a bug report

Support Client software
1

Not sure where am I supposed to submit a bug report, so I’ll just write it here.

Bug #1 - Windows client 3.1
Condition 1:
You have two different applications, either;
a) they share the same name on taskmgr.exe
(e.g. both PyCharm Community Edition and PyCharm Professional Edition are appeared as PyCharm on task manager), or
b) they don’t share the same name but share lots of code base
(e.g. Chrome 89 and Chromium 92. Chrome 89 is Google Chrome on Processes tab and chrome.exe on Details tab. Chromium 92 is, well, I guess it depends how you build and how you name the executables, but I think the default is Chrome. I tested as chromium.exe)

Condition 2:
and launch both of them at the same time (sometimes, launch them back and forth without any overlapping also seem to trigger the same buggy result)

Buggy result, if those two conditions are satisfied:
Keystrokes/clicks counter (Input tab > Applications) for both applications got bricked. No more update for both. But other than the app-specific counters, it works fine. The client software still records the keystrokes and clicks for other apps, as well as overall keystrokes/clicks.

Once you bricked the app counter for those specific apps, a simple restart/reboot doesn’t seem to fix it. Even reinstall doesn’t work (haven’t tried uninstall and install it). The only way of resolving this issue (that I found so far) is resetting the stats in Input > Applications tab, and not using such similarly named (or similar) applications in the future, because it’ll brick those applications again.

Bug #2 - Windows client 3.1
not sure this is a bug, or just a known limitation, or intentional implementation, but;
a) in case of many system-related Windows apps; they often don’t register any input (not just application-specific count but also overall count), other than the first click when you select the apps.
a list of apps which behave this way - regedit, taskmgr, gpedit.msc, msinfo32
a list of apps which don’t behave this way (counted normally) - dxdiag

EDIT - #2. a) could be solved by running WhatPulse as Administrator. However, still no luck on #2. b).

b) in case of default UWP Windows apps (as well as non-default third party UWP apps); they often don’t have their own name on application tabs. all keystrokes/clicks on these apps are merged into one entry with a blank name and counted toward to it.
a list of apps which behave this way - ms-paint:, calc, ms-photos:, ms-settings:, ms-clock:, ms-people:, outlookmail: bingmaps: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021
a list of apps (non-UWPs) which don’t behave this way (counted normally) - mspaint (the non-UWP old one), notepad, wordpad

Bug #3 - Linux client 3.1 and Website (statistics)
Keystroke/click statistics by applications are recorded correctly on Linux client, but it doesn’t show up on website.

a) Unlike macOS/Windows clients, any app-specific data from Linux client doesn’t show up on public profile page (https://whatpulse.org/USERNAME#apps)

b) It also doesn’t show up on dashboard (https://whatpulse.org/dashboard/my/applications). Linux clients aren’t counted toward the number of computers on each applications, and keystrokes/clicks data from Linux client is also missing.

Bug #4 - Website (forum)
I noticed this when I’m trying to sign up for a new account to make this thread. If you click the new thread button without signing in, it’ll take you to;
https://whatpulse.org/dashboard/my/account
which does nothing for unregistered user. I think it should propmpt login or sign up screen for guests.

Bug #5 - Windows client 3.1
I also noticed this when I’m trying to sign up for a new account to make this thread (because I have to make a pulse to make a thread). If you log out the original account and log in with a fresh account on the existing client, every stats on overview tab does not reset itself, and just show you the accumulated keystrokes/clicks/traffic/etc. And if you log out the fresh account and log in with the original account, the accumulation happens once again, thus effectively doubling the every stats on overview tab. I don’t think it does anything to the stats on server side, so not much of a problem, but you still need to reset the stat, if you don’t like the inflated stats on overview tab.

Bug #6 - Windows client 3.1
Keystrokes/clicks are not counted when it’s remotely connected. I think you implemented this intentionally, so I wouldn’t say that is a bug. However, I found multiple walkarounds for this issue, hence there are some bugs. Since it seems to be an intentionally implemented feature, I wouldn’t publically disclose about the walkarounds, but PM me if you’re interested.

2

Found some more bugs on Windows client 3.2, somewhat related to #1.

First off, I will refer the bug #1 as hard brick, because once you brick the counter (by running both Chromium and Chrome at the same time), you could immediately see that it’s bricked. Once you got bricked counter for both Chromium/Chrome, no keystrokes/clicks on Chromium/Chrome is counted on the app-specific counter. However, the overall counter still record the keystrokes/clicks from Chromium/Chrome. Also, app-specific counter still works normally for other apps.

Today, I found another bug. I will refer this as soft brick, because you don’t have any apparent symptom on the client side. It only appears on the website. Once you soft brick it, your app-specific counter still works on the client side, but most of app-specific count doesn’t show up on the application tab of public profile page (https://whatpulse.org/USERNAME#apps), or the application tab of dashboard page (https://whatpulse.org/dashboard/my/applications).

So if you launch/use new apps, it doesn’t show up on web. Even if you type some more on existing entry, it doesn’t show up (mostly). Only overall count works on web for that specific client (other clients work fine).

Condition is similar to hard brick. Running Chrome and Chromium at the same time always caused the hard brick for me (3 out of 3 different attempts on 3 different machines). For this soft brick, installing and running Brave browser while running Chrome was sufficient for me (only tested twice on the same machine).

However, soft brick is somewhat tougher to solve. Even the full uninstall - reboot - install - reboot - give admin privilege sequence doesn’t solve the problem, if you authorized the client as an existing computer (the bricked one). You have to set it as a new computer for it to work properly.

If you want to use the same name, you have to change the name of bricked computer to something else. Just deleting the bricked computer doesn’t work. If you delete it, all data on the web statistics remained the same. It just hide the entry on this page(https://whatpulse.org/dashboard/my/computers), and it just replace the name of computer to a blank on this page(https://whatpulse.org/USERNAME#apps). In other words, the computer entry is still there and still bricked. So if you just delete the computer and set up as a new computer (but using the same name), it’ll retain the bricked status. If you change the bricked entry to something else, the bricked name is now truly empty, and no longer bricked.

If you accidently delete the bricked computer first, there is a walkaround. First, when you authorize the client after the first reinstallation, use the bricked name. And then change the name to something else. Renaming it also move the hidden bricked entry to something else, so the bricked name becomes truly free. After that, reinstall again and use the original name which is now not-bricked.

3

Found another condition that causes hard brick. It seems two similar program doesn’t have to be ran at the same time. While running WhatPulse 3.2 client on Windows, I installed regular FireFox and then uninstalled the regular FireFox and install FireFox Nightly. This immediately brick the app-specific keystrokes/clicks counter for FireFox (Nightly doesn’t even show up). Reboot didn’t solve the problem. After I reset the stats, FireFox Nightly start to show up and works fine on client, but I’m not sure it’ll be registered on the public profile, because hard brick often causes soft brick.

4

Almost a full year has passed, and the bug is still persistent on Windows. If you install two or more different variants of the same application, something like these;

  • Google Chrome, Google Chrome Beta, Google Chrome Dev, Google Chrome Canary
  • Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Edge Beta, Microsoft Edge Dev, Microsoft Edge Canary
  • Mozilla Firefox, Firefox ESR, Firefox Beta, Firefox Developer Edition, Firefox Nightly
  • Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Code Insiders
  • Windows Terminal, Windows Terminal Preview
  • IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, IntelliJ IDEA Community
  • PyCharm Professional, PyCharm Community

Both keystroke and click counter for the application will be bricked and it’ll stay bricked until you start fresh by resetting all data and registering the computer as a new computer.