Specific user ID causes server error

fbennett

We're not sure what the cause is, but the ID of a user registered following an invitation from one of my groups is blocking on the Zotero website. I sent the invite with several others as a comma-delimited multiple registration, from the following group:

http://www.zotero.org/groups/5588

The user registered as: david.warner

After registering, he made attempts to access the group on and off throughout the day yesterday, and showed the problem to me this afternoon. The login attempt returns a terse "Server Error" screen, with no other information. I attempted to send a second invitation out of the group, but the attempt also returns the same "Server error" message.

We're puzzled what could be causing the problem. Could the full stop in the ID be a source of trouble?

fcheslack

What url is actually generating the error? Trying to view the group while logged in, or logging in? (If you try to view a private group without being logged in, it should prompt you to log in and redirect back to the group, so I'm wondering which url it ends up on)

With the second invitation, did you enter his username or email, and was this before or after he had registered?

Will look into the problem closer in a few minutes.

fbennett

Possible progress.

The call to the group URL before logging in returns the login screen. The login is apparently successful; the "Welcome .." message in the upper right shows the user's name. Other pages are accessible in the logged-in state. But the group url throws the error when called.

With the second invitation, I had used the user's email address. I just tried with the user ID, and it didn't throw an error this time. I'm also seeing the ID displayed in the Username and Full Name columns under Member Invitations, which it wasn't doing before. I have a captive login state lurking in another Firefox profile; I'll try with that and report back on the result soon.

david.warner

That's cleared it up -- thanks for the nudge! From the lurking login I was able to join the group, and access now seems to be working normally. It's a bit mysterious, though, and I hope we've left enough of a trail to help figure out what went wonky with the invitation.

Checking the same login session against another private group, for which the user has no permissions, I see that attempting to call that url similarly returns the same server error page. I guess that's what was happening. If this was a straightforward permissions problem, it might be helpful if the server could return an error message to that effect.

(fbennett writing as david.warner)

fcheslack

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. The server error is unnecessarily vague (left over from when it was intended to be vague and not reveal any information about a private group) and can be changed now to be more helpful.

Users with an invitation to a private group should have permission to view that group until they decline the invitation. I believe the problem is with associating emailed invitations for a non-user with the account they then register. Thanks for the quality reports.