Really weird login issues

I've been using Moodle and Joomla tied together with Joomdle for quite a while. Every once in a while, I'd have a user report a login issue where it seemed they just couldn't get logged in. They'd log in via Joomla, go to Moodle and it would redirect them back to Joomla to log in. Then sometimes it would just work. It was so inconsistent, I couldn't seem to track it down.

I thought it was a Safari issue, but now I'm getting reports in Chrome and Windows as well. It *seems* to be spreading. And oh-so-inconsistent. The users that get it generally tend to get it quite a bit, although I've seen it myself once while testing a Chrome connection. I hit refresh and poof -- problem vanished.

I hate vanishing problems.

We're on Joomla 2.5.14
Moodle Moodle 2.5.1+ (Build: 20130719) -- yes, I need to upgrade, but I *hate* doing these upgrades.
Joomdle 0.91

Our classroom link is through Joomdle, opening Moodle in a frame.

For the users with the most trouble, I give them this link:
www.mysite.com/moodle/auth/joomdle/joomd...gin.php?login=moodle

and it seems to clear up as long as they use that. In fact, several have reported that after using that link, they can go back and use the regular entrance without grief.

It is so inconsistent that they can get into the classroom, post a message, and then suddenly find themselves back at the login screen in Joomla.

I'm sure I'm missing something really obvious here.

We were on an overloaded server for a while, with throttling and THAT was a nightmare. We moved to a larger server about a month ago and everything was great...for a month. Now I'm getting more and more users reporting the problem again.

I'm thinking I could work up a layout that would take it out of the frame. Would that solve it? I'm just not sure. Before I do that -- and change the look quite drastically -- I'd like to know I'm going in the right direction.

Not sure what you mean in your last sentence, but I don't think it will solve any SSO issues.

As you say, "vanishing" problems are the worst to debug, so I am afraid I cannot be of any help from here. You should do some testing, maybe adding some debugging in the code, to try to find the differences between the cases when it works and the ones where it doesn't.

Thanks. I wish I had better information. It is too widespread to ignore, but not consistent enough to track down. I may go insane.

We'll see if I get it sorted.

I noticed elsewhere on the site where you mentioned a canonical login issue. I fixed that so that everything re-directs to the www version of the site. Thought I had it fixed. I have since had two students reporting strange login issues. The first I walked through and the problem "magically went away."

The most current one, I've sent back to logout of Joomla and clear the cache and try again. I'm going to show you her error report, because she is a bit more clear than some of my other students, but her report is eerily the same. They're frustrated. It sounds awful. I've even had one teacher experience this -- but hers also magically cleared up after the www repair.

HELPPP!
I've been working this all afternoon, about to upload, and the site kicked me off and I can't even log in again.

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(in answer to my request for more information...my comments are in [] inline)

I am on a laptop, Windows 8, Chrome browser.
I was on the Assignment ...with all the YouTube choices, and I kept switching between that and Word ....
What happens is I'll click on either spot to log in or sign in. Site takes me to a blank page that says "Log out" [note: that is the Joomla logout page, which means Joomla thinks she is logged in and Moodle thinks she is logged out] and shows the User menu, but when I click 'Enter Classroom' I'm taken back to Home page where it says I am not logged in.

I WAS able to enter through the side door. [What I refer to as the side-door is the direct moodle login] I looked around and logged out because I thought maybe it needed to clear out. But the exact same thing happens again. I can't log in at all.

Hope you can find the glitch! Thanks for the side door entry!

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If this was the first time I'd heard this from a student, I'd think she just hit a wrong button. But I've heard it a lot. Maybe 10% of the students? Rough guess? For months? I work with them, explain the system, and we find work-arounds, usually involving them just skipping Joomla and logging directly into Moodle.

I'm certain that I've got something configured wrong, but I can't even begin to guess where to look.
We're using Joomla 2.5.14
Moodle 2.5.1+ (Build: 20130719)
Joomdle 0.91

When our server was overloaded and we were having throttling issues, this happened much more often. We've upgraded and we're not being throttled.

I think what makes me the most insane is that it mysteriously goes away -- almost always. A student will be driven to distraction, fighting this for days, then they'll talk to me, and it "goes away." Typical tech support glitch, eh? Where just looking at their account clears up whatever is wrong, making it impossible to track down.

I'm just wondering if in your experience you've seen anything like this and could give me another direction to check (like the www issue).

We are using the single sign on option. The site works beautifully 90% of the time. But when this glitch hits someone, it hits them hard. I've got students who believe that our site simply doesn't work. When I explain that it works fine for others...you know, they don't believe me. (grin)

Is it possible that it is something in their browser? With their Internet connection? The phase of the moon???

I like nice, clean, reproducible errors.

Oh, and I didn't remove the frames based on your comment below. So, we're still operating in a frame. (Which I like because it lets me combine the overall look of the site.)

On a related note -- how much would you charge my client to log in and diagnose this? Because I am going bald pulling my hair out.

> We are using the single sign on option

Are you using it with or without redirect? First thing I would try is to change that, to see if it helps with the problems.
Usually, redirect-less is more prone to problems.


As for a consulting cost: you can write to development@joomdle.com for this. However, if problem is not reproducible, I won't be able to give a quote.

Why is it that Moodle always makes me feel like such a newbie?

Can you just check me and make sure I'm following your advice correctly?

Here is what I have in my .htaccess:

# Redirect non-www urls to www
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.mydomain\.com
RewriteRule (.*) www.mydomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
## End - Custom redirects

In Joomdle, my moodle URL:
www.mydomain.com/moodle/

I had both of these set to yes:
Use redirectless SSO
Use redirectless logout

So I've just changed both of those to No.

We'll see if that makes it any better.

I am well aware of how ugly tracking down non-reproducible errors are. I understand why you can't give a quote up front. We'll see how this goes and then go from there.

Thanks again for all of your hard work.