Troubleshooting Web Host

Collect!'s Web Host is part of Collect! but it interacts with the web browser. So there are several different areas that you need to be aware of when troubleshooting Web Host.

• Trusted Hosts
• Your Internet Browser
• Collect! Web Host Instance
• Global Settings in Collect!

Trusted Hosts

If you are having trouble connecting to the Web Host, please examine your Trusted Hosts settings. The Trusted Hosts feature builds security into Web Host that may prevent you from connecting. Please refer to Help topic, Trusted Hosts for important details.

Internet Browser

Internet Explorer is the best browser to use for the Web Host. Other browsers can be used, but you may experience display anomalies.

When using Internet Explorer, before logging in, the Temporary Internet files and Cookies should be emptied. These locations cache pages you have visited in the past.

From the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, select Internet Options. On the new window, select Delete Cookies and select OK. Then select, Delete Files, select 'Delete all offline content' and then choose OK. This may take a while, if you have not removed your temporary Internet files before and/or you have a large disk space size set for your Temporary Internet Files folder.

This is always the best thing to do when opening your browser and signing back in.

Collect! Web Host Instance

Within the Collect! Web Host there are several areas to be aware of when troubleshooting.

These are covered in the following sections:

• Rebuild Lists
• Inspect the Application Log
• Revisit Operator Settings
• Too Many Active Users
• Can't Bind Socket
• Web Host Packet Logging

Rebuild Lists

In Collect!s Web Host instance, the three lists should be rebuilt - Access Rights, Import Field Definitions, and Printable Information, if you are beginning to notice that things aren't right.

First close the Web Host instance and sign back in with an operator with user level 99.

Select File from the top menu bar in Collect! and then select Maintenance to display the Database Maintenance form. Select the REBUILD LISTS button. Select YES when prompted and Collect! will proceed to rebuild access rights, import field definitions and printable information.

Log back into the Web Host via your browser and confirm that your pages are displaying correctly.

Inspect The Application Log

When form POSTS from the web pages are submitted, Collect! records error information in the Application Log. This can be viewed from System, Diagnostics, Application Log. Select " Web Host" to view messages pertaining to Web Host events.

If receiving errors of this type:

09/20/2009 09:47:14 OWN: WARNING - Checkdigit failed. dbaddress: !

09/20/2009 09:47:14 OWN: ERROR - invalid dbaddress -1759357888.

09/20/2009 09:47:20 OWN: WARNING - Checkdigit failed. dbaddress: -1034929248!

09/20/2009 09:47:20 OWN: ERROR - invalid dbaddress @vardbaddr+ @varadvance.

It is most likely that Verbose Message Display and/or Enable Internal Debug Checks are switched ON. To find these settings, select System from the top menu bar and then select Preferences from the drop-down choices. This displays the System Setup menu.

Select the button labeled Options, Sounds, and Color. This opens the Screen and Messages form. If the settings are switched ON with a check mark, you can switch them OFF by selecting into the check box to remove the check mark. Press F8 to save the changes and close the Screen and Messages screen. Press F8 again to close the System Setup menu.

If other errors are recorded, it is suggested to close the Web Host instance and reboot the machine that it was running on. In most cases, this happens when a client logs into the Web Host and finds that they are pulling up the same debtor all the time. This is usually the result of a dbaddress error. This may be corrected by rebooting the machine that the Web Host is running on. A restart of the machine running the CV11 Server is also suggested.

Revisit Operator Settings

If you are having issues logging into the Web Host through the browser, please review the Help topic, How To Add A User to Web Host.

These are the most common issues:

1. Allow Browser Signon is not switched ON in the Operator setup screen.

2. Password for Operator ID is set incorrectly.

3. The User Level chosen for the operator does not match one of the user level folders in the HTML\User folder. It is best to try User Level 10 or 60.

Too Many Active Users

Your browser may return an error page indicating too many users. This indicates that the number of active Users on the system exceeds your license. Please refer to the Help topic Too Many Active Users for details.

Can't Bind Socket

By default, Web Host uses ports 80 and 443 for Web Host. If you get a Can't bind socket error, this indicates that another process is using ports 80 and/or 443 already. Check this from the command line as follows.

C:\> netstat -a -n

You may set the ports to whatever you want by changing the Web Host arguments, /S80 /y443. Please refer to Web Host Setup And Testing for details.

501 Error

The 501 error is caused when a packet is received that does not match one of our requirements for incoming packets.

Web Host accepts the following:

1. A POST command (uppercase required) followed by 'import' or 'report'.

2. A GET command (uppercase required).

If it does not understand the command given (i.e. neither a POST or a GET) it returns a 501.

It may return a 501 if the session is not authorized and tries to execute a POST command.

Web Host Packet Logging

This shortcut argument, /whl, is used for troubleshooting transmission of Web Host data. The /whl command will also prevent the deletion of the temporary CSV files that Collect! uses for XML Data Pump.

Example:
C:\CV11\CV11.exe /S80 /W3 /y443 /whl
Web Host Packet Logging Enabled

This will generate a text file in your CV11\bin folder, i.e. "webhostpacketlog.txt." This is for advanced developer troubleshooting. This file can be used to reproduce HTTP headers and payload content, for instance in XML Data Pump troubleshooting.

This will also allow you to log SSL encrypted sessions too, since Collect! writes to these files after the decryption phase.

Browser Connection Problems

It's always best to clear your temporary internet files/cache and cookies in your browser.

Always try logging in locally with the browser first. First, try using the browser on the same machine as the Web Host. Either 'localhost' or the IP address of the machine can be used in the browser to connect.

If this works, then move onto another computer on the network and use the IP address of the Web Host machine. If this works, then try from outside the network.

If you are able to connect locally, but not externally, in most cases this is due to how your router is setup for port forwarding. This is best done by a network technician or a person that is familiar with router and network setup.

The Web Host uses a port for its connections on the network. By default it is port 80. This can be changed or viewed in the command line argument of the shortcut.

Please refer to Web Host Setup and Testing and review the section on Web Host Shortcut Command Line Arguments.

The router/firewall needs to be setup to forward the port used by the Web Host to the IP address of the machine/server that is running the Web Host.

Displaying The Same Debtor Over And Over

This can be caused if you have "Verbose message display" and "Enable internal debug checks" switched ON in the Screen and Messages form accessed through System, Preferences, Options, Sounds and Colors. These switches should only be used temporarily for very specific testing and debugging processes. They should never be left on for normal operations in Collect!.

See Also

- Web Host Introduction
- Web Host Topics