[development] [Fwd: a nasty Java applet case]

[Tomas J. Fulopp]

Hi,

Anybody has any ideas about this case? I put really all details in my 
mail, hoping to spark quick clues from Drupal gurus on the list. It took 
me weeks to pinpoint the problem, but now I am totally stuck, wondering 
what is special in Drupal that breaks the applet data loading 
functionality...

Even the faintest clue might help. Please.

Tomáš / Vacilando



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	a nasty Java applet case
Date: 	Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:08:55 +0200
From: 	Tomas J. Fulopp <tomi at vacilando.org>
Reply-To: 	tomi at vacilando.org
Organization: 	Vacilando
To: 	development at drupal.org



Lads and lassies, I wonder who can explain this one...

I've been working on this nasty problem for several weeks... and I am 
really close to a solution now, but not quite there. Hope you can help. 
It is really an interesting problem!

I maintain the "hypergraph" (HG) module, which currently takes the 
current-user-visible menu and turns it into a visual map using an open 
source Java applet -- see http://drupal.org/project/hypergraph or the 
files in CVS here 
http://cvs.drupal.org/viewvc.py/drupal/contributions/modules/hypergraph/

I have a multisite install of D5.2, the HG module sits in 
http://quidne.vacilando.org/sites/all/modules/hypergraph/ folder, and 
there is also the .jar file of the Java applet.

Now, when the page that contains the HG tag loads, the Java applet 
appears, but it needs to call data from the server. This data is 
provided by a file that resides in a folder of hypergraph, namely 
http://quidne.vacilando.org/sites/all/modules/hypergraph/graphs/hg.php 
(+ some arguments).
Note: in the same folder there is a .dtd file that is necessary for the 
XML data.

Quite simple, really. Worked fine on other (non Drupal) sites where I 
implemented it - e.g. http://www.vacilando.org frontpage

But on Drupal, and not only on my multisite install (several users 
reported it), there is a silly bug: After you open the browser (FF and 
IE; tested on WinXP) for the first time (with or without clearing cache, 
I found), the Java applet would throw a cache-related error. When 
reloaded page, and on all subsequent loads, the Java would display 
correct data, without any problem.

So I looked everywhere and tried to avoid this Java error, finding that 
JRE 6 has a bug related to cache, etc. Many days after I realized that 
this error (after fresh opening of the browser) did not occur in other 
websites I had made that feature the same applet. So I changed focus to 
the generated XML data, tweaking it to perfection.. But I could not get 
rid of the bug!

I then thought that perhaps I am not properly initializing Drupal. This 
is in the data provider file hg.php :
drupalize();
function drupalize() {
   while (!@stat('./includes/bootstrap.inc')) {
           chdir ('..');
   }
   require_once './includes/bootstrap.inc';
   drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
}
That should be fine, no? Just to be sure, I tried to put just plain XML 
file here - not dynamically generated, for a test. Still the same problem!!

Then I put both files (the static test XML and the DTD file) elsewhere, 
on a different subdomain ( in http://www.vacilando.org/temp/tst/ ). Wow 
-- surprise -- no bug!!!!!!

Why??? Why does it not work when XML and DTD are in 
http://quidne.vacilando.org/sites/all/modules/hypergraph/graphs/ and it 
works when XML and DTD are in http://www.vacilando.org/temp/tst/ ? No idea!

I have a hunch - but I need your thoughts here... the XML file 
definitely needs its DTD file. Could it be that something - either some 
consequences of multisite, or the .htaccess rules in the root of Drupal, 
or something else (what?) cause that the XML does not "see" its DTD even 
though it is in the same folder..?

I tried to put an empty .htaccess file in the folder 
http://quidne.vacilando.org/sites/all/modules/hypergraph/graphs/ trying 
to override the basic Drupal's .htaccess - no change.

Another suspicion - the Java applet seems to be loading before the page 
loads, or at least sometimes (when cache has been emptied from the 
browser before it was closed). Could it be that Drupal somehow forbids 
anything accessing module directories before session/cookies are set or 
something?

Also tried to put the two files into a folder in the files folder ( in 
http://quidne.vacilando.org/sites/quidne.vacilando.org/files/tst/ ) - 
same bug.

Any idea? Anybody has experience with a similar problem?

If any of you want to test the problem in action, don't go to my website 
(too many on-going dev changes), just get v1.2 from 
http://drupal.org/project/hypergraph and install it ( then go to 
/hypergraph ). Or contact me and I'll quickly set up a demo of the 
problem on my site.

Cheers,

Tomáš / Vacilando



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