Description

I just typed up a lengthy addition to a page, which I left open overnight. This morning, I proof-read the new content, made some edits, and hit "preview". The page then displayed, without any of my edits, but it had a message Please use the interactive user interface to use action edit!... But in fact, I did use the interface. I'm not sure how else I would have done it.

Steps to reproduce

Not sure how to reliably reproduce this, but perhaps whatever over-zealous check is in there should not be? It's very frustrating to lose your edits in such a manner.

It may have something to do with the fact that I opened a new browser to do some searching while I was editing?... I used the File / New / Window option (Ctrl-N), which started me out at the edit page. I didn't want to screw up the page I was editing, so I used the "back" button in the new window to get out without disturbing the editing I was doing in the other window. I've done this many times before without any problem.

Example

Component selection

• general

Details

Workaround

Maybe copy the entire text to the clipboard before each preview??

If you do have a user account on that wiki preview does create a backup for you always for the last previewed page. UserName/MoinEditorBackup -- ReimarBauer 2006-12-22 17:19:19

Yes I checked that, and it did have my edits from the last successful preview. Unfortunately, it did not save the text just before giving me that error, so there was a lot missing. Thanks. -- SteveDavison 2006-12-22 18:28:14

Discussion

This is not a bug. The tickets used there are made to expire after some time.

But you shouldn't keep editor open over long periods of time anyway (your browser could crash, power failure, ...).

• OK, that explanation makes sense. I didn't intend to leave the editor open so long, but now I know to copy the contents if this happens in the future. But this is also a usability issue... the message displayed had nothing to do with the problem (leaving the editor open too long), and the fact that the editor contents are discarded. Could I ask what that message is meant to accomplish or combat? It's evidentally incorrectly identifying that situation and not handling it optimally. Thanks. -- SteveDavison 2006-12-31 08:51:05 The ticketing stuff tries to make it harder for wiki spammers that just try to use http POST to put their spam onto wiki pages. In 1.6 we have in multiconfig.py:  edit_ticketing = True so that could be switched off. May be we should have there a ticket_keep_alive_time too. -- ReimarBauer 2007-01-01 13:33:28

  • Thanks for your responses, they are very helpful. I know that this is not a major issue, but I'd like to propose an idea... If a post occurs w/o a ticket (whether it expired or never existed), produce the same display as a preview. This would allow a live user to copy the content and re-open a valid ticket, but wouldn't be of much use to a spammer. I'm not sure how the tickets work with respect to login, but if it were possible, saving the text as <username>/MoinEditorBackup would be even better. (As I recall, after getting the message I did not have to login again, so my login must have still been valid...) -- SteveDavison 2007-01-01 20:32:29

Same message after few seconds

If click in "preview" after changing one letter in 2 seconds, I have this message. Reloading the page or going back and previewing again is a workaround. I tried to set edit_ticketing = False, but it didn't work. It happens everytime in every page. I'm using v1.7.1 with fastcgi.

It was resolved when I came back (after a few hours). edit_ticketing was lastly set to True. I hope I'll never see it again.

Addendum

This same message occurred for me in a brand new wiki when trying to create any new page. I made the initial edit on the new page and was unable to save it, getting this message instead (with no significant delay between editing and saving). Eventually it cleared up on its own, after I waited a couple of hours before trying again. This may or may not be related, but at the same time I was also having trouble with prior versions of the site name and logo showing up on different pages, sometimes going back three or four edits of wikiconfig.py. Both these problems cleared up together, after a two-hour wait between access to the wiki to attempt to create a new page, so they may be related. --DavidLewis / 2007-11-24

Also I encountered this problem with a brand new wiki. I do have two wiki instances installed (seperately though). --KarenJanssens / 2007-12-12

• More details please, 2 hours too? Which filesystem is the wiki based on? Which version of MM? -- ReimarBauer 2007-12-12 16:18:17

Same message from repeated previews

Just experienced this bug in a MoinMoin1.58 wikifarm running on mod_python. Repeated previews of the same page would eventually kick you out with the above message (not surge protection related). Clearing the /data/cache for the wiki instance didn't help, but restarting apache seems to have cleared it up. I couldn't get much more info for debugging because this is on a production server. -- JamesBardin 2007-12-14 16:12:58

Same message clean install

I have completed an install of MoinMoin1.7.2 on Fedora 9, using Apache 2 with wsgi. I have created a single wiki instance that runs ok. I have been able to create and configure a simple homepage. Any attempt to edit the homepage (sub minute) results in this error. I have also attemtped to create a new page using the FindPage tab, with similar results. Specifically, I am offered the chance to create the page but am unable to save the edits. This happens for both the text and gui editor. -- RamenChatterjee

Quick update, I went to my settings and changed the editor to "the one preferred" and I can now edit; free choice remains unusable.

Sorry, for the multiple posts, seems that editing is sporadic at best. I have tried logging in and out, as well as switching editors and have only managed 2 successful edits -- RamenChatterjee 2008-10-18

The "use the interactive user interface" message is issued when there is either no edit ticket cookie or it is invalid or too old. Maybe check if your browser supports cookies. Do not use the browser "back" button to navigate to an (old) editor. -- ThomasWaldmann 2008-10-18 15:13:34

Utter noob here, but I have this issue with a fresh install of MoinMoin1.7.2 as well. It's running on Gentoo, using Apache 2 with wsgi. I've created a single wiki instance, and get this message at seemingly-random times when trying to edit a page in text mode (haven't tried editor mode yet). It can usually be fixed by just hitting back and trying to submit again (Firefox 2.0.0.17), but not always. Might try this without wsgi and see what happens. -- SimonHeath 2008-11-5

• The moinmo.in site runs on Debian/Apache2/mod_wsgi and I never saw this problem here, so I doubt it is related to wsgi. -- ThomasWaldmann 2008-11-07 08:44:15

I'm getting this problem with a newly installed wiki (version 1.84) on Ubuntu/Apache/mod_wsgi. Installed following the instructions on the MoinMoin site. I get the error about 9 times out of 10 when I try to save a page. I think this is a MoinMoin bug and it doesn't belong in CategoryMoinMoinNoBug. Is it possible there is something that the install instructions are missing? 2009-09-07 19:34:30

• that's much, which mod_wsgi version is that and can you share your config? -- ReimarBauer 2009-09-07 18:56:17

I had that Problem with a new Installation. But only for about two Minutes. Was logged in as SuperUser. On Ubuntu Karmic with libapache2-mod-wsgi 2.5-1 and moinmoin 1.92.

• If there is a way to reproduce somehow, THAT would be interesting. -- ThomasWaldmann 2010-03-11 22:32:15

I have this problem when using mod_python

I set up new wiki on Ubuntu 8.04. When moinmoin was configured with mod_python handler, I had this problem all the time. Creating page failed. Most of the edits failed. And no, there was no long delay. After moving to cgi mode at least in the beginning it works.

mod_python makes a lot of trouble please use mod_wsgi -- ReimarBauer 2008-12-22 19:32:12

Happened On My Wiki Too

I have never seen this message before this week, but I have had it happen about 5 times over the last week on both my Ubuntu server and Windows 7 test system. Moin 1.9.2, wsgi. Has happened when logged in as super user and when not logged in. Was using both IE8 and Firefox. The first instances happened during some testing that wasn't going too well. The last instance happened on my test system - I edited a page with IE8, made a 1 character change, clicked spell check, and received the message. I tried to edit the same page with Firefox and found the edit lock had not been release. Other than that, no clues in the logs and I cannot reproduce the problem.

-- RogerHaase 2010-03-17 17:56:37

Plan

• Priority:
• Assigned to:
• Status:

CategoryMoinMoinNoBug