an exception on one autotag should probably not break the others


with a previous thread as preamble:
"server timeline names discarded when publishing same source timelines from new host/user"

I have ended up with an "orphaned" timeline subscription in one of my clients.

I had autotags on the client associated to the subscribed timeline, but the failure to subscribe to the re-published timeline has broken those associated autotags, generating and exception which breaks the display of ALL autotags.

clicking on the yellow triangle on the AutoTags timeline shows:

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System.Exception: DayView: Updating timeline exception:

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System.Exception: Some timelines failed to load

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and no Autotags will show.

removing the Rules associated with the orphaned timeline resolves the issue.

besides handling the exception itself so the autotags still work (under this or other processing exceptions), it would be nice if the rule could be re-bound to a new timeline.

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clicking on the orphaned timeline shows:

System.Exception: DayView: Updating timeline exception:

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System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: requestUriString
at System.Net.WebRequest.Create(String requestUriString)
at Finkit.ManicTime.Common.Servers.Web.GenericWebClient.CreateRequest(String url, ICredentials credentials, String method, Object resource, Dictionary`2 headers)
at Finkit.ManicTime.Common.Servers.Web.GenericWebClient.Get[T](String url, ICredentials credentials)
at Finkit.ManicTime.Common.Servers.WebClientService.GetActivityUpdates(Server server, String url)
at Finkit.ManicTime.Client.Plugins.ServerSourceType.ServerDayViewLoader.<>c__DisplayClass1b.<>c__DisplayClass1f.<BeginGetUpdates>b__14()

Definitively not one of our best solutions :)
When we came to this problem during development we decided to just show the error. We could just load the timeline with whatever data we could use. The reason we chose this way was that if for example you run timesheets (or just look at the day) and depend on that data, it can change every time a timeline is available or not without you knowing it.
I guess some middle way would be best. Something like a yellow warning sign like now, but when you click on it, it tells you why it doesn't work and offers a solution, deleting the orphaned rules.
As for the reapplying the rules, I guess if we offered some import/export of autotags, you could during import choose to which timelines you want to apply them. Maybe something like that?

I think it happened because you used a different user. I think if you used the same user it would just continue publishing on the new machine. But because you used a new user you had to publish it again, which created new timelines...
Every update to the server is first filtered based on the user. So it looks for the timelines for this user. This is more of a security precaution so another user can't get access to the data.
I guess the solution could be that, you install MT on new machine and use the old db. Then Add server to register the new user on the server. Then go to the server with a browser and somehow say transfer old users timelines to the new user. Then I guess it should all start working. Something like that...