bugs Simtropolis 9.0.x - Bugs & Issues Report Thread

[Propfam 2,288]

2 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

The way the reviews are setup currently, they require a rating to be specified which is a mandatory input field. At present there is no way around this.

For reporting technical issues on a file or just for a general reply in discussion, often the best way is to post as a comment instead of a review. Sometimes as admins we'll move reviews to comments which are deemed more suitable there instead, especially if they downrate the item concerned.

No, I know it should be impossible but why I can rate 0 zero despite the requirement?

Sorry for my words. Thanks.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

1 hour ago, chfzdn said:

No, I know it should be impossible but why I can rate 0 zero despite the requirement?

Sorry for my words. Thanks.

This is because the input value must be 1 to 5 stars, and therefore a zero is not available in the format to be used when posting a review. With being a required field, there is a validation in place to make sure that either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 stars is chosen. With 0 being unavailable for selection, the field is otherwise incomplete.

If not choosing any stars at all, this means that the field is empty and still needs 1 to 5 set as a value.

Something we may consider in future is modifying the star ratings system in some form, since downrating is no encouragement to authors.

Edit:

Upon closer inspection, I see from your image how it shows 5 grey stars like there is zero stars as the rating. I'm unsure what has happened here, because I got @CloneBoom to check this also (with Member privileges), and they couldn't post a review with no star value clicked.

I notice your review is showing as 5 stars, and so perhaps it needed to refresh the page for it to update if on a mobile device.

  Edited August 3, 2020 by Cyclone Boom  

[Wiimeiser 444]

This thread seems to be broken somehow.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 hours ago, Wiimeiser said:

This thread seems to be broken somehow.

That's rather bizarre.

I suspect we'll need @Cyclone Boom to investigate this directly in the database to see what's going on. In the meantime, you can read that post by scrolling down a wee bit in the author's show posts content page. Look for the one with the OpenGeofiction - a different perspective to fictional city planning heading.

[Propfam 2,288]

What happened yesterday and early morning of today that causes the site to be maintained?

Thanks.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

What happened yesterday and early morning of today that causes the site to be maintained?

The automated updates to cPanel and the MariaDB have some poor coding in them that wasn't fully vetted before they pushed it out. That borked the site. CB did all the research while I was away on errands today. Then when I got back we chatted about it and agreed he'd found the solution to fix it up. This was the first time we've exercised our SSH access to actually alter the installation of programs.

It worked well and the site is up and running. (We've also put a freeze on updates to the database program until they fix their code.)

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Adding to what Cori posted above...

Here's our Twitter tweets from earlier which I'll quote below in order of sequence:
 

Quote

Simtropolis is currently offline due to an issue we'll need to investigate starting this morning. Thanks all!
-CB

Quote

Investigating further, we believe to have identified the problem. The database engine updated automatically last night, causing sites including ST to not respond.
The workaround will involve downgrading back to the prior version, or upgrade the PHP module. We'll keep you posted.

Quote

Looks like it'll take a bit longer than expected. Rest assured, we will get ST back online again as soon as practically possible.

Quote

Simtropolis is back online! 😍

CB did all the extra research while I was away doing errands today. Then we chatted about it and agreed how to resolve the issue. After that, he again dipped his toes into the Linux command line (called terminal), ran the commands, and all is well.

 

We're pleased to confirm everything is back to normal again now, and the new implemented measure aims to prevent this happening again.

[Propfam 2,288]

48 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

The automated updates to cPanel and the MariaDB have some poor coding in them that wasn't fully vetted before they pushed it out. That borked the site. CB did all the research while I was away on errands today. Then when I got back we chatted about it and agreed he'd found the solution to fix it up. This was the first time we've exercised our SSH access to actually alter the installation of programs.

It worked well and the site is up and running. (We've also put a freeze on updates to the database program until they fix their code.)

Ah yes, cPanel: the thing that makes easy also makes things complicated. May I ask, do we host the website ourselves or thru Invision Cloud? And, why ST starts with community subdomain instead of just Simtropolis.com?

Side note: PHP is known to be problematic especially with Apache and redirection set up. Also, PHP needs some configuration to be compatible with some CMS, forum software, etc. I know this because I had an experience building my website 2/3 years ago and even had its own domain.

Thanks.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

May I ask, do we host the website ourselves or thru Invision Cloud?

We rent our own server.

 

3 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

And, why ST starts with community subdomain instead of just Simtropolis.com?

Because we are a community.

[Propfam 2,288]

Just now, CorinaMarie said:

We rent our own server.

Thanks for info. I felt the same thing when I hosted my website.

1 minute ago, CorinaMarie said:

Because we are a community.

I think, it's just a waste because we don't have any APIs, special region of the website, etc in our domain. We do have another website, but in other domains: SC3000.com and SC4ever.com. Also, it's not a common practice in the web to use subdomain for main website. It typically used for APIs, special regions of the website (e.g. developer website, etc).

Thanks.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

I think, it's just a waste because we don't have any APIs, special region of the website, etc in our domain.

Well, you aren't aware of what else @Dirktator uses the server for with regard to his work.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Also we'll be unique, and no need for us to follow the crowd.

Although I'm fairly sure that many other websites like cPanel forums themselves do use subdomains.

[redfox85 659]

Is inserting a image from url restricted to certain sites? As when I go to enter a url with an image from my website it just stays red. The file is jpg and is 153,986 bytes in size. dunno what else could be the issue.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

3 hours ago, redfox85 said:

Is inserting a image from url restricted to certain sites? As when I go to enter a url with an image from my website it just stays red. The file is jpg and is 153,986 bytes in size. dunno what else could be the issue.

That's a bit unusual. There aren't any sites blocked from posting URLs from, and oddly enough I tried using the path for your image, and it does display in the post. Also when simply pasting it in the editor, it should resolve to embed automatically. I also got @CloneBoom to test this also with member permissions, which also was fine.

Here it is:

Spoiler

http://glidingeagle.com/images/sc4/englishbight1.jpg

 

So perhaps try a Ctrl+F5 browser refresh, and hopefully it can then behave properly.

Otherwise it might be worth attaching the image locally to your ST storage quota, since we do prefer posted pics are hosted on site.

[redfox85 659]

See this is how it looks to me:

 

After doing some digging - it seems Chrome, Edge .. firefox are moving to block hotlinks to http stuff, instead requring https. It might be the site software is doing it too, and as a admin you were able to force it? It also allowed me to discover my roundabout SSL trick for email wont work for the main website .. this is likely the kick that will get me to get an official ssl cert.

[twalsh102 1,601]

Here's the warning I get with the latest version of Firefox:

www.glidingeagle.com uses an invalid security certificate.
 
The certificate is not trusted because it is self-signed.
 
Error code: MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_SELF_SIGNED_CERT

 

One is allowed to bypass this warning to get to the website, but it is not automatic.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

14 hours ago, redfox85 said:

It might be the site software is doing it too, and as a admin you were able to force it?

I did test without admin permissions and it likewise could display for me (via my CloneBoom account), but since then something appears to have changed on your website. Visiting the JPG image directly and it redirects to the HTTPS equivalent which is deemed to need configuring, as @twalsh102 said above. As of now, the pic doesn't display at all as I see it either, whereas at the time of posting yesterday this wasn't an issue.

So yeah, I think it might be needing SSL to be setup and that ought to resolve it.

[redfox85 659]

4 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

I did test without admin permissions and it likewise could display for me (via my CloneBoom account), but since then something appears to have changed on your website. Visiting the JPG image directly and it redirects to the HTTPS equivalent which is deemed to need configuring, as @twalsh102 said above. As of now, the pic doesn't display at all as I see it either, whereas at the time of posting yesterday this wasn't an issue.

So yeah, I think it might be needing SSL to be setup and that ought to resolve it.

Yeah I was fiddling with the SSL last night on the site ... before that the image was not found. Whoops. Should get it figured out today... or tomorrow. Fun thing chrome and others are doing...

[Propfam 2,288]

Is it me or Simtropolis that makes the icons a bit brighter than they should be?

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

14 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Is it me or Simtropolis that makes the icons a bit brighter than they should be?

The icons on the left of the forums index listing will appear a lighter shade when the posts inside are unread.

For example:

Unread

Read

 

Also as can be seen from this comparison, the titles are bold when a forum is unread. Clicking the icon beside each forum marks it as read, which then turns it the lighter brighter style. It's also possible to mark the entire site as read using the "Mark Site Read" option on the top right of the board index.

[Propfam 2,288]

Thanks for info, @Cyclone Boom!

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

Just wondering if anyone else is getting an almost text-only service today? The front page is missing the images in the featured panel and all the STEX entry pics are blank. Also almost everyone's icons are just showing text of usernames.

[Wiimeiser 444]

Same problem here, in fact, images are returning 404 errors.

[lif3sci 2]

Missing download files in ST Exchange: SC4Fix

File not found

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/30883-sc4fix-third-party-patches-for-sc4/

How can I download this?

 

More [download file] broken links in ST Exchange:

IH missing $$$ jobs fix (update!)

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/22771-ih-missing-jobs-fix-update/

Opera House Fix

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/21342-opera-house-fix/

[Tyberius06 12,189]

Same here on both PC and smartphone. When I woke up around 10 AM UK time, and first entered the site, it was still working properly, but about an hour later, when I looked for something and opened the site from google via the searched link, I already got the blank site, while the one with the images was still open on the SC4 Buildings page. Upon refreshing that previously opened page, I got the site without the images this time. Also the loading time of the site takes much longer, than usually (probably it is related). 

- Tyberius

[City_Slider 2,716]

Hello,

is there a Server Problem or is it me? I checkt it on Firefox and Chrome. On both the same Problem.

Have a look:

Regards, Oliver

*Edit* One more example... And the Page is so sloooow.

 

[City_Slider 2,716]

Thanks for fixing it :-)

Oliver

*wisper* where was the Problem?

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Problem Solved   

Thanks everyone for your patience during the past few hours.

While Cori and I were asleep and thus unable to attend to this sooner, it was the usual issue which occurs with the board software every once in a while.

Thankfully it's not as serious as it might look, and basically it's how a database entry points somewhere other than where it should be pointing to. We've reset the site storage config now so the references are in the correct location, so then avatars and files point to the proper place on the server. This then loads them up again as usual. I then went through and moved back any new images that were uploaded since then, since there were a dozen or so which got placed in a temporary server folder (no harm done though).

So everything is now back to normal and nothing has been lost.

[Wiimeiser 444]

I actually went to bed shortly after I posted here, so I didn't experience the bug for long.

[Paulo S.M. 321]

Thank God nothing was lost.
Thank you for all your hard work.
Keep up