i am at a total loss to understand why webobs no longer works for me. it seems like is working for everyone else bc i keep seeing observations being posted, lol.
I am trying to submit a time series of a star (1SWASP J162117.36+441254.2). When I upload the file then click on the submit button I am still getting an error ("The aavso.org page isn't working. aavso.org is unable to handle this request.HTTP error 500." It isn't a problem with airmass. I don't know if the star name is too long? Anyway, need help submitting data.
Richard Sabo (SRIC) and Geoff Stone (SGEA) have submitted data very recently for this star although it shows up in AID with a different name? You might communicate directly with them to see what they called it during upload? HTH.
As I think you guessed, the name of this star is too long for our database (maximum length of a star name is 25 characters). Because of the Drupal/PHP update, WebObs no longer takes these things for granted - just as it would not allow an airmass of more than 5 characters (until Will re-instituted the policy to truncate airmasses with more than 5 characters). Until a decision can be made on whether to increase the size of the field in the database or truncate long star names, I suggest you try using one of the other possible (shorter) names for 1SWASP J162117.36+441254.2 (see VSX for options: https://www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=detail.top&oid=286532).
Unfortunately, no one realized that the long-needed software upgrade would have this effect on how data is handled. We are also well aware that the error messages that are generated are useless to anyone but Will. On the bright side, this problem has served to make us aware that data is being truncated without warning which doesn't seem like a good thing to me.
Thanks Sara. I changed it to the 2MASS designation and was able to submit it. It is listed under VSX under that designation and I was able to get a chart under that designation so was surprised that I couldn't submit data under that designation.
My CCD file uploads have been working for the most part now. I have one star that I have uploaded data for before but now after the upgrade, it gives me the Server 500 error. The star is ROTSE1 J173334.66+391012.9. So webobs not working smoothly yet.
That was a pretty painful upgrade. I hope the AAVSO does a little more testing next time before they make major changes.
This is the same problem as Barbara had with the WASP star. "ROTSE1 J173334.66+391012.9" is 26 characters long. Perhaps you can use the AUID: 000-BLX-355 until this problem is resolved?
I tried submitting data using the AUID, 000-BLX-355, but within WebObs, it resolves the name to ROTSE1 J173334.66+391012.9 which then generates the 500 error when clicking Submit. So based on your comments, expanding the field from 25 characters to 28 should catch most of the long survey names for the time being. Expanding the width of a column within a database is not always simple but would be the best option to solve your issues.
I learned one interesting thing during testing. If you use an AUID for the star name, it will be resolved to the primary star name in VSX as you say, However, if you use another ailias name from VSX for a star name (unfortunately, in this case there isn't one), it will remain as is in the database.
In any case, this is really acedemic now as were are planning to increase the size of the field to 30 characters very shortly! Hopefully those survey names won't keep growing in length so quickly!
Since the alterations to the system I've also been encountering considerable difficulty in logging on to WebObs, just as others report. Since June 1st I find that I am either totally unable to activate the "Submit Observations Individually" connection at all, sometimes make a connection after a very, very long delay, or unexpectedly connect in normal fashion...but the latter only in perhaps one out of a series of five or ten consecutive attempts. The situation is still ongoing for me at close to noon on Monday the 6th. How this glitch can impact only certain members and clearly not an insignificant number of folks after almost a full week is getting pretty discouraging.
With regard to errors apparently still being seen in WebObs, please notifiy "webmaster@aavso.org" if you either see something incorrect, or something is not operating as it should during an upload. Also, most importantly, please attach a copy of the file you were trying to upload.
We're writing to let you know that the group you tried to contact (webmaster) may not exist, or you may not have permission to post messages to the group. A few more details on why you weren't able to post:
* You might have spelled or formatted the group name incorrectly.
* The owner of the group may have removed this group.
* You may need to join the group before receiving permission to post.
* This group may not be open to posting.
OK, so the webmaster@aavso.org account isn't working either! That has been added to the worklist.
In the meantime, please send your unresolved WebObs problems directly to me by email:
sara [at] aavso.org
...and I will try to figure out what is happening and get back to you.
In particular, I would like to get more details on the problems that Ron, Eddy, John and Lew are experiencing - especially if all of your data meet the field length limits now specified in the Visual and/or Extended file format documentation: https://www.aavso.org/aavso-file-format-specifications
It will help immensely if you send me a copy of the data file that isn't working or a screenshot of the completed WebObs form if you are submitting individual observations along with screenshots of any error messages you receive.
We will be expanding the field size to accept more characters. Please be patient until changes are being applied and tested; we do appreciate your help with troubleshooting and yoru patience while we complete our Drupal migration.
Just succesfullly uploaded a small number of visual observations (47) without any problems at all (June 7 16.45 UT), but accessing the database to check recent observations is extremely slow. It's been trying to look up a star for 8 minutes now and it's still trying!
Hi, I too having some problems submitting visual observation (individually). MOST of the stars submit ok, but one star - QZ LIB - fails repeatedly with the following error on the screen:
www.aavso.org is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500
It doesn't matter if I enter the name as "QZ LIB" or by the AID "000-BJH-178", I get the same error. This problem has been going on since last night. It still doesn't work as of now. Its NOT a connection problem, as I can enter other stars at the same time!
I don't think the name length problem applies to this case...
This is definitely a strange problem! Why would things work OK for some stars but not for others like QZ Lib and CY CrB? I just tried and got the same results as you did. However, other stars like AB Dra and X CrB do work! We are investigating but if you have any ideas on what the stars that break WebObs have in common, It might be helpful!
Hi Sara, I really know nothing about the internals of how WebObs works, so I cannot even speculate on the reason why just a few stars fail. The only thing that I can think is different abt QZ Lib, is it underwent a name change a few years back, before that, it had an ASAS name...
I think that the problem you saw with QZ Lib, CY CrB and other stars being uploaded with the individual observation form on WebObs is now fixed. Please check and let us know if you see anything else like this.
The problem of starnames having more than 25 characters is still with us for now, but hopefully will be fixed soon.
Please send to me by email your file that caused the error message in your post so we can use it to try to figure out what happened. it copuld be different from the other problems reported.
hey Sara, i'm not uploading a file, my problem always occurs when i just fill out the online form to submit an observation individually. until these changes were made on may 31st, i never had any problems with submitting
We think we found the problem. The check star magnitude field in the database is only 8 characters long and in your form, your entry of -11.94033 is 9 characters long. When the Drupal upgrade happened, something changed which resulted in you getting an error rather than quietly truncating the data as it had been doing in the past. Anyway, the old behavior has been restored so you will no longer get the error messages.
I certainly hope this helps you and everyone else! As it turns out this may have been the cause of most of the problems. Please let me know how it goes and if you experience further problems write to me directly and send either your data file or a screenshot of the form you fill out just before you submit it.
Ron, looking at that error message, it looks like you entered -12.63016667 for the comp star magnitude? That definitely doesn't look right. Can you show me what you've entered into the form originally?
I tried to upload a file, 2MASS J16211735+4412541 a few hours ago and the 'error' was that the star name shouldn't have gaps...
I've tried again, changing nothing, and the file uploaded successfully.
Could be an intermittant problem...
Maybe you need to use the percent encoding %20 for the space in the names? Most computer apps use whitespaces as separator, like in urls. Or put the whole name in quotes?
I have not seen one of the data files or a screenshot of the form as you tried to submit it but I hope that the problems you have been experiencing have been resolved now. If not, or if anyone else is still having some sort of problem with WebObs please send me your report (or a screen capture) for troubleshooting purposes. Unless we have more information, we can't help.
I note that this morning both WEBOBS and LCG are running slow to very slow, with both taking up to several minutes to execute data upload and display functions.
Likewise, since the system upgrade, I'm seeing the display of my night's WEBOBS data entry displayed often in a most odd manner after all data has been entered and I go to check it for errors. At first after the upgrade the new entries appeared at the very end of a listing of all the data I have ever submitted (200k obs), later new entries were appearing at the top of the list, but with a number of entries out of order relative to how they had been originally entered (by Harvard Designation). Then, this morning, my latest entries were display with the last half of them appearing in reverse order at the top of the list, while the originally first half of the night's entries appeared last in order! To say the least, such irregular, confused, display listing of the data hampers careful post-entry checking for errors.
I note that this morning both WEBOBS and LCG are running slow to very slow, with both taking up to several minutes to execute data upload and display functions.
Likewise, since the system upgrade, I'm seeing the display of my night's WEBOBS data entry displayed often in a most odd manner after all data has been entered and I go to check it for errors. At first after the upgrade the new entries appeared at the very end of a listing of all the data I have ever submitted (200k obs), later new entries were appearing at the top of the list, but with a number of entries out of order relative to how they had been originally entered (by Harvard Designation). Then, this morning, my latest entries were display with the last half of them appearing in reverse order at the top of the list, while the originally first half of the night's entries appeared last in order! To say the least, such irregular, confused, display listing of the data hampers careful post-entry checking for errors.
Must have been a glitch Eddy. Running fine now (June 6 12.40 UT).
Gary
i am at a total loss to understand why webobs no longer works for me. it seems like is working for everyone else bc i keep seeing observations being posted, lol.
I am trying to submit a time series of a star (1SWASP J162117.36+441254.2). When I upload the file then click on the submit button I am still getting an error ("The aavso.org page isn't working. aavso.org is unable to handle this request.HTTP error 500." It isn't a problem with airmass. I don't know if the star name is too long? Anyway, need help submitting data.
Barbara
Barbara:
Richard Sabo (SRIC) and Geoff Stone (SGEA) have submitted data very recently for this star although it shows up in AID with a different name? You might communicate directly with them to see what they called it during upload? HTH.
Ken
Hi Barbara,
As I think you guessed, the name of this star is too long for our database (maximum length of a star name is 25 characters). Because of the Drupal/PHP update, WebObs no longer takes these things for granted - just as it would not allow an airmass of more than 5 characters (until Will re-instituted the policy to truncate airmasses with more than 5 characters). Until a decision can be made on whether to increase the size of the field in the database or truncate long star names, I suggest you try using one of the other possible (shorter) names for 1SWASP J162117.36+441254.2 (see VSX for options: https://www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=detail.top&oid=286532).
Unfortunately, no one realized that the long-needed software upgrade would have this effect on how data is handled. We are also well aware that the error messages that are generated are useless to anyone but Will. On the bright side, this problem has served to make us aware that data is being truncated without warning which doesn't seem like a good thing to me.
In light of this, I have just updated the documentation for the Visual and Extended file format specifications to include the limits of each field size: https://www.aavso.org/aavso-file-format-specifications
If uploading a file fails and you don't know why, it might be helpful to check here first to see if you have exceeded any limits.
I hope this helps.
-Sara
Thanks Sara. I changed it to the 2MASS designation and was able to submit it. It is listed under VSX under that designation and I was able to get a chart under that designation so was surprised that I couldn't submit data under that designation.
Barbara
i tried but it…
So am i.
i tried but it doesn't work.
so who knows how this problem can be fixed?
-------------------------
Mohsen, a 12 yrs old amateur observer.
My CCD file uploads have been working for the most part now. I have one star that I have uploaded data for before but now after the upgrade, it gives me the Server 500 error. The star is ROTSE1 J173334.66+391012.9. So webobs not working smoothly yet.
That was a pretty painful upgrade. I hope the AAVSO does a little more testing next time before they make major changes.
Hi Vance,
This is the same problem as Barbara had with the WASP star. "ROTSE1 J173334.66+391012.9" is 26 characters long. Perhaps you can use the AUID: 000-BLX-355 until this problem is resolved?
Best regards,
Sara
Hi Sara,
I tried submitting data using the AUID, 000-BLX-355, but within WebObs, it resolves the name to ROTSE1 J173334.66+391012.9 which then generates the 500 error when clicking Submit. So based on your comments, expanding the field from 25 characters to 28 should catch most of the long survey names for the time being. Expanding the width of a column within a database is not always simple but would be the best option to solve your issues.
Thanks,
Vance
Hi Vance,
I learned one interesting thing during testing. If you use an AUID for the star name, it will be resolved to the primary star name in VSX as you say, However, if you use another ailias name from VSX for a star name (unfortunately, in this case there isn't one), it will remain as is in the database.
In any case, this is really acedemic now as were are planning to increase the size of the field to 30 characters very shortly! Hopefully those survey names won't keep growing in length so quickly!
Since the alterations to the system I've also been encountering considerable difficulty in logging on to WebObs, just as others report. Since June 1st I find that I am either totally unable to activate the "Submit Observations Individually" connection at all, sometimes make a connection after a very, very long delay, or unexpectedly connect in normal fashion...but the latter only in perhaps one out of a series of five or ten consecutive attempts. The situation is still ongoing for me at close to noon on Monday the 6th. How this glitch can impact only certain members and clearly not an insignificant number of folks after almost a full week is getting pretty discouraging.
J.Bortle (BRJ)
Folks:
With regard to errors apparently still being seen in WebObs, please notifiy "webmaster@aavso.org" if you either see something incorrect, or something is not operating as it should during an upload. Also, most importantly, please attach a copy of the file you were trying to upload.
Thanks!
---
Doc Kinne
AAVSO
here is the kiss of death i keep getting everytime i try to use webobs/individual:
HTTP 500 error
That's odd... Microsoft Edge can’t find this page
This page can’t be displayed, because this site’s server might be under maintenance or there could be a programming error.
Try this
Tonight again problems with WebObs. Now I have also HTTP 500 error...
Please can this be fixed?
Eddy
OK Doc, I tried it. Here's what got returned:
11:43 PM (0 minutes ago)
to me
Hello lew.cook@MY-MAIL-CLIENT.COM,
We're writing to let you know that the group you tried to contact (webmaster) may not exist, or you may not have permission to post messages to the group. A few more details on why you weren't able to post:
* You might have spelled or formatted the group name incorrectly.
* The owner of the group may have removed this group.
* You may need to join the group before receiving permission to post.
* This group may not be open to posting.
If you have questions related to this or any other Google Group, visit the Help Center at https://support.google.com/a/aavso.org/bin/topic.py?topic=25838.
Thanks,
aavso.org admins
I am also having the same issue as Lew Cook when I send an email to webmaster@aavso.org.
Barbara
OK, so the webmaster@aavso.org account isn't working either! That has been added to the worklist.
In the meantime, please send your unresolved WebObs problems directly to me by email:
sara [at] aavso.org
...and I will try to figure out what is happening and get back to you.
In particular, I would like to get more details on the problems that Ron, Eddy, John and Lew are experiencing - especially if all of your data meet the field length limits now specified in the Visual and/or Extended file format documentation: https://www.aavso.org/aavso-file-format-specifications
It will help immensely if you send me a copy of the data file that isn't working or a screenshot of the completed WebObs form if you are submitting individual observations along with screenshots of any error messages you receive.
Many thanks,
Sara
Hi All,
I have just been informed that the webmaster@aavso.org account is working again.
Please feel free to use this (or email me directly) if you have more website/WebObs problems to report.
Many thanks for your patience,
Sara
From yesterday i see ever the same last observation on the home page why? Regards massimo
Hi Massimo,
I see this:
1 min 8 sec ago by SFRA - Frank Schorr (US)
S_SER Mar 21.6771 12.508V
Is the observation from yesterday still there if you refresh your browser?
Regards,
Sara
Hi sara, yes precisely!
I see the S_SER observation from Mar 21 too.
Gary
Friends,
We will be expanding the field size to accept more characters. Please be patient until changes are being applied and tested; we do appreciate your help with troubleshooting and yoru patience while we complete our Drupal migration.
Best wishes - clear skies,
Stella.
Just succesfullly uploaded a small number of visual observations (47) without any problems at all (June 7 16.45 UT), but accessing the database to check recent observations is extremely slow. It's been trying to look up a star for 8 minutes now and it's still trying!
Gary
Hi, I too having some problems submitting visual observation (individually). MOST of the stars submit ok, but one star - QZ LIB - fails repeatedly with the following error on the screen:
The www.aavso.org page isn’t working
www.aavso.org is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500
It doesn't matter if I enter the name as "QZ LIB" or by the AID "000-BJH-178", I get the same error. This problem has been going on since last night. It still doesn't work as of now. Its NOT a connection problem, as I can enter other stars at the same time!
I don't think the name length problem applies to this case...
Mike LMK
Yes Mike with QZ Lib I have the same. But also with CY CrB and maybe others...
Again I give up... Is it that difficult to find the problem...
Eddy
Hi Eddy and Mike,
This is definitely a strange problem! Why would things work OK for some stars but not for others like QZ Lib and CY CrB? I just tried and got the same results as you did. However, other stars like AB Dra and X CrB do work! We are investigating but if you have any ideas on what the stars that break WebObs have in common, It might be helpful!
Thanks, Sara
Hi Sara, I really know nothing about the internals of how WebObs works, so I cannot even speculate on the reason why just a few stars fail. The only thing that I can think is different abt QZ Lib, is it underwent a name change a few years back, before that, it had an ASAS name...
Mike
SDSS J162212.45+341147.3 was changed to CY CrB in 2015.
Hi Eddy & Mike,
I think that the problem you saw with QZ Lib, CY CrB and other stars being uploaded with the individual observation form on WebObs is now fixed. Please check and let us know if you see anything else like this.
The problem of starnames having more than 25 characters is still with us for now, but hopefully will be fixed soon.
-Sara
Great, you fixed it, I could enter QZ Lib... Tnx.
still no luck with webobs/individual, just got this new error, perhaps this is progress?
PDOException: SQLSTATE[22001]: String data, right truncated: 1406 Data too long for column 'Cmag' at row 1: INSERT INTO {observations} (designation, name, auid, jd, magnitude, uncertain, fainterthan, obscode, comp1_C, comp2_K, charts, arrivaldate, band, obstype, organization, comments, commentcode, valflag, source, uncertainty, mtype, hjd, cmag, kmag, airmass, `group`, transformed) VALUES (:db_insert_placeholder_0, :db_insert_placeholder_1, :db_insert_placeholder_2, :db_insert_placeholder_3, :db_insert_placeholder_4, :db_insert_placeholder_5, :db_insert_placeholder_6, :db_insert_placeholder_7, :db_insert_placeholder_8, :db_insert_placeholder_9, :db_insert_placeholder_10, :db_insert_placeholder_11, :db_insert_placeholder_12, :db_insert_placeholder_13, :db_insert_placeholder_14, :db_insert_placeholder_15, :db_insert_placeholder_16, :db_insert_placeholder_17, :db_insert_placeholder_18, :db_insert_placeholder_19, :db_insert_placeholder_20, :db_insert_placeholder_21, :db_insert_placeholder_22, :db_insert_placeholder_23, :db_insert_placeholder_24, :db_insert_placeholder_25, :db_insert_placeholder_26); Array ( [:db_insert_placeholder_0] => 0939+34 [:db_insert_placeholder_1] => R LMI [:db_insert_placeholder_2] => 000-BBQ-728 [:db_insert_placeholder_3] => 2457538.58671 [:db_insert_placeholder_4] => 8.995 [:db_insert_placeholder_5] => 0 [:db_insert_placeholder_6] => 0 [:db_insert_placeholder_7] => FRL [:db_insert_placeholder_8] => 87 [:db_insert_placeholder_9] => 83 [:db_insert_placeholder_10] => 14735AZE [:db_insert_placeholder_11] => 2457548.2373843 [:db_insert_placeholder_12] => 2 [:db_insert_placeholder_13] => 6 [:db_insert_placeholder_14] => 0 [:db_insert_placeholder_15] => [:db_insert_placeholder_16] => [:db_insert_placeholder_17] => Z [:db_insert_placeholder_18] => W [:db_insert_placeholder_19] => .0032 [:db_insert_placeholder_20] => 0 [:db_insert_placeholder_21] => [:db_insert_placeholder_22] => -12.63016667 [:db_insert_placeholder_23] => -12.9795 [:db_insert_placeholder_24] => 1.29 [:db_insert_placeholder_25] => [:db_insert_placeholder_26] => 1 ) in include() (line 91 of /media/disk/www/aavso.org/sites/all/modules/custom/webobs/extended-form-submit.inc).
The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.
Hi Ron,
Please send to me by email your file that caused the error message in your post so we can use it to try to figure out what happened. it copuld be different from the other problems reported.
Many thanks, Sara sara [at] aavso.org
hey Sara, i'm not uploading a file, my problem always occurs when i just fill out the online form to submit an observation individually. until these changes were made on may 31st, i never had any problems with submitting
Then a screen capture of your completed form just before you hit "Submit Observation" would be wonderful.
Many thanks, Sara
hey sara, got the 500 error again, here is the screen shot of the dslr individual submission form that i filled out.
ron
Hi Ron,
We think we found the problem. The check star magnitude field in the database is only 8 characters long and in your form, your entry of -11.94033 is 9 characters long. When the Drupal upgrade happened, something changed which resulted in you getting an error rather than quietly truncating the data as it had been doing in the past. Anyway, the old behavior has been restored so you will no longer get the error messages.
To avoid truncation, however, I recommend you follow the guidelines laid out in the AAVSO Extended File Format specifications here: https://www.aavso.org/aavso-extended-file-format
I certainly hope this helps you and everyone else! As it turns out this may have been the cause of most of the problems. Please let me know how it goes and if you experience further problems write to me directly and send either your data file or a screenshot of the form you fill out just before you submit it.
Best regards,
Sara
hey sara
that did the trick and i was successful in sending up this data!
thanks so much for your help!
ron
Ron, looking at that error message, it looks like you entered -12.63016667 for the comp star magnitude? That definitely doesn't look right. Can you show me what you've entered into the form originally?
that would be the instrument (dslr) magnitude which is negative
I tried to upload a file, 2MASS J16211735+4412541 a few hours ago and the 'error' was that the star name shouldn't have gaps...
I've tried again, changing nothing, and the file uploaded successfully.
Could be an intermittant problem...
Maybe you need to use the percent encoding %20 for the space in the names? Most computer apps use whitespaces as separator, like in urls. Or put the whole name in quotes?
Hi Mike,
The problem, whatever it was has gone. I've never come across this before, just a glitch I guess.
Really frustrating when you put in 100+ observations.....
It has been taking 45 minutes to put in 30 observations....!
SDSS J150441.76+084752.6 --> HTP ERROR 500
Hi Eddy,
I have not seen one of the data files or a screenshot of the form as you tried to submit it but I hope that the problems you have been experiencing have been resolved now. If not, or if anyone else is still having some sort of problem with WebObs please send me your report (or a screen capture) for troubleshooting purposes. Unless we have more information, we can't help.
Best regards,
Sara
I note that this morning both WEBOBS and LCG are running slow to very slow, with both taking up to several minutes to execute data upload and display functions.
Likewise, since the system upgrade, I'm seeing the display of my night's WEBOBS data entry displayed often in a most odd manner after all data has been entered and I go to check it for errors. At first after the upgrade the new entries appeared at the very end of a listing of all the data I have ever submitted (200k obs), later new entries were appearing at the top of the list, but with a number of entries out of order relative to how they had been originally entered (by Harvard Designation). Then, this morning, my latest entries were display with the last half of them appearing in reverse order at the top of the list, while the originally first half of the night's entries appeared last in order! To say the least, such irregular, confused, display listing of the data hampers careful post-entry checking for errors.
J.Bortle (BRJ)
I note that this morning both WEBOBS and LCG are running slow to very slow, with both taking up to several minutes to execute data upload and display functions.
Likewise, since the system upgrade, I'm seeing the display of my night's WEBOBS data entry displayed often in a most odd manner after all data has been entered and I go to check it for errors. At first after the upgrade the new entries appeared at the very end of a listing of all the data I have ever submitted (200k obs), later new entries were appearing at the top of the list, but with a number of entries out of order relative to how they had been originally entered (by Harvard Designation). Then, this morning, my latest entries were display with the last half of them appearing in reverse order at the top of the list, while the originally first half of the night's entries appeared last in order! To say the least, such irregular, confused, display listing of the data hampers careful post-entry checking for errors.
J.Bortle (BRJ)