Rainbow Portal Community

Hi,

Related to my last post, we get this error every now and then. We cannot find a pattern that sets it off. The asp error returned is not the same. One time it was an 'SSL security error' issue then next it was a 'Specified cast is not valid' operation.

We're using w2003ent with sql2000. We have created a separate pool (IIS6.0) for the rainbow site. But we are still using rainbow 1.4 (we cannot upgrade at the moment, tried unsuccessfully though). With the absence of a proper forum for that version I have to post here. I tried to search in google but the pages that were found no longer exists.

So we have two questions:

1. Does anyone have or know where we can download the source codes for version 1.4?
2. Does anyone know if version 1.4 were prone to this error (especially with w2003)?

Thanks,
Paul

Found the source code. It was in SourceFourge. I can't seem to remember seeing there last time I checked.

Anyway for problem number 2, here's a heads up:

http://www.wekeroad.com/blogs/SQLServerSSLErrorConnectionOpenSECDoClientHandShake.aspx

We have an expired SelfSSL certificate and since deleting it 1.5 days ago, we have not had a problem with the site since. Apparently it affects all clients (vb exe, asp, .net, etc) that is trying to access the sql server.

Again we have only removed the expired certificate 1.5 days ago, so we are still observing if that took care of the problem. Will keep you posted.

We just got an error. But not the same as the SSL error (which seems to happen more frequently). The error is:

Specified cast is not valid [InvalidCastException: Specified cast is not valid.]

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.GetSqlGuid(Int32 i) +35 System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.GetGuid(Int32 i) +23 Rainbow.Configuration.ModulesDB.GetModuleGuid(Int32 moduleID) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\Configuration\ModulesDB.cs:710 Rainbow.UI.Page.ModuleGuidInCookie() in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\UI\Page.cs:1023 Rainbow.UI.Page.OnInit(EventArgs e) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\UI\Page.cs:158 Rainbow.DesktopDefault.OnInit(EventArgs e) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\DesktopDefault.aspx.cs:38 System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer) +241 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() + 197

Have looked at other entries regarding 'Specified cast is not valid' but don't think it applies to this one. Hope someone knows how to solve this issue

Is there any chance that you had a module in your installation that was removed from the codebase (or deleted from the DB)? 

If you have the ability to debug the Rainbow app, I would set a breakpoint on line 710 of ModulesDB.cs, then try to load the app.  Each time the code stops there, hover your mouse pointer over 'moduleID' and see what value it holds.  The problem module will be the one that you see right before the application crashes. 

That might provide a bit more detail...

thanks for this information. Let me give a little background on our situation.
We took over this project from another company since they were having problems implementing the layout. It is done in v1.4.
We go the layout to work, even runs in Mac Safari but we had to update the SolPartMenu module (downloaded the latest). The application runs though. But it was generating a whole lot of errror entries in the rb_logs. I cleaned out the logs about 13 hours ago, now there are two files in the directory, one is 997kb and the other 259kb.

It reports different errors like System.InvalidOperationException, System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, System.IndexOutOfRangeException, System.NullReferenceException, etc. Apparently any error does not immediately cause the system to crash, sometimes it works more than one day, at times it crashes every few minutes.

We don't have the source code installed on the server to do a debug. We are running on win2003 standard and sql 2000. We have created a separate app pool for the web site. We are running several web sites on the server, we use Host Headers to identify the sites. Rainbow portal is the only .net app running.

We hope that you can assist us on this matter as this has been hounding as for the past 3 weeks and we really cannot pinpoint where the problem is
And if you open the same tab where the error had occured, it can be opened.

Can you run the 1.4 code you downloaded (in debug mode) against your live database (or better still, a local copy of that database), and debug locally in that way? 

I'm curious if the desktoplayout is causing any of the errors, since you said you 'got it to work'.  Was it causing problems before?  Can you use a different layout without error? 

Maybe I could see something in your error logs (it sounds like you hae plenty of them).  Can you send me one of the more average-sized ones? 

It might be easier overall to migrate the database to 1.6 code.  I think that's the stable release version...

Will try to debug locally with the live db if we get the time. We're a bit under time pressume I'm afraid. Regarding the 'got it to work' part, it was mostly updates to the css, the update to the latest SolPartMenu (to make it work in Safari), and a javascript that disables a flash module when viewed from safari (because when a sub menu overlays it, it just displays a white background).

The previous developer had turned off the logging and informed our client that they did it to save space. Although we are not sure, that sounds like they were having problems too because the logs were increasing. So there's a possibility that they had done something that cause this and not related to our changes.

I have unsuccessfully tried upgrading to 1.5 and 1.6 for 2 days. Well it was my first time with Rainbow then and I was as green as one possibly can. We have talked about trying to upgrade again but we don't have the time for it now.

About the log file you requested, do I paste them here or send them via email?

BTW we have implemented what we hope is a temporary solution to buy us time. I created a script file that stop and starts the rainbow web site and recycle its IIS pool, then created a scheduled task that runs the script every 2 hours. So far the log file has not increased (there are entries but unlike before). We haven't had a crash since but we're waiting for the weekdays to really check if it works.

Thanks for your time, we really appreciate it.

The solution we implemented worked from Sat noon to Wed morning. We didn't experience any crash but still got a lot of error log entries. one of the most common is:

Type: System.IndexOutOfRangeException
Message: SettingName
Source: System.Data
TargetSite: Int32 GetOrdinal(System.String)
StackTrace:    at System.Data.Common.FieldNameLookup.GetOrdinal(String fieldName)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.GetOrdinal(String name)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_Item(String name)
   at Rainbow.Configuration.TabSettings.GetTabCustomSettings(Int32 tabID) in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\Configuration\Settings\TabSettings.cs:line 398
   at Rainbow.Configuration.TabSettings.get_CustomSettings() in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\Configuration\Settings\TabSettings.cs:line 82
   at Rainbow.Configuration.PortalSettings.GetCurrentTheme() in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\Configuration\Settings\PortalSettings.cs:line 432
   at Rainbow.UI.Page.get_CurrentTheme() in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\UI\Page.cs:line 741
   at Rainbow.UI.Page.OnLoad(EventArgs e) in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Portal2\UI\Page.cs:line 175
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain()

The crash we recently encountered may be due to asp.net. There was an entry on the event logs regarding Article ID: 316721 "Failed to Start Monitoring Directory Changes". But it reported on directories that uses classic asp. Anyway we applied the suggested resolution and will continue monitoring.