I can't believe I'm installing Vista again...
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I pushed a major overhaul of my business site night before last, and asked a few friends to bang on it to help flush out anything terribly embarrassing before I started a new promotion plan. I routinely test in IE7,8 and FF 3, then go back and do a sanity check on Safari and Chrome. All this happens in XP, as that's what all my machines are running. A friend emails me to say that a data entry form isn't working, i.e. he gets a validation prompt to enter text that his screen shot shows is clearly there. It's also clear from the shot that he's running Vista. Under the hood, the edit field is being compared to a session variable. Works in all the scenarios I test in but under Vista, for some reason, said session variable is blank. I switch it to a hidden text field, and everything works just fine. Conjure up the most offensive, politically incorrect, kid sister unfriendly phrases you can think of, and just imagine you heard me utter them with great enthusiasm. Bloody hell, session variables work everywhere else but not in Vista? I'm sure Rod Serling is sitting around the corner sipping cappuccino and having quite a chuckle at my current reality. This scenario seems completely unlikely and yet, that's the results I got. Session variables being a well used part of this system, I now have to install Vista and VS on a box so that I can test / debug other areas where I use them to see what the heck is going on. And so, I find myself fishing out those dusty old Vista installation disks and checking the cupboard to make sure I have an adequate supply of rum to ease the pain. I can handle html displaying differently in different browsers, but when server side stuff quits working depending on the OS... well, maybe I'll have that rum first.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
well, maybe I'll have that rum first.
Windows Vista Rum Edition
- Easier installation! (just twist off the cap and pour)
- Better User Experience! (intense colors and visualizations)
- Be more productive! (You didn't know what you were doing anyway, so being passed out is a real productivity booster for those of us that don't have to fix the stuff you screwed up!)
- Improved Customer Satisfaction! (when you're hammered, you don't care that things are broke)
System Requirements: Users must be 21 years of age or older. Use only Windows Vista Rum Edition compatible shot glass.
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
I have been doing ASP.Net for 8 years now. The session state has nothing to do with the Operating System. By Default Session objects are stored in memory in the ASPNet worker process. It has nothing to do with the client at all. Behind the scenes an identifier is used to determine the sessionId (and get the session information for the specific id browser) on each post back. This sessionId is usually stored as a cookie. If you set cookieless to true in the web.config the sessionId is stored in the query string and will disrupt the browsers ability to cache the page. So if during every postback the session information gets lost, one of two things is happening. The id is not being retrieved via the cookie. The browser may have cookies disabled. Or the apsnet worker process is recycled. This does occur normally and when you recycle the application pool.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
The id is not being retrieved via the cookie. The browser may have cookies disabled.
That had happened to me, IMHO that's the most common cause. You can try to run your site with the following config:
<sessionState cookieless="AutoDetect">
</sessionState>Jaime Febres The worst blog in the world
modified on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 12:47 PM
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
well, maybe I'll have that rum first.
Windows Vista Rum Edition
- Easier installation! (just twist off the cap and pour)
- Better User Experience! (intense colors and visualizations)
- Be more productive! (You didn't know what you were doing anyway, so being passed out is a real productivity booster for those of us that don't have to fix the stuff you screwed up!)
- Improved Customer Satisfaction! (when you're hammered, you don't care that things are broke)
System Requirements: Users must be 21 years of age or older. Use only Windows Vista Rum Edition compatible shot glass.
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTLDouglas Troy wrote:
Use only Windows Vista Rum Edition compatible shot glass.
Glass? Who uses a glass?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Douglas Troy wrote:
Use only Windows Vista Rum Edition compatible shot glass.
Glass? Who uses a glass?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
Glass? Who uses a glass?
Is that what they mean by "Open Source" ... no wonder so many people like it and think it's great. :rolleyes:
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
I have been doing ASP.Net for 8 years now. The session state has nothing to do with the Operating System. By Default Session objects are stored in memory in the ASPNet worker process. It has nothing to do with the client at all. Behind the scenes an identifier is used to determine the sessionId (and get the session information for the specific id browser) on each post back. This sessionId is usually stored as a cookie. If you set cookieless to true in the web.config the sessionId is stored in the query string and will disrupt the browsers ability to cache the page. So if during every postback the session information gets lost, one of two things is happening. The id is not being retrieved via the cookie. The browser may have cookies disabled. Or the apsnet worker process is recycled. This does occur normally and when you recycle the application pool.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
As the morning has evolved, I've found that indeed it's not constrained to Vista, which at least gets Mr. Serling out of the loop because, like you, I couldn't imagine how the OS could be involved. The app is not being recycled, as I log that event. Had my Vista friend do more tests, which worked this time and this makes sense as I'm able to reproduce the problem myself now, but it's random in nature. Fire up the browser to a page, it works. Close the browser. Repeat 4 or 5 times. One or two will fail. But here's my personal favorite. Compose an email in Outlook with a link to the site, but don't send it. This requires you to use Ctrl+click to invoke the link. Fails 100% of the time if a browser isn't up, works 100% of the time if one is. Then send the email and bring it up from the Sent folder. No longer need the Ctrl, just a click. Works 100% of the time. So perhaps Mr. Serling is just on a lunch break. I'm using a shared hosting environment, and the thought occurs to me that using InProc makes me vulnerable to loss of session should server side memory management be taking place. Given the amount of sites on the server, I would think it most certainly does. Since I'm hoping to have a high traffic site one day :), I figure I'll move the session state management over to Sql Server. Slower, but less vulnerable in this regard. Now I know why the rum is always gone... :)
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Works fine in VirtualBox...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001What's VirtualBox, and do you have it installed on Vista or XP?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
Vista's Aero
Ok I am confused now. What has Aero to do with your issue? All you need is to run the browser to test your site. Whether the browser window itself appears pretty or not should not have anything to do with the problem.
Aero is a separate issue, and comes into the picture because I currently don't have a Vista environment to test in (even though this problem turns out to not a Vista thing). I'd rather have Vista environments in a VM for testing, especially since Weven is just around the corner, but without Aero it's not a complete testing environment for whatever I want to test.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Aero is a separate issue, and comes into the picture because I currently don't have a Vista environment to test in (even though this problem turns out to not a Vista thing). I'd rather have Vista environments in a VM for testing, especially since Weven is just around the corner, but without Aero it's not a complete testing environment for whatever I want to test.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
without Aero it's not a complete testing environment for whatever I want to test.
Sounds like a man who has written Flight control software.
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
without Aero it's not a complete testing environment for whatever I want to test.
Sounds like a man who has written Flight control software.
Yeah. If I were you, I'd invest in Greyhound. :-D
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Normally, yeah. But Vista's Aero doesn't work in Virtual PC.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
Normally, yeah. But Vista's Aero doesn't work in Virtual PC.
It doesn't?
The world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. —Sean O’Casey, Playwright
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It's not butter.[^] Come on, you knew that was coming.
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
Glass? Who uses a glass?
Is that what they mean by "Open Source" ... no wonder so many people like it and think it's great. :rolleyes:
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
As the morning has evolved, I've found that indeed it's not constrained to Vista, which at least gets Mr. Serling out of the loop because, like you, I couldn't imagine how the OS could be involved. The app is not being recycled, as I log that event. Had my Vista friend do more tests, which worked this time and this makes sense as I'm able to reproduce the problem myself now, but it's random in nature. Fire up the browser to a page, it works. Close the browser. Repeat 4 or 5 times. One or two will fail. But here's my personal favorite. Compose an email in Outlook with a link to the site, but don't send it. This requires you to use Ctrl+click to invoke the link. Fails 100% of the time if a browser isn't up, works 100% of the time if one is. Then send the email and bring it up from the Sent folder. No longer need the Ctrl, just a click. Works 100% of the time. So perhaps Mr. Serling is just on a lunch break. I'm using a shared hosting environment, and the thought occurs to me that using InProc makes me vulnerable to loss of session should server side memory management be taking place. Given the amount of sites on the server, I would think it most certainly does. Since I'm hoping to have a high traffic site one day :), I figure I'll move the session state management over to Sql Server. Slower, but less vulnerable in this regard. Now I know why the rum is always gone... :)
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
You might also consider either a dedicated server or a virtual server. Some hosts offer cheap virtual servers where you have full control or you can get a dedicated server from Server Beach. Currently they offer a ValueLine server with 80GB HD and 2,000 GB per month bandwidth running Win 2003 Server Web for only $79 per month with no setup fees: https://shop.serverbeach.com/product_details.php[^] It may seem rough on the wallet at the first, but you can host all the sites you want, have full access to your server via Terminal Services, run whatever software you like and even sell off some of the server to host other peoples sites if you so desire. I have had a dedicated server for something like five years now with them and I cannot go back to a server managed by someone else telling me what softwaer I can or cannot run and having no control over who has access to my data and code. Flot out spoiled now :)
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Backup or Move Mozilla settings and data easily! Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
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What's VirtualBox, and do you have it installed on Vista or XP?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
It's an open-source virtual machine app, and I'm running it on XP64. I installed Weven64 RC into a VM, and it runs the aero stuff just fine (albeit very slow because of drivers).
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
As the morning has evolved, I've found that indeed it's not constrained to Vista, which at least gets Mr. Serling out of the loop because, like you, I couldn't imagine how the OS could be involved. The app is not being recycled, as I log that event. Had my Vista friend do more tests, which worked this time and this makes sense as I'm able to reproduce the problem myself now, but it's random in nature. Fire up the browser to a page, it works. Close the browser. Repeat 4 or 5 times. One or two will fail. But here's my personal favorite. Compose an email in Outlook with a link to the site, but don't send it. This requires you to use Ctrl+click to invoke the link. Fails 100% of the time if a browser isn't up, works 100% of the time if one is. Then send the email and bring it up from the Sent folder. No longer need the Ctrl, just a click. Works 100% of the time. So perhaps Mr. Serling is just on a lunch break. I'm using a shared hosting environment, and the thought occurs to me that using InProc makes me vulnerable to loss of session should server side memory management be taking place. Given the amount of sites on the server, I would think it most certainly does. Since I'm hoping to have a high traffic site one day :), I figure I'll move the session state management over to Sql Server. Slower, but less vulnerable in this regard. Now I know why the rum is always gone... :)
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
But here's my personal favorite. Compose an email in Outlook with a link to the site, but don't send it. This requires you to use Ctrl+click to invoke the link. Fails 100% of the time if a browser isn't up, works 100% of the time if one is. Then send the email and bring it up from the Sent folder. No longer need the Ctrl, just a click. Works 100% of the time. So perhaps Mr. Serling is just on a lunch break.
Is this only happening in IE8? I've read about a browser running/not running problem with opening websites from the Boinc[^] client with IE8. I never looked at the bug reports in any detail but wonder if it's somehow the same issue.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
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I pushed a major overhaul of my business site night before last, and asked a few friends to bang on it to help flush out anything terribly embarrassing before I started a new promotion plan. I routinely test in IE7,8 and FF 3, then go back and do a sanity check on Safari and Chrome. All this happens in XP, as that's what all my machines are running. A friend emails me to say that a data entry form isn't working, i.e. he gets a validation prompt to enter text that his screen shot shows is clearly there. It's also clear from the shot that he's running Vista. Under the hood, the edit field is being compared to a session variable. Works in all the scenarios I test in but under Vista, for some reason, said session variable is blank. I switch it to a hidden text field, and everything works just fine. Conjure up the most offensive, politically incorrect, kid sister unfriendly phrases you can think of, and just imagine you heard me utter them with great enthusiasm. Bloody hell, session variables work everywhere else but not in Vista? I'm sure Rod Serling is sitting around the corner sipping cappuccino and having quite a chuckle at my current reality. This scenario seems completely unlikely and yet, that's the results I got. Session variables being a well used part of this system, I now have to install Vista and VS on a box so that I can test / debug other areas where I use them to see what the heck is going on. And so, I find myself fishing out those dusty old Vista installation disks and checking the cupboard to make sure I have an adequate supply of rum to ease the pain. I can handle html displaying differently in different browsers, but when server side stuff quits working depending on the OS... well, maybe I'll have that rum first.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Kinda OT, but http://www.practicalusa.com/~/PageNotFound.aspx[^] keeps redirecting infinitely - Firefox gives up and says Redirect loop - "Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete."
Regards Senthil [MVP - Visual C#] _____________________________ My Home Page |My Blog | My Articles | My Flickr | WinMacro
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Kinda OT, but http://www.practicalusa.com/~/PageNotFound.aspx[^] keeps redirecting infinitely - Firefox gives up and says Redirect loop - "Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete."
Regards Senthil [MVP - Visual C#] _____________________________ My Home Page |My Blog | My Articles | My Flickr | WinMacro
Appreciate the tip. I can't seem to reproduce that - do you remember how you got there? If I type a bogus page, I get the correct url, i.e. without the internal /~/.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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You might also consider either a dedicated server or a virtual server. Some hosts offer cheap virtual servers where you have full control or you can get a dedicated server from Server Beach. Currently they offer a ValueLine server with 80GB HD and 2,000 GB per month bandwidth running Win 2003 Server Web for only $79 per month with no setup fees: https://shop.serverbeach.com/product_details.php[^] It may seem rough on the wallet at the first, but you can host all the sites you want, have full access to your server via Terminal Services, run whatever software you like and even sell off some of the server to host other peoples sites if you so desire. I have had a dedicated server for something like five years now with them and I cannot go back to a server managed by someone else telling me what softwaer I can or cannot run and having no control over who has access to my data and code. Flot out spoiled now :)
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Backup or Move Mozilla settings and data easily! Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
Yeah, I can see how you'd get spoiled with a dedicated box. However, their prices look cheap until you start adding things like Sql Server, daily backups, etc. at which point it becomes rather pricey. Ultimately, I'd like to go with a dedicated or co-hosted server solution, but I need web revenues first to offset the cost. Hopefully revenue will be on the rise. :-D
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Appreciate the tip. I can't seem to reproduce that - do you remember how you got there? If I type a bogus page, I get the correct url, i.e. without the internal /~/.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
It happened when I tried to navigate to http://www.practicalusa.com/AngeloBio.aspx[^]. Seems to work fine now.
Regards Senthil [MVP - Visual C#] _____________________________ My Home Page |My Blog | My Articles | My Flickr | WinMacro
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I pushed a major overhaul of my business site night before last, and asked a few friends to bang on it to help flush out anything terribly embarrassing before I started a new promotion plan. I routinely test in IE7,8 and FF 3, then go back and do a sanity check on Safari and Chrome. All this happens in XP, as that's what all my machines are running. A friend emails me to say that a data entry form isn't working, i.e. he gets a validation prompt to enter text that his screen shot shows is clearly there. It's also clear from the shot that he's running Vista. Under the hood, the edit field is being compared to a session variable. Works in all the scenarios I test in but under Vista, for some reason, said session variable is blank. I switch it to a hidden text field, and everything works just fine. Conjure up the most offensive, politically incorrect, kid sister unfriendly phrases you can think of, and just imagine you heard me utter them with great enthusiasm. Bloody hell, session variables work everywhere else but not in Vista? I'm sure Rod Serling is sitting around the corner sipping cappuccino and having quite a chuckle at my current reality. This scenario seems completely unlikely and yet, that's the results I got. Session variables being a well used part of this system, I now have to install Vista and VS on a box so that I can test / debug other areas where I use them to see what the heck is going on. And so, I find myself fishing out those dusty old Vista installation disks and checking the cupboard to make sure I have an adequate supply of rum to ease the pain. I can handle html displaying differently in different browsers, but when server side stuff quits working depending on the OS... well, maybe I'll have that rum first.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Somehow, I can't imagine Rod Serling being a cappuccino drinker. I can only imagine him drinking his coffee black, straight up.
Software Zen:
delete this;