session time out: please cache post

Hello ILP webmasters (Carleas?),

Something that’s irked me about ILP for a while now is this:

If I’m composing a lengthy post, and I take my time, maybe at work where I can only compose one paragraph between every 20 minutes of work, by the time I’m ready to post, I hit submit and then find I’ve been logged out. So I log back in and find my entire post is wiped… gone, incinerated, finito. Hitting the back button on my browser doesn’t restore it. My work-around to this is to compose my post in notepad first, and then if my session expires by the time I’m ready to post, it’s no big deal–I simply log back in, hit “reply”, copy and paste from notepad, hit submit, and it goes through. But still, once in a while, I forget to do this, and once in a while I pay the price.

It would be nice if ILP at least cached the user’s post just in case his session expired. In that case, the user would log back in and immediately be directed back to the post composition page where the server would paste the user’s post from the cache to the posting text area.

Is this possible? Can it be implement?

I agree with gib…when a session times out, it’s maddening. :imp:

Find a way to lengthen session times (indefinitely or 24 hrs.) or do as gib suggests and cache our goods, unless there’s an even better idea? (spoken in monotone)Anybody? Bueller? Anybody? Bueller?

I admit this has happened to me more then once…
I find it tends to speed up my process which sometimes
hurts the quality of my posts because I am thinking about being
fast instead of the quality of the post

Kropotkin

Not recommended.

Definitely recommended. :smiley:

How is that even possible? When I come up with an idea, Wendy, everyone else can retire. :open_mouth:

Now whose fault is that I wonder. When it comes to lost posts, I usually take a break and come back to it later when I’m ready to re-post something bigger, better, and badder. With that attitude in mind, I usually allow myself more time–if not to write more then to take more time in perfecting my wording. You are too rushed, my friend, learn to breathe.

:laughing:

phpbb - ah I love it - I use it myself on my own site.
I am using a newer version and once my session times out, the cookie as stale as it is, is still there . . .
. . . I end up having to clear my browsers cache just so that I can log back in.

I don’t even bother mentioning anything on their forum because there is always some smart ass comment thrown back . . .

. . . like you are imagining it or something.

To cache the post would require:

  1. Sending data to the server(SQL) #-o
  2. A crazy cookie maybe :laughing:
  3. JavaScript to write local data :smiley:
  4. AJAX :smiley:

Honestly I think we are stuck with notepad(Notepad++ :smiley: ) for a little while longer - but hey . . .
. . . what would I know?

8-[

  1. log back in from a different page/tab.
  2. “Go Back” from the original page in order to retrieve the post data.
  3. copy the original post so as to not lose it (cntl-c).
  4. submit again from the original page.

Ah yes, thanks for reminding me - I have tried this and it does work.

Which browser are you using James?

I usually use Firefox. I’m sure Chrome allows for the same.

I have given up relying on my browser/any browser as far as ILP posts are concerned, and have recently started saving replies to my User Control panel, and so now I can reply at my leisure and edit at will… until I am ready to submit my post for all to see. :smiley:

Same for DMs…

Do you use the “log me in automatically” option? I access ILP the same way you do, and when my session expires I don’t need to log back in, I get a notification that the session expired (“The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.”), but I just have to hit submit again, but I don’t actually get logged out. That’s not some administrator privilege to my knowledge, it’s the way I have my browser configured, including the “log me in automatically” box.

I just verified James’ suggestion: I opened ILP in another tab and logged out on that tab, come back to this tab and hit submit, get a message telling me to log back in, hit back on this tab, go to other tab and log in, hit submit on this tab and get “The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.” but my post is still there, hit submit again and it works.

Ideally, no post would ever be lost. I’ve lost posts and it sucks. But I honestly don’t know how to change things to make posts more retrievable. ILP uses out-of-the-box software, and I don’t know how to begin to modify it to better cache posts before they are submitted. ILP is overdue for a software update/upgrade, and if that fixes it, much the better.

I have since tried James’ approach and confirm it works. I also tested your suggestion, Carleas, of checking the “stay logged in” checkbox before logging in, and it seems to work (composed a draft, let it sit for an hour, hit “save draft” and I seemed not to be logged out). So we have a few techniques. All three combined (Jame’s, yours, and my notepad technique) should result in losing posts being an extremely rare occurrence.

Don’t even attempt a modification Carleas. Overdue for a software update, I believe is only a matter of opinion at the moment - this version of phpBB is fine for at least another six months - the next version/s do not fix it - there are a few cosmetic updates and only minor updates to the core from what I have been able to tell.

Actually I take back what I said about the core - nonetheless, why fix something that aint broke?

I usually use Firefox. I am also using Chrome too, for the time being but I have not verified your method in it. I will say that my other problem involving stale cookies still persists in Chrome however.

I would suggest that you are correct about Chrome allowing for the same, regarding your method, as it is a matter of persistent/non-persistent cookies.

There’s also Lazarus, a form recovery add-on that saves as you type, too. You click a small icon in the top right hand corner of an input text/reply box and select which of the saves you want to return to.

The best strategy, however, is to write long posts on another app and constantly save, but Lazarus is good for smaller posts you mess up or when you lose connection. It saved me heaps of times.

Man, the solutions just keep coming.

:smiley: but wait… there’s more…

.