C# Forms error out

[bsdanielm]

Hello folks,

Can someone please help me with this???

Students at our university use our C# forms to request books/articles. These seem to have broken suddenly without my involvement (as webmaster).

What the heck does this error mean???


Server Error in '/' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unable to validate data.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.Http Exception: Unable to validate data.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[HttpException (0x80004005): Unable to validate data.]
System.Web.Conf iguration.Machi neKey.GetDecode dData(Byte[] buf, Byte[] modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength) +195
System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input) +60

[HttpException (0x80004005): Authentication of viewstate failed. 1) If this is a cluster, edit <machineKey> configuration so all servers use the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster. 2) Viewstate can only be posted back to the same page. 3) The viewstate for this page might be corrupted.]
System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input) +117
System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium() +101

[HttpException (0x80004005): Invalid_Viewsta te
Client IP: 130.195.176.81
Port: 3846
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
ViewState: dDwtMTMxMjU1MjQ 0OTs7bDxObztZZX M7WWVzOz4+QKW2Z N8wmSGTPY83nEfT x9Lc8J8=
Http-Referer: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/library/fo...e-request.aspx
Path: /library/forms/distance-request.aspx.]
System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium() +441
System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageVie wState() +18
System.Web.UI.P age.ProcessRequ estMain() +447

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:1.1.432 2.2407; ASP.NET Version:1.1.432 2.2407

Can someone explain it?? And how do I resolve it??

[sicarie]

Moving to .NET (where our wonderful C# experts reside).

[Plater]

Well if possible I would recomend debugging to find a particular section that is calling it, might be able to add more insight to it.

System.Web.Conf iguration.Machi neKey.GetDecode dData (Byte[] buf, Byte[] modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength) +195

It kinds sounds like the machine name changed and it effected some of the webservices/database accessing? Or even possible the SSL certificate thinger is having trouble? I'm not sure what "MachineKey " is but it sounds like an encryption issue kinda.
Is this an https:// server?

[bsdanielm]

Thanks for your reply plater......You r explanation actually does make alot of sense.

Recently, our university migrated its variouse websites over to a new website infrastructure (a server farm - I think thats what its technically called) and our library website was one of those that was migrated over.

The odd thing about all this though is that after our website was migrated, I gave these forms a thrashing (test.....3 times) to identify any bugs or errors and they were working fine. In fact they were working fine well after migration. And then suddenly this happens. So I'm assuming that there has been some sort of change higher up (machine name change).

Is this an https:// server? As far as I know, I think it is. However, secure web server is not applied to any of our website pages/forms.......

[Plater]

The reason I asked is I think for https:// you need a special certificate (maybe not?) and I think it's generated partially based on the machine name. It may have been "valid" for awhile until it hit it's "time to check in and refresh" and then it discovered the server machine name had changed decided it was no longer valid.
That's a pretty big stretch, but it might not hurt to look into it?