I have trackback installed. I have trackback on every node submitted in my site, and have sent some trackbacks too. My trackback's received block is empty. other blogs I pinged via trackback did not acknowledge they were received.

I smell a rat. Something is awry with either sending or receiving, or both. How do I test this, what can I do?

Comments

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

Any ideas at all guys? I need to know what to do here...I've gotten not a single response in the forums either so far...someone has got to know how to test trackback.

onionweb’s picture

onionweb commented

check admin/logs for error messages

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

sometimes it fails to notify one of the ping servers, mostly it seems to work ok. But I leave trackbacks and get no response....

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

I'll try one last time.....anyone know how trackback works and how to test to see if it's working properly?

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

Can you give me the URL of your website and maybe create a test entry that I can try tracking back to? I'd hate to spam your site with tons of junk/test trackbacks.

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

www.smorgasbord.net

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

Using this tool, I attempted to trackback your site at this entry. I did not see it appear, however, I did receive this as the output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<response>
<error>0</error>
</response>

Is it possible you are moderating trackbacks somehow?

FWIW, It is almost 9:00 AM EST, which is roughly 13:57 UTC. Check your logs around that time, hopefully you will see something. Just to double check, you made the necessary mySQL addition when installing the module?

A side note, your site copyright mention that the design is copyrighted by you, I think this in error, the design is the FriendsElectric theme.

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

I did the same test, same tool, same URL as you and got the error "Missing Trackback URL".

Administer trackbacks is set for all roles - even thought it probably shouldn't be.

Nothing in the logs, and I double checked all SQL tables - they all exist.

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

You got that error from the tool I was using?

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

yes, same tool, same test, same URL (from my site)

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

I did not get that error from the tool. Either the tool broke itself between when you and I tested it or something changed on your website.

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

nothing changed, but I only entered a trackback URL and not a permalink one (since I don't have a permalink URL - that's for movable type). I read on his feedback page here http://wizbangblog.com/archives/003043.php that the tool works for MT and Wordpress. When I used the same url http://smorgasbord.net/trackback/27 for trackback and permalink, I got the same '0' message as you.

So, ever the skeptic I set out to find a tool with a more definitive message, and found the Simpletracks trackback tester here http://kalsey.com/tools/trackback/. It worked, said it was successful. I have a "recent trackbacks" block on my home page - and yet nothing is listed, even though this test worked.

I checked one more "Trackback Wizard" tool I found here: http://www.forret.com/tools/trackback.asp.
It had the best explanation of what to put in the input boxes....I said that the Blog name, title of post, and excerpt are from your site, the trackback URL is the site you are linking to, and the blog post URL or 'permalink' is the url to your blog post...i.e., to test my site, I need another blog post to do it, and then the trackback testing is from that post to mine, using it's name, URL, excerpt, and my trackback URL. I tested with all fake info and a link to a drupal forum post for the heck of it, and it just re-loaded the entire page inside a box at the bottom of the page.

If someone could use one of these tools to check trackback on my site from another blog post - and it shows up on my site as a recent trackback in blocks, I would be very happy to know it is all working properly....because I have tracked back to other sites and gotten no listings at all.

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

nothing changed, but I only entered a trackback URL and not a permalink one (since I don't have a permalink URL - that's for movable type). I read on his feedback page here http://wizbangblog.com/archives/003043.php that the tool works for MT and Wordpress. When I used the same url http://smorgasbord.net/trackback/27 for trackback and permalink, I got the same '0' message as you.

You most absolutely have a permalink. No where on the tool that I posted does it state that only MT has permalinks. Drupal, bloxsom, WordPress, b2evo, etc, etc, all have permalinks. The reason you got the error you got is because you neglected to fill one in becuase you didn't know what one was.

Assuming that you changed something is perfectly reasonable since if you entered the same data I entered, you should get the same result. The fact that you didn't indicated that something was changed or done improperly. In this case, the error message was completely accurate.

So, ever the skeptic I set out to find a tool with a more definitive message, and found the Simpletracks trackback tester here http://kalsey.com/tools/trackback/. It worked, said it was successful. I have a "recent trackbacks" block on my home page - and yet nothing is listed, even though this test worked.

It did not work. If it did work, your site would reflect that a trackback had been made. It clearly does not.

I checked one more "Trackback Wizard" tool I found here: http://www.forret.com/tools/trackback.asp.
It had the best explanation of what to put in the input boxes....I said that the Blog name, title of post, and excerpt are from your site, the trackback URL is the site you are linking to, and the blog post URL or 'permalink' is the url to your blog post...i.e., to test my site, I need another blog post to do it, and then the trackback testing is from that post to mine, using it's name, URL, excerpt, and my trackback URL. I tested with all fake info and a link to a drupal forum post for the heck of it, and it just re-loaded the entire page inside a box at the bottom of the page.

Go read the entire trackback spec so that way you fully understand it because the fact that you don't know what a permalink is (something required by the spec) means you really need to do more home work. The spec does clearly state in no uncertain terms that a permalink is required.

If someone could use one of these tools to check trackback on my site from another blog post - and it shows up on my site as a recent trackback in blocks, I would be very happy to know it is all working properly....because I have tracked back to other sites and gotten no listings at all.

The fact that I have used several tools and all have attempted to trackback your site and have not generated any error messages means that the error is not happening over the internet, but on your server. After the trackback is made, something is going wrong on your end. As I mentioned before, you need to look in to php error logging to figure out why it is broken on your particular Drupal install. You have failed to do so.

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

I also noticed your webhost offers fantastico. Have you used it, or done this by hand?

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

I had a 4.5.2 install done by Fantastico, - this 4.6.3 install was completely done by hand.

It did not work. If it did work, your site would reflect that a trackback had been made. It clearly does not.

It did work - it gave the message "trackback ping successful", which was what I meant. Of course it didn't show up on my site - I stated that.

The fact that I have used several tools and all have attempted to trackback your site and have not generated any error messages means that the error is not happening over the internet, but on your server. After the trackback is made, something is going wrong on your end. As I mentioned before, you need to look in to php error logging to figure out why it is broken on your particular Drupal install. You have failed to do so.

I also used those tools and got "ping successful" from a bogus permalink url. I was asking for someone to actually put a sample blog post on their site and trackback that to one of my entries. If you are saying you did that - then what post on your site did you use for the test?

You may have mentioned PHP error logging, but as I mentioned before - I don't know how to do that (turn it on). If it's a piece of code to put in a file or the .htaccess I need to know what to put. If it's a PHP setting on the server, I'm on a virtual host - probably can't do that.

ankur’s picture

ankur commented

It may be that your theme is not equipped to handle trackbacks or something like that. I just tested trackback on seperate server and it works out fine. If they're in your database and your site is letting other sites know that the trackback was received successfully, then it mostly likely may be a glitch in their display. If you wouldn't mind for a moment, you should try a different theme or something else. (Or, you may want to consider doing this by using a backup of the current database on a test site).

That's the best I can say for now. The other option would require my being able to log into your server and database for a closer look.

-Ankur

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

I'm glad you mentioned database access.....I went into the database in the 3 trackback tables. The one table has 3-4 dozen nodes listed as trackback enabled. In trackbacks sent - there is one sent successful, which was the one I sent that didn't get listed. At least I know know that it sent successfully.

I have 4 in the received table, so it looks like I've received 4 successfully. Three out of the 4 listed are ones I did in the tools used in the aforementioned posts. The 4th says "This is a trackback test" from "Civicspace" at this url: http://rishiman.net/tbtest/node/1.

So it would appear I should have at least 4 trackbacks appearing in my "Trackbacks Received" block on my homepage. The only access permission for trackback is "administer trackback", which I assume is the ability to send a trackback when creating content.

Since the block is enabled for and on every page in my site, (left bottom) I can only assume you are right - and that it's totally a theme problem. I will submit a bug for Friends Electric and see what I can dig up in the theme myself.

I was going to write my own theme based on it anyway (because it doesn't float and text spills over) - I guess that now this will force my hand.

thanks again for your help.

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

well, I was going to submit a bug to the FriendsElectric theme, but then I tried Goofy, Pushbutton, and BlueMarine themes and the Recent trackbacks still don't display.

Maybe I can try just using the code for this in another block or something to test now that I know for sure the info is in the database.

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Just to recap, all the trackbacks were received? But they aren't being displayed in a block? Did you look in the trackback portion of the administration? Do you see them there?

I also contacted your host to see if they could share the php error logs with you or otherwise see if anything was wrong and this is the response I received:

Hello,

We dont typically offer any support for this program or to non customer, but i did take a look over the conversation regarding the trackbacks. I dont see anything wrong with the setup of the account, but nothing else in the thread seems to pinpoint what the problem might be. If the customer is able to find more information and can supply us with it, we might have a better idea of what is going on, but again we dont offer much in the way of third party cms support.

If you have any other questions or comments, please dont hesitate to ask. Thank you very much for your time,

Evan C.

For what its worth, I did use the Friends Electric theme for a month or so, but have since moved on to my own. Trackbacks worked for me no problem, however, I received dozens of trackbacks spams each day so my site no longer offers trackbacks.

(closing this because trackbacsk have been confirmed to be both sent and received)

jt6919’s picture

jt6919 commented

In setting up all the modules I now use I have been through every single admin page available and settings page as well. I know I've been into the setup page as well and looked at trackback and seen it empty several times. However - I did not know that trackbacks had moderation turned on by default, and if you don't manually know to go into "approval queue" manually - you'll never even know that you have any waiting for approval.

Of course, I looked, and all 4 existing trackbacks are in there just waiting for me to approve them. So, there appears to be no problem with the theme, or with trackbacks, or code, or the database.

It's was just that I was too stupid to know they were waiting for approval, and nobody thought to have me check that. Thanks everyone for all the help - you live and you learn. I will make this one of my listed setup tips for sure.

Anonymous’s picture

(not verified) commented
Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)