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Well this is interesting one. I am having issues with file uploads from my office. But, I can upload avatars OK. When I try and upload images or files for attachment to a post from my office I can not do it. I get a "empty response" error from the "invisible proxy server". When I upload an avatar file from the same computer on the same session no problem.

Any ideas on what the difference could be?

I haven't had time today to explore this issue. But I find it very annoying and want to squish the issue.

what "invisible proxy server" ? :)

have you looked into the server's error log if you can find something ? or what does the access log show ? maybe the request isn't even getting through to the server ? but usually attachments work for you ? just not at your office ?

My company has a proxy server that everyone swears is completely invisible and doesn't affect our use of the Internet...Other then blocking evil hacking sites, certain upgrade sites (because they look like evil hacking sites and are not whitelisted yet) and of course completely screwing up certain web based file sharing (if it isn't done along the prescribed safe/secure methods).

So I am looking for what the difference is between uploading a file as an attachment to a post and uploading an avatar. There has to be some difference in the overall steps which is causing my companies proxy server to choke on.

have you looked into the server's error log if you can find something? or what does the access log show? maybe the request isn't even getting through to the server ? but usually attachments work for you ? just not at your office

1. Access logs are not working on my server there is some whacko thing about fcgi and python that is causing stdout and stderr to get lost. I have been researching this on and off for as long as I can stay awake reading the fcgi specs and code (it is so utterly boring and poorly documented it puts me to sleep).

2. I do not have access to my companies proxy server (I work for one of those scary world sized mega-corps). It is a mega-bureaucracy and marvel of modern corporate structures with services like IT outsourced overseas to divisions within the company.

3. Yes, attachments work just fine from any other network where I have access. So this is a proxy issue on uploaded attachments for posts only. I can upload in similar fashion to OTHER sites not using SCT/Django. So this is pretty much some slight miss communication on Django's or SCT's part that is causing the proxy uploading to not work correctly. I figure if it is affecting me then it will affect others at various times, hence the desire to squish this problem now.

So if you want to do some code crawling to see what the steps are and how they differ between uploading an avatar and uploading an attachment for a post. That will give us some clues as to what we might do to correct this. I will continue to poke at it as well. But, since you are far more intimate with the code base you might have a better clue as some places to start.

good question ... i have no idea where the difference is ..

except that there are two submit buttons except just one :) but that can't be it ?

do you also get the error when you select the file and click 'Post' immediately instead of 'Upload file' ?

I seriously doubt it is the number of buttons. But boy would that be a funny bug to track down... ;^)

I get the same response if I hit post, or upload which is a long 30 second delay followed by an "zero length response" error that is coming from the proxy and the file is not on my server. So it is obviously having some issue handling initiation of the file upload. I think the zero length response is some kind of missing acknowledgment that the Django service is ready to receive.

Just tried to upload to this thread with the same error.

Have screen shots ... Crud now this is interesting. I was able to attach the images to this post.

Starting to look like something to do with the file types. The file I was pushing was a Powerpoint presentation.

fyi - i got an email because of this error :)
"IOError: request data read error" - i have the full stack trace but it's somewhere deep down in djangos wsgi code.. i'm not sure if you are also seeing the stacktrace ? if not i can paste it if you like..

but.. i would say .. it makes most sense that the firewall simply blocks potential harmful files .. like .exe,.bat .. and .. file types which are known to have a few security issues.. (ppt, doc,.. ?) ..

you could try simply zipping the .ppt file.. or renaming it to something else.. or.. zipping and renaming .. depending on how smart the firewall is .. something like that might work :)