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Trouble making submissions[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2016 02:54 AM UTC:
I sent the following email to an editor (Ben) a couple of hours ago, but I
then realized others might be interested in the contents asap, including
any future author, or perhaps especially Fergus:

"I just submitted a new 4D chess variant I invented to The Chess Variants
Pages website, but I could not exactly see it after clicking on
‘Submit’ (when a new page popped up, the title of my submitted game
appeared in large print, but underneath was a page full of Amazon
corporation ads for books). Then, when I tried to find a hopefully more
complete version of my submission by looking under ‘Your Unreviewed
Submissions’, it was indicated to me on that webpage that I was not
signed in, nor was I able to sign in on that particular webpage. If nothing
else, please check for me that you can see my submission entirely from your
end of things. It took almost an hour and a half to prepare my submission,
including using the Diagram Designer, so on that note I’ll certainly put
off submitting a second new 4D variant I invented this year until after I
get your reply. Meanwhile, I wish you a Happy New Year."

The name of the submission in question is "Super4*Chess (four dimensional
chess)". If I'm the only one having trouble making a submission, I could
eventually give a link to my Chess Federation of Canada blog entry
concerning the variant, if anyone is willing to try to author a submission
for it on The Chess Variant Pages instead of me (& then please note that
I'm the inventor).

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2016 03:12 AM UTC:
The page exists, but it's empty. The same goes for another new submission.
We're still working on getting some things to work on the new host. Since
the submission scripts are something David wrote and which I have rarely
ever used, it may take some more time to get them fixed.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2016 03:46 AM UTC:
Thanks for the info, Fergus. I'll try to get around to re-submitting the
variant for this website at some point after the problem is known to be
solved.

Meanwhile, for anyone who is curious and/or impatient, I can give the CFC
website link I wrote of regarding my blog entry there for this variant (the
blog entry looks different slightly than what I had tried to submit to The
Chess Variant Pages, as for one thing I only gave a primitive diagram for
the setup position of the game):

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/entry.php?100-Super4*Chess-(four-dimensional-chess)

Furthermore, here's a link to my CFC blog entry for the second 4D variant
of mine that I wrote of that was finished being invented in the year 2016
as well (the variant is yet to be submitted as an entry to The Chess
Variant Pages in some form, likely with a nicer diagram included too). FYI
it is a 5x5x5x5 4D variant:

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/entry.php?101-5*4DChess-(four-dimensional-chess)

Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2016 07:44 AM UTC:
This seems the logical thread to continue the discussion started <a href="http://www.chessvariants.com/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=422706f7808776e0">here</a> as it exactly describes what I have encountered. I have not yet had an opportunity to try updating on a different computer, but I hope to do so soon.

Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2016 07:48 AM UTC:
What I have just noticed is that the comments are appearing twice at the foot of the page. I do not know whether this is significant, but it is an anomaly and detracts from the page's appearance.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2016 03:53 PM UTC:
One thing I want to work on, perhaps while fixing the scripts for making
submissions, is to switch from mysql_* functions to PDO* functions. The
mysql_* functions have been deprecated in PHP, and they will be removed
from a future version of PHP. So I looked into the alternatives, these
being Improved MySQL (mysqli_*) and PHP Data Objects (PDO*). Both have the
advantage over mysql_* of allowing prepared statements. PDO has two main
advantages over mysqli. The one I think will help most is that it allows
named parameters in prepared statements. The other is that it supports more
database formats than just mysql. This is not so important right now, since
I will continue to use the mysql format, but if the mysql format were ever
deprecated, or something much better came along, it would be easier to make
the change if the code were already using the PDO* functions.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2016 06:13 PM UTC:
I have started the transition to PDO. First, I wrote a test file to make
sure I knew what I was doing. Then, I rewrote the connect_to_database()
function to connect through both mysql and PDO. This did not break anything
using mysql. I then rewrote the itemid() function to use PDO, and it is
working. So we can transition to PDO without doing it all at once. We can
do it one function or file at a time. With that in mind, I can make some
fixes while also changing the database code to use PDO.

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Jan 6, 2016 07:40 AM UTC:
I have just noticed that old-style pages are displaying comments, so it might be that mechanism that is causing PYOs to display them twice. If anything that suggests that it less likely to be connected with the issues in posting updates, but it still makes for a lot extra being displayed on the page.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Jan 6, 2016 03:48 PM UTC:
Both msdisplay.php and the footer included code for displaying comments. It
hadn't previously been in the footer, because David had used a Perl footer
that just gave a link to the comments. Since I replaced his footer with a
PHP footer that includes comments, I removed the code for including
comments from msdisplay.php.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Jan 6, 2016 04:59 PM UTC:
The problem with submissions was that the POST data would not go through
the first time. I could see this from the empty strings in the SQL it
showed me. When I simply reloaded membersubmission3.php, I would see the
POST data in the SQL, and it would get recorded in the database. So it
appeared that the problem was not with membersubmission3.php but with the
process of getting the POST data to it. Since it previously helped in
another case, I changed the ACTION URL in the FORM that goes to
membersubmission3.php to the full URL. Making that change to
membersubmission2.php seems to have fixed the problem with submitting
games.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Wed, Jan 6, 2016 11:47 PM UTC:
I just re-submitted my "Super4*Chess (four dimensional chess)" variant to The Chess Variant Pages. At first a somewhat garbled version of the text
appeared, but then when I clicked on "View Submission" the entry appeared
to be as I had hoped, i.e. text showing properly (with 1 Diagram Designer generated diagram
included), game title included.

I still am indicated to be not signed in when I try to view any unreviewed
submissions of mine (on the webpage "Your Unreviewed Submissions), and I am unable sign
in on that webpage, perhaps because my browser is not adequate. In the past sometimes I
could sign in on certain webpages if using my (currently broken) desktop
computer instead of my laptop (which I am using presently). For me, on some webpages of The Chess Variant Pages, the menu of options at the top shows as a vertical (rather than horizontal) list, sometimes when using either computer, in a way which also keeps me from using any of the options (such as to be able to sign in). However, it is
possible that the problem of being indicated as not being signed in on this
particular webpage is one of the glitches that may need be dealt with by
Fergus. Meanwhile, I have no way of editing my now apparently tentatively
accepted submission, at least until after it has been reviewed (& if accepted)
by editor(s). In the meantime, could an editor please verify that indeed my
submission has been tentatively accepted (i.e. by this website).

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 12:39 AM UTC:
That page lacked a DOCTYPE declaration at the beginning. Adding one fixed
it. It was not that you weren't logged in but that the page failed to
recognize that you were logged in.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 12:48 AM UTC:
Please let me know if you can edit your submission. I'm not familiar with
whether this can be done, but I think it should be allowed.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 01:16 AM UTC:
Fergus wrote: "Please let me know if you can edit your submission. I'm not
familiar with whether this can be done, but I think it should be allowed."

I added a couple of letters to the text of it successfully, so the answer
appears to be that I can indeed edit it.

In case you missed it, I slightly edited my previous comment, to elaborate
on troubles for me that may or may not be caused by having an inadequate
browser, as far as viewing and using this website goes. So far it seems I
can get by (I prefer not to try to change browsers for now), although just
now I looked at some games to see if I could unfavourite them, and in many
cases the top menu of such a game's webpage appeared vertical in presenting
the options. Not only that, but in some such cases I previously favourited
these games by listing all its comments, i.e. getting to a webpage where
the menu options happened to be presented horizontally. Now, even when that
happens still, I don't see any way available by way of a heart option to
favourite or unfavorite a particular game. Luckily this is not a priority
to fix, but I thought I'd mention it in case you were unaware.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 01:45 AM UTC:
Are you using a mobile device, by any chance? The mobile menu appears
vertically. It is normally hidden unless you touch the ≡ sign. If you're
seeing a vertical menu on a desktop or laptop, then please give me an URL
to look at.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 02:27 AM UTC:
Hi Fergus

I'm using a laptop (it's the only computer available to me at home
currently, nor do I use a mobile device). Here's a sample URL (if I
understand that phrase right) from The Chess Variant Pages which produces a
vertical menu of options on my laptop:

http://www.chessvariants.com/dpieces.dir/berlin.html

Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 03:36 AM UTC:
Just now I submitted "5*4DChess (four dimensional chess)" to The Chess
Variants Pages, and after I hit "Submit" a new webpage with that game's
title showed up, but the page appeared to be empty otherwise (same story
when I checked it under the webpage "Your Unreviewed Submissions"). :(

If the webpage is indeed empty, could an editor please delete it, and after the new problem with making submissions is solved, I'll hope to resubmit it under the same title eventually.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 01:57 PM UTC:
The menu on http://www.chessvariants.com/dpieces.dir/berlin.html is
appearing horizontally to me. So it's not an instance of the wrong header
being used. Can you provide a screen shot of what you're seeing to help me
better gauge what's going on?

Carlos Cetina wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 03:19 PM UTC:
All the presets have a bug that when you click "Invite" then switch to the
chess  preset.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 04:05 PM UTC:
Fergus wrote:

"The menu on http://www.chessvariants.com/dpieces.dir/berlin.html is
appearing horizontally to me. So it's not an instance of the wrong header
being used. Can you provide a screen shot of what you're seeing to help me
better gauge what's going on?"

Like I've alluded to before, I'm rather out of my depth these days when it
comes to computers. However, with some luck I did manage to create a
screenshot icon (shortcut) on my desktop of the Berolina Pawns variant
webpage, and then I emailed it to your address as webmaster of this
website. Hope that suffices.

If you can get around to it, in the event you missed it, I replied to your
comment re: my Super4*Chess submission needing to be edited, and I asked if
you could advise me (such as perhaps only clarifying that I in fact may
have taken a step in the right direction). It's not a priority though, as I
am going to be playing over-the-board chess all weekend, including tonight
at my club, as well as Friday night, so I'll soon begin a long break from
using a computer to visit here, or to visit other websites I go to, until
the weekend is over, if only for the reason to concentrate better on
playing chess.

Take care, Kevin

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 04:10 PM UTC:
Carlos, that bug is now fixed. I was trying to fix something else last
night and removed a line of HTML I thought might be the problem. Although
the problem was something else, I left it out because it seemed redundant.
But it wasn't. So I added a new line that does the same thing more
accurately.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 04:53 PM UTC:
Kevin,

Since I didn't get your email, I whitelisted your address in SpamAssassin.
Please try again.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 05:01 PM UTC:
I've just emailed you again. Neither email has bounced back at my end of
things so far, at least.

Carlos Cetina wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 05:15 PM UTC:
OK. Thanks!

Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 08:01 PM UTC:
Earlier I posted (directed to Fergus):

"...If you can get around to it, in the event you missed it, I replied to
your comment re: my Super4*Chess submission needing to be edited, and I
asked if you could advise me..."

I may have solved my problem in question on my own. Under comments to my
submission in question, I've just posted:

"Out of a sudden inspiration, I tried using the Diagram Designer to make
just a 1x1 (square) board for displaying each single piece type used in my
variant (Super4*Chess); I then cut & pasted the diagrams (as I generated
each of them) into the piece descriptions. Hope this is adequate, as far as
editing my submission goes."

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 09:42 PM UTC:
That's one way to do it, though it's not the easiest. This shows that you
know how to include an image on a page. The easier way to do it is to copy
the URL for each image from the Diagram Designer and use that. The images
are displayed around the board. You can get the URL for an image by
right-clicking it and selecting the appropriate option from the right-click
menu. 

For Internet Explorer, this is "Copy". 

For Firefox, this is "Copy Image Location". 

For Chrome, this is "Copy Image Address".

For other browsers, it may be something similar. This will put the URL for
the image in your clipboard, and from there, you can paste it into your
document.

H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 10:01 PM UTC:
I understand that it is possible to use HTML img tags in non-HTML
submissions. It this an exception, or would it also be possible to use div
tags there to define an interactive diagram?

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 10:57 PM UTC:
Okay, I'm guessing that non-HTML submissions are formatted differently but
do not actually prevent the use of HTML. So, DIVs should probably work in
them, though if you are using HTML, then I would recommend clicking the
HTML option. In comments, as opposed to submissions, non-HTML comments do
not allow HTML.

H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 06:51 AM UTC:
> Okay, I'm guessing that non-HTML submissions are formatted differently but do not actually prevent the use of HTML.

OK, great. I always tick HTML, but the downside is that this collapses all your text into one big paragraph if you don't put in all the HTML tags for formatting, and many people would not know how. So it is very convenient that there is a possibility to use their own line feeds and spaces for formatting, and still can paste HTML diagrams as blackboxes into it from the diagram generator or interactive-diagram wizard.


Kevin Pacey wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 07:50 AM UTC:
I'm up way too late, but I couldn't resist checking this website at least
one last time.

Fergus wrote: "That's one way to do it, though it's not the easiest. This
shows that you know how to include an image on a page. The easier way to do
it is to copy the URL for each image from the Diagram Designer and use
that. The images are displayed around the board. You can get the URL for an
image by right-clicking it and selecting the appropriate option from the
right-click menu. 

For Internet Explorer, this is "Copy". 

... This will put the URL for the image in your clipboard, and from there,
you can paste it into your document."

I use Internet Explorer on my laptop (or desktop computer, when it is
working), and I did try copying it the way you described, Fergus. My
mistake was that I tried to 'paste' straight away, and nothing showed up at
all in my submission. I hadn't realized a 'clipboard' was to be involved.
I'll try to get around to looking up how a clipboard is used again, and try
to do such piece depictions as you described, if there isn't something
easier available (like later on cutting and pasting the work I've already
done when editing Super4*Chess).

Back in the 1990s when computers and the internet were apparently really
taking off, a condition I've had probably most of my life really took off
too (e.g. having visions once in a while), and as a result generally I've
tried to not experiment (nor use computers) too much. For example if
there's a way to do something with a computer that I know works I'll use
it, even if it may cost me just a little bit more time. Finding the time to
try to undo the consequenses of an apparently harmless experiment gone
wrong when using a computer is something I developed a sort of aversion to
years ago.

H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 11:17 AM UTC:
'Clipboard' is jargon for the invisible place where data lives between the user ordering a 'Copy' or 'Cut' and ordering 'Paste' (through a menu selection or by using Ctrl-C/Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V keys of the keyboard). So I don't expect you did anything wrong there. The special thing here is that normally you load the clipboard by first selecting a visible text, and then 'copy' it. While the mentioned menu items of the browser do put the URL specifyng the location of the clicked image there, rather than the image itself. <p> You should see the URL (starting with "http://") appearing in your text when you 'Paste'. <p> What is most likely the problem is that an URL in the text of your submission is not enough to make an image appear; it would just display the URL as text. To get an image on a submitted page you would have to write <p> < img src="URL"> <p> in it, with URL the pasted URL.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 05:40 PM UTC:
I still have a couple of hours before I have to get busy today with other
things. As I alluded to earlier, H.G., when I copied & then tried to paste
the piece symbol as described, literally no text or image appeared in my
submission (i.e. nothing happened whatsoever after I tried to paste).

Instead, one thing I tried after was to save the webpage for the piece
symbol as one of my 'Favourites' (another option besides 'Copy' that is
allowed when one right-clicks on such a piece symbol). Then, in actually
going to that webpage on the web, I did see the piece symbol in question
displayed, in the upper left corner of an otherwise blank webpage. Anyway,
I then pasted that http address for that webpage into my submission, but
then when I viewed it by re-submitting my submission, all that appeared (of
course, I suppose) was the text of the http address (kind of similar to
what you were describing for something else). 

Maybe there was somthing I could have done with the http address that I  inserted in my submission, e.g. something kind of similar to what
you were describing. After giving up perhaps prematurely, the next day I
had my 1x1 board (including piece symbol) representation inspiration for using the
Diagram Designer, and I eagerly took the sure route to
success, much like a baseball infielder takes the sure throw out to first
base, rather than trying to throw out a base runner by throwing to second
base. Anyway, the fact that my original copy and paste attempt produced
absolutely nothing (such as text) in my submission suggests to me that
there may in fact be a bug with, say, the Diagram Designer, unless I did
something wrong in copying & pasting (in this case, seems hardly possible).

H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 09:13 PM UTC:
And did you copy the image or the location of the image? You cannot paste
an image in a text form, so if you copied the image instead of its location
(URL), then it would explain why nothing appeared.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Sun, Jan 10, 2016 02:54 AM UTC:
I got home early today from my weekend tournament, and having taken care of
other things at home I thought I'd check my email & various websites
tonight at least one time each all the same. That's after getting my
inevitable game with GM Sambuev out of the way today (I lost respectably
IMHO, getting ground down in a major piece ending after trying to hold a
draw with the Petroff Defence).

I got your email from today Fergus, and I sent the screenshot (of the
Berolina Pawns webpage) to your other email address just now, as you
suggested I try instead.


H.G. Posted: "And did you copy the image or the location of the image? You
cannot paste an image in a text form, so if you copied the image instead of
its location (URL), then it would explain why nothing appeared"

Yes, apparently in my innocence I tried to just paste the image. The only
URL I noticed for it was after I saved it as a webpage Favourite, rather
than just clicking on 'Copy' (after right-clicking on the image of the
piece symbol).

H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Jan 10, 2016 09:32 AM UTC:
> Yes, apparently in my innocence I tried to just paste the image. The only URL I noticed for it was after I saved it as a webpage Favourite, rather than just clicking on 'Copy' (after right-clicking on the image of the piece symbol).

In my browser (Firefox) when I right-click on an image it pops up a menu with (amongst others) the items

  • View image
  • Copy image
  • Copy image location
  • Properties
When you select "View image" it displays the image as a separate web page, with the URL of the image (as usual) in the address field above it. You could then select and copy the URL from there. But when you select "Copy image location" it should already have copied the URL without additional mouse manipulations, and without the need for changing what page it was displaying. With "Properties" you get a popup window with all kinds of info on the image, and one of them is the URL. You could also copy that URL from there.

Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, Jan 11, 2016 07:40 AM UTC:
Yesterday I got to the computer from which I had made successful updates, but unfortunately I could not try it out because the mouse was not working properly and there was not another one easily accessible that could be substituted. I still cannot post the updates that I want to from th computer that I am currently on.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Jan 11, 2016 11:51 PM UTC:
I'm back and rested after my weekend tournament, finishing clear second at
1.5 points behind GM Sambuev (5/5, again), so I did about as well as I
could reasonably hope for.

H.G. posted: "In my browser (Firefox) when I right-click on an image it
pops up a menu with (amongst others) the items
 • View image 
• Copy image 
• Copy image location 
• Properties 
When you select "View image" it displays the image as a separate web page,
with the URL of the image (as usual) in the address field above it. You
could then select and copy the URL from there. But when you select "Copy
image location" it should already have copied the URL without additional
mouse manipulations, and without the need for changing what page it was
displaying. With "Properties" you get a popup window with all kinds of info
on the image, and one of them is the URL. You could also copy that URL from
there."

At the moment I'm using a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Vista, Windows
Explorer browser (clicking on its properties reveals it to be created Sept.
2009). When I right-click on a piece image of the Diagram Designer, the
options I can choose to further click on unfortunately do not include View
Image or Copy Image or Copy Image Location, but the options available to me
do include "Copy" and "Properties". Clicking on Properties does reveal the
URL (the same one as if I had clicked on "Save to Favourites" instead of
"Properties", I suppose). 

I'm not sure using this URL (in the way you described in an earlier post)
would save me much time (if at all) compared to doing it my way (i.e. by
copying Diagram Designer HTML code for a piece on a 1x1 board), that is if
needing to over and over insert more than one piece image (of more than 1 piece type, even) to be shown into
a Chess Variant Pages webpage submission. However, doing it your way could
show a clean/nicer piece image, in that my way of doing it shows the 1x1
square board with a coordinate included (namely "a1", with the "a"
unfortunately partly not showing because the board is so small, I assume).
Perhaps the choice is a matter of taste?! In any case I may try doing it
the way you described at some point, H.G. Thanks for your advice.

[edit: I tried do it H.G.'s way just now when editing my old 4*Chess submission, but nothing appeared at all when I used quotes around the URL, or when I did not use quotes. I had followed H.G.'s earlier directions, unless I somehow went wrong (I may try H.G.'s method later if I can figure it out, pending any further thoughts); the directions posted earlier were:

"To get an image on a submitted page you would have to write 

< img src="URL"> 

in it, with URL the pasted URL."]

[2nd edit: I solved my problem using H.G.'s method (to show single piece images from the Diagram Designer in a submission) by using quotes around the URL & using uppercase for IMG SRC, in a test I carried out. The piece image I chose to test out (in a submission, temporarily modifying it by editing) was shown all by itself, underlined as in the Diagram Designer.
Note that I put this 2nd edit accidently in my 4*Chess submission thread too.]

Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, Jan 25, 2016 07:44 AM UTC:
I am still having trouble posting updates, including to some variants as well as piece articles. The issue of updating variant pages has become more urgent as I have noticed that I cannot see ffen diagrams from the computer on which I am currently going online and was hoping to replace them. Even had there been no problem updating, it would take some time to replace them all, and I would be interested to know if this problem is due to my change of computer or the move of website, If it is the latter, then for all the shortcomings of these diagrams this needs fixing in the interim before I (a) am able to edit all my pages properly again and (b) I have the time to carry them all out.

For the record, in case an editor has time to make - and better success updating - the changes, the intention was to replace the three ffen diagrams on the Nearlydouble Chess page with the following virtual images respectively:


🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Jan 25, 2016 02:41 PM UTC:
I can see the ffen diagrams on the Nearlydouble Chess page. So I expect
your browser is having some trouble with JavaScript. If you can't switch
computers, then I would suggest switching browsers or at least making sure
JavaScript is working in your current browser.

Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Jan 26, 2016 07:33 AM UTC:
You're quite right! I had to change the JavaScript setting for an entirely different reason and it has the side-effect of making the diagrams visible. Oh, well, that panic at least is over.

Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Jan 26, 2016 07:40 AM UTC:
What it does not fix is my inability to edit certain pages. One that I did succeed with was Flyover Xiang Qi, on which I moved some text from the Notes to the introduction to move the array diagram lower down. I notice that it did not have any comments, whereas the pages that I have failed to edit do have some, so it looks like comments might be part of the issue.

Ben Reiniger wrote on Tue, Jan 26, 2016 12:09 PM UTC:
Can you describe exactly what happens when you try to submit an edit?

You said earlier that perhaps it's because the text boxes contain too much.
 Apparently that is possible, if unlikely: the maximum size of a "text"
type entry in our database is ~65000 characters.

I would not expect it to have anything to do with whether the item has been commented on or not.

Charles Gilman wrote on Thu, Jan 28, 2016 08:08 AM UTC:
Well I have no trouble editing Hourglass Hex Chess, which is a bigger file than Nearlydouble. Unfortunately that appears to demolish both our theories, as Hourglass Hex has comments as well!

When my attempt to edit fails I get error 403. When it is successful a garbled version of the variant appears on the next page - but with the "view submission" link at the bottom so that I can continue to the page as edited.


Ben Reiniger wrote on Thu, Jan 28, 2016 06:24 PM UTC:
Hmm, I get the 403 error too, whether I try to edit as an editor (which
uses a different script) or as you (which would give an error since I
haven't entered your password; either the 403 overrides that error or the
script doesn't make it to that point).

It's odd that it happens for the same script but different itemIDs.

Oh, and the garbled version of your page that shows after submitting was added by Fergus to help debug (some other?) problem(s).

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Feb 10, 2016 07:57 AM UTC:
I have had error 403 again, this time with two pages that have no comments - BacCancat and Pass Variants. Any ideas, anyone?

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Mar 2, 2016 07:58 AM UTC:
Pages on which I am getting the 403 error now include 125% Shogi/XQ, BacCanCat, Index B to Man and Beast, Man and Beast 06, Nearlydouble Chess, Pass Variants, and Yonin Toyang Mitregi. Ones that I have succeeded in editing can be seen clearly on the list of recent updates. Being unsuccessful is all the more annoying now that the advice "Please don't use JavaScript, multiple images, or Ascii Art" is given, as for the most part this is what I am trying to remedy!

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Mar 3, 2016 09:46 PM UTC:
Charles, I updated the code in the relevant scripts to access the database
with PDO instead of with mysql functions. Please check if this fixes your
problem with updating some games. If it doesn't, please provide a detailed
report of where it goes wrong and what it says to you.

Charles Gilman wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2016 08:00 AM UTC:
It does not seem to have made any difference. If I click on "more information" I get the message "This error (HTTP 403 Forbidden) means that Internet Explorer was able to connect to the website, but it does not have permission to view the webpage. For more information about HTTP errors, see Help."

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2016 01:03 PM UTC:
A 403 error on an unrelated site doesn't mean that the problem you are
having here goes beyond the CVP. Given that this site is physically located
in the U.K. and the other one is physically located in Sweden, you can bet
that what's happening on that site has nothing to do with what is happening
on this one.

I tried to edit "125 Percent Shogi and 125 Percent Xiang Qi" and got a 403 error like you did. It turns out that the files I updated yesterday are ones available only to editors, and they are not the ones you use. As an editor, I saw links on the screen that you wouldn't see, which led me to a different script. So I will convert the scripts you use to PDO and see if that makes a difference.

Paolo wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2016 02:37 PM UTC:
About making submissions. I sent a submission email to the chessvar yahoo
address one week ago, how long it usually requires to get an answer?

Charles Gilman wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2016 03:47 PM UTC:
I am still getting the error, including with 125%...

Regarding Paolo's question, I e-mailed updates to old-style pages years ago that have still not been posted.


🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2016 05:05 PM UTC:
I haven't fixed it yet. I'll let you know when I have.

Ben Reiniger wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2016 11:35 PM UTC:
Paolo, I have just responded.

(We seem to occasionally go through long periods with no emails, during
which I tend to get out of the habit of checking the account.  Sorry for
the delay.  And Charles, there was a period before I joined that the emails
were more or less completely unread.  If there's something specific I
should go back and find, let me know.)

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, Mar 5, 2016 01:18 AM UTC:
I changed the scripts from mysql to PDO, and I changed the FORM action to a
full URL, and it still didn't fix the problem. So I then turned to testing
the data sent for "125 Percent Shogi and 125 Percent Xiang Qi." I deleted
each field in turn until I stopped getting a 403 error. It was something in
the Setup field that was the problem. I then deleted parts of Setup until I
isolated what was causing the problem. It came down to the expression
"../../". This appeared twice, and when I changed both to "/", all it
complained about is that I didn't enter the right password. I don't know
why it hiccups over this, but if you will just change your links to use
full URLs, that should eliminate any instance of "../../" and allow your
updates to get through.

Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, Mar 7, 2016 07:47 AM UTC:
At present I seem unable to edit even the pages that I could edit before - which I have been trying in order to add "&board=210.102.021" to the end of my hex ones as suggested. I am getting the message "This error (HTTP 500 Internal Server Error) means that the website you are visiting had a server problem which prevented the webpage from displaying. For more information about HTTP errors, see Help." Hopefully this is an unrelated issue which will be resolved soon.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Mar 7, 2016 04:05 PM UTC:
In order to debug this, I have temporarily made myself the author of Hexgi
listed in the database.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Mar 7, 2016 05:00 PM UTC:
I debugged the script, edited Hexgi to use three-color boards, and returned
the authorship to you. Note that the ending period, which you didn't
include in your quotation of what you need to add, is a very important part
of the checker pattern. It is not a mere divider. The period after each
sequence of colors (identified by digits) tells it to repeat that pattern
for the rest of the rank.

Paolo wrote on Wed, Mar 9, 2016 10:01 AM UTC:
Sorry for chipping in again.

I submitted, but the Step 3 just appeared as a blank page; however now the
game categories appear in the "Your Unreviewed Submissions" page, so it's
fine. Right?

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Mar 9, 2016 02:55 PM UTC:
Paolo,

I'm not aware of any problems right now. If you are, please give me a
step-by-step of what you are doing, including the URL of each page.

Paolo wrote on Thu, Mar 10, 2016 07:16 PM UTC:
I am not sure what happened, but now it is definitely fine :)
It's added in index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSthroughthelook

H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Mar 12, 2016 04:47 PM UTC:
I don't know what happened, but it seems my article on interactive diagrams
has been completely corrupted, all less-than signs in it being interpreted
as HTML tags, rather than being printed. I am pretty sure this wasn't the
case when I last touched it. So it seems there is something changed in the
rendering scripts that corrupts the display...

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, Mar 12, 2016 05:30 PM UTC:
Your page and msdisplay.php were both last updated a month ago, but
display_user_submission.php was last updated on March 4th. I just modified
this by commenting out each line that applied reverse_htmlentities() to one
of the page content strings, and it fixed your page. I'm not sure why the
code uses this function or how this could affect other pages. I do recall
seeing code for converting page content strings to htmlentities before
writing them to the database, and maybe this was for keeping the SQL string
from being corrupt. But now that I switched the code for writing user
submissions to the database over to PDO with prepared statements, that's no
longer an issue, and I removed the code for converting strings to
htmlentities before writing the SQL string.

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