IWP, field validation and runaway errors--anyone know anything about this problem?

[Harvey McArthur]

We have a database hosted by FileMaker Server Advanced 9 via IWP that went haywire and started generating FileMaker Error 504 (Value in field is not unique as required in validation entry options) and Web Scripting Error 509 (Field requires a valid value) at a rate of 200,000 error messages per minute logged into the pe_application log. We’re running FMSA 9 v3 on a Xeon quad core dedicated server with Mac OS X Server 10.5.6.

A user had tried to create a new record that had one field that is required to be non-empty and unique. She was confused by this, didn’t understand the FileMaker error message and closed her browser to get out of the situation.

I have seen a long string of posts from 2006 on the www.fmforums.com site detailing a problem this used to create with Server 7 and 8 and IWP-hosted databases. After a user closed their browser leaving a record with an invalid field, the next time someone tried to use the database it generated an Error 13 warning and would not allow anyone access. According to the reports on fmforums.com FileMaker eventually “trapped” this problem in Server 8.0.4. I have experimented with this and it appears FileMaker now deletes the offending record when the user’s session ends. At least that’s what happens on my MacBook Pro, running FMSA 9.0.3.326 on Mac OS 10.4.11.

We have found out that several users of this database have had the problem of getting confused by the invalid field warnings (one reason we plan to replace FileMaker validation with scripted validation so we can control the error messages). But never before did the Server and/or database go out of control generating the 504 and 509 error warnings. In previous instances it seems FileMaker deleted the record with the invalid field.

This time the pe_application log shows that when the next user logged in to the database FileMaker immediately generated two FileMaker Error 504 messages. When she started running scripts, they generated one Web Scripting Error 509 each time the script got to a Go To Layout, New Record/Request, Perform Find, Commit Record/Request and Go To Record/Request steps. The script steps Set Field always generated a Web Scripting Error 101 (Record is Missing) message. The Set Field steps are immediately preceded by a New Record/Request step, one of the ones that generated the Error 509 log entries.

These error messages were generated once for each script step, but when the script got to a loop it never left the loop. The script step Go to Record (Next; Exit after last) appears to have failed. The script was looping through a small found set of 3 or 4 records at the time. But it never left the loop and so kept on generating the same pattern of error messages in the pe_application log.

I did notice that the FMSA ran the daily backup of the database around the time the user was first logged in and had the problem with the invalid field. But logs show she started one half hour after the backup ran so we’re guessing that was not part of the problem.

Any ideas? Do we have to give up using FileMaker field validation in IWP databases altogether to be sure of avoiding this big problem in the future?

[GeoSteven]

I know this thread is kinda old but it's the only one I can find that relates to the issue I'm having. I believe my issue has been caused by the same thing but cannot figure out how to do the forensics.

Based on the previous post it would seem that a field in my DB is requiring validation that has not been met. When the user canceled out of the dialog the server started throwing these errors (see attached log file). How can I tell which field is the culprit? How can I recover from this in my current DB? What can I do to prevent this in the future?

FM11dev_serverlog.txt