UBB.Developers Forums UBB.classic V5 Mod Questions Private Messages 3.8

Couple of years ago I used to be an escalation enginners at Microsoft doing Windows NT Support. If we would final giveup brining a Server back, following was the standard conversation:

MS: Lets run your last backup
Customer: But I don't have a recent backup
MS: Then I am afraid we maybe be looking at data loss or install in a clean directory and we have to reinstall everything.
Customer: But I have crucial data and programs
MS: If its not on the backup it wasn't crucial

So I think the hack is very safe if you backup your cgi-bin directory. (Atleast the files that you are editing).
btw I am a novice at Perl and it did work fine for me on the very first attempt.

ok, thankyou..

MAJOR BUG

When sending PMs to multiple people, the 2nd and subsequent ones receive a sort of HTML version of the PM with tags like
instead of a proper line break formatted when they read the PM. The 1st recipient is fine.

It's easy to reproduce, just send a PM with a couple of line breaks in to yourself twice (list yourself twice on the send list) and read the PMs, the first is OK, the second has the
tags in and is not displayed properly in privateview.cgi.

This has happened ever since the CC feature was added.

NEXT PROBLEM

Why does PM set cookies? What need is there for that? And why does it ignore the cookie scope set in UBB? It always uses the root scope - it that wise if users have local scope set in the control panel. It seems that that would create two different cookies for each user and if they changed their password - the root scope one would never get reset and their PMs would then become inaccessible until all cookies were deleted. Please test PMs after changing your UBB password to see what happens.

ANOTHER BUG

Sometimes I can't read my PMs and get returned to the logon screen (others have mentioned this above). This is probably a cookie problem. Now a while ago a guy posted how he had fixed the cookies by changing your cookie code into calls to the standard UBB cookie routines, why has this change not been made standard? It really is a good idea. I will post what he suggested at the end of this post.

MY DETAILS

UBB 5.47C, PM 3.8, UNIX, local cookie scope.

PM options: nothing extra enabled (not UBB code, not IMs etc - just basic PMs).

QUESTION

What are IMs, how do they differ from PMs? They seem like another sort of PM - why would you want to use both?

---- here the cookie fix ----


This message has been edited by Pilot on December 28, 2000 at 11:05 AM

Pilot, good to see you again, thank you for the heads up on the cookie routine. I will test it here and if it appears stable, will add it to the download.

Your question:
Yes, the problem with the multiple send has been a problem for a while. I will look at it tonight and see if I can find a solution. Any other's help before then is appreciated.

The other problems may be corrected with the cookie change.

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

OK, I have added the new cookie routines to the files we have installed here, please check your mailbox and tell me if you see any problems. Mine seems to work fine....

If no-one reports problems, I will upload the new files this evening after cleaning up the many commented out sections... (there's more than what we just did still in there).

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

Allen, first thing I noticed was the outbox layout, it's back to the odd ways again

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My bad, that's what I get for using 2-3 sets of files... they have been reconciled... please let me know if you find anything else...

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

Everything looks fine to me. I still sometimes don't get an outgoing message from particular members. Weird but I can live with it.

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Thanks GoTo, latest files have been uploaded... to upgrade just upload the new files over the old...

I haven't found a fix for the multiple sent pm's yet... Here we don't get the
's like pilot mentioned, but we do get a signature equal to the number of pm's sent in each pm...

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

Just file conpared/uploaded the files and the PM's seems to load quicker now. I'll do heavier investigation in a minute.

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I just removed 3 redundant subs in private.pl that were already in ubb_library.pl. They could have been the source of some conflicts as the htmlify and unhtmlify were written slightly different in pm's, yet we had both private.pl and ubb_library.pl required in all the private cgi files... I also removed the ubbcode sub, as it was definitely written differently in pm's and ubb_library.pl.

The private cgi files all rec'd minor updates due to differences in capitalization...

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

Good job on this...

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Modification Developer of the Ultimate Bulletin Board
Due to time limitation, I do not offer support Via. E-mail, ICQ or AIM. Please post on the forums.

Sincerely,
MasterMind

Ok, i have seen at least one other person post the same problem in this thread, but have not seen a reply:

I am getting a javascript error "Line 16: Object Expected" every time i try to send a PM. Any ideas on clearing it up?? Also, did the new files in the PM 3.8 download include the cookie fix i saw mentioned here??

LadyFire

Those should be fixed in the files in our database, I apologize if I wasn't clear on it. I did forget to update the readme file with the bug fix info... will be done today, but all files are the latest version as of yesterday...

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

Thanks Allen. Now if i can get rid of the javascript error, i will actually be able to keep the PM upgrade.

Are you still getting the error when sending after upgrading the files?

Does the error occur when you click on "send new pm" to go into privatesend.cgi, does it occur when you mouse-over the codebuttons in privatesend, or does it occur when you actually click on submit to send the new pm?

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

yes, i have uploaded the new files. It is giving me the error when the send page form is part way through loading. No idea why.

hmmmm... are you using the latest ubb_code_button.pl file? The one in this download and the in the code button zip are the same...

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

Installed PM 3.8+ (or whatever you want to call it) thanks for the quick changes.

However the cc problems are still here - get PMs like this

test line1

Line 2

line 3


If you want a test id on my site (Allen) please Email me at Pilot@scotsmen.co.uk or just register yourself at www.themoneybag.com

When sending a PM to myself with a subject of "test" (INCLUDING the quotation marks) - got a very odd result indeed with a corrupt row in the inbox. Try it.

This is a great hack, but I would try to cure the bugs before adding more features otherwise it is a moving target.

Another problem - autodelete is not always working - when does it fire off? If I do not delete any PMs manually, will autodelete work - does not seem to for me.

Why does "Submit preferences" stay on the preferences page and not return to the inbox afterwards?

I use Netscape 4.7 by the way to test with.

Yes, they haven't been fixed yet, prolly the last major bug... tho I am not sure yet how to clear it up.

Haven't seen that one yet, I'll give it a shot... shoulda been cleared up when switching over to ubb_library.pl's htmlify and unhtmlify subs... unless they aren't being called in the $subject...
That's the idea, I think it is about as feature heavy as it is gonna get... once we get the auto-config page setup correctly, the version number will go to v4 and it'll be moved to the finshed forum.

It should fire off after reaching the delete limit you set in private.cfg. You may be thinking of the warning level that defaults to 20 vs the 30 for delete. I have seen it delete pm's once they get over the limit.
That's more a confirmation page, showing you the values were set... it could be replaced with a forwarding page, but that's basically the same thing.


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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

there's a problem with the cookies. I just installed the latest files (about an hour ago) and everything works perfect. Except when I go to the main forum page, it continues to say "Log in to check your private messages". I am logged in because my name appears under Who's Online. Is there a fix to this that somebody can help me with. It's not too big of a problem but no users will know if they have any new messages unless they physically go into the private messages. Also, i think it is just a problem in Ultimate.cgi because when i click to go to the inbox, it brings me directly to my messages and doesn't ask me to login or anything. Any help will definitely be appreciated.

I logged in and logged out of my forums and the cookies looks OK to me. I also installed the latest version. See if it's doing it here for confirmation.

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well it works here..i'm just wondering in what part of the script should i check to see if it's checking the cookies right..

You should look in privateview.cgi

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Well Allen, that got rid of the error when loading, but now on send, it says internal server error, and bombs altogether. I already have checked the perl path, and haven't found any reason for this. Also, since the update to the PM and UBBcode, my Who's online has stopped working correctly

Wow...ok i finally figured out what was causing the problem, but have NO idea why it happened. The internal server errors were occuring, because one of the scripts had reset the permissions on every file inside the PM folder to 644. I reset them, and it worked great for 30 minutes or so. Then it started bombing again. I removed the IM hack and now all is well again, with no further problems.

ok i did it exatcly like the instructions said dint miss a one thing and it still messes up this code needs some work i know it works cause on this page but u gave us the wrong code or something

Not sure what the problem could be ladyfire, I have installed this on 5 sites (Unix and NT) in the last 48 hours, no problems... it shouldn't be changing the permissions like that. Is your private folder set to "777"?

Dawg... I upload the same files and instructions I use...

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

I have also a problem with the PM Hack!
I only get a 500 error (Premature end of script headers: /perlpath/cgi-bin/privateview.cgi)when I try to open my Box! I have checked the perlpath, uploaded it in ascii (cgi's), and chmoded it to 755!
I also chmod the private directory to 777!
So what could I have done wrong??? (I think I've implemented the hack well)
PLEASE HELP ME!

Seems you have done everything correctly. Download privateview.cgi again and reupload it.

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although this is my first post, I have been around this forum a while.

I have a problem and a few others here have had the same problem. When I goto login to get me pm's it just keeps going to the login screen. I can send a pm to a person from a post that they have on a forum but cant login to read them, just keeps resetting to the login screen.

Im using UBB 5.47 and 3.8 private messages.

Have any of you who have had this problem, solved it? if so how

any help appreciated

Many Thx

BUK

does anyone know how to keep the pm messaging from stretching the table all the way to full browser size? (under privateview.cgi) i can't seem to figure out why it does it, is it something you type, that causes the text to stop wrapping and continue across?

There was a fix to this already. Please download the new zip on the first page of this thread.

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If you set your width to more than 95% then it might, not sure.

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So I had dowloaded it and uploaded the privateview.cgi again. Still the same problem!
It still doesn't work! (error 500)...
Do you have a different idea?

Fix for Not Creating Outbox Entry

In privatesend.cgi find:


Replace with

FINALLY! Thanks Thermit, that one did the trick. I knew there was something wrong with that!

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Is there a way to make "Email Notification: On" default?

Yes, in privateprefs, line 149 change that from Off to On.

OK, I added Thermit's fix to the files here and a fix I found for the quotation marks in the subject. privateview and privatesend was affected. Download files are updated.

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Allen

- http://www.stand318.com

I reinstalled my whole ubb and put the codebutton hack 5 in. The next hack I try to install was PM 3.8! Error 500!
I'm using Ubb Full 5.46 German, stars hack, codebuttonhack, last post in ultimate hack installed!
I've checked the code that I ahve to implement. Nothing, it's like in the manuel.
So why I get always the error 500 when try to look at my PM'S?
Everything is chmoded well!