13 Replies Latest reply: Dec 6, 2009 5:55 AM by Tommy Logic RSS

    Error: improper call to internal service

    antlion Community Member
      I have successfully registered a site (I'm an administrator) and uploaded a page with InContext markup. When I tried to edit the page for the very first time (by clicking the Edit Draft button), I got an error popup message: "Error -- The current operation could not be performed because of an improper call to an internal service. You can try to sign-out and sign-in again, then restart current operation. For more details, visit the InContext Editing Support Center." I tried sign-out/sign-in with no change. The message is frustratingly unhelpful. (What "improper call"? Which "internal service"?) What could be causing this error? (The error is not documented in the InContext Editing Help page.)

      By the way, there is no "Edit" button on the control panel, only an "Edit Draft" button. Why? I never created a draft. Is this a bug or intended behavior? I notice that the InContext demo site (the fake news site) has an Edit button, so apparently my control panel is not functioning properly.

      I also noticed that the status bar shows that the page never completely loads ("completed 18 of 20 items"). Is this related? I noticed that the InContext demo site also shows a status bar with an incomplete load (17 of 18 items). Perhaps this is related to style sheets (I now have two, including the InContext sheet), but if the demo site shows this behavior, then presumably it's normal. If not, the only thing I can think of is that my normal style sheet is loaded via Javascript (various versions for Mac, Windows, IE6).

      Or perhaps the problem is related to page encoding or doctype.

      In case my code the problem, here's the relevant portion of my page HEAD code:




      <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" " http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
      <html xmlns=" http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:ice=" http://ns.adobe.com/incontextediting">
      <link href="style-ice.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" ice:classes="*" />

      <script src="includes/ice/ice.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
      <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
      <!--
      macHREF = "style-mac.css";
      winHREF = "style-win.css";
      if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Mac") >= 0) printHREF = macHREF;
      else printHREF = winHREF;
      document.writeln('<LINK REL=STYLESHEET HREF="' + printHREF + '" TYPE="text/css">');

      function MM_openBrWindow(theURL,winName,features) { //v2.0
      window.open(theURL,winName,features);
      }
      //-->
      </SCRIPT>
      <!--[if lte IE 6]>
      <link href="style-ie6.css" rel="StyleSheet" type="text/css">
      <![endif]-->

      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /></head>




      Is InContext stumbling on this script? If so, what can I do to fix the error? If not, what else could be causing the problem and how do I fix the error? I appreciate any help. This problem is preventing me from using the service.
        • 1. Re: Error: improper call to internal service
          Florin Carlig Employee Hosts
          Hello antlion,

          I'm sorry that you're having problems with InContext Editing. That message is thrown when a required parameter was not sent as part of the request posted to the InContext Editing server. In order to investigate this problem further, we need some more information from your side.

          Can you please give us an URL where we can duplicate this behavior? Also, what browser are you using, and what Flash version do you have installed (you can find our the Flash version from this URL: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_15507). Does the problem still occur if you try from another browser?

          We don't think that this is related to the style sheets or the code in the head section, but just to make sure, can you please create a simple page, with just one or a couple of editable regions, and point us to its URL?

          Thank you,
          Florin
          • 2. Re: Error: improper call to internal service
            antlion Community Member
            Florin,

            My system: Mac OS 10.4.11
            My browser: Safari v. 3.1.1
            My Flash plug in: Shockwave Flash 10.0 r12

            I have tried testing a simple page (test-ice.html), but when I invoke InContext Editing (cmd+E), the page "redirects" to my site's index page, so I am unable to test the simple page. Why does the page redirect to the index page? For privacy purposes, I will send you the URLs in a private message.
            • 3. Error: improper call to internal service
              Florin Carlig Employee Hosts
              Hello,

              InContext Editing makes a HEAD HTTP request to your server, to determine if the draft page exists. If the server responds with response code 200 (which indicates that the draft page exists), InContext Editing requests the draft page from your server. Otherwise, if a 404 response code is received (which indicates that the draft page does not exist), the normal page (not the draft) will be requested.

              I think that in your case, the HEAD returns 200 OK, even though the draft does not exist. Therefore, InContext Editing tries to load the draft page. Since it does not exist, the 404 page will be loaded from the server - which in your case I think it's the index page. That's why I think it's redirecting to your index page.

              We have encountered this problem before (with the HEAD request not handled properly by the web server), please see this technote: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb406749&sliceId=1.

              Please send us the URL to a sample page from your site, that will help us determine if the problem is related to the HEAD request, or another one.

              Thank you,
              Florin
              • 4. Error: improper call to internal service
                antlion Community Member
                quote:

                Originally posted by: Florin Carlig

                Please send us the URL to a sample page from your site, that will help us determine if the problem is related to the HEAD request, or another one.

                Thank you,
                Florin


                Florin, I sent you 2 URLs yesterday via private message (to maintain privacy for my client). Did you not receive them?
                • 5. Re: Error: improper call to internal service
                  Florin Carlig Employee Hosts
                  Sorry, I've just noticed them.

                  I'll have a look and get back to you today.

                  Thank you,
                  Florin
                  • 6. Re: Error: improper call to internal service
                    Florin Carlig Employee Hosts
                    Hello antlion,

                    As we suspected, the problem is related to the way the HEAD and GET requests are handled by your webserver. As I've said in the previous reply, InContext Editing expects either of these two response codes: 200 OK(which indicates that the requested page exists) or 404 Not Found (which says that the page cannot be found). Instead, your server responds with 302 Redirect, and tries to redirect to the 404redirect.html page.

                    You should modify your server settings to respond with 404 not found to HEAD or GET requests that asks for resources or pages that are not on the server. Or please ask your hosting company about this, if you don't have access to these settings.

                    Let us know if you have any more problems.

                    Thanks,
                    Florin
                    • 7. Error: improper call to internal service
                      antlion Community Member
                      Florin,
                      I have asked my system administrator to check the server settings. This is their response:


                      I would like to make you aware that HEAD HTTP request method is already enabled on our almach shared server.

                      I have run a command from my server [to find a non-existent page]. This command allow to us head - response from server:
                      HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
                      Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:56:13 GMT
                      Server: Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) mod_fastcgi/2.4.6 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_ssl/2.8.31 OpenSSL/0.9.
                      7a
                      Connection: close
                      Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
                      As you see - server return Clean response - HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
                      Without any redirects
                      Seems that work return correct answer"


                      If my system administrator says that HEAD HTTP is already enabled, then there must be another reason for the error. Please advise how we can resolve this problem.
                      • 8. Re: Error: improper call to internal service
                        Florin Carlig Employee Hosts
                        Hello antlion,

                        I've sent you a private message. Thank you for the patience with this problem.

                        Thank you,
                        Florin
                        • 9. Re: Error: improper call to internal service
                          Florin Carlig Employee Hosts
                          For any other users having this problem:

                          It was caused by a .htaccess rule that was redirecting to a custom 404 page. When InContext Editing made a HEAD http request to check if the draft file is there, because the resource was not found, it got redirected to this custom error page.

                          The solution was to remove the .htaccess code that made the redirect.

                          Thank you,
                          Florin

                          • 10. FIXED
                            Tommy Logic Community Member

                            From the other thread....

                             

                            Well it took me a little bit of time, but I wrote you a .htaccess file that will forward your 404 pages to a page of your desire AND allow InContext to work...

                            Download & unzip the htaccess.txt.zip attachment

                             

                            I also threw in some other little tricks you might like. This file has to be in the order I put it otherwise it won't work. If you want to append any rules... be sure you do it AFTER the 404 Redirect...

                             

                            I commented everything in the file. If you want to "turn Off" any rules do so by placing a # in front of it.

                             

                            If you have any more questions, let me know.

                             

                            Good Luck,

                            -Tom

                            • 11. Re: FIXED
                              Tommy Logic Community Member

                              fixed....

                              • 12. Re: FIXED
                                Tommy Logic Community Member

                                hmmmmmph..


                                • 13. Re: Error: improper call to internal service
                                  Tommy Logic Community Member

                                  antlion,

                                   

                                  Pretty sure this is resolved now.

                                   

                                  Can you close out this thread please... mark it as answered, correct, or helpful.

                                  I am going through the forum and trying to work on some of the "Cold Case" questions... you could really help me out as this one still appears as unsolved although, it really is.

                                   

                                  Thanks,

                                  -Tom