing i can think of is the email you have on file for your account is not the one you monitor, check to make sure it is correct.

15 minutes ago, AlexWebsites said:

Did you send everyone subscribed a message you were upgrading and we needed to update? I had no idea and just saw I'm not connecting and had a scheduled chat session my members usually do. It would be helpful to have a heads up in the future, like time, needing to update, offline, etc..

yes i sent out 2 bulkmails about this upgrade and down time. the first one was sent on 3/15/18 and the second was sent out today 2 hours before the downtime/upgrade occurred.

I'm testing a new init script for babble for systemd, it seems to have cause some instability in the chat service. so if you are experiencing several disconnects in a row and then reconnects, i'm looking into the cause of it atm. it seems to be related to the init script.

both the north american and europe servers have been upgraded and are now running. make sure you are running 2.6.5 of the chat service or you will not be able to connect as previous versions have been blocked. let me know if you experience any issues.

13 hours ago, jcdesign said:

In Download Plus I don´t want to show version number. It is disabled, but when searching the version number shows on every result. We sell Digital Download and I don´t know why IPS think everybody use this application to sell software apps.

the hiding of a version number is just a superficial hiding, i didn't alter how the search works.

1 hour ago, SMen said:

 So, out of ignorance and curiosity.... If an user looks at 5 user profiles in Room 1 in the first minute within the room.... causing 5 disconnects and reconnects to Babble... What happens?  Is the user going to be unable to enter chat for 15 minutes or until the "zombiekiller" process runs?  I also have five chat rooms.  It's not unreasonable to think that users may scroll through those rooms (each room causing a connect/disconnect) to see who is in them.

It wouldn't be a per site limit, it would be a per room limit. in normal operations of babble, if you connect to a room, you get added to 2 objects for the chat service that are linked to your site. those are the "online" and "connected" list. the online list is what appears to users inside babble, so who is in the room you are currently, the connected list is purely used internally.

if you go to a room in babble you get added to both, if you go to that same room as the same user on a different tab/browser/device, you will only get added to the second again (the connected list). this is so if/when you close/leave from the other tab/browser/device or the first browser tab and are still connected on the other, it wont remove you from the online list. this is what i use to refer to as ghosting, a person that was in the room but didn't appear.

so in normal operations, if you go to babble in one tab/browser/device, that would be considered 1 connection to whatever room you go to. if you left the room for whatever reason (like viewing a profile, which btw in this next release there will be a setting to turn on or off for them to open in a new tab or not), that connection should be removed and when they return it should again only be counted as 1.

I know it sounds a bit complicated, but 5 connections per room should allow a single user to have it open on say a laptop/desktop, phone, and tablet at the same time without issue. the only time it would be an issue if the person is sharing their account, and/or for whatever reason they try to open it 5+ times on any device/browser.

with that said, this isn't a feature i will be implementing at this time. i only mention it, cause after this release on sunday this will be literally the last time i will address any online list issues with babble 2.x branch as i will be concentrating my efforts on version 3. so if there are still any "stuck" members issues after this, the only solution left would be to force a connection limit per room on the chat service.

What I've uncovered:

looking further into this "online list issue", i have uncovered a few things.

i implemented a routine to check the online list, with active connection what i discovered was this: between 20 to 30 users out of about 1300 appeared not to be connected. when i contrasted this list with another list that is kept (to avoid multiple connections into the same room by the same user from disappearing from the online list when one of those connections are closed), the 20 to 30 users that were "stuck" were all listed 50+ times in the "connection" list, compared to 1 to 2 for the other 1300 connected users. this can occur when multiple connections to the same room as the same user happen.

so what i can figure out best  what is happening, they aren't getting cleared out when they disconnect cause the system thinks that have another open connection (which is due to excessive connections).

how to fix:

there are 3 things i've added  to help mitigate this.

first: when a user disconnects now, when it checks the other connections they might have, it will verify that those connection are actually active, if not it will remove them.

second: i've decreased the heartbeat detection from 60 seconds to 30 seconds, hopefully with the reduction in the heartbeat it will be able to remove inactive connections better.

and finally, i've added in a "zombieKiller" task. each user when they connected will be given a 15m time stamp, that gets updated every 10 minutes when connected (this will also update every time they send a message or send a whisper). this task will run every 5 minutes on the chat service and it will go thru the online list. when it finds one that has an expired it will remove them from the online list.

Release:

I will be testing these  out a few more days to make sure there aren't any unforeseen problems that might occur from any of the new task/functions added to the chat service or to the app itself. these features will also be included with the self hosted. if there aren't any issues, 8pm sunday (central standard time) i will be releasing it on my site and here in the MP. I will also be taking the chat service down for a few hours to upgrade the servers. i will be sending out an email to all the clients of the chat service to let them know about the chat service down time.

if this problem persist after this and the cause again is users with 50+ connections to the same room, i will implement a  connection cap of 5 (which should be enough for desktop/laptop/phone and tablet).  there shouldn't be any reason i can think of why a person would need 50+ connections made to the same room  as the same user.

https://codingjungle.com/files/file/33-babble

you can download it from here, this is the self host version, click on the changelog tab, select version 2.2.8, below the change log text, it will have a "download" option

50 minutes ago, Unlucky said:

Why not just roll back to the stable version before all of your changes?

 Or at least offer it as an alternative because it did work 100% perfectly.

 

see that's just it, it didn't work. i had hundreds of reports of all the issues it had. some even from you (before i changed things).

50 minutes ago, Unlucky said:

 I can't ask my whole membership who use the chatroom and have issues to be your troubleshooters.

i can't reproduce this easily (and lately not at all since adding the quick fixes into the service), and we are just chasing our tail around the maypole at this point. without any new data on any potential that could be causing this and considering how minor the reports on it has been.  You say people are reporting this all the time, well i don't think its any leap or too much to ask them "hey what browser you on? can you disable any addons you might have for the browser?". there are browser plugins, that are designed to inherently interfere with what is on the page and how it operates ( adblockers, nojs, tampermonkey, etc). that could cause issues with a script like babble that heavily relies on javascript to be running unhampered.  then there are browser like vivaldi and brave that do weird stuff to websites in a misguided attempt to protect the user from themselves. so there are lots of reasons why data from your members would help me in the long run, I am 1 guy, i have 3 computers in the house i can "test" on and in my testing i have fixed all the issues i've uncovered that are related to babble's online list.

50 minutes ago, Unlucky said:

 Or at least offer it as an alternative because it did work 100% perfectly.

i can provide you with the old install files for self hosted, if this is the only thing you want to do.

50 minutes ago, Unlucky said:

 As per that person I just quoted - we both have the same issue so there must be an issue that is not related to my personal server - I am using your hosted version of babble.

out of the 3 that have reported, the one was cause of poor mobile connections that would rapidly connect and disconnect. with help from him and his users i was able to find the root cause of the issue and worked a fix into the chat service to mitigate this. however, i haven't found the root causes of yours or his, and cause if they are the "same" issue, then they might have a common reason, a root problem. this is why i asked if you can ask your members for more information.  i mean, i had 2200 people connected to the chat service this last weekend, you'd think if this was a "common" problem, i would have a lot more reports of issues, but i don't.

so let me know if you want the older install files and you can go back to self hosting if you'd like.

1 hour ago, Unlucky said:

Please can we have an update - We are getting renewal notices for babble but don't want to renew until we get some support.

Please can you respond / fix?

Just had this in from another unhappy customer.

"know it is a support issue, but this chatroom issue is really beginning to bore. I have been permanatly showing in the room now for 14 days, despite logging out of the site completely and closing all browser. I know they are not offering support but its rediculous"

i’m not refusing to fix it, i have to go to extremes to even get it to duplicate (as i haven’t found a reliable way to reproduce it at all. I have pretty much have already fixed all the issues i have been able to catch as to what is causing this. simply put, if i can’t reproduce it, i can’t easily\reliably fix it). if it is constantly the same user (which looking back at what you’ve had to say in other post, it appears to be), i would start asking them to track what they are doing when they notice it happening and to disable browser plugins, and what browser they are using. I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but this issue is extremely minor, that its status will more than likely remain ‘fixed in next major version’. so the more information i can get from you, your users and any one else experiencing this issue, the more likely i can have get it fixed in this branch of the software.

3 minutes ago, Cyboman said:

I'm having the same problem and reported this above.

As one of the "early purchasers" after the IPS has shut down, there weren't any problems in the beginning of the app. But since several upgrades the count shows a false number and the online members in the chat online list is wrong. It shows users not in the room and even banned members...

Please repair this problem. Shutting the chat on/off multiple times a day (I think this was recommended as a workaround anywhere) is not a suited alternative. The online list must always properly check the current chatters (and beyond that imho, the anonymous chatters, too, but we already discussed about it as an option request).

I get a lot of user feedback concerning this problem.

Thanks for helping.

not trying to diminish your issue here, but gonna try to put it into perspective. as of 1 hour ago, the North American server had a little bit over 2k users on it, with 36 sites connected to it. out of those sites, i can only confirm that 1 site has reported this issue (and that is in the last month). so the problem isn't that its happening, it's that its not happening to the vast majority of sites that run it, so whatever the cause is, its something specific (as i can only reproduce it under weirdest of circumstances and not even reliably at that point.). the one way i can reproduce it is to go to a babble page, and just hit f5 like 30 times in a row, and the other way is to open up about 20 tabs to the same room while logged in as the same user. there is a final way i did recently discover, going to a room as a guest then logging in, the guest and my account will be there, but the guest will disappear as i leave (as they "share" connections).

with as few sites actually reporting the issue (on the chat service) and afaik only you have been the only one who has reported it with the self hosted, i can no longer justify the time to fix this in the current version, with the next major version on its way that has a revamped from the ground up online list. i know its an annoying problem, but i spent over a month last summer chasing my tail on the online list and this is actually a far far less reported problem than the other issues that were reported from the online list before.

bug fixing is sorta like triage, you have to take the most serious first, then work you way down to the stubbed toes. sorry if this disappoints anyone, but there is really only 1 of me and only so many hours in the day.

6 hours ago, SJ77 said:

It's great that there is a new downloads plus

I cannot for the life of me figure out where someone is supposed to add a custom banner to their store.

Can you help?

Thank you

Its in the same location where they can change the store name (account settings-> Other settings-> change store settings

4 hours ago, SJ77 said:

additionally I have discovered that the new dplus is flooding my error log with issues.

Template store key: template_10_69f1bc61d56d3988327214c34fd2997b_reviews missing (dplus, front, reviews)

/home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/system/Theme/Theme.php(800): IPS\_Log::log('Template store ...', 'template_store_...')
#1 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/system/Theme/Theme.php(824) : eval()'d code(1160): IPS\_Theme->getTemplate('reviews', 'dplus', 'front')
#2 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/system/Theme/SandboxedTemplate.php(56): IPS\Theme\class_downloads_front_view->reviews(Object(IPS\downloads\File))
#3 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/applications/downloads/sources/File/File.php(771): IPS\Theme\_SandboxedTemplate->__call('reviews', Array)
#4 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/applications/downloads/modules/front/downloads/view.php(77): IPS\downloads\_File->commentReviews('reviews')
#5 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/system/Dispatcher/Controller.php(96): IPS\downloads\modules\front\downloads\_view->manage()
#6 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/system/Content/Controller.php(50): IPS\Dispatcher\_Controller->execute()
#7 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/applications/downloads/modules/front/downloads/view.php(60): IPS\Content\_Controller->execute()
#8 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/system/Dispatcher/Dispatcher.php(146): IPS\downloads\modules\front\downloads\_view->execute()
#9 /home/admin/web/.org/public_html/forum/index.php(12): IPS\_Dispatcher->run()
#10 {main}

 

i'm not showing this for my site or my dev, i think this usually means the template cache is out of date. try running the support tool to clear the caches. let me know if it persists.

1 hour ago, SMen said:

My Experience with Three Chat Providers, and why BABBLE is the BEST

ArrowChat (2 stars):  Honestly, I was VERY happy with ArrowChat and all the features and integration that it offered.  As it grew in popularity, it became too much strain on my VPS, so I enrolled in their push service.  That went fine for awhile, until I changed my site from HTTP to HTTPS, and ArrowChat works as HTTP by default.  Changing the push service to HTTPS then counted ever message as TWO messages.  Ridiculous, since every competitor I’ve come across is, by default, HTTPS.  Soon, I was up to $100 per month for the push service on my free site.  Even with the push service, ArrowChat was still very resource intensive.  I found the ChatWee plugin here and decided to test it.

ChatWee (0 Stars): At $29 per month for their integration, which includes the push service since they are completely software as a service, it was attractive.  I ran ArrowChat and ChatWee side-by-side and sought member opinions.  As expected, opinions were mixed.  I felt the plugin had many shortcomings but that they could easily be overcome if the author was willing to put a little work into the plugin.  You can run ChatWee free and without integration, but then it is just a chat system that really has nothing to do with your site and everyone can be whoever they wish to be.  But, even with the integration, it is too featureless.  You can not control which member groups have access to the chat.  Given the way that Invision handles Banned members, all members that can log on to the site can chat.  So members that have no access to the site, and even unvalidated guest-to-member members could chat.

I sent a long message to the owner and detailed out how the plugin could be enhanced for out community, making it a more viable option: Access control, Profile viewing, Static Rooms, and other ideas.  I asked for thoughts from him and if he thought it would be possible.  Did he have someone that could re-write the plugin to make some value-added changes?  Absolutely no response.  Followed up.  No response.  Because of this, I began looking at Babble and was running it as a trial.

About a week ago, ChatWee made changes to their core program and look.  There was no notice to subscribers that the changes were coming or when.  All of a sudden I began getting a large number of support tickets.  All members were getting was a Chatwee API error rather than my site!  It eventually even affected my Admin account AND the ACP.  Disabling the Plugin, all returned to normal.  Re-enabling it, crashes.  After hours of work trying to understand what was happening, I disabled it and uninstalled it completely.  The NEXT DAY, I received a ChatWee email telling me all about their latest upgrades and changes hoping I was enjoying them!  Clearly they had no idea what their changes did to the integrations.

Babble (5+ Stars):  What can I say other than AMAZING!  I seriously don’t know how I missed it or didn’t look further into it.  I think that I thought it was more of a Shoutbox than a Chat to begin with, so I passed by it.  Besides the app itself, I’ve never met an author that has been so willing to help and so easy to deal with.  Michael is pretty amazing, and what he has planned for the next release looks incredible!  Along with all that, the service blends perfectly into the site.  It feels a part of it, like it truly belongs.  Members are getting used to it.  The navigation is not as smooth as the prior two regarding rooms, but I believe the next release takes that in to account.  At the verge of literally removing chat from my site, Babble saved me.  It’s affordable, it works, it has excellent and responsive support.

This is all MY opinion and experience.  I have no doubt that others have had other experiences.  If you want chat, you want it integrated well, and you don’t want to drain your finances, then you need Babble!

thanks for the kind words, i appreciate all feedback (positive or negative, but i prefer constructive ). if you have any ideas for the next version let me know, i am always opened to them

19 minutes ago, TheJackal84 said:

Whaty monday you talking about? I take it not the one after you posted this post as that would of been 6 days ago, This is over 3 months now too be honest I am not happy with it at all especially when I have to make the fixes myself as it takes up time I currently don't have

as i mentioned, its been extremely busy lately. like today got called in on emergency at work (7 am yesterday), its now 5:30am and just got home a little bit ago. the update has been posted.

8 minutes ago, Unlucky said:

Hi,

I have this user who has reported the following. What do I need to do?

"Hi admin, please help!!!

I seem to be permanently logged into the chatroom. I don't know why this keeps happening to me.

Kelly"

tell them to not to have multiple tabs open to the same room (as this and rapid connect/disconnects are also what is causing it). if it happens, let me know which server it is on (its best to contact me on my site for that, as i get instant notifications from my server on my phone, here they can take awhile to come thru on my mai).

On 2/22/2018 at 8:34 AM, kmk said:

If I have Babble Chat Service, the data(conversation history and file,maybe other more, video, voice note...) will be stored permanently in where?

What exactly mean the function Archive?

all messages/files/images/etc are stored on your server, the chat service only facilitates the sending/receiving of messages, i don't store any of them.

as for archives, just as they sound, only x amount of messages show when you go to the chat room, the archive is a way to view older messages and to search for them.

1 hour ago, Stormlilly said:

Just on the chat issue...

The main problem our members are having is that the Online Users is constantly showing a number of people who are not really in the chat room

I have embedded the chat at the bottom of every page, and it seemed to start after this.

It's as if any member browsing the page is automatically logged into the chat room - so what we end up with is most of the people appearing to be in the room are not really.

It would be great if I could find a solution to this.  It's making the chat not really attractive for our members, since they never know if anyone is really there.

well they are technically there, they just don't realize they are there or not noticing it. you can disable the online list for the widget, it wont add them to the room's online list (this is one of the reasons why the widget room exists, but doesn't show up for the room lists).

quick update: had to work late yesterday, will be home in a few hours (and it was a "ice day" today, so the kids have been home all day, lots of pent up energy...), hopefully i can get it up tonight or tomorrow at the latest