Forum Issues

Klaus

I've filed a bug report about this behavior. I'll let you know what the devs say. In the meantime, Jon's workaround seems to work well enough.

Klaus

@larry said in Forum Issues:

I use a tablet to get here. For the last several days I can open the forum like always, but if I try to post something it says "error" and won't post. I have to reboot the tablet first. Then when I come back and go to the thread I was trying to post in, click "reply", it pulls up what I wrote and I just simply hit the send icon and it records my post.

Why?

That certainly sounds wrong, but your description is not accurate enough for me to reproduce the problem. Does anyone else have this problem, too?

What exactly is the error message? Just "Error"?

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@klaus I just got it on my desktop.

Nothing but "error".

I tried to post in the "I love my daughter" thread and that's what I got.

Klaus

Can you please post a screenshot if that happens again?

Is the error reproducible?

jon-nyc

I've gotten the naked 'error' message too since the upgrade.

I don't remember what sequence led to it. In each case (maybe there were two) I refreshed the page and tried again and it worked.

Klaus

If it happens, it would also be helpful if you could tell me the exact time when it happened. Then I can scan the log files.

Klaus

@klaus said in Forum Issues:

I've filed a bug report about this behavior. I'll let you know what the devs say. In the meantime, Jon's workaround seems to work well enough.

Sweet! The devs have already added my bug report as a milestone for their next NodeBB release. It turns out to be a "Z coordinate" issue, which means that the confirmation dialog is hidden behind the editor (which explains why Jon's workaround with the "-" button works).

jon-nyc

Cool.

Klaus

@george-k said in Forum Issues:

@klaus I just got it on my desktop.

Nothing but "error".

I tried to post in the "I love my daughter" thread and that's what I got.

I noticed a few unusual things in the server log that look like they may be related to the issue.

Dec 20 18:13:30 invalid csrf token
Dec 20 18:16:59 2020-12-20T17:16:59.479Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6145
Dec 20 18:16:59 invalid csrf token
Dec 20 18:17:44 2020-12-20T17:17:44.066Z [4567/289] - error: /api/post/upload
Dec 20 18:17:44 invalid csrf token
Dec 20 18:59:22 2020-12-20T17:59:22.577Z [4567/289] - error: /api/admin/plugins/emoji/upload
Dec 20 18:59:22 invalid csrf token
Dec 20 18:59:43 2020-12-20T17:59:43.815Z [4567/289] - error: /api/admin/plugins/emoji/upload
Dec 20 18:59:43 invalid csrf token
Dec 20 19:05:31 2020-12-20T18:05:31.578Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/5992
Dec 20 19:05:31 invalid csrf token
Dec 20 19:05:38 2020-12-20T18:05:38.217Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/5992
Dec 20 19:05:38 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 03:04:36 2020-12-21T02:04:36.516Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6158
Dec 21 03:04:36 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 03:04:42 2020-12-21T02:04:42.412Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6158
Dec 21 03:04:42 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:49:03 2020-12-21T04:49:03.076Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:49:03 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:49:10 2020-12-21T04:49:10.121Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:49:10 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:49:20 2020-12-21T04:49:20.394Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:49:20 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:49:27 2020-12-21T04:49:27.311Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:49:27 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:49:48 2020-12-21T04:49:48.165Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:49:48 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:50:25 2020-12-21T04:50:25.112Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:50:25 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:50:37 2020-12-21T04:50:37.199Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:50:37 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:51:02 2020-12-21T04:51:02.465Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:51:02 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:51:45 2020-12-21T04:51:45.248Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:51:45 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:52:08 2020-12-21T04:52:08.632Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:52:08 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:53:13 2020-12-21T04:53:13.762Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:53:13 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:54:04 2020-12-21T04:54:04.425Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:54:04 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 05:56:03 2020-12-21T04:56:03.381Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 05:56:03 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 13:44:14 2020-12-21T12:44:14.554Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6156
Dec 21 13:44:14 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 15:33:57 2020-12-21T14:33:57.246Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/5992
Dec 21 15:33:57 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 16:55:51 2020-12-21T15:55:51.266Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6161
Dec 21 16:55:51 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 16:55:53 2020-12-21T15:55:53.769Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6161
Dec 21 16:55:53 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 18:47:45 2020-12-21T17:47:45.229Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6162
Dec 21 18:47:45 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 19:34:08 2020-12-21T18:34:08.176Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6169
Dec 21 19:34:08 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 19:34:29 2020-12-21T18:34:29.810Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6169
Dec 21 19:34:29 invalid csrf token
Dec 21 23:15:13 2020-12-21T22:15:13.118Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6181
Dec 21 23:15:13 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 03:10:16 2020-12-22T02:10:16.072Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6168
Dec 22 03:10:16 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 03:52:01 2020-12-22T02:52:01.077Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6162
Dec 22 03:52:01 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 16:30:44 2020-12-22T15:30:44.580Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6194
Dec 22 16:30:44 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 16:30:49 2020-12-22T15:30:49.395Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6194
Dec 22 16:30:49 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 18:07:09 2020-12-22T17:07:09.790Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6185
Dec 22 18:07:09 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 19:42:18 2020-12-22T18:42:18.963Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6185
Dec 22 19:42:18 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 20:46:02 2020-12-22T19:46:02.965Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6162
Dec 22 20:46:02 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 20:49:32 2020-12-22T19:49:32.407Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics
Dec 22 20:49:32 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 20:49:45 2020-12-22T19:49:45.332Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics
Dec 22 20:49:45 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 20:50:31 2020-12-22T19:50:31.619Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics
Dec 22 20:50:31 invalid csrf token
Dec 22 22:17:15 2020-12-22T21:17:15.366Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6203
Dec 22 22:17:15 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 03:01:36 2020-12-23T02:01:36.565Z [4567/289] - error: /api/compose
Dec 23 13:40:06 2020-12-23T12:40:06.399Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6202
Dec 23 13:40:06 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 13:40:12 2020-12-23T12:40:12.948Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6202
Dec 23 13:40:12 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 13:40:33 2020-12-23T12:40:33.736Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6202
Dec 23 13:40:33 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 15:40:14 2020-12-23T14:40:14.852Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6186
Dec 23 15:40:14 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 15:41:58 2020-12-23T14:41:58.990Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6186
Dec 23 15:41:58 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 15:42:03 2020-12-23T14:42:03.144Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6186
Dec 23 15:42:03 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 15:42:25 2020-12-23T14:42:25.363Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6186
Dec 23 15:42:25 invalid csrf token
Dec 23 15:42:44 2020-12-23T14:42:44.810Z [4567/289] - error: /api/v3/topics/6186
Dec 23 15:42:44 invalid csrf token

CSRF tokens are a mechanism to prevent certain types of "cross-site request forgery" attacks, but my preliminary search for a fix did not yield anything useful. I'll investigate this more. Maybe @mark or @Axtremus have any experience with this kind of web tec?

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@klaus having fun, are we?

Klaus

@jon-nyc said in Forum Issues:

Cool.

...and a few minutes ago they've fixed the bug. It's nice to use software with such an active community. We'll still have to wait for the next release, though.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@klaus though different from what we've been used to, it's become head and shoulders better than Tapatalk and even Zetaboards.

Again, thanks for all your hard work, even if you seem to be enjoying yourself.

Klaus

@jon-nyc said in Forum Issues:

I've gotten the naked 'error' message too since the upgrade.

I don't remember what sequence led to it. In each case (maybe there were two) I refreshed the page and tried again and it worked.

@Larry for the time being - until the bug is fixed - refreshing the page (via the browser's "reload" button) might be a quicker way to work around the issue than rebooting your tablet.

Copper

@george-k said in Forum Issues:

@klaus having fun, are we?

Try using a valid csrf token

Klaus

I've deactivated the extended markdown plugin. The reason I installed it originally was to enable spoilers; the rest of the features was, as far as I can see, never used by anyone. We now have a better spoiler plugin and the editor for posts now looks less cluttered. Let me know if you miss that plugin.

Klaus

Nothing but "error".

@george-k and everyone else who has this error occasionally:

I reported this behavior to the NodeBB developers and got this reply.

it is exceeding difficult to debug because it just doesn't reproduce for the majority of users.

You're the first I've heard reporting this issue, so I'd need to know what's special about your users, how many are affected, etc.

Perhaps it is related to long-lived browser windows... if in a different tab they've logged out and back in, then the CSRF token is indeed expired. That would cause the error you see.

If this "Error" stuff shows up again, you could help by trying to identify the exact circumstances under which it happens. That would be an important step towards making the problem reproducible, which means that it becomes fixeable.