Chat history in dispute is disappearing

client 2.2.3, server 0.12.0

Dispute is open, I am the mod. Vendor opened dispute and buyer is MIA.

Go to discussion and send some comments. Server log looks ok: 23:18:06.716 [SendMessage] [DEBUG] Sending CHAT message to QmSYkCtLM9TxeEtuiDUH93WDSomfBhtujJPzhstCcMeTMw, etc…

Click away to any other UI view and then back, chat history is completely blank again:

[jjeffryes]

@pinheadmz @webunraveling We’ve narrowed down this issue to a few causes.

The primary cause is currently, we show the message you’ve sent in the UI while it’s still in a sending state, but the server doesn’t record the message until it is successfully sent. If your node is unable to connect directly with the other node, sending the message can take a very long time.

If you do anything to refresh the view (such as closing the modal or reloading your app), the UI loses your pending message, and can’t retrieve it because it hasn’t been recorded by the server yet. This causes it to “disappear”, only to reappear later if you refresh the view again after the send has completed.

We’re going to fix this in #1532, but it’s not scheduled to be worked on until after we complete the multi wallet work in release 2.3.

There are probably some other issues involved here with messages, which we have on our radar to fix but they’ll be a pretty significant refactor of a few things. The short version is most users are behind firewalls or routers that block incoming messages, which makes them hard for other nodes to reach and communicate with.

You can make your own node easier to communicate with by forwarding your ports. You should also check any firewalls you’re running to make sure they’re allowing incoming messages for openbazaard.exe.

https://openbazaar.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000282912-How-to-forward-ports-for-OpenBazaar

[jjeffryes]

I’m closing this because the primary issue will be fixed in #1532