Ticket replies showing (empty) on 1.17.7: Page 4

Ticket replies showing (empty) on 1.17.7

Patryk

Not just IIS, same problem on Apache on Windows. We've reverted to the previous version.

KevinTheJedi

I should’ve said windows servers not IIS.

Cheers.

Tinnitus

I played around with IIS again and generated a test file for this problem after I couldn't reproduce the problem in the osTicket GUI.

The class.format.php and htmlawed files are simulated there, and I never encountered the error.

Nevertheless, you could test it again with these changes in php.ini.

Statement from AI:

The PHP version and PCRE2 (JIT compilation)

The PR you linked to (osTicket 6910) introduces a newer version of htmLawed that is optimized for PHP 8.x.

Starting with PHP 8.0, PCRE2 is used, which has a JIT compiler.
On IIS, there are often problems with the JIT compiler when dealing with complex regex queries.

KevinTheJedi

Tinnitus

Ah, windows woes.. I stand by the statement I've made for YEARS now: I hate windows with a passion 🙃 I guess we are now witnessing some of the fallout of windows not supporting builds of PHP (for a while now). I see now why people made the switch to Linux lol

So what's the recommended fix? Is it just known issues with windows servers that you can't handle on the application side? Or is it a thing where we can "work around it" within the application?

Cheers.

Tinnitus

So, the comment is intended to help determine whether this is the problem or something else.

I therefore ask all users who are reading this and have this problem to integrate this “fix” and see if it “solves” the problem.

DrMichaD

Hello,
I have reinstalled the file include\htmLawed.php from version 1.18.3, made the changes to php.ini, restarted everything, and will test it and report back later.
All the best

Legator

Hello,
I have the same problem (see screenshot of my configuration).
I use osTicket with XAMPP on a virtualised Windows server (2019) ... wasn't my decision.
Since I updated from 17.x to 18.x at the beginning of January, we've had a number of problems. Exactly what everyone else in this thread has described.

With Gemini's help, I have tried literally everything, to the point of utter despair. The most frustrating thing is that it (seemingly) follows no logic, making it difficult to replicate in a consistent manner.
This phenomenon is most likely to occur if you have had the browser tab (or session) open for a while and then write a reply.

DrMichaD

And back again...
Since the (empty) error occurred again when entering German text as an agent's response to an existing ticket, I took the file include\htmLawed.php from version 1.17.3 and overwritten the 1.18.3 file with it. After the (empty) problem occurred, I pasted the same text I had copied earlier into a reply and was able to send it successfully.
Since restarting the web server and php-cgi.exe, the error has not occurred again. Emails (some of which were digitally signed) were also converted correctly into tickets. Unfortunately, the changes made to php.ini a few days ago did not solve the problem.
The following text was entered over a period of about 30 minutes and resulted in (empty) - a copy of the entire text entry inserted immediately afterwards was displayed correctly:

Folgende Räume müssen für den Umzug vorbereitet werden:<ul><li>HiWi-Raum (Christian am 17.02.2026)</li><li>Bachelor-/Master-Arbeitsraum (Christian am 17.02.2026)</li><li>Bibliothek (Michael am 18.02.2026 - FRITZ!Box wird erst am 23.02.2026 abgebaut)</li><li>Besprechungsraum (Michael am 19.02.2026)</li><li>diverse Geräte (Michael am 18.02.2026)<ul><li>FRITZ!Repeater in IT, Sekretariat und Bibliothek</li><li>schwarzer Switch in HiWi-Raum (Achtung: Drucker sollte an weißem Cisco-Switch angeschlossen bleiben)</li></ul></li><li>IT-Büro (Team am 19.02.2026)</li><li>Triumph Adler Druckerraum (Team am 20.02.2026)</li></ul>

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

Try something real quick please. Replace the old htmlawed file with the new one again, go to this line in your code, and replace the entire return htmLawed(…); line with the following:

    $current = setlocale(LC_CTYPE, '0');
    $new = setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'C') ?: setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'English_United States.1252') ?: null;

    try {
        return htmLawed($html, $config, $spec);
    } finally {
        if ($current !== false && $current !== null)
            @setlocale(LC_CTYPE, $current);
    }

Then restart your webserver and PHP-FPM. Trust me, this matters a lot.

This basically forces a deterministic locale so we can see if this allows the content to pass and then sets it back to the original locale afterwards so that nothing else gets affected.

Cheers.

Legator

Replacing the htmLawed.php file with the version shipped in v17.3 is working for me so far.
This older version appears to be from 2017 while the newer version is from 2023, a rather big jump in version.

KevinTheJedi

Legator

You are not using osTicket but a heavily modified version. This forum is for core osTicket and core osTicket plugins only.

Cheers.

DrMichaD

KevinTheJedi

Hello,
I overrode the file include\htmLawed.php from version 1.18.3 for use,
left the previous changes to php.ini, adjusted the file class.format.php as shown in the screenshot, restarted everything, and will test it and report back later.
All the best

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

Sounds good, I appreciate it. Once we get to the bottom of the issue we can create a patch.

Cheers.

DrMichaD

KevinTheJedi
Hello,
I have now created countless tickets in a test environment and also in a productive environment with the latest changes, and the problem with (empty) tickets no longer occurs.
Thank you very much and all the best

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

Bingo. So it’s likely tied to the locale set on the windows server. I’ll have to see what we can do about that.

Cheers.

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