Meterboard 2 - bugs and feature requests

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:01 am

I like your thinking Tako, but the automation is simply a unix crown job which runs a shell script with a single curl call to the same code that I am running manually. The only difference is that the manual code overrides a check to see when the script was last run. Plus, the script runs all of the challenges, so I don’t understand why for the automation the 100K is working and 200K is not.

I have a busy day ahead so I will leave it for now and let my brain mull over it while I do other stuff.

Post by **Tako** » Wed Dec 21, 2022 3:56 pm

If you are using the interface that Thomas set up for generating icons, did you remember to make it as two different ones.

Or maybeit is the order, such that it gets the two snowmen but then overwrites them with a single one as those with two are also in the search for 100k. So run 100k first and then 200k. Just some thoughts to trigger your debugging

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Wed Dec 21, 2022 4:19 pm

I'm pretty sure they are set up correctly, they were definitely working last week and are working properly in the development environment, just not in the live environment all of a sudden. I have been in a rabbit hole looking at how cron and curl work. No joy.

I have tried the nuclear option of deleting all of the results to date and resetting the challenges. Let's see what happens now. There will be no snowmen for a while until the automatic update runs - I don;t want to run the manual one at this point.

Very frustrating.

Jon

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Wed Dec 21, 2022 8:28 pm

I am still grappling with this. My latest theory (looking at logs on the server) is that the automatic update is giving up because the response times from Concept2 are very slow at the moment. This would sort of explain why it has started to happen without me having changed anything, but this is only a hypothesis at the moment. It would also explain why running the update manually works....because I am more patient than the automation system and sit for 60 seconds waiting for the update to happen,

Now I need to figure out how to prove this is the issue and how to configure the automation to be a bit more patient.

I'll keep plugging away when I have time to spare, meanwhile snowmen may or may not appear.

Jon

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Thu Dec 22, 2022 10:39 am

The more I look the more convinced that this is a problem at the Concept2 end, with slow responses meaning that the automation at our end gives up. The automation is running at the moment and is giving mixed results in both the live and test environments. The results change over time without me changing anything at all, which points to a problem that is not on our server. I will keep a watching brief and see what happens. If this is going to be an ongoing problem than we will have endless issues with the challenge icons updating in an unreliable way.

Jon

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:03 pm

Well, we live and learn. I am almost certain now that the issue with the Holiday Challenge was just slow response times from the Concept2 site. Updating the icons is still unpredictable across both the test and live environments, and I can now see the calls to C2 giving timeout errors every now and again. So, three days hunting down a problem that wasn't ours in the first place. I suspect this has been going on for a while and because it is erratic it just hasn't been spotted until now.

Post by **Draggon** » Fri Dec 23, 2022 1:06 am

JonT wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:03 pmSo, three days hunting down a problem that wasn't ours in the first place.

You don't find that kind of diligence everywhere these days...

Thanks, Jon!

plummy · Post by **plummy** » Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:06 am

Draggon wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 1:06 am
JonT wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:03 pmSo, three days hunting down a problem that wasn't ours in the first place.
You don't find that kind of diligence everywhere these days... Thanks, Jon!

100% agreed - your efforts to mine through to a solution are well appreciated Jon.

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:10 am

plummy wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:06 am 100% agreed - your efforts to mine through to a solution are well appreciated Jon.

It was a great relief to have it up and working just in time for your snowman to appear Mr P. That's what this was all about really, but you knew that already

plummy · Post by **plummy** » Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:37 pm

JonT wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:10 am
plummy wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:06 am 100% agreed - your efforts to mine through to a solution are well appreciated Jon.
It was a great relief to have it up and working just in time for your snowman to appear Mr P. That's what this was all about really, but you knew that already

You are so right and clearly know me so well...

Post by **Draggon** » Thu Apr 11, 2024 10:18 pm

Hey Jon - just curious - is there a Meterboard icon waiting in the wings for the Concept2 April Fools' Challenge? It could play a small part in whether I complete this annoying challenge or not...

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Fri Apr 12, 2024 5:50 am

Thanks for the reminder Ron. I’ll pop one in when I get back from travels. I also need to set up the Mud Season one.

Join

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Sat Apr 13, 2024 3:36 pm

JonT wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 5:50 am Thanks for the reminder Ron. I’ll pop one in when I get back from travels. I also need to set up the Mud Season one.

This is now set to add the icons when the challenge ends next week.

Jon

Post by **Draggon** » Mon Apr 15, 2024 1:43 am

JonT wrote: Sat Apr 13, 2024 3:36 pm This is now set to add the icons when the challenge ends next week.

Jon

You are The Man! I've stuck with it through today, so I guess I'll have to find a way to finish it tomorrow. Surprisingly, today's row was a little easier than yesterday's even though I went at a little faster pace.

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Sat Aug 03, 2024 9:54 am

For some reason the Meterboard is not showing the Dog Days icon if you have completed the Rowlympics. Any issues with the Meterboard fill me with dread. I'll take a look when I can.

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Sun Aug 04, 2024 11:17 am

Thanks Jon.

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Mon Aug 05, 2024 9:12 am

THanks for fixing so quickly, or did this "correct itself" when previous challenge finished? ANyway have my dog icon to keep me rowing through August as never good to lose your dog

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Mon Aug 05, 2024 9:21 am

Iain wrote: Mon Aug 05, 2024 9:12 am Thanks for fixing so quickly, or did this "correct itself" when previous challenge finished? Anyway have my dog icon to keep me rowing through August as never good to lose your dog

I fixed it this morning. The way I am wired means that I can't just let these things dwell and so I had a bash before breakfast.

Basically - I am an idiot.

I wrote a short paper when I was a PhD student called "Cut and paste considered dangerous". I had done some side-of-desk research on how errors were introduced into code and found that one of the biggest causes was where someone had copied a piece of code and then updated it. Quite often the programmer would make all of the required changes in the new code, but miss the fact that there were other parts of the code which seemed OK but actually contained content which was specific to where the code had been copied from and also needed to change.

The way the Meterboard challenges work involves copying an existing challenge and updating it. I got sloppy and missed the fact that one of the parts of the former challenge needed to be updated. I missed it and so broke the Meterboard. Annoyingly, I did remember to change it in the development environment which meant I had the situation that you don't want to find yourself in: the main website is not working, but the development environment is working fine. A game of spot-the-difference ensued with many dead ends, and eventually I found the issue.

Anyway, all is well now.

JonT · Post by **JonT** » Tue Feb 11, 2025 5:49 pm

For those of you wondering why Ian and Iain's Winter Madness row is not showing on the Meterboard - after some detective work we have discovered that the distance has been updated in Ian's logbook (which is where the event was recorded) but not in the C2 Freespirits affiliation page (which is where the Meterboard takes it's feed from).

I have never seen this before.

Mike Channin · Post by **Mike Channin** » Wed Feb 12, 2025 9:14 am

I did wonder if it would end up being attributed to whoever's ID they were rowing under.
Sounds like they broke the C2 Log!