Error creating the list field

4 posts by 3 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: April 15, 2016   (RSS)

By Perchpole - April 12, 2016

Hello, All -

It's not often I find myself coming back here in search of answers to a question I first posted over a year ago - but needs must!

There is an error on a site which is generating the same error message several times a day:

E_USER_ERROR: There was an error creating the list field ''.
Query:
MySQL Error: Query was empty
$fieldSchema =
debug_backtrace: =

I discussed this issue with Dave some time ago but we both ended up scratching our heads. Clearly there is a problem creating a list somewhere but because there are no other details, I don't know how to further investigate the problem.

It's very frustrating. Could someone please give me some clues to what I should be looking for?

For example, what do the 2 single quotes (at the end of the first line of the error) indicate?

Secondly, why is the "Query:" line blank?

Thirdly, is the "Query empty" simply because no rows were returned or because there is an error in the query code?

I want to find this bug. I am happy to do the legwork - I just need to know what I am looking for!

:0/

Perch

Perch

By Perchpole - April 13, 2016

Hi, Damon -

I have a number of sites running CMSB 2.65 and they all generate the error a few times every week. 

The weirdest thing is I can never replicate the error myself! I am used to receiving instant notifications from CMSB when there's a problem. This usually happens when a page is viewed which has some bad code. However, with this problem, my own activity never triggers the error. When an email notification comes in I immediately head off to the page in question to see if I can do "something" to make the error fire again - but it never happens!

I don't think this is an admin related issue. That seems to suggest it is being caused by (a) user activity or (b) some kind of bot activity.

Below are some error messages from various sites. The first one is interesting in that the page in question repeatedly generates the error. This is the only time this problem has ever created a "pattern".

E_USER_ERROR: There was an error creating the list field ''.
Query:
MySQL Error: Query was empty
$fieldSchema =
debug_backtrace: =

...etc/cmsb/lib/database_functions.php (line 592)
http://www.missiontogether.org.uk/little-way-week%20?num=41



E_USER_ERROR: There was an error creating the list field ''.
Query:
MySQL Error: Query was empty
$fieldSchema =
debug_backtrace: =


..etc/cmsb/lib/database_functions.php (line 592)
http://www.ashridgecommunications.com/



E_USER_ERROR: There was an error creating the list field ''.
Query:
MySQL Error: Query was empty
$fieldSchema =
debug_backtrace: =


..etc/cmsb/lib/database_functions.php (line 592)
http://www.theassaultgroup-shop.co.uk/index.php?blog=296



E_USER_ERROR: There was an error creating the list field ''.
Query:
MySQL Error: Query was empty
$fieldSchema =
debug_backtrace: =


..etc/cmsb/lib/database_functions.php (line 592)
http://theassaultgroup-shop.co.uk

Any thoughts?

:0/

Perch

By Dave - April 15, 2016

Hi Perch, 

We added some error checking code to v3.00 and later for this in /lib/error_functions.php

  // detect servers with broken print_r (Seen July 2015 on 1&1 UK Shared Hosting Package occurs on HEAD request after any content sent, and causes our error logs to be blank!
  $brokenFunctions = array();
  ob_start(); echo '1'; $ob_get_clean_response = ob_get_clean();
  if (print_r(1, true) != '1')       { $brokenFunctions[] = "print_r"; }
  if ($ob_get_clean_response != '1') { $brokenFunctions[] = "ob_get_clean"; }
  if ($brokenFunctions) {
    $errorMessage = "WARNING: Server has broken PHP functions: " .implode(', ', $brokenFunctions). ". "
                  . "PHP software may not function correctly!  Please contact support for assistance.\n\n"
                  . "Original error: $errorMessage";
  }

If you upgrade to the latest version of CMSB those should appear.  It's just some kind of glitch with your web host.  If it's not causing any problems you could try just ignoring it.

Hope that helps!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com