Possible phpBB 2.0.19 issue?

Regular Joined: Jan 20, 2006 Posts: 84

Several of my customers noticed a glitch/bug when it comes to private messages on our site. I don't know if it's specifically to our site only or not but let me try to explain.

I'm playing the roll of Person B, Tweaker.

Person A sends Person B a private message. Person B later on logs into the site and in the User Info section of the site recognizes that he has a private message but ignores it for the time being because he needs to post something on the forums.

When he goes to the forums, it says to Person B "no new messages" however it does see that Person B is logged in with the statement "Log out [ Person B ] but again, in User Info under Private Messages it says there is one.

Is this a phpBB issue that needs to be looked at or do I have something wrong on my end?

I'm including a screenshot to show you specifically what I mean highlighting the information as well as showing my findings.

If there is a fix for this can someone let me know how I can fix it?

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:19 am

It is because there's a difference between a "new" message and an "unread" message.
A new message is one that you have not been notified about... ala, the popup. Once that is done, it is no longer considered new. It is still considered unread until you actually view it though.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:51 am

Is there a way then to make it where "unread" and "new messages" in the forums are == to each other them so it doesn't "confuse" them.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:17 am

New is a funtionality of phpBB, I don't know where it is triggered exactly. I don't believe it is stored in the database

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:01 am

So to be clear. phpnuke makes a call to the bbprivmsg to see if you have any private messages. If you do have a private msg, it says you have (x) unread messages. But, in the forums, that same call to the same bbprivmsg area is NOT the same? It would seem to be they should be. It's like saying my name in the forums is one thing and my phpnuke name is another but I'm the same person. Some may get that but I think others would just go nuts.

Involved Joined: Oct 09, 2004 Posts: 293

I have always got around this by r clk the link in the popup /open new window.
Maybe simply having the link auto open in new window is the simplest way around.
They can then carry on with post whatever, and the message is still there.

I have been meaning to hack this for sometime on our site but never got around to it.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:34 pm

oh I'm not saying that's a work around. I was simply point out that hey, something's not right here or am I going crazy.. Smile

But then there's this...

.

So could it be that whatever variable that the forums header is using isn't looking at the right variable or from the right table? Can someone back me up on this train of thought here?

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:44 pm

Nuke in gewneral is very end user friendly, as with mostr things not perfect.
There are other small things like smile window size, and links that should be open new window.
As nuke is used/devapopled for use in widely varing enviroments (subjects commercial/gaming/general interest etc ) different persectives of the end user are required
The orginal code has been short sighted in many of these areas of presentation and end user (site visitors) friendly
RN 7.6 devalopement team are a team of ppl ranging from security, coders , marketing, end users who with the help of posts like this are ACTUALLY taking notice of issues like what u have brought up in future releases.
Before changes are made, serious discussion takes place, many are being adopted.
Using the forum search button here u will find many of these discussed over a very long period, and code to make these changes.
In put such as yours is appreciated.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:28 pm

I'm just wondering if this might be cookie related?
As far as the forum PM notification goes, I would (perhaps incorrectly) assume something is stored/updated in the session cookie.
The useer-info block doesn't use or reference cookies so this may *possibly be where the discrepancy comes from.

The last image is correct in that it displays a count of PM's in your inbox whether they are 'new', 'read' or whatever.

There are some more 'quirks' with PM's such as, when you send a PM they are stored under 'Outbox' until they are read by the recipient, at which time they are transfered to the 'Sent' box.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:16 pm

OK I wouldn't mind what-so-ever to believe it's a cookie issue or even a code issue but let me tell you what just happened.

The guy who helps me out testing things (who's on the west coast and I'm on the east coast) finally came home. I intended on showing him the bug and the fact that I found this bug and am trying to fix it. The conversation went just like this.

BTW: our site is [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

Me: Log into our site for me and let me show you what bug I've been working on since like, 9 this morning.
Him: OK I'm logged in.
Me: How many New Msgs do you have in your private messages?
Him: 0 and I have 19 in my Old Msgs.
Me: OK. Let me show you the bug. (I then proceed to send him a PM. After PM is sent) OK click Home for me.
Him: OK I see I have 1 New Msgs.
Me: OK, now click on Forums
Him: OK
Me: Now read all the way across the gray area strting from Forum Faq
Him: Forum FAQ, Search, Usergroup, Profile test, 1 new message, Logout
Me: WHAT!!
Him: Why you say that?
Me: You actually SEE the 1 new message
Him: Yeah. Here, let me send you a screenshot.

So what the heck?? I've been going at it from a code perspective even going as far as discovering what each of the values of nuke_bbprivmsgs[privmsgs_type] mean (btw: 5 is new, 3 is saved, 2 is replied and 0 is read) and then go code diving in what I finally found would be \includes\page_header.php.

But now it can't be neither code nor Guardian2003's idea of it being cookie cause it worked for him! I'm OK with quirks like the one you described but when it comes down to flat old WTF, you can't help but go a little unclueless (being PC here).

Can some out there, PLEASE give me some sort of ray of hope here, please! I beg of you.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:41 pm

Quote:

There are some more 'quirks' with PM's such as, when you send a PM they are stored under 'Outbox' until they are read by the recipient, at which time they are transfered to the 'Sent' box.

I dont see that as a quirk, but useful...once one realises that it happens...we had a member asking about it on our parrot site about a yr ago...once explained the general consence was good idea.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:55 pm

And that may be how that process goes which is perfectly fine for me. But that still doesn't resolve the issue at hand and I'm not going to get any kind of sleep over this, ESP now that I know for someone it actually WORKED.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:07 pm

A long shot...are u logged in as user and Admin at the same time?

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:15 pm

No, just my old regular account. We had already thought about that.

I don't know where my "Can I cry" post went but here's the image of it.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:47 pm

Even when u have no messages the user info still shows 1?
I had that about a yr ago Sry cant rem quite what I did, but found the answer by acident somewhere...maybe at 'cops. a realy old post.
I THINK I manually edited in phpmyadmin something and it never has happened since.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:55 pm

If you find that let me know. I'm also kind of leaning towards something like "you look at inbox but not open new messages and it tells you that you no longer have new mail". So finding the code to get rid of that. It's really got to be something, really.

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 4:11 am

Ok lets try an off the wall experiment.
Get smeone to send a PM to you
Go to the forums so you then have no PM's showing in the forum header but one in the user info block
Close all open browsers
Open a new browser to the home page
- does the user info block still show 1 message?
Does it still show after doing an hard referesh (F5)?

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:02 am

Okay.. look - this isn't a code bug.

This is the way phpBB works.
There is no concrete definition of a "new" message in the table. There is only read and unread messages.
What makes new message is the fact that is recieved after your last visit time. Once you leave the forums and go in again, the last visit time is updated and it no longer appears as "new"
It is still in your box and it is still unread. But it is not new by the fact you visited the forums and supposedly received notification of it already.

The entire code is here in page_header.php if you want to muck around with it

Code:




        if ( $userdata['user_new_privmsg'] )


        {


                $l_message_new = ( $userdata['user_new_privmsg'] == 1 ) ? $lang['New_pm'] : $lang['New_pms'];


                $l_privmsgs_text = sprintf($l_message_new, $userdata['user_new_privmsg']);





                if ( $userdata['user_last_privmsg'] > $userdata['user_lastvisit'] )


                {


                        $sql = "UPDATE " . USERS_TABLE . "


                                SET user_last_privmsg = " . $userdata['user_lastvisit'] . "


                                WHERE user_id = " . $userdata['user_id'];


                        if ( !$db->sql_query($sql) )


                        {


                                message_die(GENERAL_ERROR, 'Could not update private message new/read time for user', '', __LINE__, __FILE__, $sql);


                        }





                        $s_privmsg_new = 1;


                        $icon_pm = $images['pm_new_msg'];


                }


                else


                {


                        $s_privmsg_new = 0;


                        $icon_pm = $images['pm_new_msg'];


                }


        }

It makes some sense to me. Sometimes I don't have time to look into all the messages I receieve. I like have a popup or something to notify me when I have new messages. But I can leave them in there unread until I decide to actually read through them.

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:10 am

We figured that piece out late this morning (around 3:30am EST) that fact. Now that I'm awake I'd like to know if there is a way to make is so that even though you went to your inbox but did NOT read your "new msg" that the forum still tells you that you have new msgs?

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:47 am

Hey evaders99, I was wondering if there could be a small chance that there could be a code somewhere like an if statement that says if they hey "looked" at their inbox, it counts it as being read? Does that make since? What about the rest of you guys?