Bug: Web Interface Exception Involving Episode Search

[azgbpvr]

I found (actually one of my kids stumbled into it) that the EWA exception listed below occurs when the "Episode Search" tab is selected and then the <ENTER> key is pressed without first entering any search data into the fields on the webpage. This problem is reproducible every time on my system. The below information is the only error data I have; nothing unusual appears in the logs. I'm running v1.2.9 with the build 74 version of EWA, and I'm accessing the EWA interface using an IE7 browser.

Hopefully this problem can be isolated and resolved.

Thanks



[SIZE="3"]Server Error in '/gbpvr' Application.

Index was outside the bounds of the array. [/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.

Source Error:


Line 832: displayProgramme.FillProgrammeTreeArrayItem(treeItem, Server, programme, scheduledRecording, true, chnl);
Line 833: //Add the loaded ProgrammeTreeITem to the Array
Line 834: pgmTree[treeIdx] = treeItem;
Line 835: treeIdx = treeIdx + 1;
Line 836: }


Source File: c:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\web\SearchResults2.aspx.cs Line: 834

Stack Trace:


[IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.]
gbweb.SearchResults2.processTree(ProgrammeDisplay2 displayProgramme, Programme programme, ScheduledRecording scheduledRecording, Channel chnl) in c:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\web\SearchResults2.aspx.cs:834
gbweb.SearchResults2.SearchForEpisode(Boolean checkTitle, Boolean checkDesc, Boolean checkSubtitle, Boolean matchTitle, Boolean matchDesc, Boolean matchSubtitle, Boolean matchUniqueID, String searchFor, Boolean caseSensitive, Int32 minLength, Int32 maxLength, String[] channels, String[] selectedGenre, String startdate, String starttime, String enddate, String endtime) in c:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\web\SearchResults2.aspx.cs:750
gbweb.SearchResults2.SearchResults_PreRender(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\web\SearchResults2.aspx.cs:294
System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e) +0
System.Web.UI.Control.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +80
System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +88
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +5676


Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.1433; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.1433 [/SIZE]

[pbb]

Hmm...you search for nothing and get an error? Doesn't sound like a bug to me. Sounds like an undocumented feature.

[azgbpvr]

Hmm...you search for nothing and get an error? Doesn't sound like a bug to me. Sounds like an undocumented feature.

Yeah; I guess that it actually could be a feature ...

Actually, I left out the most important part. When this error occurs, the GBPVRRecordingService.exe process spikes to a very high CPU percentage, and my MVPs stutter during playback and then disconnect. I presume that any show being recorded at the time would suffer as well.

[UncleJohnsBand]

Yep....that is a feature....

I'll put something in to prevent an empty search.....

Basically you are trying to retrieve everything that is in your EPG......That is what the Guide is for.....

[azgbpvr]

Thanks for making this fix so quickly. I tested the fix and it solved the problem. Given that it is very unlikely that someone would want to retrieve all of their listings, I think that this is a very good fix.

However ... I think that this fix may have created another set of problems. In the past, I've found it very useful to perform searches by Genre. For instance, I sometimes search for all shows with "movie" as a Genre. Today I just happened to run this search again and found that no results were returned! It appears that the fix for the "null search" problem has broken this "specific Genre search", as well as other specific searches.

I wonder if you can tweak the fix so that it only rejects the "null search" under the following conditions:
1. Null "Search Phrase" and ...
2. No specific Genres are selected and ...
3. No specific date range has been specified and ...
4. No specific time range has been specified and ...
5. No specific show length has ben specified and ...
6. No specific channels have been specified.

Alternatively, a better fix might be to just issue a pop-up window explaining to the user that he has just issued a request that will consume significant server resources and take a long time to execute, and asking the user if he really wants to proceed.

The real problem here is the significant use of server resources that the EWA episode searches can consume. If there was an easy way to throttle-back on server resources for these searches (i.e. execute the request more slowly) then that might be the very best fix in the long run. If the EWA logic was running on a separate process with a lower priority, then that would solve the problem.

Thanks for all your efforts on EWA. My family loves our GB-PVR and the EWA interface is a key aspect of GB-PVR that makes it easy and enjoyable to use.

[UncleJohnsBand]

Thanks for making this fix so quickly. I tested the fix and it solved the problem. Given that it is very unlikely that someone would want to retrieve all of their listings, I think that this is a very good fix.

However ... I think that this fix may have created another set of problems. In the past, I've found it very useful to perform searches by Genre. For instance, I sometimes search for all shows with "movie" as a Genre. Today I just happened to run this search again and found that no results were returned! It appears that the fix for the "null search" problem has broken this "specific Genre search", as well as other specific searches.

I wonder if you can tweak the fix so that it only rejects the "null search" under the following conditions:
1. Null "Search Phrase" and ...
2. No specific Genres are selected and ...
3. No specific date range has been specified and ...
4. No specific time range has been specified and ...
5. No specific show length has ben specified and ...
6. No specific channels have been specified.

Alternatively, a better fix might be to just issue a pop-up window explaining to the user that he has just issued a request that will consume significant server resources and take a long time to execute, and asking the user if he really wants to proceed.

The real problem here is the significant use of server resources that the EWA episode searches can consume. If there was an easy way to throttle-back on server resources for these searches (i.e. execute the request more slowly) then that might be the very best fix in the long run. If the EWA logic was running on a separate process with a lower priority, then that would solve the problem.

Thanks for all your efforts on EWA. My family loves our GB-PVR and the EWA interface is a key aspect of GB-PVR that makes it easy and enjoyable to use.

Yea...I am in the process of updating this....someone identified it and posted it in the EWA Build 75 release thread. I'll post a patch there when it is done.