Item1308: EditTablePlugin has problems with included topics with included edittable definition

My Foswiki just died with a crash

Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 783.
 at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/CGI/Carp.pm line 314
   CGI::Carp::realdie('Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /var/www...') called at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/CGI/Carp.pm line 385
   CGI::Carp::die('Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /var/www...') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki.pm line 154
   Foswiki::__ANON__('Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /var/www...') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 783
   Foswiki::Plugins::EditTablePlugin::Core::handleEditTableTag('QMS', 'ProcedureSysarch000Comments', ' include="QmsCommentTable" ') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 235
   Foswiki::Plugins::EditTablePlugin::Core::processText(2, 0, '---+ User Added Comments - ProcedureSysarch000 - System Archi...', 'ProcedureSysarch000Comments', 'QMS', 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'QMS') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 135
   Foswiki::Plugins::EditTablePlugin::Core::process('---+ User Added Comments - ProcedureSysarch000 - System Archi...', 'ProcedureSysarch000Comments', 'QMS', 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'QMS') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin.pm line 114
   Foswiki::Plugins::EditTablePlugin::commonTagsHandler('---+ User Added Comments - ProcedureSysarch000 - System Archi...', 'ProcedureSysarch000Comments', 'QMS', 1, 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xb33748c)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugin.pm line 273
   Foswiki::Plugin::invoke('Foswiki::Plugin=HASH(0xa472278)', 'commonTagsHandler', '---+ User Added Comments - ProcedureSysarch000 - System Archi...', 'ProcedureSysarch000Comments', 'QMS', 1, 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xb33748c)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins.pm line 316
   Foswiki::Plugins::dispatch('Foswiki::Plugins=HASH(0xa29811c)', 'commonTagsHandler', '---+ User Added Comments - ProcedureSysarch000 - System Archi...', 'ProcedureSysarch000Comments', 'QMS', 1, 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xb33748c)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki.pm line 3491
   Foswiki::INCLUDE('Foswiki=HASH(0xa0286b4)', 'Foswiki::Attrs=HASH(0xb3373fc)', 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'QMS', 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xae75c58)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki.pm line 2771
   Foswiki::_expandTagOnTopicRendering('Foswiki=HASH(0xa0286b4)', 'INCLUDE', '"ProcedureSysarch000Comments"', 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'QMS', 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xae75c58)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki.pm line 2676
   Foswiki::_processTags('Foswiki=HASH(0xa0286b4)', '---+!! %FORMFIELD{"DocumentID"}% %FORMFIELD{"TopicTitle"}%\x{a}\x{a}<...', 'CODE(0xa3b5458)', 16, 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'QMS', 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xae75c58)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki.pm line 2593
   Foswiki::expandAllTags('Foswiki=HASH(0xa0286b4)', 'SCALAR(0xb06479c)', 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'QMS', 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xae75c58)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki.pm line 2950
   Foswiki::handleCommonTags('Foswiki=HASH(0xa0286b4)', '---+!! %FORMFIELD{"DocumentID"}% %FORMFIELD{"TopicTitle"}%\x{a}\x{a}<...', 'QMS', 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xae75c58)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/UI/View.pm line 388
   Foswiki::UI::View::_prepare('---+!! %FORMFIELD{"DocumentID"}% %FORMFIELD{"TopicTitle"}%\x{a}\x{a}<...', 'Foswiki=HASH(0xa0286b4)', 'QMS', 'ProcedureSysarch000', 'Foswiki::Meta=HASH(0xae75c58)', 0) called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/UI/View.pm line 368
   Foswiki::UI::View::view('Foswiki=HASH(0xa0286b4)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/UI.pm line 181
   Foswiki::UI::__ANON__() called at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Error.pm line 415
   eval {...} called at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Error.pm line 407
   Error::subs::try('CODE(0xa1c4858)', 'HASH(0xaeb2814)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/UI.pm line 249
   Foswiki::UI::execute('Foswiki::Request=HASH(0xa443d90)', 'CODE(0xa443af0)', 'view', 1) called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/UI.pm line 120
   Foswiki::UI::handleRequest('Foswiki::Request=HASH(0xa443d90)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Engine/CGI.pm line 26
   Foswiki::Engine::CGI::run('Foswiki::Engine::CGI=HASH(0xa2321f4)') called at /var/www/Release01x00/core/bin/view line 45.

I am attaching the deadly topic

I have ASSERTS on. Trying without.

-- KennethLavrsen - 16 Mar 2009

It was ASSERTS. Trying to find the root cause now

-- KennethLavrsen - 16 Mar 2009

It happens when you have a topic that includes a topic which has en EDITTABLE with an include.

Without asserts on the edit table just doesn't work and the log is filled with initialization warnings.

This is a real life example from our quality management system so I will see this at work if I upgrade to Foswiki (which I still cannot do because of bugs). So I put this urgent.

error log says

[Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.11] [Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] view: Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 783., referer: http://merlin.lavrsen.dk/foswiki10/bin/view/QMS/ProcedureSysarch000Comments
[Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.11] [Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] view: Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 821., referer: http://merlin.lavrsen.dk/foswiki10/bin/view/QMS/ProcedureSysarch000Comments
[Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.11] [Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] view: Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 878., referer: http://merlin.lavrsen.dk/foswiki10/bin/view/QMS/ProcedureSysarch000Comments
[Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.11] [Tue Mar 17 00:42:30 2009] view: Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /var/www/Release01x00/core/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/EditTablePlugin/Core.pm line 953., referer: http://merlin.lavrsen.dk/foswiki10/bin/view/QMS/ProcedureSysarch000Comments
[Tue Mar 17 00:42:33 2009] [error] [client 192.168.1.11] File does not exist: /var/www/Release01x00/core/pub/QMS/ProcedureSysarch000, referer: http://merlin.lavrsen.dk/foswiki10/bin/view/QMS/ProcedureSysarch000

The last file does not exist is because no drawing has been made. This is unrelated.

-- KennethLavrsen - 16 Mar 2009

After a good sleep some more information. Besides the warnings in the error log and the crashing when turning on asserts (developer mode) the problem for the end user is that the Edit button for the edit table is not correctly visible. You get a small empty button.

But when you click it all is OK. You are taken to the included topic and end up in edit mode there. This is all OK. This is as it always worked. If you include a topic with an EDITTABLE and you edit the table from the parent you are taken to the included topic and editing the table there. I have no illusions about changing that. So all we need to figure out is how to get the warnings silenced and the edit button shown correctly from the parent.

-- KennethLavrsen - 17 Mar 2009

One more important information. The fact that the EDITTABLE tag uses the include parameter is not the problem.

If I change the EDITTABLE tag to a normal one in the included topic the error is still there.

The problem is simply the handling of a topic including another topic that contains an EDITTABLE tag. The view from the parent should be a normal table with an edit button in plain view. The minute you click the edit button you must be taken to the child where the actual editing takes place. And when you are saving you stay in the child and have to find your way back.

-- KennethLavrsen - 17 Mar 2009

Problem seems to be that for an EDITTABLE in an included topic the beforeCommonTagsHandler is never called which means that a lot of variables defined in the ETP init function are never called and this results in an endless row of undefined variables all over the code.

-- KennethLavrsen - 17 Mar 2009

My fix was fix + big hack. I have tested a lot and it works great. Additionally I found a little less hacky way which I will check in.

-- KennethLavrsen - 17 Mar 2009

I have added a unit test with this case. And renamed reinit to initIncludedTopic.

-- ArthurClemens - 17 Mar 2009