For several days now, the "My Stream" link on the front page has occasionally not been appearing. Just reloading the page doesn't cause it to reappear, but going to a different page and then back to the front page usually does.
I assume there's some kind of underlying logic to when it appears and when it doesn't, but I haven't been able to figure it out.
It appears if you're logged in. There is no other logic.
If your browser doesn't send the site's cookie properly in every instance, then the site doesn't recognize you and treats your browser as not logged in and doesn't show the link.
If your browser has aggressive caching settings, then it may cause this problem too.
I am logged in. No 'my stream' even if I go to another page and back to home.
Never seen this before.
Using Chrome, incognito mode, Android 8.1
Ian
Using Chrome, incognito mode,
Incognito mode might have something to do with it.
Incognito Mode or "private browsing" is a privacy feature on Google Chrome that actually disables the browsing history of the browser.
I have been using incognito mode to access SOL since way before the my stream feature appeared. AFAIK I have always seen my stream till the last couple of days.
Ian
I use very minimal caching settings. I'm not using incognito mode (I like having browser history to highlight the stories I've been reading). I haven't changed browser or settings recently, and I didn't used to have this problem. It's just started in the last week, week and a half.
There was enough stuff that was intermittently breaking because of the DDoS that I didn't take note of when this particular problem began, but I'm almost certain it wasn't doing it before that. Is it possible that the DDoS mitigation measures are interfering with the cookie exchange?
Though the automatic login itself works fine. It's just the My Stream link that occasionally disappears.
I still haven't been able to find any rhyme or reason to when it does it and when it doesn't. It is nice to know that I'm not the only one that it's happening to.
eta: I went back to the home page immediately after posting that, and it shows me as logged in — it's got the "BlacKnight [1/16]" link on the left — but there's no "My Stream" link. Came back to the forum in another tab, started this edit, then clicked on "Home" in the original tab and the "My Stream" link appeared.
eta: I went back to the home page immediately after posting that, and it shows me as logged in — it's got the "BlacKnight [1/16]" link on the left — but there's no "My Stream" link.
Since the DDOS attacks (which seem to be gone for now) the home page's code didn't change.
Your quoted text above is the most peculiar to me, because to show the 'my stream' link, the code checks for the existence of an email address in the session data, which is linked to the nickname. So if your nickname exists for display, your email address must exist and the 'my stream' should be displayed.
If the above is happening, it could only mean that there is a bug in the underlying PHP interpreter somewhere outside of my own code. My code couldn't be simpler or done in any different way to display that link.
And to be clear, since this thread started, I've tested the home page with various browsers literally hundreds of times, with safari, chrome, Firefox, desktop versions and tablet versions and I've never had the 'my stream' link not show up when it should. So I can't replicate the issue so far, not on the site itself nor on the test server that I use for development.
Once again, I am logged in but no my stream. I logged in after starting with Preview Site and finding an update I wanted to read, thus needing to log in from the story page rather than from the log in page.
Ian
Something definitely not right. I chose to Preview Site - that is NOT logged in but I saw My Stream - same stuff displayed as Stream. I logged in. No My Stream showing !
Ian
For several days now, the "My Stream" link on the front page has occasionally not been appearing.
I finally figured it out (I think).
It was a caching bug. The general stream is cached for 60 seconds and the same cached stream was being served to logged in and not logged in users. So it depends on who the user that gets the stream cache refreshed to make the link disappear or appear.
I fixed the caching key to have two separate stream caches, one for logged in users with the 'my stream' link and one for non-logged in users.
Let me know if it still disappears when logged in.
Oy, no wonder I couldn't figure out any pattern to when it happened. It wasn't dependent on my usage, but on others'.
It seems to be working properly now. I'll keep an eye on it and report back if it disappears again.
Thank you. I know how frustrating hunting down bugs like this can be.