Get your favorite beverage, sit back, and join in the discussion
You are not logged in.
I am noticing that stories under a certain amount you can download but stories like potential and girls in the grass well not let you down load it searches for the file and i have went 5 minutes with no results
thanks
Offline
I have tested this, and discovered the issue is not length of story. There seem to be specific chapters that cause issues with the zipping process. I will try to look into this, but I hold out very little hope of figuring out what's causing the problem. I may have to simply look for a different function library to do the zipping with.
Please be patient.
Eric Storm
Offline
Thank you for the response also just to let you know that i have downloaded Girls in the Grass and it worked in the past. Not sure if that will help you
Offline
I've noticed it too - on my phone I will eventually get a time out. if I click back and then click the button again, sometimes it will download it immedialtey, other times it will go through another timeout
Could be server side with it trying to read from the database, write to disk, and then assemble the zip file.
I've also written a script on my local computer (linux) that takes the .zip file, unpacks, tweaks the table of contents, then creates an epub from it.
(based on the calibre ebook reader ebook-convert program).
Admin willing to trade some access for server/programming?
Offline
This is what I just got about 11:17AM EST March 7th
Service Unavailable
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Additionally, a 503 Service Unavailable error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
I clicked back, clicked Download again and boom, it downloaded immediately
Offline
1. No, I'm not about to give anyone access to my account. I've been burned on website issues already. Especially since I'm trying to create a NEW version of the site, not prop up this decaying beast.
2. Any error that talks about server availability is completely beyond my control. GoDaddy controls the server, not me.
Eric Storm
Offline
Ahhhhh! The fun with technology. Please post a note when and if you get this problem rectified. TTFN
Offline
Eric:
I have a question for you about The Wolf Pub. I have seen no stories updated in over a month. That includes The Woodward Acadamy. I am just wondering if it is just my computer or is it infact that no postings have happened? I love this site and would hate to miss any stories. Thanks for All You Do For This Site.
Offline
Content production on this site is at a low, yes. There will be a release of WAY8 within the next week or so, but this site is basically dead, unfortunately.
Eric Storm
Offline
Thank you for the info. As I said this is my favorite site on the web and I love your writting.
Offline
I may have a temporary fix for the long story down loads! I have found that after your down load fails refresh the page and then try it. It worked well for me. It may also work for you also. All I can say is give it a shot!
Offline
Sorry Eric that will not help with the site Problem but it may help the people get the downloads they want!
Last edited by SS54 (2019-12-04 23:42:01)
Offline
hello there i don't know if it's the same bug but i have a FATAL ERROR: UpdCH when trying to download potential within the lastest chrome version if that's help
Offline
That's an unrelated problem. Just try to download again.
Thank you for letting me know of the error, though.
Eric Storm
Offline
Hi, I'm constantly getting FATAL ERROR: UpdCH, constantly clicking back and retrying sometimes helps. Even switching to text or html sometimes works. Although I prefer the html version.
I'm downloading the stories so I can read offline on my mobile as it's near impossible to read the site on a phone screen.
Could there possibly be a way to have the whole story pre-converted to html/pdf/doc/epub file and made available for download? Instead of the php modules trying to format and zip? I've been hitting back and forth on some of the novels and I'm stuck with downloading the my girl novels.
Offline
What you're asking for is a major rewrite of two or three different scripts. This is something I am not going to do to this version of the website, as I am trying to put my programming efforts toward a new version.
I know what causes this error, but I'm not quite sure why you're seeing it so frequently. In any case, really, if you want to read the site online on your phone, simply click the button that says, "Click here to view this story/image in a new window". It will fill your browser screen with nothing but the chapter you're reading. That's what that button is there for: to make mobile viewing easier until I can get a site redesign accomplished. Please note that this button will not appear unless you are logged in.
Eric Storm
Offline
I didn't mean for that to happen, thought we can just add a link some place for pre done pdf versions. Anyway, I tried the mobile only version, it didn't fit well on my screen.
I did manage to get what I wanted downloaded though and the easiest way is to just download by batches. Example, if a novel is 50 pages, just download every 5-10 chapters, that helped tremendously. I just convert everything to pdf format and combine them with free tools. At least it's a temporary workaround till you are done redesigning it. I can't wait to see the new site:)
Offline
1. There is a difference between the "mobile version" of the site, and the button I am talking about. The button I am talking about appears on every single story chapter page, and it opens the chapter in a window without any interface around it: it is nothing more than the actual text file. I don't see how that could not "fit well" on your screen.
2. I have fixed the "UpdCH" error problem. Not in a way that will make contributors happy, but at least the site is functional again.
3. pre-converted files... do you have any idea how many stories are on this site? We may not be Stories Online, but you're still talking several HUNDRED stories. They would have to be manually converted three times: HTML, TXT, and EPUB. Given how utterly abysmal PDF files are for using on varied devices, I would not pre-convert to that one anyway. I would convert to EPUB instead of Palmdoc. (Palmdoc was popular when I first designed the site, okay???) That's probably close to 1000 conversions, if not more. And every time someone uploaded something, I'd have to re-do those three conversions for that story. The new version of the site will, in fact, only have "complete" downloads as an option, but they will be created by automation, not by hand. My original thought - the reason that these versions are created on the fly - was that people would only have to download the new chapter, to add to their collection, rather than having to re-download text they already have. In 2006, bandwidth was more important a consideration than it is now.
Eric Storm
Offline
Hello i tried downloading camp:rj and camp:sr but the loading circle just spins for a while and then this error shows up FATAL ERROR: ChkCH
or i get a server error 503 which after reading the thread seems out of your control but i just wanted to give youa heads up about that.
Offline
All I can say is, try back later. This utility has been working for years. I have made no changes to it, so there's no logical reason for it to suddenly not work.
I will be looking into a method of completely replacing this download system, but that's going to require a fair bit of work, so please be patient while I do the research and programming.
Eric Storm
Offline
I just wanted to mention that i have tried several times on different devices and different networks and im still unable to download stories.
Update: so i just tried downloading the stories in smaller chunks and that seemed to work. as long as i didnt try to download more than like 10 chapters at a time so if anyone else runs into that problem try that
Last edited by zalmeth (2021-03-18 03:34:34)
Offline