ODMA Incident Report

X010101: WordPerfect SP4 Invalid Document IDs

Last updated 2000-03-02-10:20 -0800 (pst)
The latest version of this information is available on the AIIM DMware ODMA site.
Category: Fatal Error - Critical Incident ID: X010101
Priority: 9 - Urgent Status: Under Investigation
Component: ODMA32.dll 2.0.0 interacting with WordPerfect 9 SP4 and Worldox.
Repaired in: tbd
 Related information:
X010100: Inappropriate Messages to Users
Q000600: WordPerfect-ODMA Troubleshooting
Q000014: Creating ODMA Document IDs
Assigned To: tbd Reported By: 
 Carolyn Kaukl (2001-01-18)
Date Opened: 2000-01-25 Date Closed: none

Content

1. Summary of Incident

2. If This Is Happening to You

3. Actions Toward Resolution

4. Investigation of Incident

5. Demonstration of Document ID Errors

Contributors

Summary of Incident (2001-01-29):

Software Used:

Under certain conditions when operating with WordPerfect, a Connection Manager error message can be provoked:

Specified DMS is not registered with ODMA Keys

Figure 1.  ODMA Connection Manager Message (download BMP format)

These messages arise because WordPerfect is passing an ODMA Document ID for a DMS that has not been registered on the computer.  This situation can also arise when an ODMA Document ID is malformed.

An invalid ODMA Document ID occurs in several ways:

  1. An incorrect Document ID is created by a DMS and passed to WordPerfect as part of the DMS-initiated launch of WordPerfect.  When WordPerfect attempts to access the document that has been pre-selected for it to use, the access fails because the Document ID is invalidly formed.  For example, the DMS could be improperly identified.
  2. A valid ODMA Document ID is stored as a link in a WordPerfect document which is then later used on a computer for which the originating DMS is not installed.  The same situation can arise if ODMA Document IDs are passed in E-mail or in other data.
  3. Document IDs that are originally valid are damaged before they are presented for use in ODMA operations.

There is evidence that damaged ODMA Document IDs (case 3, above) are being created during some WordPerfect 9 SP4 ODMA operations.  The damaged Document IDs have doubled "::ODMA\" prefixes, making it appear that ::ODMA is the name of the DMS to use, instead of the correct DMS ID (e.g., WORLDOX) found later in the Document ID text.  These have been noticed specifically in Merge operations, as in Figure 1.

In all cases, when an invalid or unusable Document ID is presented to ODMA, the rejected Document ID can be found by capturing the WordPerfect File Activity log, or by capturing an ODMA 2.0 Connection Manager log.  In the incident that led to these reports, the logs reveal that WordPerfect is presenting the following invalid ODMA Document ID to ODMA as part of an ODMA operation:

::ODMA\::ODMA\WORLDOX\F:\DOCS\WD\DRAFT\JUR\A0023349.WPD

Actions Toward Resolution (2001-01-29):

The following actions are being taken to resolve this incident:

  1. Record the existence of of the problem and establish an incident report as notification and as documentation of the repair that is needed.  [2001-01-29: Completed]
  2. Provide information so that people can trouble-shoot these messages by creating activity logs and determining the nature of the invalid ODMA Document ID [2001-01-29: Completed]
  3. Create a simple WordPerfect Merge Template document and Merge Data file that can be used to reproducibly demonstrate this problem when a merge is performed using documents found by their ODMA Document IDs.
  4. If there is a consistent reproduction of the problem, add the demonstration here and notify the appropriate vendor(s).

Investigation of Incident (as of 2001-01-29):

The following steps are being taken to confirm the claims made in this incident report:

  1. The Message being displayed was caught in a screen capture (Figure 1).
  2. The source of the message was tracked down in the ODMA 2.0 Connection Manager (see incident report X010100).
  3. WordPerfect File Activity logs and ODMA Connection Manager logs were captured and reviewed to confirm that operation stopped at creation of the message.  The invalid Document ID that provokes the message was detected and confirmed in both logs.
  4. It remains to create a reproducible demonstration of how the modified ODMA Document ID is created and where.  

Demonstration of Document ID Errors (2001-03-02)

 

Contributors

Carolyn Kaukl
provided the original report of incidents, and then provided the logs that demonstrate ODMA is being given invalid ODMA Document IDs.
Dennis Hamilton
reviewed the reports and logs, splitting the incident into two problems.  Creation of Invalid ODMA Document IDs in WordPerfect, and responding with an inappropriate message to those Document IDs in ODMA.

created 2001-01-29-16:11 -0800 (pst) by orcmid
$$Author: Orcmid $
$$Date: 02-06-05 8:25 $
$$Revision: 3 $