Surely the account registration software should remove leading/trailing spaces from callsigns or names before entering them into the database, or into a login query? A very elementary precaution to take to prevent such mishaps as these occurring… YMMV
Hi Andy,
At least I know what the problem is now. Thanks for your help.
It seems to be an iPad/iPhone thing. I was reading of someone else who ended up with the iPad doing something bad to the login name. Apart from iPad related issues, it’s not been an issue before. I only know of one issue with an unexpected character in the name in thousands of other users.
The database code is different and does a trim() and toupper() on usernames and callsigns. That kills trailing whitespace and it then checks for a space anywhere it what remains and wont let you register if it does contain any. I added that so there are people who came before me who can have spaces embedded. The database handles it fine, I added my checks because a 3rd party app couldn’t cope.
SOTAwatch is now in it’s “EOL - legacy support” phase. It’s old crufty code that works amazingly well but is a nightmare to maintain. Jon is working on something new, written using modern whizz-bang technology that leverages the modern reactive paradigm to enable 24/7 collaborative deployment and click-centred, client-focused core-competencies and idea-sharing whilst delivering fungible, best-in-class mindshare. We’ve had excellent ROI on SOTAwatch but the quality vectors are missing in strategic theme areas which means the new code will synergise better in a covalent and cross-functional environment.
4 Likes
Andy,
Is a translation available?
73,
Rod
Can I second that? My brain 'urts!
Brian
He’s just showing off, Brian.
Technical jargon is designed to be succinct and unequivocal so as to reduce the possibility of errors. So Andy’s message is perfectly understandable to those involved in system development, but I agree is difficult for others.
Jim
OK, it should do some better checks on inputs. But it’s old code and the effort to fix exceeds the level of problems ever seen. There is a new version being written that is being written with the benefit of using technology that is 12 years newer than that used in SOTAwatch. It will better support mobile devices and programmers will be able to interact directly with it rather than jumping through hoops as they do now.
Thank you.
73,
Rod
Mick
I had precisely the same problem with my alerts for yesterday’s activations. I tracked it down to having entered my callsign with a trailing space in my SOTAGOAT config screen. After removing that space, subsequent alerts and spots from that device were all normally editable when I logged in using a browser.
it is not an IOS error, to disappoint the IOS-knockers. It is an application error that has been reported to the software developer. If the same app was running on windows, dos 3.3, linux, solaris, ubuntu, ice cream sandwich or antelope, the same error would occur if the user does not behave in precisely the way the designer expected.
If you log in to the site using a browser, any trailing spaces are stripped off the callsign field. But SOTAWATCH does not strip trailing spaces off callsigns received from 3rd party products such as sotagoat. Its designer assumed that would be done by the developer of the 3rd party product.
Interfaces are tricky. Data purification for interfacing two systems is a headache in professional circles. In Sotawatch we have a product and service that is gold. in many ways, sotawatch makes SOTA the success and pleasure it is.
Thanks to all the people who make that happen.
Andrew
vk1da
Andy
how did you type all that with your tongue lodged so firmly in your cheek?
Very impressed!
Andrew vk1da
Not enough references to clouds or the Internet of Things to be a credible statement in the modern era. 
True as far as it goes, but it can also be used intentionally to obfuscate meanings or confuse the listener:
A main driving force in the creation of technical jargon is precision and efficiency of communication when a discussion must easily range from general themes to specific, finely differentiated details without circumlocution. A side effect of this is a higher threshold for comprehensibility, which is usually accepted as a trade-off but is sometimes even used as a means of social exclusion (reinforcing ingroup-outgroup barriers) or social aspiration (when intended as a way of showing off) - Wiki
And of course, it can be used to amuse and titillate: especially when Andy uses it, 'cos he’s just a big softie 
. Right?
[quote=“VK3ARR, post:32, topic:11641”]Not enough references to[/quote]Wasn’t a bad spin for a game of buzzword bingo, though.
Buzzword bingo is a game we play during “updates and briefings” at work. The great advantage of these briefings coming by teleconferencing is we can silence the microphones at our end so the “suits” don’t hear people shouting out “bull****” when they get a line of buzzwords. 
Anyway talk of data sanitising made me think about another thing that needs fixing. It needs fixing properly but it’s only get a small amount of fixing today. There’s doing the job properly and there’s me. You’ve all got me!
Due to many tedious reasons some summits are in the database as “Divide, The” for example. The name contains a comma and quote characters. This screws up the summitslist.csv export if the field contains a comma and the code wraps such data by appending quotes to the name. This means some fields in the file are “Divide, The” and others ““Dome, Kingman’s””. The wrapping code is dumb and always appends when it sees a comma. The double double-quoted fields will cause LibreOffice 5 to complain and not load the file. As I have updated all my Linux and Windows machines to use LibreOffice 5 from OpenOffice I now need to fix this.
I’ll be pushing a database update later today.
1 Like
You’d think so but not always.
I had a right 'mare trying to log in to my utility provider account on my phone several days in a row. I had a Mr Angry of Hereford email lined up, and then I thought I wonder…
On the PC being very careful to not have a trailing space it worked.
Back to phone wouldn’t work. Eh?
What was happening was as I had typed the username in several times my dictionary was offering it to me as a known word and adding a space ready for the next word to type. The form was counting the trailing space.
Hitting a backspace to take it away and I was in.
As admin of a photo forum another good one is people who sign up and put a full stop in when they do. Then don’t when they try to login next…
-aah, that’s one of my pet hates, Steve 
- “If I want a space, I’ll put it in myself, ta very much.” Nobody listens, of course … 
…
1 Like
Have you been working for my employer… it’s the sort of thing I hear every day 
TBH, I had to look up what “fungible” meant.
1 Like
My Director uses that at least monthly. I had to look it up first time he said it too…