Cathy

Lab data at my workplace is kept in a bog-standard SQL database with a custom web interface. Part of this interface lets me run a query and then, in theory, export the results to a lovely Excel spreadsheet, or PDF, or a couple other formats. I do this to transfer the lab data to other spreadsheets and do lovely charts of data trends and the other things one might want to do with lab data.

Back in early March, the "export" function stopped working - but only when I was working from home. I clicked the "export" button, and it indicated that it had been clicked, but it did not export my data. Sitting at my work desk, plugged into the docking station, I can export data until my data cup runneth over.

IT's assumption is that it's a "me" problem. We did some troubleshooting.
- Did Husband change a setting on the PiHole? He did not, but also he turned it off and it didn't help, and also he didn't see records of anything from my work network being blocked.
- Is it something weird with our home wifi? It is not; the problem occurred when I worked at the library or in the waiting room of the hospital.
- Is it something weird with the VPN connection? It is not; the problem occurred while sitting at my desk if I unplugged from the docking station and went on the workplace wifi network, no VPN required.
- Is it some kind of hardware problem? It is not; they had me test it on a random laptop that they had on hand, and also gave me an entirely new laptop, and the problem still occurred on both those computers.
- Is it some kind of problem with my account on the database server? It is not; "unplug from the docking station" made the problem happen - mostly - for two other people. ("mostly" being that one of the other two could export one of my two daily-use reports but not the other. wtf?)
- likewise when I was working at Husband's desk and plugged into his docking station I could export the same one report the other person could - but he says his docking station is on the house wifi.

At this point, I think it's a really bizarre networking problem - perhaps they did something to the firewall that had unexpected results? but a) they say they have made no changes, and b) while the IT person I'm working with has observed me having the problem he has never been able to duplicate it for himself, so he still thinks it's a "me" problem somehow even though he can't think of anything else "me"-related that we haven't ruled out. (also that implies he did not believe me when I said I had successfully duplicated the problem with two other people, ugh...)

IT person wants to refer the problem to the vendor, but they will not help us because we are not upgraded to the latest version, which was not going to happen any time soon.

Fast forward to yesterday. IT person calls, along with the person managing the software upgrade (who has not previously been involved with troubleshooting). They watch to see exactly what I'm doing and exactly what happens when I click the "export" button. IT person follows along on his own machine and does not experience the problem, but the software manager does! (SO now IT person believes me that it's not a "me" problem. Yay, I guess?) We poke all the buttons. We find that in order for the data to export, I need to enter the date in a particular date field, even if that date field was previously pre-filled with the right date.

"?????," we all said. But at least now we have a solution even if it sheds no light on the problem?

"Except," IT guy says, "I think it has to do with the display settings." I did acknowledge that when I got it to *slightly* work on Husband's docking station, I had it on one of his external monitors.

Today, at my desk, I put this to the test. Instead of running the query in a browser tab on my nice big external monitor, I moved the tab over to the laptop screen without changing anything else from "known good".... and whaddayaknow, instead of behaving itself, it would not export the data unless I touched that one particular date field.

I do not understand. I do not understand why the display settings matter to whether the "export" button works or not. I do not understand why entering the date makes the "export" button work. This is the equivalent of going to the mechanic, telling him "the car won't shift from 3rd to 4th between 8 and 11 PM," and the solution being to turn the windshield wipers on and set the radio to a specific station. I do not understand why the problem began suddenly during a time period when they said they did not change anything about the software.

I suppose ultimately it doesn't matter if I understand? I can get my data from home again. But this will nag at me for days.

why can you make a graph without a primary horizontal axis?

isn't a primary horizontal axis an essential component of a graph, such that if you do not have an axis, you do not have a graph?

signed,
me (baffled) and one intern (confused and frustrated).