Post Count Sync - Solved in 2.0.1?

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hopeful
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Post Count Sync - Solved in 2.0.1?

Post by hopeful »

Hello -

I have searched high and low for information on this and I can't seem to get an answer. There were formerly some threads here that addressed a problem with the post count/last post/# of posts not being updated properly and there were also bugs that were assigned in the bug tracker. For the life of me, I can no longer find those bugs and the only threads I've found direct me to bad links on SourceForge where the bugs no longer exist.

So, has the post count problem (and related issues) supposedly been solved in 2.0.1? I saw at one point that it was in the CVS and was supposed to be in this release of 2.0.1, but I've done the upgrade to 2.0.1 (only the modified files) from a clean install of 2.0.0 and this problem has not been solved, for me at least.

I'm still using a script that manually syncs everything by counting the number of posts and then updating the mySql DB, but I would prefer to not have to do that multiple times per day. I was patiently waiting for 2.0.1, thinking that would solve all my problems, but I'm afraid it hasn't. Even worse, I can't figure out if it was supposed to have solved this problem or not.

So, is the fix supposedly included in 2.0.1? If so, does anyone have any idea what is going on with my board? Is there a bug that is still open on this where I could submit my info? I don't think it would be a good idea to open a new bug report if this is already closed.

Thanks in advance for any info. I promise you that I have attempted to figure this out on my own, but I just can't weed through all the info to get a definitive answer. If someone could point me in the right direction, I sure would appreciate it.

Thanks!
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Techie-Micheal
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Post by Techie-Micheal »

I have not come across anything like this. Could you give me a little more information like php version and mysql version and apache version?
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SamG
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Post by SamG »

Is hopeful possibly asking about the pagination problem? I don't recall seeing threads about another kind of post problem, but I may very well have missed something.

If this is the problem we're looking at, then yes, I understand it's fixed in 2.0.1.
hopeful
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Post by hopeful »

Ok, I've gone back through all of the bug reports in the bug tracker. The links I was following from within threads don't seem to be working, so I went directly to the bug tracker. Went through all the bugs from #1 and pulled out the ones I thought were relevant to this (details below). They've all been closed and designated as fixed and some of them reference CVS and releases in 2.0.1. However, I've done the update to 2.0.1 (as I said in my first post, I downloaded the version that only includes the updated files and updated from a clean install of 2.0.0 Gold) and am still experiencing the problems. So, I'm going to try to go into this in detail in hopes that someone can clear this up. I hope this is helpful and that I'm not giving too much info, but it seems that this is still a problem (for me and some other users who've submitted bugs, at least).

Link to my phpBB:
http://www.hopelessrecords.com/phpBB/index.php

PHP Version: 4.0.1pl2
mySQL Version: 3.22.32
Server: Apache 1.3.12 FreeBSD (build date Jan 19, 2001)

Cookie domain: www.hopelessrecords.com (I've also tried blank)
Cookie name: phpbb2mysql
Cookie path: /
Cookie Secure: Disabled
Session Length: 3600

The simple version of the problem I am experiencing is that a new post by a user does not show up in the thread listings of the forum (in other words, the thread does not bump to the top, the last post date does not update and the replies count does not update). For an example, I have just commented in two old threads to show this effect:

http://hopelessrecords.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=66
(Still shows 0 replies when you look at the forum view - title of thread is "[Poll] South America rockin' out" from 02 May 2002 - even though my response is in the thread, and does not show up as the most recent topic on the index page, but still is down with the other threads from 02 May 2002.)

I just realized that this thread has a poll, so I am going to do another test lest people think that the poll is what is causing the problem (I don't think it is, since this problem recurs in all threads). So, another example is...

http://hopelessrecords.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=44
The thread is entitled "Selby Tigers and MTVX" and shows the same symptoms.

*** Here is something interesting that might be a clue... If I reply to a topic, then run my fixer script which syncs up all of the forums, updates the last post times and reply counts, etc, everything looks fine and my topic that I just replied to is on the top. If I then delete my test reply, the post count will update properly and the post will go back down to its proper place in the order where it was before I resurrected it by adding a reply. So, maybe the delete function goes through the proper sequence of updating information, while the post reply function does not? There was some talk about a fix to the delete function in the bug reports, so this is possible. An example of a thread on which I did this is:

http://hopelessrecords.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22
(The thread is entitled "Is this normal?" I guess you're going to have to trust me that I did the steps above, because there is no way to show that I added a reply and then deleted it, but it is now back in the appropriate spot with the 01 May 2002 threads, whereas it had bumped up to the top after I ran my fixer script. Trust me. I promise.)

In addition, I am experiencing a flood control problem after each reply I post regardless of the length of time it has been. It could be my first post or it could have been 5 minutes. Flood control is set to 15 seconds, and I am definitely waiting longer than that, if I've even posted previously, which is not always the case. Some bug reports reference this as a related problem, so I'm not going to spend much time on that right now. First things first.

So, those are the symptoms that I am having with my forum. I'm going to include links to the bug reports below that touch on these problems. All of them have been closed and they say the problem is fixed.

Bugs in regards to the replies count:
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=170 <-- This has a pretty good description.
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=189
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=210
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=218
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=229 <-- This has a pretty good description.
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=319 <-- This refers to the problem (in the comment by psoFTX) and says it has been fixed in 2.0.1.
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=320
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=353 <-- Here's a user who upgraded to 2.0.1 and was having the problem, then went back to 2.0.0 and was still having the problem (which makes sense). I think they are mistaken that the problem did not occur before they upgraded, but I included this to show that someone else was still having the problem after upgrading to 2.0.1.

These are all related to the symptoms that I've described above and it seems like there are multiple people having this same problem, although they're describing it in different ways. Almost every one of these bugs (except for the last one) says that it has been fixed in CVS. Was it included in the 2.0.1 upgrade? Was it included in the version that I downloaded (changed files only)?

Bugs in regards to deleting :
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=142
http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=262

This seems to be fixed and included in the upgrade as far as I can tell, so it is probably not what is causing the problem.

Ok, those are the sordid details about my problems. If you've made it this far, I owe you a hearty thanks. If any of the moderator types could let me know if it makes sense to submit this as a bug report or re-open one of the old bug reports, I would appreciate it. I've tried to give tons of details here in hopes that this would help someone to track down the problem or at least eliminate any confusion that I've actually looked into this and (I think) followed the proper procedures.

I'm waiting with bated breath to hear some responses. I'm really curious.

Thanks!
hopeful
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Post by hopeful »

* I'm reviving this post because I made the mistake of replying on Saturday night over a long weekend and now it is buried.
SamG
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Post by SamG »

I'm personally a little confused by the variations in the problem being described here and there, without having experienced them myself in 2.0.1 (and only occasionally, and only in part, in 2.0.0). I wonder if there isn't more than one issue, but that's neither here nor there. That said, it does appear that at least a few people are having a problem in 2.0.1, just from reading here. I think we'll need this detailed kind of reporting by several people before the developers can begin to get a handle on the issue and can have some confidence that there is a problem and exactly what the problem might be.

Given the nature of this project sometimes issues like this appear not to get attention, or to get attention slowly. Please do keep reviving this issue in hopes that given adequate detail and information, some coherent bug reports can be developed and submitted. Thanks for your efforts!
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psoTFX
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Post by psoTFX »

First I've got to say I've not read the replies above (don't have time at present) but I'll give a general comment on this 'problem'.

In 2.0.0 code was missing to decrement the topic_reply counter when a post was deleted. Since topic_replies is used to create the pagination this resulted in 'strange' goings on. This is (or should be) fixed in 2.0.1 ...

However, any existing topics with out of whack pagination will still show that problem. At some point soon I'll knock out a small script to systematically go through and correct this problem (didn't include it in the update_to script because it may take quite some time to run on large boards).

If this explains the above problem, great, if not then as Sam notes we'll need very detailed reports (not just "pagination doesn't work" :D ).
hopeful
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Post by hopeful »

The deleting problem you reference seems to be fixed. This is a different problem, although it could be related. When you get a chance to read the whole post above, I hope it will make sense, but one thing I mentioned is that it seems to be updating properly when deleting (check my example where I added a reply, manually updated the DB so that the reply was on the top of the replies list and then deleted. In this case, the DB was properly updated and the reply dropped back down to its old position). It does not seem to be working when posting new responses, though, so maybe it is something as simple as an updating step being skipped or omitted in one routine, but not in another(?).

Another clarification: I have been running a script (originally posted by hsim, I believe) that updates all information by going through the DB and counting the number of replies to each thread and then comparing that against the reply count total. I ran this script before creating my examples and everything was up to date, so there should not have been a problem with those threads. I can post this script if it would be helpful, but I thought that might be a bit off topic and not really a solution to the problem, since it has to be run manually in order to update the forums. I have not updated my forums using this script since I posted this error report in order to leave it in the state that I described in my post. You'll probably notice that there have been new topics since my original post and my examples have still not risen to the proper position.

Should I post a bug report with the information above? I thought I was pretty clear in my explanation, as well as citing corroborating sources, but if you would like more info, please let me know.

Thanks!
hopeful
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Post by hopeful »

*** OK, I'm reviving this per SamG's advice because it is down on page 4 now. I'm not sure if anyone had a chance to read my last post with more clarifying information about the problem.

SamG, psoTFX... is there a better way to approach this (bug tracker, e-mail, etc) that would allow me to give you guys the info you need more effectively? I would really like to help with a solution to this problem, but I'm afraid the post keeps getting buried before anyone sees it. Let me know if there's a more preferable way. Not trying to be pushy, just helpful.
SamG
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Post by SamG »

I think maybe you should put this in the bug tracker and document the steps you took to produce/recreate the problem on your forums. Supply as much detail as possible, and avoid references to any past problem in phpBB -- just stick with what you can reproduce in 2.0.1. Then monitor the tracker in case you're asked for any more information. I'm afraid time contraints will prevent the developers from following up the information here. In the tracker, they can see it clearly. The justitifcation for putting it in the bug tracker is that you can reproduce the problem, so that's my view.
hopeful
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Post by hopeful »

Ok, I have posted this as a bug report at the following address:

http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=383

Thanks!
Jerricho
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I have had the same problem...

Post by Jerricho »

When trying to post a reply to a post that had a 0 reply count, I would get a timeout error.

I was able to open the last message of the topic and split the last message which I posted off of the topic to a new post and it fixed my problem.

Here is an image, don't know how useful it is, I am a total newbie to PHPBB

Image
SamG
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Post by SamG »

Is this from a clean install of 2.0.1?
Jerricho
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Post by Jerricho »

Yes, board just went live a couple of days ago.
SamG
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Post by SamG »

Okay, good. Thanks.
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