I’m at the end of entering 30 qso’s from today’s activation and the dreaded “Object reference not set to an instance of an object” error has popped up. Please help - how do I get around it? I can back point the browser to the activation entry screen and see all the data still there but I can’t go forward without seeing the error.
Is this an issue because my login cookie timed out before I entered all the data? Or ???
73,
Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
Not a happy camper since it’s looking like all the data entered is going in the bit bucket. I still have all the data displayed in my browser pointed to SOTA Database but I can’t go forward to submit it without getting “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”, so I’m not seeing a way out.
To avoid EVER having this happen again, any recommendations on how to enter the data off-line and then upload. Is there any good software to make this easy?
Thanks & 73,
Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
I get this a lot when I enter my long logs I wait till it lets me log in again then go to where you click submit activator entry then it should come up saying if you want to carry on with your log as far as you have got.
I hope that helps
Ricky
MW6GWR
In reply to MW6GWR:
In reply to N1EU:
I get this a lot when I enter my long logs I wait till it lets me log
in again then go to where you click submit activator entry then it
should come up saying if you want to carry on with your log as far as
you got.Ricky
MW6GWR
Thanks Ricky but I don’t understand “till it lets me log in again”. I click the “Finish” button and click “I agree” on the next screen and then I get the error. I seem to be locked in a loop with just these 3 pages. I see “Welcome N1EU” in the top right.
Thanks & 73,
Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
“can you guys lengthen the timeout?”
Hear…hear! I have an online trading account with my life’s savings that has a several hour timeout. Is there a top secret security issue for SOTA that requires such a short timeout? 
73, Bill W4ZV
In reply to N1EU:
Well when I get it it takes a long time before it will load the datebase then I have to log in again then carry on from there.
Ricky
In reply to MW6GWR:
In reply to N1EU:
I get this a lot when I enter my long logs I wait till it lets me log
in again then go to where you click submit activator entry then it
should come up saying if you want to carry on with your log as far as
you got.Ricky
MW6GWR
Thanks Ricky but I don’t understand “till it lets me log in again”. I click the “Finish” button and click “I agree” on the next screen and then I get the error. I seem to be locked in a loop with just these 3 pages. I see “Welcome N1EU” in the top right.
Thanks & 73,
Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
So I scraped the screen into Excel, massaged the data and came up with a CSV file that was palatable. I’m not sure which was longer: my activation or getting the data into SOTA data.
What Bill said
73,
Barry N1EU
The timeout of the database seems to differ significantly. Sometimes like yesterday you are logged off after very short time. Not enough to have a close look at the roll of honor. Other times log off time is much longer. Seems to depend on internal load of the database.
Especially yesterday the database also crashed while I was uploading my daily chaser log (prepared offline). I logged out and came back a few minutes later and upload was ok.
There several methods to prepare the CSV-files which were discussed in the reflector. I personally export data from my log program (HamOffice) and reformat it with a self written (well mainly written by DG1NDE) tool.
73 de Michael, DB7MM
Barry,
I can’t help with the problem of a partially complete submission, but my CSV Log Editor is one of the options for compiling a CSV off-line and then uploading it:
http://www.g0lgs.co.uk/soft_info.php?AppName=sotacsveditor
Stewart G0LGS
In reply to N1EU:
You cannot lose data you have entered. If you get any kind of error when entering a log, the error will be on the last QSO you were trying to enter. All the previous entries will safe, they’re held in a “entered but not finished” table. If this happens, log in again and try to enter your log again. You will be prompted to accept the pending entries or start again. If you accept the pending entry, all your data bar the last QSO will be waiting for you to continue with.
The object reference not set error comes when you have for some reason no longer got a valid viewstate. http connections (i.e. webpages) are stateless, there is no way to store data about what you are doing in the connection. Given many people can be doing different things at the same time on the database, a mechanism called a viewstate is used to preserve important local information. The data is sent to your browser from the database. When you next do something, your browser sends the viewstate back for the database server to use. The way the viewstate gets broken varies but having multiple browser windows can cause it.
The timeout is set to 10 mins. You have 10 mins between a page being sent from the server to you requesting another page for your login to remain valid. If you go longer than this then you get logged out. Whenever I have investigated claims of quick logouts in the past, the log has showed periods of inactivity in excess of 10mins by the user. Just because I’ve never found a short logout period doesn’t mean they can’t happen, I’ve never found one yet in the log though.
The object ref error is a pain in the bum. I don’t see it myself and I’m sure this is because sub-consciously I know the expected flow of clicks a user should make and I don’t do anything unexpected. To nail this down outside of a log in error will require users to keep a track of exactly the pages they visit and clicked which is not easy.
However, you wont have lost anything but maybe the last QSO you were entering should you have to start again.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Thanks Andy. I didn’t know about the “not lost, login again and start over” option so I recreated the log in CSV and uploaded.
There was no inactivity in my data entry. I was sitting on the page, entering one qso after another. When I got near the end of entering my 30 qso’s, the error suddenly appeared after doing the “add” operation to enter that qso. Because I didn’t step away from the computer or go off and do something else or was otherwise idle AT ALL, I can’t help but question the data entry process and timeout as implemented. I say this with respect for the enormous effort and work that the MT puts in on the Web site.
73,
Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
“Thanks Andy. I didn’t know about the “not lost, login again and start over” option”
I too didn’t know about that, last year I had what sounds like similar problems to you Barry but Stewarts CSV Editor came to the rescue creating the Log offline and then uploading.
For your benefit Andy, when I had the problems it was with an old Laptop lacking in resources and at a time when the Internet connection was dodgy.
99% of the time now I use the SOTA CSV Editor mainly because I can save it as an ADIF file as well and if there is a problem with an upload I can just try again.
73,
Colin
M0XSD.
In reply to N1EU:
The object error isn’t always caused by a timeout but I haven’t got a set of actions that will reproduce it every time. As such it’s hard to get a hold on the problem. It’s more likely when you have multiple browser windows open as well.
I’ll have a look through the logs just in case something happened when you got your error. One thing that may happen is the server load gets transfered as the hosting company does load balancing on their servers. It may be related to this as we did have problems with the encryption used on the viewstate data in the past. That data is encrypted so someone can’t edit the viewstate data and pretend to be someone else etc. But that’s been fixed for over a year now.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
It’s more likely when you have multiple
browser windows open as well.
Very odd, I wonder if it’s browser dependant.
One thing that may happen is the server load gets
transfered as the hosting company does load balancing on their
servers. It may be related to this as we did have problems with the
encryption used on the viewstate data in the past.
The other possibility that occurs to me is that maybe the users IP address changes during the session due to a lease renewal, that would probably upset the servers idea of who you were.
Colin G8TMV
In reply to MM0FMF:
I’ve had this problem a few times, but it’s always due to a wrong key stroke - the system sees something totally illogical - something I’m not allowed to do -and reacts accordingly (I’m not the world’s best typist, having been accused of typing like a demented woodpecker!).
Logging in again has always allowed me to continue where I left off, as described.
Regards, Dave, G6DTN
In reply to G8TMV:
the users IP address changes
I suppose that’s possible but each POST by the user will have the cookie for login status and the viewstate sent back. So the server should be able to see it’s the same user as before. Unless the user’s IP is part of the viewstate encryption. This is all in the depths of ASP.NET, it’s not something you need to play with.
Andy
MM0FMF