✔ Errors in duration of sessions
Completed by Morgan M.
- Assigned to
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Anil V.
Harsh P.
- Due on
- Notes
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Further to the video below, we have discovered that the new site is not properly recording the duration of sessions on the site. We are seeing extremely long sessions recorded, and we suspect it is because the system is not closing a session at the appropriate time. To confirm, the following actions should end a session:
- User manually ends the session by selecting "member logout";
- User closes the browser tab;
- User closes the browser window; or
- User is inactive on the site for 30 minutes.
Please confirm that all these actions are ending session for both auto-IP and user/pass accounts. It is critical that we immediately resolve the issue on dev.islg and migrate the fix to www.islg by Monday.
Further to the requirements above, please ensure this issue is resolved immediately, and that the fix is ready for production on Monday. We cannot afford to allow this issue to continue for any length of time. I appreciate your immediate attention to the issue.
I will make myself available over the weekend for any testing that may be necessary.
Thanks,
Morgan
We have confirmed that the 30 minutes auto-logout is not working. Therefore, if a person keeps the browser window open, the session will continue indefinitely. Please ensure this (and the other potential logout issues) is resolved ASAP.
Morgan
Here are two more videos with more details on the problem:
This video provides detail on the 30 minute of inactivity issue:
This video provides detail on how the pages are not getting tracked when opening different links within a research tool:
As a result, it appears our session tracking problems are two-fold: (1) we are over reporting the duration of sessions, because sessions are not ending after 30 minutes of inactivity (and possibly by other actions as well), and (2) we are under reporting the number of pages viewed during a session, because the system is not recording pages when viewed within the same research tool.
How did this happen!?
Morgan
We have resolved and uploaded 30 minutes logout issue on www.islg as well as dev.islg. This issue was because of a script conflict due to new design integration. We have tested all 4 scenarios you mentioned above and it works fine. Can you please test once and confirm?
Regarding page count issue: We investigated this issue and found that this functionality was not working in Subject Navigator and Article Citator since long which we have resolved and uploaded on dev.islg. This is working fine in all other tools.
Actually our assumption regarding this functionality was different. We were assuming that the page count only increase when we navigate from one tool (page) to another tool. Can you please test this functionality on dev.islg and confirm so that we can transfer this to live on Monday.
Thank you for dealing wit this promptly. I'll confirm the fix later today. Yes, after analyzing usage of a few accounts over the last few years, I suspect the page count issue has gone undetected for some time.
Morgan
I just ran a test, and I'm not seeing any change on dev.islg. The 30 minutes logout never occured, and I'm still not seeing page counts when navigating within a research tool like the Subject Navigator. Are you sure the fix was deployed?
Thanks,
Morgan
I performed some further tests after clearing my cache, and it appears the the 30 second inactivity logout may be working now, but I'll perform further tests throughout the day to confirm.
For the page count, I'm getting different results depending on whether I'm logging in through the auto-IP and user/pass. For auto-IP, the system is still not recording pages within a tool (e.g., Subject Navigator). For user/pass it is recording the appropriate pages in the usage report, but the number of pages is not displaying in the Notepad toolbar on the front-end (see screenshots below):
Also, I've confirmed that the page count within the same research tool is not working unless accessing the system with the Notepad feature (notwithstanding the issue concerning the # of pages displayed in the toolbar outlined in the comment above). The page count is not working if accessing the system via auto-IP or user/pass without Notepad. Please ensure this is resolve for migration on Monday.
Thanks,
Morgan
If the user has the browser tab open in ISLG, but is browsing in other tabs within the same browser window, will this be recorded as inactivity within the ISLG browser tab? :
Since user has just kept ISLG opened in browser tab but not doing any activity and browsing something else in other tab of same browser the ISLG session will be expired after 30 minutes.
The page count in same research tool and the page count via
auto-IP or user/pass without Notepad issues have resolved and uploaded on both dev.islg and www.islg.
Please check and let us know the feedback.
I've done some testing on both the timeout and session page count issues, and the appear to be working properly now in www.islg.
Thanks!
Ryan
I ran some preliminary tests, and the timeout and session page count issues appear to be resolved on both dev.islg and www.islg. I am going to perform further tests throughout the day to ensure other aspects of the session tracking are performing as expected, and will confirm again later today.
Thank you for getting this resolved on short notice over the weekend. Now we have to deal with the data hole this problem has left us. Any suggested solutions would be appreciated.
Also,
Thanks,
Morgan
Morgan
I did further testing on the system, and everything seems to working well except for an issue when closing browser tabs. Further to the video below, the systems is not differentiating sessions when the user ends a session by closing a browser tab, and then enters ISLG again through a different tab in the same browser window. It's important to note that the issue did not occur when accessing the system via user/pass with the Notepad activated, but occurred through both auto-IP and user/pass when the Notepad was not activated. Please ensure the issue is resolved (in addition to answering my questions above and providing more detail on how we monitor user activity).
Thanks,
Morgan
We are looking into above issue and will update you soon.
Above issue regarding session timing with both auto-IP and user/pass when the Notepad is not activated has resolved on dev.islg.
We have checked all scenarios of session timing and page count and it works fine.
Please check and let us know your feedback.
Note: Please clear your cookie/cache before perform testing.
How the application monitors for user activity ?
Once user logged in, the application logs user's session time at every five seconds into the SQL database.
If user will be logged out, the logging session function will be stopped to log user's time.
The logging session function to log session time will be stopped in any of the following cases:
Please let me know if you need any further detail.
Ryan
I started performing my tests, and further to the videos below, we now have a problem with IP access on dev.islg. We'll need to get this resolved before performing other tests.
Thanks,
Morgan
Thank you for the additional details, but I'm interested in what specific actions are necessary on a page to maintain activity and reset the 30 minute timeout. For example, is it measured as activity if the user has the browser tab open on the screen, and is scrolling up and down the page without selecting any links? Is it measured as activity if the user has the browser tab open with the cursor hovered on the page, but isn't moving the cursor? We need to understand the specific details on how the systems monitors activity to ensure it matches our requirements.
Thanks,
Morgan
The session will be continue and will not be expired if user is scrolling page up and down without selecting any link.
The session will also be continue if user hovered on page only.
We have resolved the IP access issue on dev.islg, which is described in the first video.
For second issue, It is necessary to move the user to login page. If we directly move the user on existing page then session time will continue instead of creating new session.
Please suggest.
For the redirect to the login page, how did we handle this previously? Or was this a reason why sessions weren't ended properly?
Ryan
I've confirmed the initial problem with IP access is fixed on dev.islg as well.
However, we will need to come up with a solution that allows IP users to go directly to a member page URL without hitting a login page. The current setup would eliminate the ability for IP users to directly link to the relevant pages from Research Report (see example below), and also compromise our system of linking IP users directly to content through our newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1c89a0939e1e/investor-state-lawguide-islg-updates-vol-6-no-990305?e=[UNIQID].
We need to come up with a solution for IP users that maintains their direct access to members pages, but eliminates the sessions problem described above. If we're able to track when a user closes a tab to pause the duration counter, shouldn't we able to differentiate when the user returns to the site through a different tab to start a new session?
Thanks,
Morgan
Thanks for additional details on the activity tracking. Is this tracking capability (scrolling/cursor hover) dependent on the type of browser being used to view the page, or is it the same regardless of the browser? Also, I'm wondering how it works on a mobile device.
Thanks,
Morgan
We did some fundamental changes to resolved the IP access problem and uploaded on dev.islg.
It means session will be stopped, if user move to another tab or browse the another site through same tab. After that, If user again returns to the ISLG site via IP access then users will be able to directly go to a member page URL without hitting a login page and also system will create new session instead of continuing with existing session.
Please check and let us know the feedback.
I seem to be having issues with auto-IP access today. I've cleared my cache and cookies before this test as well. So far I've only tested in Chrome on Mac, but will take a look in other browsers as well.
See video:
Ryan
Looks like there is some issue with this implementation and therefore we have reverted the last changes on dev.islg. We will look into this and re-upload the new changes again.
We have resolved the implementation issue and again re-uploaded the above changes on dev.islg.
Please check and let us know the feedback.
Further to the video, I'm experiencing the following issues:
Morgan
Above both issue of closing browser tab and closing browser window with IP access have resolved on dev.islg.
Please check and let us know the feedback.
This appears to be resolved for me on dev.islg, however I'd like
Thanks!
Ryan
Further to my video below, I'm still having problems with the IP access. Note that I cleared by cache on the browser before performing the test.
Thanks,
Morgan
The above issue with browser closing with IP access has resolved on dev.islg.
Please check and confirm.
Ryan
Further to my video below, the tests proved successful after I waited a certain period of time before re-entering the members site through the new browser tab. However, the previous session continued if I immediately re-entered the site in the new browser tab. I'm fine with this result as long as the time frame is short (under 30 seconds).
Thanks,
Morgan
We have set the 30 second time for initial browser tab is closed and when the user can enter the site again through the new tab. After the 30 second, if user enter through new tab then new session will be started.
Great. I've completed my testing on dev.islg, and everything is working as required. I'll schedule this for migration to www.islg on Monday.
Also, a final question, can I safely assume that the changes you've made to the IP access system will not jeopardize the fixes we put in place to deal with the proxy server issues? For example, I assume the list of validated domain URLs will carry through under this new system, and we will not see any further issues along these line? Please confirm to ensure we don't open up that hornets nest again.
Thanks,
Morgan
We have tested this feature with dev.islg.
Please let us know if we can upload this on live before testing this with Proxy URL.
I think we should hold off on migrating this through to www.islg until we've confirmed that the proxy URL issue is not going to be a problem.
Thanks,
Morgan
Just confirming that we'll get these tests complete, so that we can schedule this for the next migration window.
Thanks,
Morgan
I've been having some issues trying to get our test proxy server up and running again. I've asked some of our developers to give me a hand.
Thanks!
Ryan
Thanks,
Morgan
An update on testing with a proxy. We got our internal server running again, but the key is expired, so I'm just awaiting a new key from EZproxy for a trial.
Ryan
Morgan
I haven't heard back from OCLC yet about the trial license. Let me know if you can still give them a call. I registered under my email address rknuth@industrialagency.ca.
Thanks!
Ryan
I wasn't able to get through to anyone directly on the phone, but I was given an email for a group that is dedicating to publishers' support. I cc'd you on the email, and hopefully they get back to us soon. Note that I requested that they just reactivate our previous license.
Thanks,
Morgan
I have the proxy server running again with the extended trial key.
I've done some sanity testing for the sessions and it seems to be working well. I'd like you and your team to do some extra testing as well.
You can log into the proxy server at
http://ezproxy.ind.ninja
Test user
U: testuser
P: proxytesting
Thanks!
Ryan
How do I identify the IP address for the proxy so that I can test the IP access?
Morgan
Morgan
I've run my tests, and everything appears to be working well through the proxy server. I'll schedule this for migration to www.islg on Monday.
Thanks,
Morgan
We have migrated this task on www.islg. Please check and confirm.
Ryan
Thanks,
Morgan