Submission error: Invalid input: return_address

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equinox
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2020 12:23 am
Location: UK

Submission error: Invalid input: return_address

#1 Post by equinox » Sat Aug 12, 2023 7:01 pm

Hi. I just submitted a text solution to Duncan Bowen Adventure. I put the text into the big text box and did not attach any file. The resulting screen said: "Invalid input: return_address. Content submission / correction. Your submission has been received. An administrator will take care of it as soon as possible."
So I'm not sure whether it got through or not -- anyway, seems like a bug.

In case it didn't, here is the solution again:

This game begins in a school, from which you must travel to a spooky house and rescue your teacher Mr Fanning. You can carry up to four objects; many are useless red herrings. It's easy to get stuck because some rooms won't let you leave until you do something, requiring certain objects to be brought.

This is a fairly minimal solution: there are many other things you can do for fun, such as playing the piano, shooting the poisonous spider (with the spare second bullet), or jumping out of a window with the parachute from the locked safe.

s, get banana, s, e, get torch, w, u, n, get batteries, put batteries in torch, s, s, e, e, e, get ticket, w, n, peel banana, feed gorilla, get gun, go hole, u, w, n, get bullets, load gun, d, e, d, w, w, w, shoot triffid, get spade, e, e, e, u, e, u, e, e [inexplicably transported to the railway station -- this can't be through the window, which is closed], give ticket, to porter, e, e, press red button [train stops; the other two would transport you back to school], get wood, s, s, s, examine pond, drop spade, get silver bullet, load gun, get spade, w, examine undergrowth, dig mound, drop spade, get hairpin, e, e, examine door, knock door, e, e, drop hairpin, get hammmer, d, open coffin, stake Dracula [surprisingly this is optional; we are sent back to the kitchen], get hairpin, n, examine panel, press panel [you are in the dark], light torch [note the lit candle would not help here], n [the way is blocked], look, shoot werewolf [with the silver bullet], n, e, u, examine chest, pick lock [with the hairpin], examine chest.

The final score is always 100% regardless of your route through the game.

Alastair
Posts: 1061
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:21 am

Re: Submission error: Invalid input: return_address

#2 Post by Alastair » Sat Aug 12, 2023 10:30 pm

equinox wrote:
Sat Aug 12, 2023 7:01 pm
So I'm not sure whether it got through or not -- anyway, seems like a bug.
The solution got through but the message "Invalid input: return_address" is a bug. I thought that it had been dealt with - see viewtopic.php?f=2&t=930 - but perhaps it never went away, that's one of the problems with intermittent errors.

equinox
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2020 12:23 am
Location: UK

Re: Submission error: Invalid input: return_address

#3 Post by equinox » Sat Aug 12, 2023 11:09 pm

Alastair wrote:
Sat Aug 12, 2023 10:30 pm
The solution got through but the message "Invalid input: return_address" is a bug. I thought that it had been dealt with - see viewtopic.php?f=2&t=930 - but perhaps it never went away, that's one of the problems with intermittent errors.
Thanks. That thread is from 2018! If the bug can't be fixed, perhaps it's worth adding a note to the page saying "Don't worry about any return_address error on this page as it can be ignored!"

From a quick glance at the upload page's HTML, the input form contains an element called return_address, e.g.

Code: Select all

<input type="hidden" name="return_address" value="/game/id%2C2513/Aventura+Espacial%2C+La.html" />
So this is failing validation for some reason. Conceivably it could be related to the overzealous server option that bans certain escape sequences in URLs, as discussed here:
https://solutionarchive.com/phpBB3/view ... f=2&t=1810

(I would guess from the name that this return_address value only exists to redirect us back to the game we were looking at, after submission, so it shouldn't even be necessary, as you could do that by checking the HTTP REFERER.)

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