Forum session login/timeouts

Report · Apr 27, 2009

We've had some changes made for session timeouts. Are people still having to constantly log-in throughout the day? Today I've managed to stay logged in without any forum activity for up to 3 hours or slightly longer. Has it improved for others? The login session should now be about 4 hours. It was supposed to be two hours previously, but for some accounts it might have been shorter.

John

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Aargh! Logged out again while scanning messages. PLEASE fix this pain in the butt nonsense of getting logged out while actively using the system.

And on top of that, when I finished logging in I got the delightful message:

An unexpected error has occurred

The specified thread was not found.

I believe the appropriate comment is FUBAR.

Edit: What screwed up the message format?

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Thanks, Bob, this is precisely the error message I was refering to in my post #58 above.

Report · Apr 29, 2009

I've spent the last few hours trying to replicate this. I've made my sessions time out, deleted cookies, logged in with an account that doesn't have an Adobe ID session associated with it, etc., etc.

The only way I was able to get to a point where I would lose the content of a reply was to be sitting on that reply when the session timed out (which means not having used anything else in the forums for 4 hours) and also having my Adobe ID session timed out (which is a much smaller number, maybe 20 minutes or less). And then hitting the Post Reply button. Then I would get an error that I was not authorized to post (because I was not logged in) and a prompt to try logging in. Which I would do and then I would be back in the reply box, but it would be empty. But to get to this situation I had to be working on that reply for four hours or more.

If I was on a page that showed a list of messages in a discussion and I hit the Reply button after my session timed out I would be asked to log in before I could start typing a reply. So nothing was lost.

What seems different here is the mention of "thread not found." Were you trying to create a new thread when this happened? One more scenario for me to go try. Back soon...

John

Report · Apr 29, 2009

I received the "thread not found" message just after logging in.

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Bob_Peters wrote:
I received the "thread not found" message just after logging in.

What were you doing before you logged in? Where you already in the forums? Or where you just initially entering the forums?

If just initially entering the forums, are you coming in through the front door at http://forums.adobe.com? Or were you using a bookmark or a link from someplace else?

Thanks!

John

Report · Apr 29, 2009

John Cornicello wrote:
Bob_Peters wrote:
I received the "thread not found" message just after logging in.
What were you doing before you logged in? Where you already in the forums? Or where you just initially entering the forums?
If just initially entering the forums, are you coming in through the front door at http://forums.adobe.com? Or were you using a bookmark or a link from someplace else?
Thanks!
John

I was already reading threads in this forum. When I noticed that I was not logged in I attempted to log in. That was when I encountered the "thread not found" message. When I again went to the index page (I couldn't return to the thread I was reading) I noted that I was then logged in.

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Do you, by any chance, remember which thread you were reading? If it happens again, please take a look at the URL for the error page. Does it look like a regular url (i.e., http://forums.adobe.com/thread/426401)? Or does it have some garbage stuff in the middle of the URL? I don't have an example of the "garbage" url, but I am thinking it might be related to the situation where some images on the page show as broken links the first time you visit.

Thanks!

John

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Here is the type of "garbage" I'm looking for in the URL: http://forums.adobe.com/message/573849;jsessionid=232FDA1862CBBECF6F86864B2E999599.node0

Report · Apr 29, 2009

John Cornicello wrote:
Do you, by any chance, remember which thread you were reading? If it happens again, please take a look at the URL for the error page. Does it look like a regular url (i.e., http://forums.adobe.com/thread/426401)? Or does it have some garbage stuff in the middle of the URL? I don't have an example of the "garbage" url, but I am thinking it might be related to the situation where some images on the page show as broken links the first time you visit.
Thanks!
John

No, I don't recall which thread but it likely was this one.

Sorry, John, I don't recall the URL. If this happens again I'll be certain to record it.

Report · Apr 29, 2009

John, last time I was logged out when trying to post a message was five days ago and, as I explained in my message #44 above, I wasn't in any of the two situations you describe.

As to the "thread not found" message, this is a completely different problem, and I have only observed it twice, both times today but in two different computers. I used my bookmarks to come into one of these forums and, on getting to the list of topics, I noticed I was not logged. So I logged in and, instead of been returned to the list of topics, I received this error. As I have't been logged out in all day, I don't know if it still happens over here.

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Claudio González wrote:
As to the "thread not found" message, this is a completely different problem, and I have only observed it twice, both times today but in two different computers. I used my bookmarks to come into one of these forums and, on getting to the list of topics, I noticed I was not logged. So I logged in and, instead of been returned to the list of topics, I received this error. As I have't been logged out in all day, I don't know if it still happens over here.

What is the forum URL in your bookmark?

Thanks!

John

Report · Apr 29, 2009

John Cornicello wrote:
Claudio González wrote:
As to the "thread not found" message, this is a completely different problem, and I have only observed it twice, both times today but in two different computers. I used my bookmarks to come into one of these forums and, on getting to the list of topics, I noticed I was not logged. So I logged in and, instead of been returned to the list of topics, I received this error. As I have't been logged out in all day, I don't know if it still happens over here.
What is the forum URL in your bookmark?
Thanks!
John

I have just checked on both computers, and the URLs of all my bookmarks to these forums look absolutely normal, and they are the same in both. For example, this is the one for this forum

http://forums.adobe.com/community/general/forum_comments

and this is the one for the Reader one

http://forums.adobe.com/community/adobe_reader_forums/adobe_reader

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Yes, the urls look normal. But what happens when you click on them and the show up in the browser address bar when you get logged out? Do they still look normal?

Thanks!

Report · Apr 30, 2009

John Cornicello wrote:
Yes, the urls look normal. But what happens when you click on them and the show up in the browser address bar when you get logged out? Do they still look normal?
Thanks!

The URLs I gave were copied and pasted from my bookmarks. The ones I get in my browser's bar when I use them coincide with them. For example, this is copied and pasted from the navigation bar when I got into this forum:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/general/forum_comments

Unfortunately (for you, and fortunately for me), I was still logged in both computers when I restarted them earlier this morning, and I haven't been logged out ... yet. If I am, I will copy and paste the URL I see then.

Report · Apr 30, 2009

Argh! I just got logged out in the middle of writing a long reply, too. This is the third time it's happened to me. The commonalities that I've noticed are:

always on multi-paragraph (maybe 12-15 or so) postings, never on short ones
I use FF ver 3.0.1, with Stylish and some of the Stylish scripts
In all instances I had opened a new browser window to do google searches, ended up copying the URL from a page and pasted it into the forum text box. This recent time I had done that 2x.
Only certain in today's event, but could have happened previously, I'd opened the FF bookmarks dropdown and copied a URL from there and pasted it into the forum text box.

Newly entered on Wish list: a Stylish script that would scrape postings into the clipboard for preservation, e.g. every time I hit enter or something.

Report · Apr 30, 2009

a Stylish script that would scrape postings into the clipboard for preservation, e.g. every time I hit enter or something.

just to be clear, you're probably looking for a greasemonkey script. stylish provides css functionality only (so far as i've seen so far) greasemonkey is all that, and a bag of chips...

Report · Apr 30, 2009

GreaseMonkey vs. Stylish -- ah, gotcha, thanks Dave.

Report · Apr 30, 2009

AxialInfo wrote:
Argh! I just got logged out in the middle of writing a long reply, too. This is the third time it's happened to me. The commonalities that I've noticed are:
always on multi-paragraph (maybe 12-15 or so) postings, never on short ones
I use FF ver 3.0.1, with Stylish and some of the Stylish scripts
In all instances I had opened a new browser window to do google searches, ended up copying the URL from a page and pasted it into the forum text box. This recent time I had done that 2x.
Only certain in today's event, but could have happened previously, I'd opened the FF bookmarks dropdown and copied a URL from there and pasted it into the forum text box.
Newly entered on Wish list: a Stylish script that would scrape postings into the clipboard for preservation, e.g. every time I hit enter or something.

Hi Sheila.

You might be onto something there. I had multiple windows (to the forum) open at the time. And I was copy/pasting stuff from an email and from a forum message into the new message. Adding this to the case notes.

Thanks!

John

Report · May 03, 2009

I cannot seem to saty logged in over night anymore (or even same day). My preferences don't "remember me", and I have to check the box every time. I will keep an eye on it today and see when I get booted off again. This too is very annoying.

When I have to log in, regardless of what forum I start in, I am *always* taken to the forum front page. This is highly annoying! I started out on the Photography page, that's where I wanted to be, NOT on the forum front page! Why does the "redirecting ..." always have to take place?

My window shows that I am logged into the store ... I don't like that! I did NOT log into the store, I don't want the browser to even *think* that I am logged into the store. This really does need to change.

Report · May 04, 2009

greenjumpyone wrote:
I cannot seem to saty logged in over night anymore (or even same day). My preferences don't "remember me", and I have to check the box every time. I will keep an eye on it today and see when I get booted off again. This too is very annoying.

Right now there is no provision for staying logged in overnight. If you don't do anything in the forums for 4 hours your session will time out and you need to log in again.

When I have to log in, regardless of what forum I start in, I am *always* taken to the forum front page. This is highly annoying! I started out on the Photography page, that's where I wanted to be, NOT on the forum front page! Why does the "redirecting ..." always have to take place?

Can you give us the steps to reproduce this? I'm not seeing that. Here is what I just tried...

1. Go to http://forums.adobe.com and confirm that you are not logged in (says Login/Register under the Forums banner)

2. Select the Photography Forum at http://forums.adobe.com/community/design_development/photography

3. Click on the Login / Register link below the Forums banner

4. Type in your Adobe ID and password and click on the yellow Sign in button

At this point I am right back in the Photography Forum where I was when I clicked on Login.

John

Report · May 04, 2009

John Cornicello wrote:
Right now there is no provision for staying logged in overnight. If you don't do anything in the forums for 4 hours your session will time out and you need to log in again.

That may be the official version but I routinely stay logged in all night.

Before posting this response I noted that I was logged out. Never mind that I logged in earlier today.

So, I went to the original messag of this thread, clicked on Login and logged in. Or at least that is what I intended. Instead I got the following message

An unexpected error has occurred

The specified thread was not found.

I hit the 'back' button on my browser and was finally back to the start of the thread. Note that I had to hit the 'back' button a number of times to reach that point.

I agree with many others that you are one of the Good Guys and are trying to clean up this mess. All I can say is that there is absolutely no visible evidence that any improvements are being made. Using the New and Improve forums is a PITA.

EDIT: Why the hell is all the added text inside the stupid box?

Report · May 04, 2009

I get that every time I have to re-login. at least twice a day.

Report · May 04, 2009

Thanks for the steps. I tried that and got the same error. Off to check it out...

John

Report · May 04, 2009

John...

Please refer to two of my posts of today... basically, why should we have to sign in so often? This is hardly Fort Knox or the Bank of England or the Pentagon (BTW, it's easier there...). So what gives? Store, yes... but the forums for crying out loud! Just make them like they used to be. You stay signed in till you log out or clear your cookies or whatever. That's the way it used to be and no one evr complained.

And why is everyone here accepting four hours and xx hours?

JJ

Report · May 04, 2009

JC,

the four hour time limit is NOT consistent. There are times I am logged in overnight, other times not. Time where I am ACTIVELY surfing the forums and I get logged out. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

As far a the logging in and being sent to another forum, this is what I do:

I have the Lounge and the Photography forum open in tabs as my default opening pages when I launch Firefox.
I will click on a tab, today it was the Lounge.
I notice that I have been logged out of both the store and the forums.
I click the login link
I noticed that while I was logged OUT of the forum, the store had the "welcome greenjumpyone" text.
I logged in, again check-marked the "remember me" box and then pressed "ok" or "enter" or whatever the button says.
The page refreshes and I find that I am now in the Photography forum, even though I started out logging in from the Lounge. I now have TWO tabs with the Photography forum!

This happens every time I get logged out... the only thing that changes is the page that will show up after logging in.