Following is what I have experienced:
- I log into Nomad Web using Chrome Version 104.0.5112.102 and use "Open Application" to add an application icon to the Recent Applications
- I exit the Browser and when challenged "Leave Site. Changes you made may not be saved." I click "Leave".
- I log back in, and the application icon, which I opened in step 1 is not there.
This does not happen consistently, but I have not been able to trap the circumstances that cause it. I have not been able to reproduce this immediately and I'm wondering if there may be an agent running periodically on the server that clears my list of Recent applications?
I'm going to check tomorrow to see if waiting overnight causes the issue.
Anyone else experiencing this?
The Recent App entries are stored in the notes.ini and the Recent Apps page is generated from those entries each time. When you open a new application, the entry should be written immediately (no delay or agent) to the notes.ini. When you close Nomad (the tab or the whole browser), Nomad does get a hook chance and attempts to save everything that is dirty (including notes.ini).
If something in the policies or panagenda MarvelClient configuration were editing notes.ini, that could potentially cause an issue regarding the entries for the Recent Apps.
We had multiple people here (HCL) try to recreate your issue and could not. That makes it less likely that it is a timing issue (but doesn't completely dismiss that possibility) and more likely something else.
You can always generate the problem reports which include the notes.ini to see what is in them at any given time (such as to see if it has gotten changed since you last checked it).
Thx Rob,
I'm doubtful that it is a policy or panagenda MarvelClient configuration issue. Our test server is hosted by Prominic, and I'm not sure that they have any reason to make changes to either.
It's possible that my desktop testing environment is contributing to this issue. It is not your typical User environment in that when I'm testing our inspection app, I often have our app running in a Chrome browser, or an Edge browser and sometimes in both at the same time... I often open the Chrome and Edge PWAs in addition to the Browsers. In addition to that, I constantly have my Notes 12.0.1 Client running, and, I'm running DOLS on this device... like I said, not a typical User environment.
Given that the Recent App entries are stored in the notes.ini, I wonder if all of those simultaneous activities might be contributing to the intermittent nature of this issue.
Where will I find the notes.ini file that applies to Nomad Web? Does each of Chrome and Edge have their own notes.ini fie? I searched my C drive and, not surprisingly, found five different notes.ini files... again, could that be contributing to the problem?
I've also added an error messag that I noticed on the Nomad Status bar, which support an issue with the ini/configuration settings.
I'm going to isolate my activities to different devices to see if that resolves the issue.
Nomad for web browsers' notes.ini file (each browser instance has its own instance of all the files - not shared) is in the browser file system (not your operating system's file system directly). The easiest way is to do the problem report (? menu) which creates a zip which includes many files including the notes.ini. That's what I mentioned previously.
If you open the browser's web console, you can issue a command (nomad.saveFile('/data/notes.ini')) to download just that file from the browser's file system to the OS's file system (in the browser's downloads folder, generally). It should be call _data_notes.ini as the /'s are changed to _'s.
None of the notes.ini files on the OS's file system matter to Nomad. Nomad only cares about the browser file system's files.
"Error while refreshing Notes configuration settings: Special database object cannot be located". That's interesting. If you clear the browser storage in one of your browser instances and setup Nomad again from scratch, do you get that error still?
Note: the PWA is just the browser without all the browser framing, so the code you are running, the files it uses, etc. are one and the same. If you launch it from the browser tab or the PWA associated with that browser, it is only running one instance. Different browsers have their own instances, but the PWA with Chrome and the tab in Chrome are running a single instance. You shouldn't be able to run the PWA and the browser tab at that same time for the same browser - is that happening for you?
Thx Rob,
When I run that command on the Edge Console, I get an error... see attachment.
To my point of running multiple instances of Nomad Web in different Browsers simultaneously, for the last couple of days, I have isolated my use of Nomad web as follows:
Desktop... only run Nomad Web in Chrome Browser and PWA
Laptops... only run Nomad Web in Edge Browser and PWA
So far, after clearing my Cookies and site data, and not running multiple instances of Nomad Web simultaneously in multiple Browsers and PWAs, I have not had any problems.
Fingers crossed.
My bad, Rob... did not have Nomad running when I ran the console command. Just reran it and have the ini file. However, when I try to attach it I get an error that "File Type is not supported". So I changed the extension on the ini file to txt and have attached it. You can still open it using notepad.
Let me know if that tells you anything.
_data_notes.txt
The Recent Apps are stored in notes.ini as $RecentApp##. I see those in my notes.ini:
$RecentApp1=Robert S Sielken***
$RecentApp2=HCL Client Advocacy***
$RecentApp3=***
$RecentApp4=Nomad Team Room***
$RecentApp5=Sielken's Contacts,***
$RecentApp6=Nomad for Web Browsers ***
... (I currently have 15 of them).
but I don't see any $RecentApp entries in yours. Was this just because your Recent Apps was new and truly was empty or has something taken them out of the notes.ini?
In the cases where it works (you have things in Recent Apps), do you see these entries in the notes.ini?
To test, I:
- Ran Nomad Web on my Chrome Browser and can see Recent Apps... downloaded the INI file and they were listed.
- Closed Chrome and launched Nomad Web in Edge Browser... can not see Recent Apps... downloaded the INI file and they were not listed
- Added Recent Apps in Edge
- Exited Edge and restarted... cannot see Recent Apps and they are not listed in the Edge INI
- Opened Nomad in Chrome and can see Recent Apps... downloaded the INI file and they were listed.
It appears that Nomad does not like running in two different browsers, even if it is not sumultaneous. I can see the Recent Apps consistently in Chrome, but not in Edge.
Again, this is not a test cycle that our Clients would ever run. All have indicated that they prefer Chrome, and it is unlikely that they will ever run Nomad Web in both browsers.
Chrome and Edge (even on the same machine running as the same user) or completely independent of each other. That means you just have a problem in Edge.
Is Edge clearing the data such that you have to reconfigure the client from scratch each time? That would, of course, get a new notes.ini each time.
When Edge is running and you have Recent Apps, does the notes.ini show the $RecentApps before you exit Edge? If so, this would indicate something else is happening to the notes.ini file after that point.
Right now, I have Nomad running in a Chrome browser and PWA on my desktop with no problems... the Recent Applications are not being removed.
I also have it running in an Edge Browser and PWA on a Laptop with no problems... the Recent Applications are not being removed.
Realistically, I don't see any of our Clients performing the steps that I did to cause the problem. That is, running multiple instances of Nomad Web in different browsers at the same time.
Can't test the last condition... I just closed Chrome on my desktop and tried to open Nomad Web in Edge and got the attached message... clicked Refresh and it returned the same error.
We need the NPR (Nomad Problem Report) to see the reason for the crash to progress there (as with any crash). https://help.hcltechsw.com/nomad/1.0_web/nw_report_problem.html
When you clicked Refresh, was there anything on the URL or was it just /nomad or /nomad/index.html? If there was something on the URL, did it load to the Workspace and then crash when it was trying to open the application (from the URL)? Either way, the link above should give you the alternatives for getting the report and therefore the crash information.
Just for clarity, you can't run Nomad in the browser as a tab AND as a PWA for the same browser. If you try to run both at the same time (I confirmed it again locally), it will say Nomad can only run in one tab. Perhaps you are just trying to indicate which browser you installed the PWA through and therefore which browser that PWA is running on, but I wanted to be technically clear that you can't run Nomad in a tab on a browser that also runs the PWA associated with that browser.
Thx for all you feedback, Rob.
I'm running Nomad in Chrome on my desktop and Edge on my laptop, and not currently encountering the problem. If I do encounter it again, I will create the NPR and submit it.
If I am able to reproduce it, I'll also make a note of the URL.
I am aware that you can't run Nomad in the PWA and Browser simultaneously... have encountered the error you refer to.
That being said, I don't beleieve that the issue is related to our application, and supect that it coule be reproduced in the HCL lab by running Nomad in Edge and Chrome simultaneously on the same device. However, that is not a scenario that I expect your typical User to run, so it may be an extreme test case.
All of that sounds good.
We had tried to reproduce the issue by running Chrome and Edge (and even Firefox too) on the same machine. We also tried multiple Nomads in the same browser connecting to different end points (because, of course, the same endpoint wouldn't be allowed) - another "not typical" scenario. In none of those scenarios could we reproduce the issue.
On the machine, they are all independent of each other, so whatever is causing the issue is most likely coming from some common source which is why a policy or something like that is likely involved and would be something that is different between your environment and ours.
In any case, if/when you encounter the issue again, collect the NPR and submit it with the case and we will look into it.
AARRRGGGGGhhh. I was convinced that I had confirmed the cause of this issue to be my running Nomad Web in multiple browsers simultaneously. So I restricted my Desktop to Chrome and my Acer laptop to Edge, and my HP laptop to using both Browsers but not simultaneously, and I tested tested the results every day for the past week.
Well today, I encountered the issue once again... 7 days after I started this testing. Obviously very intermittent, and it only happened on my Windows 10 desktop, running only Chrome. My two laptops are still displaying the Recent Applications as expected.
I have attached the NPR and the Notes.ini, (with the extension changed to TXT) which does not have any "$Recent" entries. The URL at the time was https://nomad.inspectionsonline.us/nomad/#/
I hope this helps
npr_wasm_2022-08-26T13-51-40.702Z.zip_data_notes - Copy.txt
A. As I stated before, the browsers even on the same machine are independent of each other (other than the server side which is one and the same). Therefore, I figured you were going to run into it again even on a machine only running one browser. And now, you did.
B. The NPR zip has the notes.ini file included in it, so you don't need to upload that separately if you are uploading an NPR.
C. I can't see anything obvious from the Nomad logs that would indicate why the notes.ini has lost the $Recent entries, but I've passed on the NPR to the panagenda support team to see if they see anything in the panagenda logs that might explain what is going on. I see a "Default Nomad Config" action defined for MarvelClient, but I don't know enough to determine if that is the cause or not. Stay tuned.
panagenda replied to say that they don't see anything of note in their logs either.
From the client side, we can't tell why the notes.ini is losing those entries. I assume you aren't being required to reconfigure the client from scratch (it loads up quickly and you don't have to do all the initial setup steps), but even if you did, I would expect the panagenda MarvelClient migration to have repopulated those values for the last Notes client values.
When you start from scratch, do you get the Recent Apps populated or are they empty? If populated, do you know if that is coming from a Domino policy (same every time) or from your last Notes client's history (would change if you changed what was opened in Notes)?
Do you have any browser policies (not specific to Nomad) that are clearing out browser data? Maybe that is cleaning out things on a timed basis? But if that were happening, I would have expected all the Nomad files to be gone, not just notes.ini, and if you aren't having to do the initial setup again, at least some of the files are still there.
Do you have Domino policies that are setting notes.ini's?
Do you have panagenda MarvelClient setup to configuration notes.ini's?
Something is certainly changing the notes.ini - the question is still who and when.
Sorry, I didn't see your last reply until just now. Don't you hate issues that are inconsistent across devices and intermittent in terms of occurance?
As I said a couple of entries ago, I think it's important to remember that this is only occurring on my desktop. Two other latops are behaving normally.
I do not have to do any additional steps on my laptops, but on my desktop, I get challenged for my Notes ID Password a 2nd time. They all display the error "Error while refreshing Notes configuration settings: Special database object cannot be located", as illustrated in a previous attachment called "Nomad error.jpg".
There are no policies running locally or on the server, and if there were. it would not explain the intermittent nature of the issue. It has happened on successive days, and then not for a week before recurring.
I'm going to re-open our application on my desktop and test it periodically to see if/when it recurrs.
Don't forget to please generate a problem report periodically while it is working. That way, we will have a notes.ini file from before (when Recent Apps was populated) and after (right after you first notice the missing Recent Apps, generate the problem report before you refresh or do anything else). Therefore, I'd take a problem report before I close it in case it happens on the next restart and then whenever you hit the issue, generate the problem report ASAP. We will want to look at the last 2 of those problem reports.
As I've said, this is an intermittent problem. But, I have been able to reproduce the issue and have attached 2 NPRs.
The first I took while the apps were on the Recent Apps page when I logged in... "npr_wasm_2022-08-30T13-02-19.293Z while DB in recent apps.zip"
The 2nd was a few days later when the Recent Applications page showed up blank... "npr_wasm_2022-08-30T13-02-19.293Z no DB in recent apps.zip"
The 2nd time when I logged in, it went through the whole startup, including requiring me to log in wth my password a 2nd time.
Hope this helps.
npr_wasm_2022-08-30T13-02-19.293Z no DB in recent apps.zipnpr_wasm_2022-08-30T13-02-19.293Z while DB in recent apps.zip
The fact that you had to setup again from scratch (and log in for the Notes ID) is important information as that means the previous Nomad for web browsers' files stored in the browser aren' there. The 2nd NPR confirms that Nomad was running the same version and that Nomad downloaded the files that should have already been there.
What I did notice is that the Chrome version changed between the two:
log 8/30/2022, 8:45:03 AM Version: 1.0.4.3269-1830
log 8/30/2022, 8:45:03 AM User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/104.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
log 8/30/2022, 8:45:03 AM Browser: {"name":"Chrome","version":"104.0.0.0"}
log 9/6/2022, 11:14:37 AM Version: 1.0.4.3269-1830
log 9/6/2022, 11:14:37 AM User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/105.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
log 9/6/2022, 11:14:37 AM Browser: {"name":"Chrome","version":"105.0.0.0"}
Did the Chrome update do something to the local file storage? Maybe (that would be out of our (Nomad's) control).
Do you recall when you did the Chrome update to 105 (probably not as that normally happens under the covers on startup, but maybe you had it pending for a while and had the relaunch indicator)?
But, this does eliminate the policy, MarvelClient, etc. issues that might be changing notes.ini - everything is getting blown away which is why it is starting over. The question is who blew away the files and why - Chrome on update, browser profile change, browser admin setting, etc.