Forum -> Help with flowlog.net hosted flowlog -> create books bug, demo and flowlog.net user  Resolved

Quote from a new member:

After creating a new flowlog.net account & making my selections for a new set of books, I received a bug report.  Should I post any details of my book feature selections here in the forum (or maybe in the comments section of the issue itself)?  I experienced the same issue/bug report about one week ago after creating a demo account & making the book features selections.   Thanks!!

NOTE: I am going to install Firefox & try with the recommended browser ... currently using Safari 12.1.2

UPDATE 2 - SUCCESS W/ SUGGESTED WORKAROUND FOR SAFARI.  Safari OSX (MacBook) worked by using the YYYY/MM/DD date format, and Safari IOS (iPhone) had a date selection tool which worked. Firefox and Chrome (MacBook) both displayed the fy end date calendar properly. My only comment is that the actual date field is not wide enough for the user to see in text format the date they selected from the calendar.  

UPDATE - SUCCESS IN FIREFOX & CHROME:  On my MacBook, both Chrome and Firefox allowed me to create a set of books. The only difference I noticed was the date/calendar dropdown that appears ofr the date field. This was not at all visible to me when I was trying in Safari, so I was typing the date (with and without slashes) in manually. In Chrome, I used the calendar itself & clicked on a date to select it which worked, and in Firefox I tried typing the date & that worked as well, but I noticed it was using my keystrokes to move through the calendar and make a date selection via the calendar.  So typing the date manually instead of using the calendar tool (and Safari ) seems to be the root in case that is helpful.  I am 100% fine with not using Safari, just including this detail in case it's helpful to any user or developer. 

Thanks for reporting the trouble you are having.

Just to clarify: you should have been redirected to a general 500 error page that explained that you had encountered a bug, and then you should have received an email telling you about the auto-submitted bug report in the issue tracker. Is this what happened?

Don't worry about posting any details of your books create selections at this point. I received a stacktrace of your issue (detailed report) from flowlog that tells me what flowlog "didn't like" about your form submission. The error is (paraphrased): [Incorrect date value: '12/31/2019' for books fiscal year end date.]

The demo probably gave you the error page, but does not have it's own issue tracker, and is not integrated with the flowlog.net issue tracker. It shouldn't matter though, as this is the same problem in both places.

Is this Safari for IOS (iphone/ipad) or Safari on OSX? If OSX, what version?

Got it.  Yes, I was redirected to the general 500 error page (in the demo also) & did receive the email notification once I had an actual account.  re Safari, I believe it's for OSX as I'm on a MacBook and not iPhone or ipad, v 12.1.2  Thanks! 

Safari for OSX still doesn't support html5's date input which flowlog is using for the fiscal year end date. This means flowlog cannot show a fancy calendar date picker like it does for Firefox and Chromium/Chrome on Gnu+Linux and Windows and just shows a plain, empty text input, which leaves you to guess as to how to format the date. The flowlog form validation code accepts your human friendly date format and doesn't return you back to the form with a user-friendly error, but the flowlog database doesn't know what to do with your human friendly date format, and this is why you get a general 500 error and an automatic bug report.

As a workaround for Safari on OSX, please try to format your date as "YYYY/MM/DD" (without the quotes) and see if that works.

Safari for IOS has partial support for the html5 date input, that should work fine with flowlog, but is untested. Html5 date input support details are here: https://caniuse.com/#feat=input-datetime

i will be curious to find out if Firefox and/or Chrome (OSX versions) on your Macbook are able to show the fy end date calendar properly or not. If they only show the plain, empty text input field, then they would require the same workaround mentioned for Safari above, assuming that works.

i see your update further up in the thread now: and Great! I'm glad to know Firefox and Chrome work for OSX users. Thanks for reporting and working through the issue.

Please let us know if you run into anything else.

P.S. It might be best in the future, to make new posts for new info (as opposed to just grammar corrections, etc) instead of editing existing posts with new info as flowlog doesn't appear to notify thread followers on existing post edits, but will notify them when a new post is made. Also, members might not think to look at old posts for new information. Finally, it could make understanding the chronological order of events more difficult, especially if you have multiple members conversing. It's not the end of the world though.

Makes perfect sense! 

My only comment is that the actual date field is not wide enough for the user to see in text format the date they selected from the calendar.  

On what device/screen size/screen resolution (whichever you know)? the field widths are in percent so it may be wide enough on some screens, but not in others. Also, even when they are too skinny you should be able to "arrow through" the text date inside the form field to be able to see it all/confirm it's correct.

I've updated the software recommendations documentation, the issue in the tracker and these forum posting guidelines thanks to your input.

I've improved the way flowlog validates the books' fy_end_date.

Now flowlog will check if the date is in the format of YYYY-MM-DD (not YYYY/MM/DD anymore!), and if it's not, it will redirect the user back to the books create or books edit form with a message that tells the user what the format needs to be, instead of the "500 general error" page.

Firefox and Chrome users will never see this message because the html5 date input/calendar/date picker will put the user's choice in the proper format, but Safari users will have a better experience. Safari is not an officially supported browser, but this is just the better way to handle that input overall.

Now all future Safari users will benefit from your report.