Sametime 7.5.1 tabbed interface is loosing messages!

Well let’s say I was shocked when I found this out… After upgrading to Sametime 7.5.1 on the client as well on the server we have been been using the tabbed interface to handle the chats. While I like the interface a lot, my coworkers and I have stopped using it since we are experiencing that some chat messages simply dosn’t show up the Sametime Connect client and are “lost”.

We became aware of the problem when one of my coworkers told me that his Connect client was “dinging” but no new chat message appeared. I discounted the idea but as he kept telling me about this and I started experiencing it myself I started to get curious. Yesterday we decided to do a systematic test and have been able to consistently reproduced the issue. The issue is only visible when using the tabbed chat interface.

It doesn’t seem to be a problem with the server or client per say but the interface as the messages are showing the chat history.

Symptoms

The chat window flashes and “dings” but no new message is showing in the chat window. If you close the chat window and reopen it the full chat exchange, incl. all messages, are showing up – also the “lost” ones.

The issue occurs both for text messages, emoticons (which is simply text) and for graphics

System configuration

  • Server: Sametime 7.5.1, US English, on IBM Lotus Domino 7.0.2 on Windows 2003 Server
  • Client(s): Sametime 7.5.1 Connect client on Windows XP Prof. SP2 using the tabbed chat interface

Steps to reproduce

  1. User 1 and user 2 configures their Connect client to use the tabbed chat interface
  2. User 1 sends user 2 series of messages using an ascending messaging scheme (e.g. a, b, c)
  3. User 2 sends user 1 series of messages using an ascending messaging scheme (e.g. 1, 2, 3)

At some point you’ll discover that some messages are missing when looking at the ascending numbers or letters. Below is a couple of screenshots from a chat exchange from the office. The first screenshot is from my computer and I’m simply sending letters to my chat partner who is responding with numbers.

The second screenshot shows my chat partners Connect client after I have sent my third message (“c”). As you can see the second message (“b”) has been lost and isn’t showing. Also the name isn’t showing in front of my third message (“c”).

The third and final screenshot is of my chat partners chat history dialog. As you see all 6 messages (“1”, “2”, “3”, “a”, “b” and “c”) is showing here and is correctly prefixed.

As previously stated we have been able to consistently reproduce the issue on multiple occasions. I would be very much interested to hear if anyone else has been experiencing similar issues with the tabbed interface.

21 thoughts on “Sametime 7.5.1 tabbed interface is loosing messages!”

  1. I have been experiencing the same issues. It’s good to hear that it’s is only related to the tabbed interface (which I have been using all the time).

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  2. A few people saw this in the beta, I know a few customers have reported it with GA code too, it does have an SPR associated with it. Sad to see that this one slipped out.

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  3. This is good to know. We haven’t tried 7.5.1 yet. Maybe we’ll wait till they have fixed these issues.

    On a side note, how is the speed of 7.5.1? We find 7.5 to be slow and lag behind typing very often.

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  4. Good to know that this is not related to our infrastructure (which is beeing administered by consultants who are working at customers’ sites and do not have time to work on our internal systems, which are considered less important than customers’ systems – correctly :-). As Jens wrote we did encounter the same problem as you – which was also present in 7.5.0 before Fixpack 1.

    By the way: we have noticed that the screen capture functionality is gone in the 7.5.1 client – the icon is missing and we were not able to find how to enable this useful feature. I haven’t had the time to check this in detail: do we have to install or activate a plugin to use this?

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  5. Hans-Peter, there is a policy in Sametime 7.5.1 that controls if pictures can be sent, check the policy docs.

    You will see the option:
    “Allow screen captures and images”

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  6. Yep, add another who’s noticed this. WinXP (not SP2), with tabbed chat only. Turn off the tabs and everyting is fine again. This is using the 7.5.1 client against 3.1 server. I installed over the top of ST 7.5, maybe that makes a difference? Either way, should be easy for IBM to fix.

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  10. when will the fix be downloadable ??

    History does not loose the message, short-term workaround is to click history and you can see the missing message.

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  14. Yeah we have experienced the same issues.

    However I found that if you click on the tab heading again (it should be ornage to show new messages) then the messages reappear so you can still get them in the tabbed interface. It appears to be a redraw/focus issue.

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  15. Hey,

    Do you know if it is possible to enable the chat history in the windows registry? I work in a quite large network enviroment, and would like to implement the feature on the network. Also do you know if it is possible in the registry to  change the path to where the chat history is to be saved.

    Thanks,

    PJ

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  16. It’s not enabled in the Windows registry but in the configuration files used by Sametime. Try comparing the xml files beneath the Sametime install directory before and after enabling the feature. That should allow you to see where the setting it kept.

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  17. We had the same problem.  From my experience, the problem seems to occur for the person using the tabbed interface even if the sender is using the single chat (i.e. non-tabbed) interface.
    I just stopped using the tabbed interface to avoid the problem.  It is annoying that it doesn’t work, but not as annoying as many of the other sametime/LotusNotes issues.  For example, the chat history has stopped working for my sametime now, which is much more annoying.  And I won’t even get started on the issues with LotusNotes.
     

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