Links to Esri Community posts only work correctly about half the time, sometimes just go to home page

Will · ‎05-22-2024

When I share links to others to particular posts or discussions in the Esri Community, the links only work properly about half the time. Specifically, half the time it will go to the correct post/discussion, but the other half of the time the same link will just go to the Esri Community home page, which is confusing, because I think sometimes the recipients of my links experience that same behavior and may assume I'm asking them to find the post/discussion from the home page which of course is unreasonable. Does anyone else experience this problem? If anyone has insight on how to fix this it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

BlakeMorrison · ‎08-25-2024

I will provide examples of the problem the next time it occurs. Unable to recreate on demand right now.

BlakeMorrison · ‎08-28-2024

FWIW, It did just occur again. I tried to recreate the workflow but didn't manage it. I have an idea that if I wait 12-24hrs and try the same workflow again I might be able to recreate it. I will report back.

SimiBasu · ‎08-29-2024

Thank you @BlakeMorrison. I will check the workflow if you are able to recreate it. Also, if you see this again please let us know.

BlakeMorrison · ‎09-01-2024

Ok, I think the workflow to recreate is as follows.

Sign-in to forum - wait 12-24 hours to let it timeout.
In the time that you're waiting for the timeout - visit some other esri/arcgis subdomains, I have usually visited developers.arcgis.com - At this point the subdomain I'm visitng will show the "Sign In" link in the top-right corner - offering me the option to sign in. I do not sign in. I just browse around without signing in. I'm not entirely sure if this step should take place before or after forums login timeout.
After like 24 hours (assumedly when the forums login times out), if I visit a direct link to a forum post it will redirect to the forum homepage. At this point I've only tried links from DuckDuckGo results. I should grab a clean link from somewhere else for testing.

Will · ‎09-06-2024

This is definitely still happening for me, today My Esri has a maintenance notice banner at the top (see attached) that points to a blog post in the Community, and first time I clicked it just went to the Community home page, 2nd time it went to the blog post. Y'all might want to consider not posting such type of notices in the Community until this is fixed, thanks.

BlakeMorrison

I just thought I'd bump this again as I tried to follow a link (http://links.esri.com/web_mercator_measurements) in an, admittedly old, esri blog article and got redirected to:

https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/overview/?rmedium=NewsFallback&rsource=blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/...

At first I assumed the link was dead and the app didn't exist anymore. But then I remembered this problem and tried again.

Will

Happens to me still all the time, this should be the highest priority to fix 🙂

BlakeMorrison

I think this needs to be escalated to tech support as opposed to whoever deals with community forum issues. It's clearly an issue across all their domains. I'm considering doing it, but I kind of don't want to get trapped in a loop trying to explain something complicated to tech support when I know they're the least knowledgeable people at ESRI.

@SimiBasu, perhaps you could escalate this for us?

There's only 2 people harping on about this because most people haven't worked out your website is broken, they just don't see the content. And if they knew it was broken, they wouldn't let you know, they'd just curse ESRI under their breath.

I work in an office where there is no one else who will ever contact ESRI tech support cos it is too much of a headache.

SimiBasu

Hi @BlakeMorrison @Will , sorry for the delayed response. I have been in training and just getting to this. Rest assured this issue has been escalated and the team is researching this. I just want to confirm few things for my meeting with the team so I can get this to the right escalation path and find the fix/update.

1) Is this the link that is broken http://links.esri.com/web_mercator_measurements) ? Is this correct?

2) The above link takes you to this link https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/overview/?rmedium=NewsFallback&rsource=blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/...

BlakeMorrison

You do have the correct links. That's not exactly how I would describe the behaviour though.

The website behind that first link is clearly active and working. But when I first clicked it I was taken to the website behind the second link. Subsequent clicks work correctly and as expected.

This behaviour appears to be related to the sign-in timeout on esri domains. Eg. If I was signed into an esri domain, but it has since timed out, and then I click a link that points at an esri domain, something is happening with the handling of that timeout that is redirecting me to an esri homepage/frontpage of some sort (not always the same one) rather than the link I clicked.

Find whoever is in charge of setting the sign-in timeout period - they will have access to the appropriate systems.