Xpages not loading? JVM errors? - Solution

If you read my last post you will recall that after upgrading my Dominio 7.02 server to 8.5.1 I could not get xpages to load from the server. I would get HTTP 500 errors in the browser and a http jvm: severe: clfad####e: error on the console.

I did the usual search on the net, tried the suggestions such as re-installing the server after removing the jvm directory, running a clean on the project from designer etc... But still no joy. Asked around a few fellow notes peeps and still no luck.

I tried to view two different xpage databases, the first was the standard 8.5 discussion and the second was a simple bespoke database with a single xpage containing a label and a field. Neither would load, however both would preview on the client.

After a few hours of investigation this morning and much hair pulling, desk head banging and caffeine consumption I have found the cause.

The error I was getting seems to be a fairly generic one:

HTTP JVM: SEVERE: CLFAD####E: Exception occurred servicing request for: /xpages/xpagestu.nsf/xp1.xsp - HTTP Code: 500
HTTP Web Server: Command Not Handled Exception [/xpages/xpagestu.nsf/xp1.xsp]


Unfortunately turning on the "Display Default Error Page" in the xpages tab of the database properties did not work and no additional information was displayed making tracking the problem down a bit of an issue.

So I turned on Http debugging using "tell http debug session on" from the console. This generates log files in the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT directory under the server data directory. After trying a few requests a had a look at the logs and the only error I could see related to a completely different database. The log file was showing an error with a cookie used in another web application on that server.

The error showing in the logs was :

java.lang.illegalArgumentException: Cookie name "some name" is a reserved token

So initially I ignored that and continued searching... After another half hour or so I went back to the log file and still the only error recorded was related to a cookie from another application. So I decided to clear all my cookies out and try again. Hey presto, it loaded!

The end result is that a malformed cookie name, in this case one that has a space in the name, stops xpages loading to the browser!

Now I need to do some more testing but what this means to me is that the other web application on our server, if used, will stop xpages working on a users browser. Now I don't know if there is a way around this without a a lot of changes to the other application. I will enquire from people at IBM etc... if there is a solution but at least I know the cause now.

Xpages not loading on Server, JVM errors

Finally last night I decided that it was time to upgrade our existing 7.02 server to 8.5.1 as I want to make use of xpages in our web applications. So I backed up the 7.02 directories and did an install of 8.5.1 over the existing directories.

This seemed to work ok, the server booted up OK after, was showing as 8.5.1 on console and all the expected tasks such as xsp etc... loaded on server start. The only problem is that the server will not serve up an xpages to the browser, all I get is an "HTTP error 500" in the browser and a "http jvm: severe: clfad####e: error in the notes log".

I've tried the 8.5 discussion database, a brand new database with a single xpage and just a label and field and neither will load. All preview OK from the client.

I have tried to re-install after deleting the jvm directory so it was recreated, still no joy. I have signed the databases with the server ID and that did not work. Regular http pages are server, i.e. forms, views, pages etc...

So I have an 8.5 server that won't load the very things I need to be using!

Any ideas, is there something else I need to have configured? Do you need to have an internet site document for xpages to work? I noticed in the server document there is nowhere to map javascript directories but there is in the web documents.

Broken Calendar Views

Twice in the last month the calendar views in my mail file have stopped working. The first time I had to restore the mail file from a local replica. This second time has only just happened so I will need to look at other options to see if it can be "fixed" without a restore.

The end result is that the calendar view shows the items as a list instead of a calendar:

Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Running an 8 server and 8.51 client.

Dates and Times, how do you handle them?

So my last post on dates and times got me thinking, how is everyone else dealing with them for international type applications. I am now curious how people store, report on, use dates and times.

So if you had a "Global" application, where the users are in any timezone what would you...

1. Store in the documents
2. Use for views
3. Use for calculations
4. Include in emails
5. Deal with front end and server side use

Having exchange a few mails recently it seems that people do things differently. Some store in local, some convert to GMT/UTC, some store mulitple dates in different formats.

Please leave a comment!

Notes and Timezones!

I have a rather difficult issue to resolve, well in my mind it is, it may well not be! "Time Zones!"

I have a system that is a global application, it can be used via a browser or via a notes client The system stores lots of dates to track SLA's and the SLA's themselves are computed based on the day of the week and the time of day. Normally storing dates is fine, you use a date/time field and leave notes to handle the display. Unfortunately the SLA issue here causes me a problem.

So here is where it get's complicated, all the dates/times need to be in CET (Amsterdam) no matter where they are set.

1. The server is in UK running GMT
2. Users from the web will use local time on Client machine which could be any time zone but dates can potentially be calculated in WQS agent on server
3. Administrators can be anywhere but will use a Notes Client
4. Reporting must be in CET (Amsterdam)

So when a document is created via web or client, the SLA's need to be looked up based on the hour of day and day of week as I said. This must be based on CET (Amsterdam) no matter what the local time zone of the user is or server is.

Now I thought I had something working until I turned my local machines clock forward to April, which of course is GMT+1. Now my CET dates/times are still showing GMT +1 and not taking DST into account. I guess I need to know if the date/time in Amsterdam is DST even if the machine running the code is in New York for example.

So currently my codwould show 01/01/2010 19:00 GMT as 01/01/2010 20:00 CET but 01/04/2010 1900 GMT+1 shows as 01/04/2010 CET as DST is not being taken into account.

I have to admit this is driving me nuts!

So any advice? Ideas?

The year that was 2009

Like just about everyone else who has a blog I thought I would reflect on the last year, if nothing else for my own sanity. A year that proved to have highs and incredible lows for me. This is a personal reflection on my life and not on technology or the world at large.

For the first time in 2008 I had spent Christmas away from home with my mother, her partner, my aunt and her family and of course my family including Duke our dog. We had rented some cottages down in Somerset and had a really nice time. It turned out to be a very important memory for me and one I will always cherish.

Work has been a challenge in 2009. Having had to cope with increased demand, fewer resources, it was tough. I found myself working 10 - 12 hour days as the norm and had very little time to myself for anything except work.

The summer proved to be a damp affair and as such I really didn't get out on the motorbike much this year. The Kill spills organisation that I have marshalled for at various events over the last 4 years did not have any events this year and they are something I usually look forward to. Maybe next year, who knows.

Of course the major events of 2009 were very personal in nature. My mother was diagnosed with Lung Cancer in August and less than a month later she died suddenly. I have covered this is detail in a previous post but this was obviously a heart breaking event. The day after my mothers funeral we lost our dog Duke, another very distressing event. It seemed that 2009 was destined to end on a bad note. Two weeks after that my son was in a bad car accident when a friend of his lost control of his car and flipped it. My son wasn't wearing a seat belt but thank god he didn't get flung from the car or crushed under it and walked away with minor injuries.

This Christmas has been depressing and difficult. My mother was missing and she loved this time of year. I am so glad that we spent last year together as a family. Duke loved Christmas as well and would go mad ripping the paper of his new toy each year but again that was missing. In fact the magic of Christmas has been slowly fading as the years go by. I don't know why, I always loved this time of year, but now it just seems like a big panic for weeks or months then a day later it's all over. The sad thing is I "really want" to enjoy the festive season but I just can't. I wish it was like one of those family movies where everyone is happy and Santa flies over the house on his sleigh shouting ho ho ho, but life isn't like that.

Just so I don't finish on the doom and gloom, there were some highlights for 2009. I had my first (and so far only) flying lesson in an old beaten up Cessna 152 out of Blackbushe. I also turned semi-professional in my photography and have enjoyed that immensely. Both things I hope to continue in the future. I've made lots of new friends online in twitter and also reconnected with old friends from my school days. Now I need to stop living in the past and try to get on with the future.

Linda Harris - My Mum

Since I last wrote my world has been turned upside down. Things were generally fine, yes there are the usual pressures we all have, money is tight, work is hard and there's never much time to enjoy life.

At the start of August this all became rather irrelevant. My mum had been unwell for a few months. She had started to develop problems eating which had been getting worse and worse. The local GP had assumed this was a digestive issue and was treating her as such. She had been given various medications, none of which seemed to be helping. Eventually they agreed to send her to a specialist for additional tests. It was only after these test had been completed that they realised it wasn't digestive.

On the 31st July 2009 I was sat in Costco with my youngest daughter when my mobile starts to ring, it was my mothers partner. So I answer the call and on the other end I hear the dreaded words, "sorry, no easy way to tell you but we found out today that your mother has Lung Cancer". Of course I went into shock and I just wanted to let my emotions out but I didn't want my daughter to know anything was wrong, not until I could tell the family together. I told her we needed to get home and we left. The twenty minute drive home was a blur, thoughts flying through my head, tears welling up which I had to hold back.

I got home and called my wife, she was working but said she would be right home. Luckily she works part time just five minutes down the road so she was home pretty quickly. When she came in I was sat down in the dinning room, shaking, lost for words. She called my eldest daughter and son and told the to come home, which they did. Telling them the news was hard, they all were upset as you would expect. We all cried a while and talked and I told them to go back out with their friends and carry on doing what they would normally do. There is nothing we could do expect wait to hear more from the doctors.

The next few days were very difficult, I knew it was Lung Cancer and I knew what that would mean. It was a matter of "when" and not "if" and all I could do is pray that the "when" was as far away as possible so we could spend some time together and build some more memories. My mum was in out of hospital that week, having various tests but she knew I wanted to see her so she agreed even though I know she wasn't really feeling well.

We are a small family, just my Mum, uncle, Aunt and me left. Both my grandparents have passed away. My Grandfather from Cancer when I was thirteen and my Grandmother in 2004 after a sudden heart attack. My uncle had travelled over from Belgium where he lives to come and see her with me but my aunt wanted to leave it a little while as she was too upset and didn't want to upset my mum. We both went down with my mothers long term partner Dave. She had insisted that we meet outside in the garden area, I know she didn't want me to see her stuck in a hospital bed in a ward full of people with Cancer.

It had been a while since I had seen her, something I deeply regret now. Physically she had dropped to something like 7 stone and looked pretty gaunt, even so she came across as chirpy and joking as ever. It was heart breaking to see her, I knew I had to be strong so as not to upset her and trying to carry on a normal conversation was hard. I was just happy to see her and the fact she was up and walking brought some relief although I knew she was weak and tired.

We chatted for an hour or so and then decided we should leave her to rest. We walked her back up to the ward she was staying in, chatted for another 5 minutes or so, saying hello to the other cancer patients in the same ward. I gave her a hug and we went to leave, I looked at her and she looked and me and she just said something like "Don't!" She could see I was starting to get choked up. As we left I could see her stood looking out the window, ready to wave to us when we got to the car outside. This was the last time I saw her alive.

The next couple of weeks were difficult, none of us really knew the extent of the cancer or exactly what type it was and if any treatment was available. She was ill and was still not able to eat. The doctors decided to operate and insert a stent to allow her to eat and gain some strength before they progressed to any treatment for the cancer itself. Unfortunately the first time they put it in it wasn't fitted very well and she was in a lot of pain. They then operated again to adjust it after which she was able to eat some soft foods. She was allowed to go home for a few days which is where she really wanted to be.

A week after this she was due to start radio therapy treatment. She wasn't feeling at all well and cancelled the appointment. She spent most of the day in the house, looking out into the garden, watching Dave who was out there feeding the birds and tidying up. She went to bed early that night. At around 11pm I received a call from Dave, he was in a mess. My mother had passed away suddenly, without warning. Just over 3 weeks after finding out she had cancer, it killed her.

Of course I was devastated, we all were, I hadn't spoken to my mother since the weekend before and at that time she seemed OK although she was probably putting on a brave face. Needless to say the next few weeks were difficult as we waited to lay her to rest. The funeral itself was delayed as my aunt was in Florida on holiday. So it was about 4 weeks until she was cremated.

I went to see my mother in the chapel of rest with my wife and children who had decided they want to say goodbye. I went in alone first, she was just laying there in her coffin, peaceful, almost like she was just sleeping. It was difficult, initially a shock but after a while I felt at ease and said my piece. I couldn't believe that she was gone, she was just in front of me. I went out and Michaela and the girls came in. Of course it was upsetting for all of us but I think we all felt it was worth the pain. It was hard to leave her, knowing it would be the last time I would see her face. My son didn't come with us as he didn't think he could handle it. He changed his mind though and went the next day.

We decided that we only wanted flowers from family and if people wanted to they could donate to cancer research. I mentioned to Michaela about making the flower arrangements and she said right away that she would like to. She was a florist many moons ago! The kids decided that they wanted to do there own with guidance from their mother which was great as it made the whole thing much more personal. They all did a great job.

I had made the decision that I wanted to say some words during the service. As the only child I felt it was my duty and my last opportunity to thank my mother for everything she had given me during my life. It was difficult to know what to say, there was so much. I didn't actually finish writing the speech until the early hours of the 5th having poured my emotions out for hours.


The funeral took place on the 6th October 2009 at the West Berkshire Crematorium near Thatcham. Around 130 people turned up which was great and was a testament to how popular my mother was. When my moment arrived to say my piece I made my way to the front and started to read my speech. With a few jittery moments and a couple of pauses to regain my composure I did manage to complete what I wanted to say. After the service we went back to Lambourn for a few drinks and a chat. Most of the people from the service came back which was great. I had put together a selection of photos from my mothers life which I put out for people to look at. It was a pleasant day, one that mum would have enjoyed. Rest in peace now mum, I will see you again one day.