I think it died.

jameswcaudill – oh! There was another user who reported the same problem, but we’d been unable to reproduce. The idea that the corruption happens when you’ve edited after a timeout (after your session expired and your logged out) is a new one! We’ll definitely look into this.

Unfortunately, we have no fix right now. You’ll have to recreate the Decision Tree from scratch ?? Sorry!

Thanks very much for taking the time to report this issue. We’ll leave it open as we research it.

I just tried linked a choice to one of the bad ones and when I tested it on my page, I get “undefined” as the content in the page where the decision tree should be when I finally choose that bad choice.

I would rather not make this DT again, since it has about 20 items at the top level and a few underneath so far. Is there a table where I can view this post object and maybe correct it in the database?

Thanks for the prompt answer and great support, by the way!

jameswcaudill – I totally understand not wanting to recreate your DT! Though you can edit the DB (wp_postmeta – look for the field with meta_key “dtree_blob” and the DT contents therein), we store our trees as JSON which is tricky to edit manually. You’re welcome to try but, again, we don’t recommend it.

Sorry again!

I’m working on a new version of the DT, since that was easier, but I’ll bookmark this in case I corrupt a really large one. Thanks again for the great support!

James

Sorry again you’re still having problems!!

In another thread, you said,

Hello again,
I’m on the third creation of this DT And I keep corrupting it. I thought maybe the second had timed out somehow, though I was careful to refresh the page frequently before and during work on it.

Well this time I’m sure. Something else i breaking it.
Maybe it is my HTML inside the boxes above? I am running this on a multisite page. Anyone else had issues with that?

Attached is a screenshot:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwgXDEFppP5IMkRhbzVGYUFWQjA/view?usp=sharing

Here is the HTML:
https://www.my_web_site.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN07bg

We run our https://sidecar.tv site on a multisite install, so we know it works with that.

Since you seemed to have ruled out the time out issue, the only other thing that’s left is HTML use which seems to be the likely culprit. We’ve still been unable to reproduce the problem in house though. Using the fewest amount of steps, maybe you can post here the steps which cause a problem here?

I’ll do some more spot testing tonight as well.

Well, shucks, a bunch of testing with answer texts like <a style="color:white" href="https://www.sidecar.tv/foobar">link 2!</a> yielded no errors. Given that we’re now up to 3 folks who have this problem, we very much believe the problem exists, we just need to figure how to reproduce it so we can fix it!

What about target=”blank”? Could that cause a problem? I wonder if running on multi site could be it? I tried deleting the plugin and reinstalling, but the data remained behind in the database, so it was still doing it, even on a new DT.

jameswcaudill – If you have steps you can repeatedly do to create a correct DT, please let us know. That is the critical information we’re lacking. To recap, this is what we’ve tried and been unable to reproduce with:

• trying on a multisite install
• trying with target="blank"
• trying with style="color:white"
• trying with a link
• trying with an apostrophe in the title, text or subtext

When you say,

I tried deleting the plugin and reinstalling, but the data remained behind in the database, so it was still doing it, even on a new DT.

Do you mean now that the instant you create a new DT it is corrupt? This is a new, worse behavior that we have not seen before. Please confirm.

Yes! I removed the plugin from the Network Multisite list, choosing to delete all files. I think it leaves data behind in the database, since after reinstalling, my old trees appeared back in the list. The behavior was the same where after making another new DT, after a few options were made, I started getting really high Step numbers like “Step 79,79”.

Here’s the JSON I pulled out by using a database plugin tool to grab the data:

{
		"meta_id": "131",
			"post_id": "53",
			"meta_key": "dtree_blob",
			"meta_value": "{\"data\":{\"1\":{\"question\":\"Select your program:\",\"type\":\"question\",\"subtext\":\"\",\"choices\":[{\"choice\":\"Emergency Medical Technician - Basic\",\"next\":\"49\"},{\"choice\":\"Emergency Medical Technician - Intermediate\",\"next\":\"59\"},{\"choice\":\"Emergency Medical Technician - Paramedic\",\"next\":\"69\"},{\"choice\":\"Human Services\",\"next\":\"79\"},{\"choice\":\"Health Information Technology\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"LPN to RN\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Medical Assisting\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Medical Coding\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Medical Laboratory Technician\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Patient Care Technician/Geriatric Nursing Assistant\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Pharmacy Technician\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Phlebotomy\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Physician Assistant\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Practical Nursing\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Radiologic Technology\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Registered Nursing\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Surgical Technology\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Therapeutic Massage\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"CACHE – Physical Therapist Assistant\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Nurse Refresher (Cont. Ed)\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Medicine Aide (Cont. Ed)\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Sterile Processing (Cont. Ed)\",\"next\":\"5\"},{\"choice\":\"Workforce Development\",\"next\":\"5\"}]},\"5\":{\"question\":\"Placeholder answer\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"\",\"choices\":[]},\"49\":{\"question\":\"Emergency Medical Technician - Basic\",\"type\":\"question\",\"subtext\":\"Please choose below:\",\"choices\":[{\"choice\":\"I need to order a Background Check and my Medical Document Manager\",\"next\":\"55\"},{\"choice\":\"I need to order a Background Check only\",\"next\":\"58\"},{\"choice\":\"I need to order my Medical Document Manager only\",\"next\":\"57\"}]},\"55\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN07\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">I need to order a Background Check and my Medical Document Manager</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"57\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN07im\\\">I need to order my Medical Document Manager only</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"58\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN07bg\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">I need to order a Background Check only</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"59\":{\"question\":\"Emergency Medical Technician – Intermediate\",\"type\":\"question\",\"subtext\":\"Please choose below:\",\"choices\":[{\"choice\":\"I need to order a Background Check and my Medical Document Manager\",\"next\":\"62\"},{\"choice\":\"I need to order a Background Check only\",\"next\":\"65\"},{\"choice\":\"I need to order my Medical Document Manager only\",\"next\":\"66\"}]},\"62\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN40\\\">I need to order a Background Check and my Medical Document Manager</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"65\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN40bg\\\">I need to order a Background Check only</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"66\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN40im\\\">I need to order my Medical Document Manager only</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"69\":{\"question\":\"Emergency Medical Technician – Paramedic\",\"type\":\"question\",\"subtext\":\"Please choose below:\",\"choices\":[{\"choice\":\"I need to order a Background Check and my Medical Document Manager\",\"next\":\"73\"},{\"choice\":\"I need to order a Background Check only\",\"next\":\"76\"},{\"choice\":\"I need to order my Medical Document Manager only\",\"next\":\"79\"}]},\"73\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN45\\\">I need to order a Background Check and my Medical Document Manager</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"76\":{\"question\":\"<a style=\\\"color:white\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://www.certifiedbackground.com/online_submission/package_code.php?code=NN45bg\\\">I need to order a Background Check only</a>\",\"type\":\"answer\",\"subtext\":\"You will be redirected to a new tab or window.\",\"choices\":[]},\"79,79\":{\"choices\":[{\"choice\":\"\",\"next\":\"\"},{\"choice\":\"\",\"next\":\"\"}]}},\"index\":{\"0\":\"1\",\"1\":\"5\",\"2\":\"49\",\"3\":\"55\",\"4\":\"57\",\"5\":\"58\",\"6\":\"59\",\"7\":\"62\",\"8\":\"65\",\"9\":\"66\",\"10\":\"69\",\"11\":\"73\",\"12\":\"76\",\"13\":[\"79\",\"79\"]},\"start_ID\":\"1\",\"version\":\"1.1.0\"}"
		},

jameswcaudill – thanks for the update. Unfortunately, we can see the JSON is corrupt, but don’t still know why.

Can you tell us step by step instructions on how to get a corrupted DT? If we can reproduce it on our development systems, we can come up with a fix.

I think it got corrupted when I made a change and saved it after timing out. This is also hosted on Amazon Web Services, so I don’t know if that kind of a virtual system might be a contributing factor.

After I made the change after timing out, the numbers would jump up high sometime after making some sub-choices under one of my 20 or so top-level choices. It didn’t seem to step from a specific number or on a certain item.

Steps I took were just adding items to a choice and adding choices under that, pretty standard procedure, I think.

Thanks for the info on how to reproduce. However, earlier you said,

I thought maybe the second had timed out somehow, though I was careful to refresh the page frequently before and during work on it. Well this time I’m sure. Something else i breaking it.

But now you’re sure that the time out is causing the issue?

I’ll test now either way to get a second data point!

Oh, perhaps I’m being sloppy, but was operating under the assumption that my initial timeout problem had caused the corrupted data to begin with and continues to cause problems. It could be something else, but everything I’ve found in searches points to that.

Perhaps there is a way for me to fully purge the affected rows from the database? Removing the plugin doesn’t seem to do that currently.

Thanks again for the great support!

Yay! Glad to help with support, but it’s frustrating we can’t find a fix for you. Sorry ??

To delete existing DTs you can got to https://YORUSITE/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=decision_tree, checkt the DTs on the left and choose “Move to trash” under the bulk actions drop down at the top.

However, existing DTs that are corrupt don’t have any bearing on new DTs.

Can you share the searches results you’ve found that suggests time outs cause persistent data corruption?

FYI – My testing just now of being logged in on one tab and actively editing a DT and logging myself out in another tab does not result in corruption.