SID-02148: TWiki::Contrib::DBCacheContrib::Map: Badly formatted attribu

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	6.0.2	Perl version:	5.14.2
Category:	CategoryPlugins	Server OS:	Ubuntu Linux 14.04.2 LTS	Last update:	10 years ago

Getting message: TWiki::Contrib::DBCacheContrib::Map: Badly formatted attribute string when entering a web for the first time after installing plugin. What to do?!?

-- Larry Bristol - 2016-01-20

Discussion and Answer

My point of complaint is that DBCacheContrib is not giving enough information to find and correct the problem! All you get from the browser is the message telling you there is a "Badly formatted attribute string". From the log, you get a tiny bit more:<br/> "| 2016-01-21 - 13:10:51 | TWiki::Contrib::DBCacheContrib::Map: Badly formatted attribute string at '. If you receive the Communication ... Communication.""' at /var/www/twiki/lib/TWiki/Contrib/DBCacheContrib/Map.pm line 69. All but useless! How about giving a clue, like WHAT WAS THE FILE CONTAINING THIS PROBLEM?

I finally located the error using grep to search the hundreds of pages within the web. But since the entire web was unavailable for processing, the only resort was to manually edit any page containing the text reported, which btw did not actually show the badly formatted text.

-- Larry Bristol - 2016-01-21

Good luck to anyone else who encounters the same!

-- Larry Bristol - 2016-01-21

Larry, if you provide some more detail we could make the contrib more forgiving.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2016-01-22

It does not point directly at the badly formatted attribute. I grepped the web directory searching for a portion of the string it showed in the log, hoping it was unique enough to at least narrow it down. It was still a long list, so I used my old-fashioned IEBIBALL tool to edit each file. I concluded the problem was being caused by embedded quotes (") within the value portion of a %META:PREFERENCE{}% variable. It was a very long string, so I just hacked away until the caching exercise worked. I did not check to see if the quotes were unbalanced.

More forgiving is not necessary (IMHO). It just needs to be more precise about where the problem is located. It definitely needs to tell you the name of the file. If possible, it could give the name of the preference variable.

I am in the process of migrating an older TWiki into a new one. That particular web is not very active, and the problem actually existed in the old server as well! I only "corrected" the problem on the new server. I should be able to send you a copy of the file containing the problem from the old server, if that would help.

-- Larry Bristol - 2016-01-22

Thanks Larry. Just one line of a failing META:PREFERENCE is probably fine.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2016-01-22

There were several lines that I "fixed" (generally meaning "deleted") before the error disappeared. I am relatively sure this is one of them.

%META:PREFERENCE{name="ISSUE_DETAILS" title="ISSUE_DETAILS" type="Local" value="Hi Support<BR/><BR/>Can you please open an Issue for Nico at the ANZ Bank in regard to the problem below. Nico will FTP the dump once he has the issue number.<BR/><BR/>Regards<BR/><BR/>Dave<BR/><BR/>From: Vlok, Nico[mailto:Nico.Vlok@anz.com]<BR/>Sent: Monday, 22 October 2012 7:11 AM<BR/>To: Tighe, David<BR/>Cc: Louey, William<BR/>Subject: Image copy job hangs (QDITFC09)<BR/><BR/>Hi Dave<BR/><BR/>We had an I/C job hanging this weekend - just sitting there and doing nothing for 20 minutes. We had to cancel the job (with a dump). The re-run took less than a minute.<BR/><BR/>We had something similar in the past, but from memory did not have the dump available. Could you open an issue for me please. I have the dump and can FTP it to BMC. Too big for an email attachment.<BR/><BR/>Regards,<BR/>Nico Vlok | IMS Database Administrator |<BR/>Technology Service Management<BR/>Tel +61 86557642 | Level 3A | 833 Collins Street Melbourne 3000<BR/>Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd | WWW.ANZ.COM<http://WWW.ANZ.COM><BR/>P Please consider the environment before printing this email<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"This e-mail and any attachments to it (the "Communication") is, unless otherwise stated, confidential, may contain copyright material and is for the use only of the intended recipient. If you receive the Communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete the Communication and the return e-mail, and do not read, copy, retransmit or otherwise deal with it. Any views expressed in the Communication are those of the individual sender only, unless expressly stated to be those of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ABN 11 005 357 522, or any of its related entities including ANZ National Bank Limited (together "ANZ"). ANZ does not accept liability in connection with the integrity of or errors in the Communication, computer virus, data corruption, interference or delay arising from or in respect of the Communication.""This e-mail and any attachments to it (the "Communication") is, unless otherwise stated, confidential, may contain copyright material and is for the use only of the intended recipient. If you receive the Communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete the Communication and the return e-mail, and do not read, copy, retransmit or otherwise deal with it. Any views expressed in the Communication are those of the individual sender only, unless expressly stated to be those of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ABN 11 005 357 522, or any of its related entities including ANZ National Bank Limited (together "ANZ"). ANZ does not accept liability in connection with the integrity of or errors in the Communication, computer virus, data corruption, interference or delay arising from or in respect of the Communication.""}%

-- Larry Bristol - 2016-01-22

Peter: SOME of the quotation marks above are actually: ampersand hash 34 semicolon Others are simply a double quote character.

-- Larry Bristol - 2016-01-22

If you answer a question - or someone answered one of your questions - please remember to edit the page and set the status to answered. The status selector is below the edit box.