Admin Auto-Logout

Michael · November 2008

Can I see a show of hands if the forced logout has caused you, or your staff, much moaning and gnashing of teeth? :_|

I'm curious because, our content writers and editors in particular while messing about in emails, have all voiced a good bit of frustration. Yes... they should click Save all the time, but if they don't and the logout monster comes, they've lost anything they've done and haven't yet saved. The problem is, typing in the WYSIWYG doesn't constitute activity, so Convio assumes you're session is inactive and kills you after 25 minutes.

Has anyone other than me come up with a viable Keep-Alive mechanism? Just curious what other solutions people have come up with might be.

-mike

Paul McFate 2 · November 2008

We are suffering as you are, so far with no slick workaround. I submitted a bug and insisted that they submit it as a feature upgrade (which they did) as follows:

1. Record all keystrokes as browser activity.

2. Activity in any browser window keeps all browser windows alive.

3. Provide a "Save" warning before forced logout in all instances.

I asked about this at the summit. The forced logout is a security requirement. Perhaps if more of us ask for this feature upgrade we will get it sooner. I showed this to their UI specialist. She was quite surprised about the lack of warning.

Michael · November 2008

Paul McFate:
We are suffering as you are, so far with no slick workaround. I submitted a bug and insisted that they submit it as a feature upgrade (which they did) as follows:

1. Record all keystrokes as browser activity.

2. Activity in any browser window keeps all browser windows alive.

3. Provide a "Save" warning before forced logout in all instances.

I asked about this at the summit. The forced logout is a security requirement. Perhaps if more of us ask for this feature upgrade we will get it sooner. I showed this to their UI specialist. She was quite surprised about the lack of warning.

Firing an event on every keystroke back and forth to the server would be extraordinarily intense from an overhead perspective and doing things with JavaScript from one peer window to another (as opposed to windows with parent/child relationships) is also rather tricky. The Save warning is a good idea though, and should have been part of the original spec.

I think a color coded timer would be in order, up at the top, or something, that goes from Green to Red as it counts down and shows the current idle time (which would start from 25 minutes every time the page reloads). On it there is a Renew button you can click and all it does is reset the JavaScript setTimeout function that actually runs the evil little Log Back In box and it pings the server with an AJAX request to renew the session. When you get past 20 minutes, a gnome can jump out and... no, that's a bad idea.

I have embedded a javaScript in our admin pages that basically does this, except it doesn't have a box or button, it just pings the server every 5 minutes. The Log Me In box still jumps up, but all you have to do is click the X and your golden. The way Convio coded the setTimeout that runs that box doesn't allow for it to be disabled (they neglected to supply it with a timeoutID), or I'd have eliminated the box altogether. Rather than a blatant hack that gets around a legitimate security feature, maybe I'll write something like that instead But, I still can't properly implement it because of the way the Log Back In box is implemented.. So, until there is movement on that part, I'll leave things as they are I guess.

David Hart · December 2008

I understand the frustration, and we will definitely be doing something to track WYSIWYG activity in the client and send a keep-alive periodically back to the server to prevent this. I'll see what I can do to get this work accelerated.

One thing y'all may not be aware of is that whenever we do a patch or software upgrade, we take an application server at a time out of the rotation for accepting new sessions and then wait for all the active sessions to complete on that application server before upgrading it. This lets us minimize the disruption to you. If you leave something continuously pinging the server, it makes life more difficult for our IT team (who have a very tough life already) as they will bend over backwards to not kill an active administrator.

Michael · December 2008

DavidHart :
I understand the frustration, and we will definitely be doing something to track WYSIWYG activity in the client and send a keep-alive periodically back to the server to prevent this. I'll see what I can do to get this work accelerated.

One thing y'all may not be aware of is that whenever we do a patch or software upgrade, we take an application server at a time out of the rotation for accepting new sessions and then wait for all the active sessions to complete on that application server before upgrading it. This lets us minimize the disruption to you. If you leave something continuously pinging the server, it makes life more difficult for our IT team (who have a very tough life already) as they will bend over backwards to not kill an active administrator.

mmm. point taken. I would imagine when updates are being run, most are not done durring normal business hours, at least not the more risky/expansive ones anyway. Still, as you say, there is more here than just a security concern and as always there's a line to walk...

While sending a ping onkeypress would be crazy, simpling setting a timestamp for last keypress wouldn't be much overhead, or particularly difficult. The keep-alive script could check the timestamp of last keypress before it actually fires off the GET and if the last keypress was more than x minutes (my keep alive fires every 600000ms -- 10 minutes) ago, then it clears the interval and stops the keep-alive routine completely, until the page reloads. If that is more than an additional 15 minutes, then the session will drop....

If only the setTimeout in the Convio JS had a timeout ID value attached to it: var timeoutID = setTimeout(....) rather than just setTimeout(...) then my script could be a complete solution

Michael · December 2008

Michael :
mmm. point taken. I would imagine when updates are being run, most are not done durring normal business hours, at least not the more risky/expansive ones anyway. Still, as you say, there is more here than just a security concern and as always there's a line to walk...

While sending a ping onkeypress would be crazy, simpling setting a timestamp for last keypress wouldn't be much overhead, or particularly difficult. The keep-alive script could check the timestamp of last keypress before it actually fires off the GET and if the last keypress was more than x minutes (my keep alive fires every 600000ms -- 10 minutes) ago, then it clears the interval and stops the keep-alive routine completely, until the page reloads. If that is more than an additional 15 minutes, then the session will drop....

If only the setTimeout in the Convio JS had a timeout ID value attached to it: var timeoutID = setTimeout(....) rather than just setTimeout(...) then my script could be a complete solution

For community consideration:

It's currently configured specifically for CARE's admin instance, so if you want to implement you'll need to make some minor adjustments (and host it on your own site).

I implemented this on our site by adding the HTML snippet (which happens to be included in this JS file) to the SDP: SITE_ADMIN_LOGO_IMAGE. Then, I uploaded the JS file to our customer FTP site, and there you go. The biggest problem I had at first was that I didn't know how to use MooTools (I prefer another library to that one...).

What this script basically does is, every 10 minutes, it sends a GET request via an AJAX call to the site's About page (Help > About). Can't do asyc to an image -- that doesn't seem to maintain session properly. In additional, this script also monitors every keystroke you make and keeps track of the timestamp (it's not recording anything but the time though, it doesn't pay attention to WHAT key you press, only that you pressed a key). Then, every 10 minutes before it sends a keepalive ping, it checks when your last keystroke was. If it was longer than 10 minutes ago -- that is, prior to the last keepalive -- then it disables itself under the assumption that your browser has been abandoned for real. The little message at the top between your little home link and the logo updates to indicated it's disabled. All you have to do is reload the page to re-enable the script automatically. It will not disable itself while you are actively typing on a page, but not changing the page itself.

Right now, the box will still pop up after 20 minutes. Until Convio adds an ID to the function they use to do that, I can't do anything in my script about that. Just click the X, don't click log back in. In IE, you might get another JS error from the Convio script choking a little, but no error seems to come in FF. Either way, just keep doing what you're doing.

Convio is looking at placing an ID on the timeout function they use to display that log back in box. When they do, I'll update this script to integrate with that and turn on and off it's use based on activity.

I welcome any comments!

Michael · January 2009

Michael :
For community consideration:

It's currently configured specifically for CARE's admin instance, so if you want to implement you'll need to make some minor adjustments (and host it on your own site).

I implemented this on our site by adding the HTML snippet (which happens to be included in this JS file) to the SDP: SITE_ADMIN_LOGO_IMAGE. Then, I uploaded the JS file to our customer FTP site, and there you go. The biggest problem I had at first was that I didn't know how to use MooTools (I prefer another library to that one...).

What this script basically does is, every 10 minutes, it sends a GET request via an AJAX call to the site's About page (Help > About). Can't do asyc to an image -- that doesn't seem to maintain session properly. In additional, this script also monitors every keystroke you make and keeps track of the timestamp (it's not recording anything but the time though, it doesn't pay attention to WHAT key you press, only that you pressed a key). Then, every 10 minutes before it sends a keepalive ping, it checks when your last keystroke was. If it was longer than 10 minutes ago -- that is, prior to the last keepalive -- then it disables itself under the assumption that your browser has been abandoned for real. The little message at the top between your little home link and the logo updates to indicated it's disabled. All you have to do is reload the page to re-enable the script automatically. It will not disable itself while you are actively typing on a page, but not changing the page itself.

Right now, the box will still pop up after 20 minutes. Until Convio adds an ID to the function they use to do that, I can't do anything in my script about that. Just click the X, don't click log back in. In IE, you might get another JS error from the Convio script choking a little, but no error seems to come in FF. Either way, just keep doing what you're doing.

Convio is looking at placing an ID on the timeout function they use to display that log back in box. When they do, I'll update this script to integrate with that and turn on and off it's use based on activity.

I welcome any comments!

I've updated the original script I posted quite a bit since:

https://my.care.org/care/apps/keepalive/keepalive-1.3.3.js

Additional features since previous 1.2.1 was posted:

1. Ability to restart the keep alive process if it drops off by button click rather than page reload.

2. Script pays attention to the time between when it was disabled and when you click the reactivate button, if it's too long, the page reloads instead and if your session really is expired, you'll have to log in again.

3 Hooks into the existing Convio script and displays their Log Back In box when too long a time (25 minutes) has gone since last detected activity -- so, when the script flips to reload mode instead, it also pops up the familiar box.

Note: Convio has not modifed it's JavaScript to include timout IDs. I've submitted a support request, and when that change happens, this script will be able to stop the internal Convio script from showing the Log Back In box at all.

Anyway, there you go.

Nathan Allen 2 · January 2009

Michael :
I've updated the original script I posted quite a bit since:

https://my.care.org/care/apps/keepalive/keepalive-1.3.3.js

Additional features since previous 1.2.1 was posted:

1. Ability to restart the keep alive process if it drops off by button click rather than page reload.

2. Script pays attention to the time between when it was disabled and when you click the reactivate button, if it's too long, the page reloads instead and if your session really is expired, you'll have to log in again.

3 Hooks into the existing Convio script and displays their Log Back In box when too long a time (25 minutes) has gone since last detected activity -- so, when the script flips to reload mode instead, it also pops up the familiar box.

Note: Convio has not modifed it's JavaScript to include timout IDs. I've submitted a support request, and when that change happens, this script will be able to stop the internal Convio script from showing the Log Back In box at all.

Anyway, there you go.

Wow... very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Michael · January 2009

A new version:

Updated by request to also listen for mouse click events -- some users, rather than typing, do a lot of copy-paste work and (at least in IE) Ctrl-C and V doesn't seem to register as a keypress. I added a listener for mouse clicks as well.

The only thing so far people have reported not working well with this script is that sometimes the Log Back In box comes up right after closing it. Near as I can tell, that happens when the official Convio one pops up on it's normal schedule. It seems random, but it's really not. The reason and fix for this is already well documented, I'm still wait to hear from Convio on that.

michele 2 · February 2009

Michael :
A new version:

Updated by request to also listen for mouse click events -- some users, rather than typing, do a lot of copy-paste work and (at least in IE) Ctrl-C and V doesn't seem to register as a keypress. I added a listener for mouse clicks as well.

The only thing so far people have reported not working well with this script is that sometimes the Log Back In box comes up right after closing it. Near as I can tell, that happens when the official Convio one pops up on it's normal schedule. It seems random, but it's really not. The reason and fix for this is already well documented, I'm still wait to hear from Convio on that.

After successfully navigating a multitask day - conscientiously hitting Save throughout the day navigating team raiser set up - (with the tiny HTML screen and the long required scroll down to the Save buttons) -- I got a phone call and missed the timing and boom lost a particularly involved piece of work. This timing out thing - would make me think twice about recommending the Convio platform - it causes too much productivity loss and frustration - as people don't work without interruptions, distractions will always lead to losses from timeouts.

This workaround is something we really need but it is not clear to me how to do it - Where do you navigate to to insert this script?

Michael · February 2009

michele :
After successfully navigating a multitask day - conscientiously hitting Save throughout the day navigating team raiser set up - (with the tiny HTML screen and the long required scroll down to the Save buttons) -- I got a phone call and missed the timing and boom lost a particularly involved piece of work. This timing out thing - would make me think twice about recommending the Convio platform - it causes too much productivity loss and frustration - as people don't work without interruptions, distractions will always lead to losses from timeouts.

This workaround is something we really need but it is not clear to me how to do it - Where do you navigate to to insert this script?

Sorry, I use FireFox, which will display the contents of .js files as plain text (same with css, etc)... I forgot that IE actually tries to execute the code. Silly IE.

Here's a ZIP version you can download:

If you don't happen to have access to modify the SDP: "SITE_ADMIN_LOGO_IMAGE" you may need to talk to either support or you account rep for help. Also, if you don't have access to your FTP site, or you don't have another place to upload JS file too, you'll need to figure a way to do that as well since the whole script can't fit in the SDP field itself.

Finally, I noticed the implementation notes located at the very bottom of that file we a little old, so I updated them. In case you see this before Convio updates it's cache, here's what it should say:

Implementation Notes: Add the following HTML to the SITE_ADMIN_LOGO_IMAGE Site data field in Site Setup. Include it as the very first thing in the SDP field, above whatever might already be there. Below is the entire contents of that parameter in the CARE instance. Only the <SCRIPT> element needs to be added to yours, not the whole thing. The path to your JS file, of course, will need to be changed from what appears below. <script type="text/javascript" src="https://my.care.org/care/apps/keepalive/keepalive-1.3.5.js"></script> <div style="background-color: #000000; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px"><img src="/care/images/content/pagebuilder/11867.jpg" border="0" /> </div>

Also, it occurs me to that the margin styles in that DIV make it a little less cramped since this script does write a bunch of stuff out at the top of your page. You can tweak as needed to make it fit of course.

If anyone has any suggestions, bug reports, or complaints related to this script, please put them in this thread -- I welcome all feedback.

Brian Mucha · December 2009

Michael :
Sorry, I use FireFox, which will display the contents of .js files as plain text (same with css, etc)... I forgot that IE actually tries to execute the code. Silly IE.

Here's a ZIP version you can download:

If you don't happen to have access to modify the SDP: "SITE_ADMIN_LOGO_IMAGE" you may need to talk to either support or you account rep for help. Also, if you don't have access to your FTP site, or you don't have another place to upload JS file too, you'll need to figure a way to do that as well since the whole script can't fit in the SDP field itself.

Finally, I noticed the implementation notes located at the very bottom of that file we a little old, so I updated them. In case you see this before Convio updates it's cache, here's what it should say:

Implementation Notes: Add the following HTML to the SITE_ADMIN_LOGO_IMAGE Site data field in Site Setup. Include it as the very first thing in the SDP field, above whatever might already be there. Below is the entire contents of that parameter in the CARE instance. Only the <SCRIPT> element needs to be added to yours, not the whole thing. The path to your JS file, of course, will need to be changed from what appears below. <script type="text/javascript" src="https://my.care.org/care/apps/keepalive/keepalive-1.3.5.js"></script> <div style="background-color: #000000; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px"><img src="/care/images/content/pagebuilder/11867.jpg" border="0" /> </div>

Also, it occurs me to that the margin styles in that DIV make it a little less cramped since this script does write a bunch of stuff out at the top of your page. You can tweak as needed to make it fit of course.

If anyone has any suggestions, bug reports, or complaints related to this script, please put them in this thread -- I welcome all feedback.

In the KeepAlive JS Script, do we need to change line 37 to refer to our own account?

var Path = "https://secure3.convio.net/YOURNAME/admin/AdminHomePage";

Regards, BPM

Michael · December 2009

Brian Mucha:
In the KeepAlive JS Script, do we need to change line 37 to refer to our own account?

var Path = "https://secure3.convio.net/YOURNAME/admin/AdminHomePage";

Regards, BPM

Yes -- that URL should reflect your Convio instance's URL (so if you're on secure2 or something you'll need to change that as well). It's the URL for your Convio Administrator site, not your public-facing pages in case you happen to use a custom hostname. in CARE's case, that looks like https://secure3.convio.net/care/admin/AdminHomePage, in your case, it might be something different like https://secure2.convio.net/ORGNAME/admin/AdminHomePage or whatever.

Brian Mucha · December 2009

Brian Mucha:
In the KeepAlive JS Script, do we need to change line 37 to refer to our own account?

var Path = "https://secure3.convio.net/YOURNAME/admin/AdminHomePage";

Regards, BPM

I updated our script to refer to our site, and also added color to the Disable/RE-Enable links.

    function KeepAliveRequest(kill){

        KeepAliveDEBUG("KeepAliveRequest Sent: " + LastPing);

        if(KeepAliveActive){

            LastPing = new Date();

            var Path = "https://secure3.convio.net/YOURSITE/admin/AdminHomePage";

            var Args = "pagename=adminabout&mfc_popup=true";

            var TimeDif = window.LastPing.getTime() - window.LastStroke.getTime();

            if(TimeDif < window.KeepAliveDuration && !kill){

                var KeepAliveRequestObj = new XHR({method: 'get', onSuccess:KeepAliveUpdater}).send(Path,Args);

               $("keepalivesession").innerHTML = "Keep-Alive Active: " + LastPing + " :: Current ping rate: 1 every " + ((KeepAliveDuration / 1000) / 60) + " minutes -- ";

            }

            else{

                LastPing = new Date();

                clearInterval(window.KeepAliveID);

                var KeepAliveRequestObj = new XHR({method: 'get', onSuccess:KeepAliveUpdater}).send(Path,Args);

               $("keepalivesession").innerHTML = "Keep-Alive <b><font color=\\"#ff0000\\">Disabled</font></b> at " + LastPing + " <div><b>NOTE: You will be required to log in if you've been idle for more than " + ((ForceKillDuration / 1000) / 60) + " minutes since the time indicated.</b></div>";

                $("keepalivekeys").style.display = "none";

                KeepAliveActive = false;

               KeepAliveKillDialogID = setTimeout(keepAliveString,ForceKillDuration); //Activates built-in Convio Keep Alive dialog

            }

        }

    }

The color tags in the script above in combination with the following in the site logo field gives the keep-alive status text at the top of each page a much less intrusive light blue on blue color. (I just wasn't able to color that link from this div style for some reason.)

Regards, BPM

Paul McFate 2 · December 2009

DavidHart :
I understand the frustration, and we will definitely be doing something to track WYSIWYG activity in the client and send a keep-alive periodically back to the server to prevent this. I'll see what I can do to get this work accelerated.

One thing y'all may not be aware of is that whenever we do a patch or software upgrade, we take an application server at a time out of the rotation for accepting new sessions and then wait for all the active sessions to complete on that application server before upgrading it. This lets us minimize the disruption to you. If you leave something continuously pinging the server, it makes life more difficult for our IT team (who have a very tough life already) as they will bend over backwards to not kill an active administrator.

Dave:

Is there any progress on this issue with Convio? It has been about a year.

Mindy Hiteshue · January 2010

Brian Mucha:
I updated our script to refer to our site, and also added color to the Disable/RE-Enable links.

    function KeepAliveRequest(kill){

        KeepAliveDEBUG("KeepAliveRequest Sent: " + LastPing);

        if(KeepAliveActive){

            LastPing = new Date();

            var Path = "https://secure3.convio.net/YOURSITE/admin/AdminHomePage";

            var Args = "pagename=adminabout&mfc_popup=true";

            var TimeDif = window.LastPing.getTime() - window.LastStroke.getTime();

            if(TimeDif < window.KeepAliveDuration && !kill){

                var KeepAliveRequestObj = new XHR({method: 'get', onSuccess:KeepAliveUpdater}).send(Path,Args);

               $("keepalivesession").innerHTML = "Keep-Alive Active: " + LastPing + " :: Current ping rate: 1 every " + ((KeepAliveDuration / 1000) / 60) + " minutes -- ";

            }

            else{

                LastPing = new Date();

                clearInterval(window.KeepAliveID);

                var KeepAliveRequestObj = new XHR({method: 'get', onSuccess:KeepAliveUpdater}).send(Path,Args);

               $("keepalivesession").innerHTML = "Keep-Alive <b><font color=\\"#ff0000\\">Disabled</font></b> at " + LastPing + " <div><b>NOTE: You will be required to log in if you've been idle for more than " + ((ForceKillDuration / 1000) / 60) + " minutes since the time indicated.</b></div>";

                $("keepalivekeys").style.display = "none";

                KeepAliveActive = false;

               KeepAliveKillDialogID = setTimeout(keepAliveString,ForceKillDuration); //Activates built-in Convio Keep Alive dialog

            }

        }

    }

The color tags in the script above in combination with the following in the site logo field gives the keep-alive status text at the top of each page a much less intrusive light blue on blue color. (I just wasn't able to color that link from this div style for some reason.)

<div style="color: #c6d9e9;">

    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://secure3.convio.net/YOURSITE/js/keepalive-1.3.5.js"></script>

</div>

Regards, BPM

Thanks so much for this!!! I'm really impressed. I tried to install it--but I'm wondering, am I supposed to be able to see the script tag at the top of the screen when I'm logged into the admin page? And why is there an <img src> tag when I don't actually see an image? I tried using our logo image link and it doesn't seem to work...

Mindy

Brian Mucha · January 2010

Mindy Hiteshue:
Thanks so much for this!!! I'm really impressed. I tried to install it--but I'm wondering, am I supposed to be able to see the script tag at the top of the screen when I'm logged into the admin page? And why is there an <img src> tag when I don't actually see an image? I tried using our logo image link and it doesn't seem to work...

Mindy

No you shouldn't see that tag. You must have made a mistake customizing the script itself to refer to YOUR site, or else in the Site Settings field.

Here's what is in my settings field.

</div>

I leave the image out so that there is less dead space in that masthead. I already know what my logo looks like!

If you want one I think it should look something like this...

</div>

Mindy Hiteshue · January 2010

Brian Mucha:
No you shouldn't see that tag. You must have made a mistake customizing the script itself to refer to YOUR site, or else in the Site Settings field.

Here's what is in my settings field.

<div style="color: #C6D9E9;">

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://secure3.convio.net/cmf/js/keepalive-1.3.5.js"></script>

</div>

I leave the image out so that there is less dead space in that masthead. I already know what my logo looks like!

If you want one I think it should look something like this...

<img style="margin: 5px 0 0 10px;" src="../_resources-new/images/logo-hfl.gif" /><br/>

<div style="color: #C6D9E9;">

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://secure3.convio.net/cmf/js/keepalive-1.3.5.js"></script>

</div>

This is what mine looks like. I like the idea of leaving out the image. Just not sure where I went wrong. Should the URL for the line below just be where I've uploaded my js file to (which in my case i http://www.ncconservationnetwork.org/convio_keep_alive)?

Michael · January 2010

Mindy Hiteshue:
Thanks so much for this!!! I'm really impressed. I tried to install it--but I'm wondering, am I supposed to be able to see the script tag at the top of the screen when I'm logged into the admin page? And why is there an <img src> tag when I don't actually see an image? I tried using our logo image link and it doesn't seem to work...

Mindy

no, you shouldn't see any html tags showing up at the top. Probably you've left a quote off, or didn't close a tag or something. copy and paste everything in that SDP field into a text editor and verify the HTML is correct.

//EDIT

Oh - or make sure you have a </script> after the script element -- with JavaScript you have to have a </script> no matter what.

Mindy Hiteshue · January 2010

Mindy Hiteshue:
Thanks so much for this!!! I'm really impressed. I tried to install it--but I'm wondering, am I supposed to be able to see the script tag at the top of the screen when I'm logged into the admin page? And why is there an <img src> tag when I don't actually see an image? I tried using our logo image link and it doesn't seem to work...

Mindy

Thanks guys! I think I figured it out with your help. I don't have the weird text up there anymore.

Brian Mucha · March 2010

Paul McFate:
Dave:

Is there any progress on this issue with Convio? It has been about a year.

I believe the winter update broke the lovely keep-alive script. Sigh.

Regards, BPM

Mindy Hiteshue · March 2010

Brian Mucha:
I believe the winter update broke the lovely keep-alive script. Sigh.

Regards, BPM

Ugh. Really? I have been getting a lot of complaints about people being logged out after just a few minutes (less than 5). Apparently, they hit save on what they're working on and then they are taken back to the login screen. What is going on? Ahhhhhh!

Brian Mucha · March 2010

Brian Mucha:
I believe the winter update broke the lovely keep-alive script. Sigh.

Regards, BPM

Doesn't seem as short as five minutes for us (though it seems like it!) but I do have to log back in well short of the 25 minutes since last activity. I'm going to pay closer attention as see what the deal is.

Regards, BPM

Edit:

So I let the pings expire, telling me there was 25 minutes left from last activity. After 20 minutes I reenabled the ping script. Five minutes after that my session expired.

Michael · March 2010

Brian Mucha:
I believe the winter update broke the lovely keep-alive script. Sigh.

Regards, BPM

Curses... I'll see what I can do....

ajones · March 2010

Brian Mucha:
Doesn't seem as short as five minutes for us (though it seems like it!) but I do have to log back in well short of the 25 minutes since last activity. I'm going to pay closer attention as see what the deal is.

Regards, BPM

Edit:

So I let the pings expire, telling me there was 25 minutes left from last activity. After 20 minutes I reenabled the ping script. Five minutes after that my session expired.

Brian, et al,

Do y'all get a timeout warning message, or do you get time out without a warning? The warning is a dialog very similar to the timed-out dialog, but with button choices as "Continue Working" (which resets the timer) or "Log Out".

Brian Mucha · March 2010

ajones :
Brian, et al,

Do y'all get a timeout warning message, or do you get time out without a warning? The warning is a dialog very similar to the timed-out dialog, but with button choices as "Continue Working" (which resets the timer) or "Log Out".

Just a timeout, I believe. Trying again to confirm.

ajones · March 2010

Brian Mucha:
Just a timeout, I believe. Trying again to confirm.

If you don't get a warning, it's definitely a bug. If any of y'all have an existing support case ID, let me know what it is and I'll make sure the powers that be at least are aware of that fact.

Michael · March 2010

ajones :
Brian, et al,

Do y'all get a timeout warning message, or do you get time out without a warning? The warning is a dialog very similar to the timed-out dialog, but with button choices as "Continue Working" (which resets the timer) or "Log Out".

The way the keepalive.js script is engineered, it will use whatever Convio has set it's internal popup to display content and function-wise. The trick is, because of a long-standing bug in the way the JavaScript is written on the Convio site, this keep alive script CANNOT stop the built-in Convio one from working the first time around. The fix is super easy (not to meaning a best-practice in JavaScript development), but it never seems to make it into any Convio releases. When I mean super easy, I really do mean super easy and without any possible risk of breaking other functionality. It's pretty irksome that the fix hasn't been put in -- probably because they don't consider this a problem -- which it is. (anyway).

The upshot is that you'll still get the box -- just click the X to close it and keep working. The Keepalive script will automatically disable itself if you don't change pages, press a key or click a mouse on anything in the Convio window for a period longer than 25 minutes. If you have the UI enabled in your version of the script, you can click the Enable link to start it back up, otherwise it will only restart if you click a link or refresh the page.

I've posted a new version that contains a bugfix that fixes an issue where it would sometime disable itself after a few itterations regardless of activity.

https://my.care.org/care/apps/keepalive/keepalive-1.3.9.js

Michael · March 2010

ajones :
If you don't get a warning, it's definitely a bug. If any of y'all have an existing support case ID, let me know what it is and I'll make sure the powers that be at least are aware of that fact.

Anyone using the script described in this page is using a hack I developed to workaround a common problem in Convio that Convio has never been interested in addressing -- let me repeat: it's a hack. Convio support probably would have a hard time figuring out what's going on since this script is intentionally designed to interfere with default Convio admin interface functionality (broken functionality that hurts, rather than helps Convio Clients... but default functionality nonetheless).

I have a case open, though I just realized Support arbitrarily closed it........ It's case number 00210511

Brian Mucha · March 2010

Michael :
The way the keepalive.js script is engineered, it will use whatever Convio has set it's internal popup to display content and function-wise. The trick is, because of a long-standing bug in the way the JavaScript is written on the Convio site, this keep alive script CANNOT stop the built-in Convio one from working the first time around. The fix is super easy (not to meaning a best-practice in JavaScript development), but it never seems to make it into any Convio releases. When I mean super easy, I really do mean super easy and without any possible risk of breaking other functionality. It's pretty irksome that the fix hasn't been put in -- probably because they don't consider this a problem -- which it is. (anyway).

The upshot is that you'll still get the box -- just click the X to close it and keep working. The Keepalive script will automatically disable itself if you don't change pages, press a key or click a mouse on anything in the Convio window for a period longer than 25 minutes. If you have the UI enabled in your version of the script, you can click the Enable link to start it back up, otherwise it will only restart if you click a link or refresh the page.

I've posted a new version that contains a bugfix that fixes an issue where it would sometime disable itself after a few itterations regardless of activity.

https://my.care.org/care/apps/keepalive/keepalive-1.3.9.js

I just confirmed again Michael.

Left Convio alone for a while, the JS still indicated it was pinging every 10 minutes. Then clicked a nav link and was brought to the login screen. Session expired despite the pings.

Michael · March 2010

Brian Mucha:
I just confirmed again Michael.

Left Convio alone for a while, the JS still indicated it was pinging every 10 minutes. Then clicked a nav link and was brought to the login screen. Session expired despite the pings.

What web browser are you using?

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