1 Reply by RobLarge

  • RobLarge
  • RobLarge
  • Veteran
  • Offline
  • From: Wiltshire
  • Registered: 15-07-2008
  • Posts: 812

Re: A small and not very significant problem

We have just had a new server installed, which will probably continue to cause headaches for weeks, but for the time being we have almost complete access to recorder, via a temporary fix which has resulted in a whole raft of permissions issues, most of which were entirely expected.

One has come up however which has surprised me and I thought it was worth reporting.

A member of staff was entering data via a recording card, at the end of the process she receives (consistently) an error message as follows:

exception class   : EFCreateError
exception message : Cannot create file "\\wwtsql01\recorder6\User Files\Recording Cards\Wildlife Sites.crd". Access is denied

This is clearly permissions related and can be fixed, however the issue is that she was not attempting to save the record card (we do not routinely save changes to our recording cards, after additional species have been added for example).

Recorder 6 had asked if she wanted to save changes and she had replied no and then tried to close the card at which point the exception occurred.

Clearly R6 is either attempting to save a card without being asked, or the exception handling is reporting incorrectly. Either way this should be easily fixable.

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

RobLarge's Website

2 Reply by johnvanbreda

  • johnvanbreda
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: UK
  • Registered: 27-04-2006
  • Posts: 1,237

Re: A small and not very significant problem

Hi Rob
What Recorder is doing is trying to save any updated grid column widths, which as it stands does not come under the question about saving additional taxa so it will always try to do this. There are several possible approaches to fixing this:
1) Don't try to save the card if it is read only unless the user explicitly asks to save it, in which case if it is read only display a notice that it could not be saved.
2) Change the question about saving additional species to include saving the column widths in which case the card won't ever be saved unless the user asks to save it. As before if they ask to save it and the card is read only then display a notice that it could not be saved.
3) Just don't save the card if it is read only - nothing is reported to the user. In fact Recorder takes this approach but only if the file is set to read only - not if the folder itself has no write permissions for the user.

I will ask Mary for opinions, though feel free to let us know any additional thoughts on the best approach.

Cheers

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

johnvanbreda's Website

3 Reply by RobLarge

  • RobLarge
  • RobLarge
  • Veteran
  • Offline
  • From: Wiltshire
  • Registered: 15-07-2008
  • Posts: 812

Re: A small and not very significant problem

I think option two is the behaviour I would expect, most applications seem to ask questions like "do you want to save changes to the recording card?", which would include additional species and also format changes.

I do think though that if nothing is saved (when it would be expected), the user should be informed of that fact along with an explanation of why (read only or no access).

This is yet another example where an exception occurs in a situtation where a conscientious programmer would have trapped and handled it. Recorder is riddled with them. No disrespect to the programmers, but I write better code than this when I am not even trying (OK maybe that was a little bit disrespectful). Any attempt to write to or access a file or database is obviously prone to this kind of problem from time to time when systems are modified or new users added. Surely it is better to return an informative and friendly message to the user than to trigger an ugly (and scary to the uninitiated) unhandled exception notification which produces a list of indecipherable information. This information could still be saved somewhere in case it is needed later for anal;ysis of the problem.

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

RobLarge's Website

4 Reply by johnvanbreda

  • johnvanbreda
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: UK
  • Registered: 27-04-2006
  • Posts: 1,237

Re: A small and not very significant problem

Hi Rob
I suspect that the code in question was written at a time when permissions were not the issue they are today. The good news is that as of the last month or so I am now able to make changes to the source code which means that it is much easier for me to pick off the occasional bug like this.

I've made this change as well by the way.

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

johnvanbreda's Website

5 Reply by RobLarge

  • RobLarge
  • RobLarge
  • Veteran
  • Offline
  • From: Wiltshire
  • Registered: 15-07-2008
  • Posts: 812

Re: A small and not very significant problem

What would we do without you John?

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

RobLarge's Website

6 Reply by johnvanbreda

  • johnvanbreda
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: UK
  • Registered: 27-04-2006
  • Posts: 1,237

Re: A small and not very significant problem

I can think of many inappropriate witty responses, mostly self-deriding!

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

johnvanbreda's Website