EditBug:10068 Behavior after blanking TAG field

• EditBug:10068 Behavior after blanking TAG field OPEN If a user enters something in the "TAG" field in the New Magazine form, the TAG information doesn't get generated correctly and the Publication can no longer be accessed from the Title page. For example, pull up this recently added magazine and click on the Publication. You will get a "pl.cgi: Bad publication TAG" error. Ahasuerus 11:27, 25 Dec 2006 (CST)

Okay; I don't get this one. If the Tag field of a new magazine is blank, then a tag is automatically created, just like it would for a novel. If the Tag field has... a tag in it, then the tag is placed into the pub record. I've tried weird stuff like tag='.', and tag='-', and even something bizarre and HTMLish like tag = '<'. In every case a tag is created, and I can get to the pub from the title.

The only way I've been able to zero out the tag field is to editpub the record and... zero out the tag field. Then I get what you saw. I could generate an error if a null tag is edited in - would that be okay? Alvonruff 16:55, 26 Dec 2006 (CST)

I believe that in this particular case the editor entered "Volume 15" in the Tag field. After I approved the submission, I went back and cleaned it up, including moving "Volume 15" to the Title field. I assume that it was my moving the string to the Title field (and thus leaving the Tag field blank) that caused the problem, although I don't know how well the software handles spaces in this field.

As far as fixing the problem goes, well... I am not particularly fond of auto-rejecting submissions if it means that the editor needs to go back and re-enter a magazine worth of data. That way lies frustration and quitting. Perhaps we could change the logic so that if the Tag is zeroed out, then the code auto-generates a new Tag for the publication? And optionally gives a warning to the editor "Hey, I have created a new Tag for you since you deleted the old one"?Ahasuerus 17:08, 26 Dec 2006 (CST)

Well, the problem doesn't happen on new magazines (since the TAG hasn't been established yet). For magazines that DO exist, blanking the TAG field will cause other problems that will be more difficult to detect - like a TAG reference in a magazine page in the Wiki will stop working. This didn't happen on this particular case, but if someone edits the Dec 1940 issue of Astounding, I really don't want them to blank out the TAG. In that case, the moderator would have to reject - loosing the data anyway. I'd prefer to update the tools to give warnings and feedback - that results in less moderator work, and eventually higher quality data submissions. Alvonruff 05:57, 9 Jan 2007 (CST)