Yesterday (February 4, 2015 at 23:20:35 GMT-2) I received an email from an user frustrated that couldn't watch videos in my site (the focus point). All videos couldn't be watched and displayed an error, as seen in the image below:
Videos are from Vimeo, and my site's on Heroku. As far as I can tell, the entire site was working, no error logs near that time (I even used it 30 minutes later and could watch the same videos the previous user was supposed to watch) Vimeo shows no error by that time too, the user just said every embed videos were displaying above message.
The weirdest thing is that Heroku is being mentioned inside Vimeo's box with the error.
I think that's very situational, but I'm not sure if it will happen again, can this be fixed?
Did you recently create a public domain name for your app and setup a DNS CNAME alias?
The issue you're describing sounds like you provisioned a new domain name for your app in Heroku, setup a DNS CNAME, and then your user clicked on the site before the DNS CNAME record had propagated out into the world properly.
This is an edge case that should only happen during the DNS CNAME TTL update (usually an hour).
Related
I'm not sure I've stated the title correctly, but I have what I think is an unusual issue. Not something I'm terribly worried about but curious. If I'm tagging this inappropriately I apologize.
I have a google ad running and track clicks using Final URL. So I track keywords, Ad_ID, Location, etc. Looking at the database I noticed that I am getting a hit on my website from what appears to be one user fairly regularly (sometimes minutes apart - other times days - 3200 entries) for the last 2 years, at least to when I started tracking this way. The entry shows the same keywords and the same location - which is local - a mobile device - but not an Ad_ID or a referring URL. I take the google info from the query string in the url so the query string would have to be the same every time.
I recently added a tracking cookie (long expiration) on the user end and this activity shows up with a different cookie value every time meaning either its either a different device or the device doesn't accept cookies. Each hit also starts a new session.
These hits do not show up as clicks on Google Ads so I'm not being charged, it also means that someone is not actually out there clicking on the ad.
I don't see where this is causing problems but am curious as to where this may be coming from. I don't know if there is a way to stop it.
So nothing critical but ideas on what might be causing this would be appreciated. I also get a ton of spam or bot hits on the site but that's a different issue.
Thanks!
This is the first time I upload an app to apple app store. After weeks for reviewing, finally, I get my app listed on apple app store. But the problem is, now seems like my app app-store page is only viewable from iTunes. When I try to open it in a browser, it will shows "Connecting to the iTunes Store...". Why is it my app can't be the view from the browser? Why did another app can? How to fix it?
Short answer: It seems, you cannot fully predict the behavior of an app store link for a certain user. You being redirected doesn't mean other people will be redirected right away as well. Your app's country/language availability, users' app store region and language settings, the specificity of the app store link (which has optional components and alternative styles), and the browser cache all seem to have a say.
Added details: After experimenting with this a lot, it seems to me that the behavior of the link (or rather the response from the Apple server to requesting it) depends on the language/country version being requested, my own current country/language defined in iTunes/my app store account, plus some caching issues. So, whether a preview page is shown in the browser, or iTunes is attempted to be opened right away depends on several factors and doesn't always have the same result (for different users). In fact, two consecutive attempts to open the same URL can have different redirect behavior.
I noticed that a full app store link like https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keynote/id361285480 more likely leads to the preview web page, if the app is available in the language/country referenced ("us" in the example) and there is no prior request cached in which I clicked through to the app in iTunes. If the app isn't available in the referenced location, or any other information is missing in the link for the Apple server to identify a particular language version on the preview website, or there is cached data that makes Apple confident enough to redirect you to iTunes directly (or it's Friday 13th and the moon is right behind the sun by pure chance...) then you may see a redirect instead.
For posting app store links in the likes of Facebook, Apple's app linker seems to produce URLs with the nicest preview snippets (and not: "Connecting to the iTunes store"), when putting in the right country. So, these generated URLs seem to be most complete/specific.
If your app is intended for a specific region, AppStore connect will still give you a URL with .../us/... in it. Changing it to the respective local region seems to fix the problem for me.
For an example,
given URL: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yourcompany/id123456
If the app is for Norway region, change the URL to: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/yourcompany/id123456
I created a router that connects to facebook to get some info before a user may access the internet.
First they connect, get the Captive Portal Page and then continue to a facebook login. Since the upgrade to iOS7 it fails to load the facebook login page. On my mac with the Captive Portal Assistant it has no problems and even on the phone itself while using the iOS version of safari there are no problems.
What is going wrong here? Is facebook filtering request from the iOS7 Captive Portal Assistant or is Apple doing some sneaky stuff here?
It seems the problem is widespread and only related to facebook.
Update: I worked with the beta's and they worked fine a few weeks ago. Now with the same beta version it doesn't anymore. So another point for the facebook explaination.
Regards, Cas
This problem was fixed by Apple since IOS 8. But as all iPhone 4 users can't upgrade to IOS 8 this problem is still one.
The IOS 7 devices check for the following domains:
www.appleiphonecell.com
captive.apple.com
captive.apple.com
www.apple.com
www.itools.info
www.ibook.info
www.airport.us
www.thinkdifferent.us
Whitelisting this domains stops the login mask to be appearing as the IOS device thinks, that the internet is working as expected. This way you have control on the things which happens, as the IOS device does not interrupts anything, if you use a normal browser for login.
If you don't whitelist the domains, the following thing happens. I debugged it on routers with several IOS devices and they all did mostly the same:
If you connect to a wifi, the IOS device tries to connect to one of the domains, which are listed above. If it can contact one of the domains, it tries another one. If it can't, it starts the redirect, which is controlled by the router. Sometimes it query one or more domains, before it thinks, that the internet is working.
After the check, the login screen redirects to your router and then to the login screen of your captive portal. This behavior stayed the same as it was on IOS 6 or before.
Now you start an oauth login to a 3rd party provider like Facebook, Google or Twitter. And now the difference appears. You can check it on a router, if you run it in debug mode. As the IOS device goes to an other domain for oauth login (like www.facebook.com) the iPhone thinks, that something changed and starts to query one of the apple domains, which are listed above. The user sees only a white screen and in the background the IOS device tries to contact one of the domains repeatedly. For the user this seems to be an error, as the screen stays white or takes very long to show the login on the 3rd party provider. Sometimes it stops loading and nothing happens forever.
To avoid this behavior, you must whitelist the above listed domains. This is a not a common behavior for IOS users, but this way, your browser have the control of the login session and the IOS device don't interrupt it as it does with the login screen.
Some shallow parts of information is reported on the following sites:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-36523
http://www.cadincweb.com/why-your-apple-ios-7-device-wont-connect-to-the-wifi-network
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5355766
I couldn't find a detailed description of the problem and found the one above myself by debugging all parts with some routers and IOS devices like iPhones and iPads.
I've just tested various router settings and noticed that iOS 7 is NOT trying to contact above mentioned sites/URLs when router's DOMAIN field is blank.
My guess is that blank domain points to a consumer-type network set up and Apple is not expecting a Captive Portal at such network. If you have access to administer your router see if you can clear out the DOMAIN field (and restart/retest).
I found my solution to my problem. (a while ago, but I found this post again)
First I found out, iOS makes 3 calls, first to check, second to get the page that needs to be displayed, third to check again after the pageload. Then I discovered, for every POST or GET action made by the page, regarding of the source page was refreshed, iOS checks for an active internet connection. Since the facebook api makes a lot of calls, the browser starts stalling(possible in combination with QoS on my router) and freezes the page.
My Solution:
Since I am in control of the DNS records of the Router I use, I redirected all domains towards my own server.
First I saved the check request, this to later identify the user when he comes back for the 3th request.
When the second request comes I just display an info window that every thing is right, and the user has to click the "Done" button.
The page is loaded, so iOS checks again, but i recognize the user so I display the OK-code Apple also displays. The "Done" button us show, and the user has "internet", according to iOS..
On the page that I display, I instruct the user to open the webbrowser. When he does, he opens a page and my portal with the right page is shown(I can detect this based on the Browser Agent). Then my facebook api start doing its job, and of we go :-)
Let me know if someone needs some more info on how to detect or maybe even a code sample if necessary.
Extra Information
To capture a user on your own server, redirect every request to your processing page using for example .htaccess. The request is made to a domain with a subfile e.g:
http://captive.apple.com/getrT09Nx7G/YNrnUOulnDj/3cfrq3M40iR.html
To keep multiple users apart, use the unique url the device tries to contact when checking for internet, in this case: /getYT09Nx7G/YN1nUOulnDj/3cfMq3M40iR.html
OK, this is weird.
We have a test website (just a payment form) here: http://blog.inglesen100dias.com/
The problem is that everyone I've talked to but me can see the form (our hosting provider, other coworkers in different states/countries, etc). Me, I see a 403 forbidden error, "You don't have permission to access / on this server."
We made a change earlier today in that subdomain, changing the A record to point it to a different server. But for some reason everyone but me can see the new page where it's pointing at.
I've deleted the cache, flushed the DNS (I'm on Windows 8), entered the website with my cellphone (same error)... so I don't know what else to do. My impresion is that when I access that URL, it's still trying to open a location in the old server (where the domain originally pointed), instead of in the new server. Why this only happens to me?
Any advice would be very welcome!
UPDATE
I've turned-off the Wifi in my cellphone (it's connected to the same network as my computer) and now it shows the right page! If I turn the wifi back on, then it shows the 403 error again...
Can it be a problem in the router?
I restarted the router and now it's showing the right page!
I've got (actually my employer has) a mobile website that enables Safari integration (for iPhones and iPads) - meaning that customers can bookmark it to their home screen and then it would behave as a standalone web app (no address bar, custom icon, start-up image etc).
It works all right except that one week ago (coincidentally soon after apple has released iOS 6.1.2) some of our customers (6 of them initially) complained that they no longer get the normal content but a '404 page' of a public wifi provider (The Cloud owned by Sky here in the UK). After a bit of investigation we've figured that at some point those customers connected to the Cloud wifi without actually logging in (it's one of those providers that would redirect you to a login page to enter your credentials, after which you can carry on browsing). The thing is that even after switching back to their private wifi or mobile data connection the application would display the Cloud's page.
This only happens (as far as I can tell) when the application is launched via the bookmark (I couldn't see this behavior when using it from safari).
What happens is that the customers would connect to the cloud wifi (without logging in), they would open the application at which point the router will issue a redirect response to their login page; the application would cache the login page and it will always display it whenever using the bookmark again. (I've performed a capture when this happens and there are no requests being made at start-up whatsoever).
Even weirder, in this situation, if removing the existing bookmark and adding a new one will show you the same cached page (with the whole operation being performed away from the Cloud). We've fixed this by adding a unique identifier to the URL each time we hit the bookmark screen (this indicates that the web apps' sandboxes are linked to the url, which is to be expected).
What we're trying to achieve is to have the application properly recovering after the customer has moved away from the Cloud. But there doesn't seem to be a straight forward way to do this.
Furthermore there's a level of inconsistency in all of this - most of the times when the flow is performed I will see a 404 page (a custom 404 page https://service.thecloud.net/service-platform), but sometimes I would be properly redirected to the login page, in which case the application would not break.
My assumption is that there is a weird race condition in the standalone web app application model causing the browser not to properly handle redirects (and actually caching 404 pages). I've raised a support incident with Apple (which eventually turned into a bug report) but it might take a while and I'm trying my best to figure out a workaround.
Any ideas, maybe someone has seen this before?
The issue is aggravated by the fact that I need to have a 5 minutes walk ever time I'm testing any fixes; I've tried creating simple test forms, but I wasn't able to reproduce the issue, where as with the full app I can do it pretty much every time.
Here's a summary of the steps to reproduce:
Via private wifi (or mobile data connection) add a bookmark to a website (I've managed to reproduce it with quite a couple of apps that support safari integration as described above)
Open the application to review the normal content
Connect to a Cloud hotspot and open the application from the bookmark (open-close it for a couple of times if you don't get the 404 right away)
Connect to the private wifi (or mobile data connection) and open the application via the bookmark -> you'll see the same 404 page again
In the end the fix was to add a unique query string parameter with the initial page request (pretty easy with the setup we already had, via the launcher page). I've filed a bug report with Apple which they've acknowledged by linking it to a previous item. Here's a post on the topic:
http://blog.onos.ro/ios-6.1.2-caching-issue