DS Browser hates Tabulas

January 10, 2009, 11:38 AM by ree as a favorite post

Update: Roy tweaked the Tabulas code and now it gets along swimmingly with my DS. The original entry follows for posterity and my ego. Mostly my ego. I've been online lately, just not blogging. Why? Because I've been using the hell out of my new DS Browser, which refuses to work with Tabulas.

And for the life of me, I can't determine where the problem lies.

I can login. On a PC, logging in automatically redirects me to http://tabulas.com/cp/ - but on the DS Browser, I get returned to the same page. I can tell that I'm logged in because the nav bar at the top of the page says "Hello, ree". But every time I try to access http://tabulas.com/cp/ or any directory within it, I am redirected back to the login screen.

I can view friends-only posts. I can see the "Edit" link on my own entries, although the link goes to someplace within http://tabulas.com/cp/ and so redirects me to the login page. I can even leave comments and choose which usericon I want shown on them.

But I can't create my own posts. Or edit my profile, or add a friend to my friends list, or correct a typo in one of my entries....

The DS Browser has no capacity to view cookies, so I can't tell if the problem is that one or more cookies aren't being accepted as they should, if the Tabulas programming is identifying my browser as incapable of using the admin interface and is therefore keeping me from even seeing it, if earlier versions of Opera (the DS Browser is based on Opera 8 point something, 8.5 I think) had similar problems with cookies that have been fixed in newer versions....

The part that really chaps my ass is that Opera is my everyday browser, so I know it isn't as simple as Opera being unable to handle Tabulas. I use Opera to post to Tabulas all the time. I'm doing it right now!

But Opera for my DS is being a butthead, and I can't tell why. This is possibly the most maddening thing that could go wrong with my DS, because I know how to work my DS, I know Opera, and I know some things about the Internet and cookies, but I am still helpless to fix or even troubleshoot the problem.

Sites that work beautifully on the DS Browser (usually through a mobile version of the site): LiveJournal, DeadJournal, InsaneJournal, WordPress.com, BlogLines, Gmail, iGoogle, Yahoo mail, MySpace.

Sites that break beyond usability: Facebook, Meebo (which at least pops up a message that my browser is unsupported - thanks for letting me know), Tabulas.
Sad face.

Listening to: Queen's Greatest Hits
Feeling: distressed

Filed under www, geeky, crossposted to msree.livejournal.com, Tabulas · 12 commented · Permalink

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ree has turned on comment autolocking after 255 days.

roy
Comment posted on January 10th, 2009 at 11:58 AM
Interesting - can you try hitting http://tabulas.com/cp/?debug=cookies to see what cookies the DS has in the control panel? There should be - tabadmin, tabuser, and tabnet. My guess is the first one isn't being set.
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ree
Comment posted on January 10th, 2009 at 03:03 PM
The DS doesn't let me see what cookies its has. However, when I use desktop Opera and delete the tabadmin cookie, it does exactly the same thing that the DS browser does: I'm logged in, I can see friends-only posts, but tabulas.com/cp/ always redirects to the login. Looks like you're right about the DS missing that cookie.
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roy
Comment posted on January 10th, 2009 at 03:05 PM
Yeah, that debug link should confirm that - although the DS browser won't let you see what cookies you have, that link will output from PHP all the cookies. Can you verify that's the issue? I can dig through some of their documentation and see why it's having such trouble.
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ree
Comment posted on January 10th, 2009 at 03:19 PM
Ah, I understand now. Confirmed: the tabadmin cookie is indeed missing on the DS.
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roy
Comment posted on January 10th, 2009 at 03:32 PM
Hmm, I'm pretty sure I know what's causing the problem, but I'm hoping it's something else. Can you try logging in/out of your DS and see if it works now? I was sending cookies with the path /cp, but it may need /cp/ (I'm guessing that browser is a lot pickier).

If that doesn't fix it, I'll try one more thing.
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ree
Comment posted on January 10th, 2009 at 03:38 PM
Tried logging in on DS again (just turning it off removes all cookies, so there's no chance of an old cookie mucking up the works). Same as before.

I believe the DS Browser was is pretty much a stripped-down Opera 8.5, if that helps any.
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roy
Comment posted on January 12th, 2009 at 10:20 PM
It would help if they actually had that browser as an executable so I can see exactly what was happening :(

Can you try it once more? i've changed some code around to see if what I suspect is the problem, is actually causing the problem.
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ree
Comment posted on January 13th, 2009 at 12:02 AM
It works now! Thank you so much, Roy.
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roy
Comment posted on January 13th, 2009 at 12:10 AM
blech, it works, but it's actually a huge security hole :(

could you try logging in once more for me, please? :)
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ree
Comment posted on January 13th, 2009 at 01:45 PM
Now it's the same as before - I'm logged in but can't access /cp/.

Obviously site-wide security is more important than one person's mobile access. I'd just been hoping those could co-exist.
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roy
Comment posted on January 13th, 2009 at 10:05 PM
ok, what i've done is sniff the user agent - against the known user agent string of the nintendo ds, it should issue a cookie which /cp/ should accept

the code should be in place now - so it should work.
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ree
Comment posted on January 14th, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Yup, I'm in. Thank you. I won't forget this.
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