ListMailPRO Email Marketing Software Forums
ListMailPRO Email Marketing Software Forums => Development, Suggestions => Topic started by: gluntz on August 04, 2005, 08:06:14 am
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We are seeing an increase in the number of users who, when attempting to unsubscribe, tell us either:
a. Their record does not exist
b. It brings up someone else's email address
I took a specific request and logged into phpAdmin to query the lm_users table. It highlighted what seems to be the origin of the problem, but I don't know why or how it can be fixed. Seems to be a bug in ListMailPro. Here is the scenario:
1. I entered ListMail Admin and in this case found the record, but it showed as Removed (strange, because the user recev ied an email from us and tried to unsub. She retrieved a record for another user, so did not continue).
2. When I queried on the the user's email addres in phpMyAdmin, I retrieved a record that showed the correct person, name, etc. So far, so good.
3. However, I looked at the email source to get the UID, since that is the key for the unsub request. It returned UID=83a4429.
4. So, I queried lm_users on that field and guess what? It retrieed ANOTHER user's record(s). (Actually, it found four records with that UID - same person, why??)
In essence, it appears the root of the problem is in the creation of the email. We use the standard !remove field, and yet it is adding an incorrect UID. Hence the erratic results.
ONE ITEM TO NOTE:
We never had this problem until some 4 - 8 weeks back. This was AFTER we installed the latest version AND we use the feature to combine lists to do a mailing (that is, setting up Queries). So - is it possible the bug lies in this area???
Please advise ASAP.
George
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Hi,
So, I queried lm_users on that field and guess what? It retrieed ANOTHER user's record(s). (Actually, it found four records with that UID - same person, why??)
This is very troubling. I am currently using the previous version which does NOT allow query building, one of the advantages to me moving to the new version which I plan on doing soon is using the User Select (query builder).
If this is the cause of the problem I'd sure like to know, DW, do you have any ideas as to why this is happening? If it is query related please keep us informed on when you may have a fix for this? I suggest you login to this users account if you need to duplicate the problem....
Good luck and please let us all know what you find the solution is for this problem...
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Thanks for the excellent info - I hope to fix this immediately!
Okay, so the problem is in creation of the email and/or processing of message codes.
I have a few questions: How large is the list you are mailing? Do the same email addresses sometimes appear on many lists? Do you insert any users with a custom script which might create duplicate UIDs? Are you using SMTP for sending or internal PHP mail()?
I need to reproduce the symptoms to be able to provide a fix. Do you have any idea how to start this happening on a clean install. Probably not, huh - that's the tough one for me to figure out... :P
Regards
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DW,
You should probably contact George off-list ASAP, get all of the info directly and get this sorted out - let us ALL know up here by posting when you have it fixed, as I won't be able to move over to the new version until I know 100% for sure that this is fixed... :)
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George would you be willing to submit your server info (http://listmailpro.com/support?t=other) so I can look at this on your installation? The answers to my last post's questions would also be useful. Whether I hear from you or not I will see if I can recreate the problem in the next day or two.
Regards
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DW,
Please let us know ASAP what you find out about this... I will not be able to run v. 1.8 knowing that this could be a huge problem. I appreciate the work you've done on LMP and this Query feature is one of the very best, to not know if it works properly would cause huge problems for me in how I email my list.
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"I have a few questions: How large is the list you are mailing? Do the same email addresses sometimes appear on many lists? Do you insert any users with a custom script which might create duplicate UIDs? Are you using SMTP for sending or internal PHP mail()?"
Dean:
1. We are combining lists that range from a few hundred names to 50,000 names. This particular one had 3 or 4 lists, largest of which was 4,700 names.
2. Yes - emails do appear in multiple lists, and we do select the option to cull duplicates.
3. No custom script - standard !remove.
4. We are using internal PHP mail().
I submitted our site info for you to use - with discretion and security, of course.
George
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George,
Ultimately, I'm going to have to recreate the error on my own, without using your server, but your answers do help a great deal - thanks. I have one further question in response to your answer #3 - I was inquiring as to whether you had INSERTed users with a custom script (or ListMail plugin). I'm not sure why you refer to the !remove code in your reply - you probably read the question wrong.
One more question, you state that you select the option to cull duplicates. I assume you are speaking about the "filter duplicates" option in User Selection. The user selection feature could have something to do with this. Since I have access to your installation, can you tell me the names of some of your saved selections that you have emailed and run into this problem with?
Regards
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Dean,
1. Yep - I mean "filter duplicates" :D
2. Never used scripts to add identities.
3. Selections that we have used and where we know the symptoms have shown up are:
UTI/Candidate Customers
ADD/ADHD Special List
Hope this helps!
George
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Testing 8)
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Okay, after some useless tests with rem.php I considered your original post more thoroughly. You state that many users have the same UID. I logged into your PhpMyAdmin and verified that this is indeed true. I am confident that this is the problem. It would appear that ListMail is creating users with non-unique IDs. I'm going to run some tests to see why this might be happening.
As for a fix for current users, I can write a script that will go through your database and change duplicate UIDs to a unique one. Your users whose UID has changed will notice upon the next mailing (and their remove links will work).
Regards
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This MySQL command displaying duplicate IDs and the counts for each ID appears to be the best I can get:
SELECT count(*) AS cnt FROM `lm_users` WHERE 1 group by uid order by cnt desc
One UID is duplicated 57 times :?
I'll work on that script to fix your users for you now. If I can recreate the problem importing large lists on my own test installation I will issue a ListMail update.
Regards
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Please stand by... The problem has been confirmed on my own test installation - it seems to affect everyone. I'm going to have to issue a database update that might take awhile for those with many users.. :x
I might run a test to see if this problem also plagued v1.77 members, as the process was practically the same.. Perhaps there were simply more collisions in v1.81 so it was more noticeable.
I am working on it - I will issue a general update ASAP!
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I have verified that this is a v1.8x-specific bug. The bug only affects imported users. It came about when I added the "signup-xtra.php" capability to the import process along with the welcome and confirmation emails. To use signup-xtra.php I needed to define the MySQL link variable in MySQL-specific functions to keep the script working in case signup-xtra.php contained additional database connection routines. The problem was that I defined the MySQL link variable in the mysql_num_rows() PHP function used to determine if a UID already exists. This function does not require the MySQL link definition and adding it resulted in an unexpected response. As a result, ListMail was not detecting any existing UIDs to ensure that the created UID was unique.
Now that the problem is solved and I have optimized UID creation I will be working on the upgrade/fix.
Regards
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Alright! I have released v1.82 (http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=827.0) as a fix for this issue. Phew! :P
Regards
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Dean
I upgraded to v1.82 on one host - appeared to be fine.
Repeated on a 2nd host and got 'Could not select database
MySQL Error: Access denied for user: 'XXX@localhost' to database 'YYY'
Any thoughts? The first host has only a handful of lists, the faulty one probably 50 lists. Unfortunately, this dbase was created before they switched to a new system and it's no longer visible in my control panel - though it has been working fine for 6 months.
thanks
Laurie
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Hi DW,
I have verified that this is a v1.8x-specific bug.
Whew... that's a strange one, well, I guess I can finally count on an upgrade now to 1.8x, is everyone certain this bug is fixed, GLUNTZ, has it solved your problem?
Congrats on the fix DW, that was fast, and encouraging!
Keep up the great work on LMP!
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Wouldn't you know I made a small mistake and you should re-download v1.82 as per my 2nd email... :x :oops:
Basically, after I made the fix I un-did it so I could test the upgrade process - I then released the files before re-doing the fix... I have (again) implemented and verified the change that prevents duplicates on import and updated the v1.82 distribution file.
Regards
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Laurie,
On the "faulty" installation do you have any problems using the program? I don't see why you would receive that error message if the program works as usual - the MySQL database access is exactly the same...
Regards
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I have done the upgrade and still have duplicate UID's
I downloaded my whole database so I could check for duplicated in Excel and had 247 duplicate UID's I did the upgrade and downloaded my database again and I now have 112 duplicates. It seems to have only done half.
No I did not interrupt the program.
What now?
Gail Cardell
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Dean
That message appears when I try to log on. I can't actually get into the program. Although I have since received the dailymail cron report, so perhaps it is still working.
Laurie
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Laurie / Gail,
Please submit your server information (http://listmailpro.com/support?t=other) so I can investigate.
Regards
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Gail/All,
I ran a stress test for the v1.82 upgrade process and couldn't find any problems.
1. I re-instated the old, failing, UID creation routine. In just 17,000 users imported I had generated at least 100 duplicate IDs with between 2 and 25 copies each.(!) I stopped it here, though I know some of you will have 100,000+ users...
2. I changed the DB version (lm_config -> cver) to "1.8" and re-logged in to initiate the upgrade. It took awhile, about 8 minutes and there were no longer any duplicate UIDs.
Gail, did your login/upgrade page show "Done!" and then present the login box? I suppose it did because if it hadn't you would receive the upgrade message again on the login page (since it updates the DB version last..)
I can't find evidence that this will be a widespread issue.. Did you, perhaps, do an import AFTER upgrading to the first revision of v1.82? As mentioned in a 2nd email, this could cause further duplicate ID's that need to be fixed by running the upgrade again (by modifying the version to 1.8...) As per my email, I'm offering hands-on assistance for those affected by the oversight as I expect it will be just a few users.
Man.. these little oversights can sure become time consuming, can't they. I won't give up - I'll be working on the next update, with more features and improvements (and bugs! :P), as soon as I get this issue squared away. One day, heaven help me, I'll make a release without making a mistake.
Onward... :D
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I have upgrade to 1.82 and can no longer edit any email addresses.
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:shock: I wonder if your lm_users table became corrupted because of all of the access in the upgrade script. Maybe the MySQL service was restarted part-way through the upgrade. Don't panic - you should be able to run some PhpMyAdmin SQL commands to resolve this type of issue:
ANALYZE TABLE lm_users
REPAIR TABLE lm_users
You can set the "cver" field in the lm_users table to "1.8" and re-login to run the upgrade / de-duper script again.
Please submit your info for this installation if you want me to take a look.
PS. I'm having trouble sending email to your AOL address right now.
Regards
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I need this resolving,
I can't do the MYSQL bit's your quoting to me?
What do I need to do now that this fix has unfixed my data?
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Do you want the MYSQL log in details too?
you can also email me at gail@<edit>
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Thanks for your updated email address - I'm working on it. I will update this post again (for everyone else reading) when your issues are resolved. PS. Did you get my latest reply to your new email? I'm awaiting a response.
Regards
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I've sent two responses now.
Please go ahead and run the UID fix now.
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I rebooted my server but it was only down for a few minutes - I'm not sure why you can't get email through to me. I'm going to re-run the upgrade script in an attempt to de-dupe your UIDs. Since you didn't mention it, are you able to save your users now? My testing, where I modified some of your users, didn't come up with any errors.
Regards
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Alright, I have identified the problem. The 1.82 update/fix was only checking imported users for counting UIDs. The problem with this approach is that some imported users took on the UID of a user who was not imported, but subscribed from a form. Therefore, counting "imported" users would sometimes result in a SINGLE resulting UID instead of two or more. I have fixed the upgrade script to include ALL users, not just imported ones, and have increased the version to v1.83 so that people who previously updated to v1.82 can upgrade again, properly this time. I apologize for the confusion - it should (finally) be over now!
Gail, I have updated you to v1.83 and you no longer have duplicate UIDs. Thank you for checking into the update for me and resolving this issue! This is not something I could have easily re-created on a test installation.
I will be issuing yet another update email to my users... that's 3 in 24 hours :roll:
Regards :wink:
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Hi Dean
Since you fixed my site with my new 1.83 upgrade.
1. I no longer get any confirmation emails that I've had sign ups.
2. None of my welcome emails on sign ups are going out.
I ususally get 200 tlo 300 email sign ups per day.
The sign ups seem to make it into list mail pro, but I'm not getting any sign up confirmations and the the sign up person is not getting my welcome email.
What's gone wrong, and will this now effect all my outgoing autorepondsers tomorrow too.
Gail
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Dean
It's nearly midnight here in the UK
I'm still awaiting a reply?
I am not receiving any confirmation sign up emails and my subscribers are not receiving their welcome emails from my listmail autoresponder since 4pm here in the UK since the you "fixed" the 1.83 upgrade on our server.
Please respond
Gail Cardell
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what is the phpmy2 directory you have left on my server?
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Gail,
I apologize for the delay - this UID issue kind of side-swiped me. I had some plans today (a short trip to visit family..) that took 10 hours to get taken care of. It was as short as I could make it. I'm back and will be here most of each day for any of your problems.
I can assure you that the notification and welcome message features have not been modified between v1.8 and v1.83.
I logged into your installation, set up my address to also be notified of signups on List 1, and performed a signup with the "Signup Code" page. I received the welcome email and the notification. Does this happen on another list, perhaps? I wonder if your server might have been having troubles sending to your email address used for testing. For example, temporary blocks to AOL are not uncommon.
The phpmy2 directory is PhpMyAdmin, a popular web-based MySQL database-viewing program often mentioned in these forums. Browse to the phpmy2 URL and enter your username and password from ListMail's config.php to see what it does. :)
Regards
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My Daily Mail reports and all the list mail signs ups are gong to the bounce email address.
They worked fine until 4pm my time yesterday?
They are not going to an AOL address, you scare me that you dont' look at the config area.
Everything goes to my CardellMedia.co.uk
I'd just like everything back to how it was yesterday prior to 4pm.
Where do I begin.
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I've resolved most of these problemes myself now.
I don't suppose the new fix has sorted out the Daily Mail report issue that it dosn't tally with the actual number of emails it sends out?
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No, the dailymail report issue has not been fixed yet. This release was simply a bug fix for the UID problem. I will be working on the next round of changes very soon.
I have no idea what happened with your notifications and dailymail report - what was the problem as you were able to best determine?
Regards
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Hi Dean
I have one list ( I don't know if would happen on new lists) that I manually add people to as they become members.
This list now does not have a date added on it. As I view all my lists on date add, it's become confusing. The other lists that I do as autoreponse are adding the date.
Why is the manual list not adding the date anymore.
Gail Cardell
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I have verified this problem - it seems a variable was missing... perhaps I pruned it mistakenly when cleaning up some old code... :cry: well, I suppose it's time for v1.84 then v1.9 to make amends.. :? I'll update your installation right away and update all zeroed dates to today...