"Save" for gallery re-arrange on category page not working properly

WinsomeWorks

As stated in my title--- for the past week or maybe more, the "arrange" link that we use if we're going to arrange the order of galleries on their display page (category or sub-category page) takes us to another page where we do the arranging. But it's been very difficult to save the arrangement. I've been having to hit "save changes" (which then takes us back to what should be the newly arranged page) several times before I can actually get it to work. I get back to the page, and the galleries are not re-arranged as they should be. If I click the link a couple more times & try again, I can eventually get "save changes" to work. It's as if the "save changes" button is just a lot more finicky than it used to be.

docwalker

Anna Lisa,

Sorry for the trouble. I am looking into it.

--Doc

docwalker

Anna Lisa,

I have tested this morning on both PC and Mac. It is working for me. Can you tell me what browser/platform you are using? I need to see if there is something I am missing to reproduce the problem.

--Doc

WinsomeWorks

docwalker wrote: »

Anna Lisa,

I have tested this morning on both PC and Mac. It is working for me. Can you tell me what browser/platform you are using? I need to see if there is something I am missing to reproduce the problem.

--Doc

Doc, I'm on a PC with Vista. Using the latest FF for browser. (Sorry, I can never remember how to check which version; I just know we update whenever the updates are suggested) And it's not that it doesn't work at all... just that the "Save Changes" button rarely "takes" on the first try. I would suspect my mouse or something, but I don't have trouble with any other "save" buttons.

docwalker

I will continue to try and replicate it. It works consistently for me. I am not sure what would cause it. It might be a connection problem where the data is not getting through on the first try or something.

WinsomeWorks

"Arrange" still not always working on galleries
Still having this problem. I have a new hard drive & all since I posted this a long time ago. Again, it's not a problem every single time, but at least half the time.

docwalker

Anna Lisa, I am still watching this one. No new news as I cannot reproduce on multiple computers using different browsers. As you said it does not happen all the time and that makes it very difficult to reproduce so that it can be fixed. I will keep after it.

jfriend

docwalker wrote: »

Anna Lisa, I am still watching this one. No new news as I cannot reproduce on multiple computers using different browsers. As you said it does not happen all the time and that makes it very difficult to reproduce so that it can be fixed. I will keep after it.

Sometimes, a hard to reproduce bug needs to be just turned over to the developer and have them examine the code to find circumstances that could cause problems. That will then either trigger ideas for what might be causing the problem that can then be tested or it will generate ideas for more defensive coding to prevent possible issues or it will lead to additional logging or error reporting so the real cause can be identified in the future. I've seen this issue happen too from time to time. It does happen. It is a real bug. At some point, waiting for a reproducible case is no longer the right choice and a different path should be followed.

docwalker

John,

I do not give all of the details of how I handle bugs as it is not needed. Trust me that it is being looked at. I do involve the programmers on hard to reproduce bugs. But even then, if the programmer is involved in the development of a new feature it does not guarantee that they will be able to look at or fix the issue right away. The programmers also look at this forum frequently though they may not respond to every ticket. We do appreciate the feedback when bugs are found, it does help make my job easier. As you know details to reproduce really help.

--Doc

jfriend

docwalker wrote: »

John,

I do not give all of the details of how I handle bugs as it is not needed. Trust me that it is being looked at. I do involve the programmers on hard to reproduce bugs. But even then, if the programmer is involved in the development of a new feature it does not guarantee that they will be able to look at or fix the issue right away. The programmers also look at this forum frequently though they may not respond to every ticket. We do appreciate the feedback when bugs are found, it does help make my job easier. As you know details to reproduce really help.

--Doc

In my software engineering career, I've dealt with my software engineers that are quick to mark an issue that is known to happen to a number of people as "can't reproduce" and then they figure they're done. That is not always (or even usually) the best tactic and I just wanted to make sure that that wasn't happening here. When I ran a large software organization, I encouraged our QA folks to enter any bug they had seen, even if they could not successfully reproduce it. If they saw it, it happened, it's a bug. It isn't only their responsibility to reproduce it.

Obviously issues are easier to identify and fix if they are easily reproducible, but I've even held a product release for a non-reproducible bug because we knew it was real and if it had happened in our small QA team, it was very likely to happen thousands of times more than that when the product was released. Eventually, a software engineer identified a possible problem by looking at the code which led to a new way to test it which led to a sometimes reproducible case which led to a way to fix it which led to a way to test the fix.

We have no idea from the outside what your internal process is. So, I just wanted to make sure that a bug that we clearly know exists as it happens to numerous people on more than one occasion was entered into the system and if you deemed it a high enough priority to ever get fixed that an engineer would look into how this could happen, even if there were no steps to reproduce. With the info we have so far, I have no idea if you (or anyone else) has even entered it as a bug yet. It appears fairly clear to me that this is just an intermittent bug (it could be timing-related or performance-related or only happen in certain internet conditions) and it will probably never be perfectly reproducible.

Allen

I just went to my latest sub-cat with two galleries and selected 2nd thumb,
clicked "start" to bring to front and after saving it did not take. This happens
almost every time arranging using FF3.6. Second try they arranged.

WinsomeWorks

Gallery re-arrange

Allen wrote: »

I just went to my latest sub-cat with two galleries and selected 2nd thumb,
clicked "start" to bring to front and after saving it did not take. This happens
almost every time arranging using FF3.6. Second try they arranged.

I did just check, and found out that we are indeed using FF 3.6.6 . I see though that that was only released on June 26, and therefore I was using whatever-came-before-that earlier when I first saw the bug. (presumably I was using 3.6.5 ) Hope that helps. I can't find any "ties" between the times it works & the times it doesn't... as I said, it's about half the time. I also found it didn't matter which computer I used. I had the same problem on laptop with XP & the latest 2 FF releases.

The bug that's bugging me more right now though is the one that bumps you back to 1st page of a gallery after cropping. No news on that one.

Allen

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

I did just check, and found out that we are indeed using FF 3.6.6 . I see though that that was only released on June 26, and therefore I was using whatever-came-before-that earlier when I first saw the bug. (presumably I was using 3.6.5 ) Hope that helps. I can't find any "ties" between the times it works & the times it doesn't... as I said, it's about half the time. I also found it didn't matter which computer I used. I had the same problem on laptop with XP & the latest 2 FF releases.

The bug that's bugging me more right now though is the one that bumps you back to 1st page of a gallery after cropping. No news on that one.

Click the image link in the path at the top left, takes you back to the
correct photo. This used to bug me too until I found that.

What still bugs me a lot is when I find a caption or keyword to edit in the
middle of the gallery, log in, and am back at the start of the gallery with no
idea what page or photo I was on.

anyra

I'm new to Smugmug (still on trial period) and I already upload more than 10000 images, and the issue mentioned here happens to me all the time. I use Windows 7 with IE8. Most of the time, the work arround is trying to move a different photo/gallery instead. For example let say that you have gallery A, B and C and now you need to arrange them on B, C and A. Moving A to the end (that will be the logical move) and then saving doesn't change the order, so in the second try, I move B and C together to the beginning, save and "most" of the time it works.
I understand Anna Lisa. It is frustrating to have to arrange each gallery or category more than once to get the result.

Tim Kamppinen

I simply cannot arrange my galleries. This is ridiculous. I want to put my portfolio galleries up at the top of my galleries page and my client galleries below, but using the "arrange galleries" tool doesn't change anything. I've tried it many times, even tried sorting it differently, and it still won't work. I'm using Vista 64 and Firefox 3.5.11 and my username is timkamppinen

WinsomeWorks

Gallery re-arrange and also crop takes us back - bugs
I'm really at a loss to understand why issues like this take so long to be fixed. These two issues mentioned in this thread (gallery re-arrange not saving, and being taken back to page 1 of gallery after cropping) have been going on for a very long time now. The second one has been around the longest. Hard to see why it can't be reproduced when so many people encounter it. The problem of being taken back to page 1 after cropping has evidently been reproduced... it just hasn't been fixed. I love new features, but sometimes I think it would be best just to keep the old ones working if that's the trade-off. The second bug started happening right after we got some huge new feature. I just don't try to arrange galleries for now, because I'm tired of dealing with it. It's not the browsers or versions or computer. It happens with everything I try.

jww

I am also having issues with the arrange gallery. I was thinking possibly if it is ajax code being passed for this function that the transaction takes quite awhile at times and thus seemingly fails when hitting save, keeping the arrangement the same or just one movement rather than the desired amount.

I have it work the best, if for example, click on the new gallery and hit "end" to put it at the last and wait a few minutes before hitting save. Other times.. that might not work, but might also depend on the traffic or if you are uploading the gallery. That is why I suspect if it is indeed ajax code being utilized, why it seems to fail for some and others works fine and cannot reproduce.

I am using FF 3.6.10

Hope this helps!

docwalker

Thanks jww. We do have some fixes coming that should help with some of the issues reported.

jww

Most welcome! Keep me posted and I would be most happy to check them out on my end.

WinsomeWorks

Oh NO!! The same exact thing is now happening with Arrange PHOTOS (for the past couple days). It behaves just like "Arrange Galleries or Sub-categories".... Sometimes I have to re-arrange 2, 3, or 4 times before it "takes".

docwalker

Hi Anna Lisa, Thanks for the report. Yes, we are working to get these problems resolved.