Bug

After using a view for a while, a posting mysteriously stops working. This problem only happens in relations where there are an inordinately large number of post icons.

This should not be confused with spurious reports of posting actions that ‘work most of the time, but occasionally fail.’ When this bug manifests, the post stops working and does not work again until remedial action is taken.

The bug actually occurs in the posting package that is created for the view itself when you select various post icons in the 4 action columns. These packages are created as part of the Compile Forms command.

What seems to be happening is that when certain Design Mode changes are made the basic compiled form data is reset, but the internal posting package is not. To force Helix to rebuild the posting package:

1. Open the collection in RADE -> Design Mode
2. Open the view that is failing to post
3. Switch the view to Show Setup mode
4. Temporarily change the selection in either the query or index column.
5. Reset it to the desired value and put the form back in Show Form mode.

Reducing the number of icons in the relation where the affected view is found can help to avoid a recurrence of the bug. Although we do not yet know exactly what causes the bug to trigger, we do know this bug is seen only in relations with excessive icon counts. A good general rule is that if you have more than 1000 icons in a relation, you should reconsider your design, looking for ways to break the functions up into logical sub-relations. Of course, there are legitimate reasons to have a large number of icons in a relation, but an alternative construction is certainly available, and can avoid bugs like this from striking.

This bug has been seen in Helix 6.0.1, but it may exist in earlier versions as well.

Compiled forms have been done away with in Helix 6.1. The performance gain on modern hardware is negligible, and the added complexity allows subtle bugs like this to occur.

Credit to Duncan Douglas for helping us isolate this bug.