Discussion glitches (FP2000 SR2)

[colin_thames]

Can anyone help? Suddenly my FP2000 discussion group has stopped working properly. New messages or replies are being 'appended' to old unrelated messages. The TOC is working fine but the new entry gives a link to an old message and the newly inputted meesage is placed at the bottom of the old file.

It's a bit hard to explain this so if it isn't clear you can see what I mean by going to <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.thebreastcancerbook.com/disc2_frm.htm>http://www.thebreastcancerbook.com/disc2_frm.htm</A>

The web host says the FP extensions are running on a UNIX box and they 'must be working OK'. Nevertheless they restarted the server and the problem remained. Can anyone shed any light on why this is happening and how to fix it.

[WebGenii]

Your website isn't responding this evening - I'll take a look tomorrow. In the meantime a thing to try is to find the following file in your website:
yourwebsite_disc2_vti_cnftocproto.htm Try moving the file to a safe location or deleting it (depending on your level of paranoia). Then go to your Tools menu and Recalculate Hyperlinks. The file will be recreated - hopefully with the correct information. You may need to get your service provider to delete that file depending on your level of access.
DO NOT delete the file with the same name one level up.
ie yourwebsite_disc2tocproto.htm This file will NOT be automatically recreated and you will feel pain and loss.

Files inside the _vti_cnf folders contain information about files in your website. If what has happened is that the tocproto.htm file for the discussion group is not behaving properly, deleting the matching tocproto.htm file in the _vti_cnf folder can allow the file to process correctly.

[colin_thames]

Catherine
<img src=/S/bravo.gif border=0 alt=bravo width=16 height=30> You're the first person who's ever replied who seems to know anyhting about how FP discussion webs work.

My host had to move the file. They didn't know why I couldn't see it in FP. However, after recalculating hyperlinks I tried a test message but the same problem remains. <img src=/S/crybaby.gif border=0 alt=crybaby width=15 height=15>

Is it because I didn't manage to load cti_vnf into my Frontpage before recalculating hyperlinks, or could it be something else?

I'm just about to do someting desperate, like creating a new discussion group... in CGI, and reposting 120 odd messages <img src=/S/hairout.gif border=0 alt=hairout width=31 height=23>

[WebGenii]

Point out a specific conversation where the problem is happening.
Please.

[colin_thames]

Just try the last few entries, some marked test, some marked 'secondary breast cancer'

I've just been looking on the Microsoft Site and they describe the problem perfectly in their knowledgebase at <A target="_blank" HREF=http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q250/6/26.asp>http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/ar...s/q250/6/26.asp</A>

Unfortunately, they don't seem to mention any remedy!

[WebGenii]

Hmmm, your service.cnf file maybe?

[colin_thames]

I've never heard of them. Do you think I should try the same thing with deleting the service.cnf file and re-building hyperlinks? <img src=/S/confused.gif border=0 alt=confused width=15 height=20>

[WebGenii]

I don't believe the service.cnf will rebuild itself. I'm going to run a test this evening.

[colin_thames]

Well good luck. Hope it (went?) well. Let me know.

I'm currently setting up a cgi-based discuission group to replace the old FP one, using Ikonboard (which I think this very discussion group uses). But as it's going to take me some time I'd still like to get the old one working.

[WebGenii]

Service.cnf will recreate itself - although I'm concerned about the accuracy of the numbering schema.
The most useful thing to do is to rename the service.cnf file to service.txt (so you can open it in notepad).
look for a line like: vti__disc2_articlenumber:IX|3
The number represents the last number issued to a post. If your numbering is not correct, try making the number bigger than the number of the last post - it should pick up numbering from that point.
As for fixing the incorrect posting sequences that are there now - I can't find an automatic way of doing this. I think it would be manual work, updating the html commands - from the html tab you'd look for the following:

!--webbot bot="Reply" I-Article="9" I-ParentArticle="8"
and then make sure the article number and parent article numbers were correct.

tedious!

BTW I was able to recreate the problem by publishing back and forth between my development machine and server while editing independently on each. Somewhere along the line FP lost track of the post numbers and sequencing info. So, as a best practices recommendation - I think I'd suggest editing any existing posts on the live server.

Cheers

[colin_thames]

That's excellent Catherine. I'll have a go at that. At least it'll mean that new posts might be created properly, even if replies weren't.

My only other problem is that I don't seem to be able to get access to the file through Frontpage. My host doesn't understand why I can't download it either. I've enabled and can view all the other _hidden folders.

[WebGenii]

No, you can't get access to these files using frontpage. Frontpage doesn't "see" the _vti folders (on the principle of what they can't see - they can't hurt I guess). Do you have FTP access?

[colin_thames]

No, unfortunately, I asked that of the host tech support guy and for some reason their UNIX server won't allow FTP'ing

I may try again tho'

[zymurgy]

I went to your web site and noticed the new message board.

Is this board working better than the Front Page version? My web site is experiencing the same problems as your old one.

[zymurgy]

Are you aware of any messages board 'scripts' that work on an NT host with the Front Page extensions installed?

If yes, will these avoid the problems discussed in this thread?