What's going on here?

iamback

All I want (for now) is upload originals from my camera to SmugMug. For most of those, the "retired" but never-tiring old Java applet works just fine, except for some AVI files - apparently (without telling me) applying some built-in limit on file size, even if they are below the 512MB that applies for my Power account.
The "Simple" java applet apparently isn't all that simple, because it takes so many resources that it never even starts on my system (going by the screenshots it isn't all that simple actually, and tries to duplicate file browsing on my OS which can handle that just fine on its own, thank you - a drop target is really all that's needed).

So I tried "Send To SmugMug", developed by a "trusted" developer (who I haven't been able to find on DGrin, BTW), and it won't let me in: it tells me "invalid login" and all I can do is Retry (which never works) or Cancel (which closes the app - no chance to look at settings or use it to send an error report). A comment on the download site does not get a reaction. On the forum I find a message from someone else with the same problem, so I reply to that. No reaction for a week, and another problem report on the forum also has not seen a reply. So much for "trusted".

Next, KomodoDrop. That, at least starts without requiring me to login first. I set up my account data, and choose to upload a file. It then tries to login and tells me "invalid login".

OK, something browser-based then? Fotofox runs in the browser and seems simple. And it installs in Firefox 3. Except when I try to login it tells me: "invalid login".

SmugBrowser then. The original one doesn't work (no support for Fx 3), so I jump through a couple of hoops to download and install the not-trusted "patch". when I try to login, it tells me: "invalid login".

As a last resort (I mean that!) I tried crippleware Star*Explorer. Incredibly, when I try to enter my credentials, it lets me test and the test is successful. It even actually lets me log in, and I can see all my galleries. So... I try to upload one of those AVI files that old faithful didn't let me upload: less than 512MB, less than 2.5 minutes. First, it tells me the file type is "not requested", so I go into the config and add ".avi" to the extensions for video files. Try again. Now it tells me the file is too large because it's larger than 12MB.

I've had enough. I can understand a file limit of 512MB (or 2.5 minutes). What I cannot understand is how different applications, regardless of whether they run on my OS or run inside the browser, all tell me "invalid login" when my login is actually perfectly valid - no matter whether I'm already logged into the site or not.

I've exhausted my options. "Simple" is not simple enough because it gobbles resources, I don't use any of the applications that have plugins, and applications that run directly on my platform and applications that run inside my browser tell me "invalid login" when my login is perfectly valid. I never actually type my password, and it's a strong password - I keep all my password in a password managing app which is doing the typing for me - there is absolutely no way I'm mis-typing it, and I can log into my account on the website (and via Star*Explorer) just fine.

So what's going on? Why do all those apps (except S*E) tell me "Invalid login"?

iamback

*bump*

How come that four different applications, two OS-based, two browser-based, all tell me "invalid login" when my login is anything but?

devbobo

It could be that those apps (that aren't working) are not correctly url encoding your password prior to sending it.

iamback

devbobo wrote:

It could be that those apps (that aren't working) are not correctly url encoding your password prior to sending it.

Thanks - there's an idea. I'll see if I can reach the developers of all of those to look into that. BTW, you do realize you're one of them? As I described in my original post, SmugBrowser is one of the apps I tried and that has this problem.

But four apps? Sounds like the API docs may need a little warning (or a big one) to URL-encode passwords! (Or, if it's there, a warning to actually RTFM! ) ... looking at this page I don't see any trace of that - am I looking in the wrong place?

caroline

As a matter of interest neither of the links in your signature work

iamback

caroline wrote:

As a matter of interest neither of the links in your signature work

Thanks for pointing that out, caroline!

Very weird, they certainly did work when I originally set up that sig (which I copied from another forum minus image). Anyway, I fixed them, they should work now.

iamback

More info, less progress

devbobo wrote:

It could be that those apps (that aren't working) are not correctly url encoding your password prior to sending it.

Add SmugManager to the list. (Yes I know I can't upload with that, but I thought it would be handy). :cry

Applications where I cannot login:

• Send To SmugMug - no reply for three weeks: seems to be abandonware
• KomodoDrop - posted in the thread yesterday, no reply yet
• Fotofox - email sent, no reply yet *)
• SmugBrowser - posted in this thread, no (application-specific) reply yet *)
• SmugManager - will add to that thread right after posting this

All have the same error "Invalid login".

Yesterday, I also found some possible hints in the SmugManager thread:
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=532781&postcount=70
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=864771&postcount=105

Yes, my password is not alphanumeric, and I'm not going to change that: I use strong passwords, period. If SmugMug accepts my password without any grumbles, then it should accept it via the API as well, no? So would URL-encoding the password solve this? Are all these applications not URL-encoding and their authors unaware of the need for that? Or could there be a bug in the API itself?

(I'll keep updating as I find out more...)

________
*) I also found out that these two Firefox plugins seem to be mutually exclusive. It's not possible to install or update one while the other is active.

devbobo

please pm your password (or the same characters in a different order) so I can verify.

thanks,

David

iamback

devbobo wrote:

please pm your password (or the same characters in a different order) so I can verify.

Done. Thanks, David.

figbug

See me response in the komodo drop thread. I'm guessing it is the characters "$" and "," which are causing you problems.

iamback

figbug wrote:

See me response in the komodo drop thread. I'm guessing it is the characters "$" and "," which are causing you problems.

They could but they weren't but I'm not telling your what my password is! - see my reply here!

iamback

Progress!
Update:

General
David did a test with (the characters of) my password, and confirmed his theory: if the password is URL-encoded, the login problem goes away.

SmugBrowser
If anyone runs into this before an update is released, you can try this (at your own risk!):

Inside the plugin is a file components/nsISmugMugAccount.js. Close (or kill) Firefox first, and make a backup of this file.

inside that file, find line 435 (or near, depending on version):

requestURL += '&Password=' + escape(this.password);

replace that line with:

requestURL += '&Password=' + encodeURIComponent(this.password);

Save, and restart Firefox. (Works for me )

Hopefully the next version will include this patch.

SmugManager
Generally speaking, any Firefox plugin (that doesn't already URL-encode the password) would need an equivalent patch at the point where URL for logging in is built. Since most plugins are source code (JavaScript), you can do this yourself: I managed to figure out a patch for SmugManager as well. Javier will test and release a new version.

Fotofox
Similar fix in principle, but the JavaScript is in a .jar file - I've yet to test my patch; the plugin conflicts with SmugBrowser (so I'd have to disable that to test Fotofox), and I'm not quite sure of the requirements for a jar. Also: I've only made a change for SmugMug so far, but Fotofox supports a range of photo services - if any of these services accepts "strong" passwords, the problem will likely be in the routines supporting those as well.
Update 2008-10-22: I could not get my own patch to work, alas. But I just heard back from developer Brian King who writes: "It is quite likely that the problem is what you mention. I will fix this and get a new release out soon.". Great.

KomodoDrop
figbug already replied in this thread as well as his own; I'm willing to beta test a fix.
Update 2008-10-24: Testing - login works for me now, stumbled over an unrelated (API) problem. (Amazing how beta testing always seems to trigger a bit of a chain reaction... )

Send To SmugMug
Still no reaction on Omar Shahin's forum; I'll make another post pointing to this thread.
I'm aware he has released his library, so any application built using his library is also likely to have the same problem.
Update 2008-10-24: After some digging I managed to contact Omar Shahin via Twitter. Seems his forum wasn't emailing him.

shahineo

Hey-

Sorry for not responidng earlier.

Can you send me your error log from Send to SmugMug?

It can be found in the

%TEMP%

folder

and send me the SendToSmugmugLog.txt file

iamback

shahineo wrote:

Hey-

Sorry for not responidng earlier.

Can you send me your error log from Send to SmugMug?

PM sent