How does 'auto-delete' work?

[jdeleu]

We set up the system so that 'self sign up accounts' are valid for 7 days only, these account are suspended after 7 days and the users need to register again. This works fine.
To get rid of the suspended accounts I assumed these were going to be removed by the 'auto-delete' function after some period of inactivity (since the account cannot be used anymore it should not detect any activity), this seems however not to work. Did I miss something in the manual?

[alan]

For auto-delete feature, you need to:

1) set user attribute "Remove user(s) that has not login for certain period of time" within Configuration Manager -> Users

2) run program removeUser.exe (e.g. removeUser.exe 7) in Windows Scheduled Tasks periodically (i.e. once a day).

Refer to chapter 3 of firstspot_guide.pdf (Users section) for more information.
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[jdeleu]

Doesn't work.
Even if I run it from the command line I get a 'succeed' but no users are removed.
I have currently 248 users that are suspended before 01-10-2010 00:00
Since we are now 01-18-2010 the command 'removeuser 7' should delete all these isn't it?

[alan]

Did you set the attribute "Remove user(s) that has not login for certain period of time" within Configuration Manager -> Users for each user you want to remove?
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[jdeleu]

Is that a user specific parameter?
It's a parameter that is listed below the user details below 'Select the database table to export/import' and above 'Reset data transfer counters of all users'.
It is currently set at 7 day(s).
Clicking the button 'Remove User(s)' below the setting doesn't anything either (except 'User(s) removed successfully!!' in the message window).

Auto-delete is set for each user.

[alan]

Sorry, my mistake. I actually mean setting "Auto delete?" for each user.

We are currently looking at your issue.
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[alan]

We discover a problem in the auto-delete feature. Please try the below fix:

http://patronsoft.com/firstspot/download/patch/606/auto_delete.zip

Make sure you are using v6.0.5. Unzip the above fix and copy them files in the FirstSpot\dispatcher directory (you might want to backup the original files first).

The problem is that FirstSpot incorrectly deletes the user information during startup. So this fix won't delete the old inactive accounts (i.e. user needs to login/logout once to trigger this feature again).
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[jdeleu]

Thanks for providing a fix so quickly.
I did the upgrade today. In 2 weeks I'll be able to let you know if the issue is fixed or not.
(Accounts are valid for 7 days and deleted after 7 days of inactivity)

[jdeleu]

Auto-delete still doesn't work. Accounts that have been suspended more than 7 days ago are still in the database.
The program "removeUser.exe 7" is sheduled daily and runs fine.
Even if run via command-line it replies 'succeed' but no users are deleted.
Also the button 'remove users' in the user configuration tab does not remove any inactive user.

[jdeleu]

Looking more into detail I see that some accounts are created with the condition to suspend set to a specific date in the future (I guess the date they sign up + 7 days), some accounts are however created with the condition to suspend the account 'after 7 days' as indicated in the plan.

How is it possible that accounts are created in different ways?
Is there a way to find out when an account is created since filtering on the suspend criterium 'after x days' is not possible.

We ordered a second licence with maintenance contract in order to implement redundancy but really need these bugs to be fixed asap.

[alan]

Can you zip and email us at firstspot@patronsoft.com your datasource files fsusr.* ? Please point out which users are having problem.
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[jdeleu]

I cleaned up the database yesterday, so there's not much left to investigate.

Looking in the database file I found that the users with condition to suspend the account 'after 7 days' (GUI) all have the ATTEMPT field set to NULL, the others (with an actual suspend date filled out) have the field set to 0.0.
Unfortunately this field is not described in the manual but a value NULL probably means these users (374 accounts !) never logged in.
Since the plan specifies 'account is active at the user's first login' , these accounts never become active and are never deleted by the auto-delete function either. Guessing right?

I modified my free plan to 'account is active when it is created' to avoid inactive accounts.
Is there a way to filter these 'inactive' accounts in the GUI, so I can delete them manually?

I'll let you know the results of the modifications in a few days.

[alan]

1) Right. Account never logged in will not be deleted by this auto-delete function

2) Note that the auto-delete inactive timeframe is counted from logout time.
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