Strange Backend Behaviour. I'm beginning to get nervous...

I’m running a modx site for a client. Right now it’s hidden behind a .htaccess door, so I don’t think I have a problem caused by outside forces.

Everything went fine until today. Suddenly a couple of things happened that are very odd. I don’t think if there is a cause and effect chain between the different problems, but you might be able to proove me wrong.

It all started with a client comlaining he couldn’t alter the front page . As far as I can tell, this only happended when the site was altered by him. I opened the backend and realized that the document was located in the root and therefore I went to tools->configuration->users->allow root and switched it to "on". A couple of minutes later I realized that the document had been moved from level two of the tree to the root. Things like that happen all the time, a typical ID10TI thought and moved it back into place.

Later I got a call, and my client complained that suddenly documents started to move on their own. Whenever he edited a file, it moved to the root without any apparent reason. I moved them all back made some tersts and they stayed there (for a while).

To go for sure; I logged in as "editor" and edited a document. after saving it, it moved itself to the root of the document.

I switched back to admin mode and opend tools->configuration->users and found out, that "allow root" had vanished completely. all I see now is "User access permission" and then "Failed Login Attempts". It’s gone.

I checked the database and everything seems to be fine.

I don’t know what to do.

Regards,

pepebe



Some time later again a document moved without any plausible cause. Again it moved one level up after saving. The user experienceing the problem has what I would call an editor account. He can create, read, write, publish, delete and edit documents. Nothing else.

MODx latest Version (0.9.6.3)

If this was an upgrade, did you run the installer in upgrade mode before putting it back into production?

@rthrash

thx for your swift reply.

No this was not an upgrade. In fact, it is a nearly virgin install. There are a couple of minor plugins, but I’m using those on other sites as well and never experienced a similar problem.

Now I’m sure that it is browser related:

Firefox (3.09, WinXP, admin Account) OK
Firefox (3.09, WinXP, editor Account) OK

Opera (9.64, WinXP, admin account) NO
Opera (9.64, WinXP, editor account) NO

IE (7.0.57.3013, Win XP, editor account) NO
IE (7.0.57.3013, Win XP, admin account) NO

FF (3.08, Ubuntu 8.04, admin account) OK

Regarding the missing  switch in the config menu, I can give the solution to this riddle. I accidenaly switched off "Use access permissions:". After switching it to on, "allow root" appeared again.

Regards,

pepebe

Just tries my tests in a site I setup a few days earlier. No problems there

That is one strange bug. Is the parent field in the site_content table actually changing, or is it just a display problem in the document tree (I’m guessing it’s the latter).

Did you delete the browser cache and cookies before running your tests?

Are you, by chance, stuck with MySQL version 5.0.51?

Thanks for your input.

First the simple things:

PHP 5.2.8, MySQL 5.0.67 (had a problem with the 51 version on another site, but already solved it: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,34151.msg207775.html#msg207775)

Parent field is actually changing. This is bad news.

I’m sure it never ever happens in FF (either ubuntu linux or windows XP). Only in IE and OPERA (both systems).

For this particular client I have applied some changes to the backend (see: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,33240.0.html). This might be related, but I really don’t understand why it works with one browser and with another don’t.

So for now, I will undo the changes to the backend and we’ll see what happens...

Regards,

pepebe

pepebe please report back if it was the custom theme and updates, as I’ve not heard of this occurring before. Thanks!

Are you using your modified mutate_content.php? I wonder if allows a save without explicitly setting the parent so the parent ends up with a zero value.

@BobRay

Right, I’m using my modified mutate_content.dynamic.php.

BUT if my modifications are responsible for this behaviour, then HOW can it work in Firefox and not in other Browsers? This is the thing I really don’t understand. Do the treat POST so completely different? How comes the server gets information about the parent ID of a particular document in one browser and a "0" in another one? Very strange.

What ever might be the cause, I’m sure I’ll have learned an awful lot of stuff about MODx when I have finally come to a solution .

It’s gona be a long long night, I’m afraid...

Regards,

pepebe

Edit: I switched back to the original mutate_content.dynamic.php and tmplvars.inc.php files- THE PROBLEM VANISHED! This is good news, because now I can hunt down the culprit. Buhahah, first blood!

I think the problem is most likely to be in the JS -- perhaps a syntax error that FF handles more gracefully. IE is more strict then FF about JS parsing. Look for an extra comma at the end of an array or object.

Does Firebug report any errors in the JS?

I think this might help:

http://simile.mit.edu/babel/validator