Who's Online plugin does not work with Discourse 2.3.10

Product Support

AI-generated summary

The user TerminalAddict reports a white screen error after updating to Discourse 2.3.10, with a JavaScript error pointing to the who's online plugin. After investigation, Falco identifies the issue as a compatibility problem with the discourse-whos-online plugin, which relies on code not yet available in the stable branch of Discourse. jomaxro confirms that the plugin works on the tests-passed branch but breaks on stable, explaining that plugin updates are faster than core releases. TerminalAddict questions the stability of the stable branch when plugins break, and jomaxro clarifies that “stable” refers to infrequent changes, not absence of bugs, and suggests pinning plugins to specific commits if needed.

1

Um, I rebuilt today after getting an alert to a new version.

https://www.mcrides.co.nz/

err , plain old white screen?

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘trigger’ of undefined
at t.init (_plugin-third-party-cb09db834c49b1fa6dc58b470cffc55ebb62fb2a157688165cb211f1343ce435.js:3872)
at h (_ember_jquery-0ae86c6a7527a99c2b9b8a11521273bd9cb4f7d41bc546df081b7ee94f26d9c3.js:38572)
at Function.e.create (_ember_jquery-0ae86c6a7527a99c2b9b8a11521273bd9cb4f7d41bc546df081b7ee94f26d9c3.js:39100)
at e.t.create (_ember_jquery-0ae86c6a7527a99c2b9b8a11521273bd9cb4f7d41bc546df081b7ee94f26d9c3.js:11490)
at _ember_jquery-0ae86c6a7527a99c2b9b8a11521273bd9cb4f7d41bc546df081b7ee94f26d9c3.js:11294
at h (_ember_jquery-0ae86c6a7527a99c2b9b8a11521273bd9cb4f7d41bc546df081b7ee94f26d9c3.js:11226)
at e.t.lookup (_ember_jquery-0ae86c6a7527a99c2b9b8a11521273bd9cb4f7d41bc546df081b7ee94f26d9c3.js:11070)
at Object.initialize (_plugin-third-party-cb09db834c49b1fa6dc58b470cffc55ebb62fb2a157688165cb211f1343ce435.js:3959)
at Object.n.initialize (_application-4bbf4bf6518f7480549c54813a7fe09233841e43c49675ffe7fbda7ac187d247.js:8532)
at _ember_jquery-0ae86c6a7527a99c2b9b8a11521273bd9cb4f7d41bc546df081b7ee94f26d9c3.js:45916

2

What plugins are you running?

3

doing another rebuild just in case

hooks:
after_code:
- exec:
cd: $home/plugins
cmd:
- git clone GitHub - discourse/docker_manager: Plugin for use with discourse docker image · GitHub
- git clone GitHub - discourse/discourse-whos-online: A plugin for Discourse which uses the messagebus to display a live list of active users · GitHub
- git clone GitHub - discourse/discourse-spoiler-alert: A plugin for discourse to hide spoilers behind the spoiler-alert jQuery plugin · GitHub
- git clone GitHub - discourse/discourse-cakeday: Show a birthday cake emoji beside the names of members on their join anniversary, or their actual birthday -- and a browsable directory of upcoming anniversaries / birthdays. · GitHub
- git clone GitHub - angusmcleod/discourse-events: Allows you to manage events in Discourse · GitHub
- git clone GitHub - discourse/discourse-tooltips: Show tooltips around Discourse on hover, including topic previews · GitHub
- git clone https://github.com/communiteq/discourse-sitemap.git

4

Looks like one third party plugin is breaking the page. Can’t diagnose which one since you are rebuilding.

5

My guess too.
I’ve finished rebuilding.

How would I go about diagnosing which plugin would be causing it? (other than disabling them all )

6

My guess would be events or who is online

7

ok, gonna start the disable 1 by 1 method :confused:

8

Appears to be whos-online due to this pull request here:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse-whos-online/pull/27

Evidence number 99999 why we ship defaulting to tests-passed and running an older branch means less plugin compatibility.

You may want to pin the plugin to an older commit.

9

yep, whos online broken

10

Who’s Online is broken for sites on the stable branch. The plugin relies on code not yet in Discourse on the stable branch, so it doesn’t work with such sites. As Falco shared, if you run tests-passed you should be fine.

11

should there not be a stable branch of the plugin / all plugins ?
Seems a bit daft calling it “stable” when things break …

The plugin was working yesterday, on the previous version … :confused:

stable1
/ˈsteɪb(ə)l/

adjective

  1. (of an object or structure) not likely to give way or overturn; firmly fixed.
12

We’ve never promised that the stable branch would be bug free. It’s stable in that it doesn’t change frequently. Stable gets a release every 4+ months, with small security and critical bug fixes in between. Plugins are updated far more frequently, and keep pace with tests-passed.

We’ve discussed this before, no formal plans at this time. As Falco suggested already, if you choose to modify the default tracking branch like you did, you’ll also likely need to modify how you install plugins, to pin a commit.