form fields not holding values

This is strange. I have a client who is entering information into forms where the values are not holding. It's inconsistent and when she told me a few weeks ago I thought it was user error. I told her to be doubly-sure she was hitting submit and the form was returning a success message.

Now today, she's calling with the same issue and has seen a few different cases. She says yesterday, she and her assistant were looking at one item's form values, going over the information, discussing it, etc. Then today, she went back to check on something and the fields are blank.

I've never encountered this, but I think at this point, what she's seeing seems to be accurate and not user error.

So what might cause something like this?
updated by @blindmime: 06/22/14 06:15:50AM

If it is data that was entered, and then a few days later is "gone", the only thing I can think of is that the item is getting deleted.

Are you able to replicate it in any way? We run JR5 here on Jamroom.net, and have been for about 6 months now, and I've never seen it here.

Hope this helps!


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Yeah, I know. I've never seen it happen either. I was thinking maybe a shared server issue, but I have much larger sites with more users never seeing this issue.

The item isn't missing, just the fields in the update form are blank suddenly. (this is an aparna-generated module, by the way, on that site you've been on before)

I wonder if it's a database communication error and refreshing would bring the data in? Does that kind of thing happen ever? Or would you likely get a 500 error or something instead? They say they've seen the blank fields happen several times.

If it was a DB error, you'd likely get an error on the page. One thing to check is to see if maybe they have a "forms helper" type plugin setup in their browser - something that is trying to help them by "remembering" form values - that could be causing an issue. See if you're able to track it down to a specific browser, or if it is always happening on a specific form.

Hope this helps!


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

It would be easier to offer guesses if you showed us the values of the form fields that are getting removed.

It could be related. Stripped perhaps.

It's this specific form. This form has 32 different possible tasks running down the page.
updated by @blindmime: 05/01/14 08:43:15PM

Then 2 areas for open entry text fields.
updated by @blindmime: 05/01/14 08:40:28PM

So what your seeing is someone like 'dutin garcea' entering something under "Concerns and Observations" into #1

#1: The garden needs weeding

Then coming back the next day and the text isnt there

#1:

Is that right?

There's no chance the job has been completed so cleared is there?

I haven't seen it. My client is telling me this is happening. But yes, this is what they see.

The "completed" checkbox is just a checkbox field (either on or off). They are seeing those checkbox fields also appearing unchecked when they were checked previously on an item.

Without a way to setup some tests to see it working, its real hard to try to test anything to see if that change might fix it.

Right now all I have to go on is "someone told me that sometimes some fields disappear in the forms."

Its not a lot. Not sure how to begin to help other than keeping an eye out for it in case I see it happening.

Ill see if i can recreate the checkbox un-checking itself.

Yes, I understand. I was just wondering if anyone had seen this kind of thing before or had any insight into what could cause such behavior.

I haven't seen it before, but will keep an eye out for it from now on.

One thing to check is that the form fields are set to "active = YES" in both the Form Designer CREATE screen and the Form Designer UPDATE screen.

eg:
site.com/file/form_designer/m=jrFile/v=create
site.com/file/form_designer/m=jrFile/v=update

When I created a checkbox to see if it stayed set, it was active on the screen i created it on, but not active on the update screen for items that already existed. Needed to go turn it on.

So if the meaning is "The form field was there when i created the listing, but not there when i went to update the listing" that could be the reason.

The fields themselves are there. Their values are disappearing. Checked checkboxes become unchecked and fields with text entries become blank.

Yep, that sounds like a mystery. not sure how to test for it though unfortunately.

I would check for browser addons that "help" with remembering forms - I really don't know what else it could be.


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net