We are excited to announce the official release of the new version of WebObs!
This upgraded platform introduces several improvements aimed at improving the quality of photometric observations. To learn more about the motivations behind this new version and the broader context of the transition, please read Brian’s blog post.
This thread is dedicated to collecting your feedback on the new WebObs. Whether you’ve noticed a bug, have a suggestion for improvement, or want to share your experience—please let us know below!
Hi, went to the new app, picked a file to upload as a test, hit ‘continue’ and nothing happened.
Because it was a test, the file contained observations I had already submitted. Is this why nothing happened (i.e., the obs were already in the DB)
I don’t see any errors in our logging system in the last hour. I also successfully posted a test file. Could you please try again and if that fails, attach the file here?
If I somehow do a double entry of 1000 observations, will there be a way for me to delete my duplicate data? Will there be a way to edit comments to data?
That functionality brings up all your observations, but doesn’t let you delete in mass. You have to delete them one at a time. Please see my posts about webobs issues in the technology forum.
Cheers Brian, worked this time!
My obs files are produced by my ‘CHARA’ (self-written) windows app. Obviously always accepted, unless there’s an obvious error in the txt file such as a missing dec point. Maybe the site was hanging or something similar.
The update on Thursday added an option to select all and do checkbox-style deletions. Following past practices, any observations submitted more than a year into the past cannot be deleted this way, instead, it will require an email to AAVSO HQ.
From my blog post: The WebObs 2.0 application has been in public beta since March 2025 and has undergone testing with some of our most active observers. All known issues identified during testing have been addressed. The application is ready to go.
Sigh… I really shouldn’t write such bold statements.
As many people have tried to use the application over the weekend, we’ve noticed some performance issues. As @pox noted above, sometimes a file will be accepted almost instantly without issues and at other times the application times out. Clearly, we’ve got some bugs to work out. Thank you to those who sent me example files that fail… that should help us figure out what the problem is.
Until we get this issue fixed, we’ll pause the countdown on the WebObs 2.0 rollout. Please keep using WebObs 1.0 in the meantime.
I’ve likewise found I couldn’t use Webobs 1 to submit a file a couple of days ago. Although I was using the same file format as previously the app refused to recognise the initial parameter (“#TYPE=VISUAL”) - it appeared blind to the initial “#TYPE=”. After raising the issue via ‘webmaster@aavso.org’ I was directed to Webobs 2 and after a couple of abortive attempts and help from Aru Bhoop - apparently the space in my username caused an issue! - managed to submit the file.
On now trying to submit via Webobs 1 it seems my obscode has been delinked from my account so far as that App is concerned, so that app appears effectively inaccessible (though possibly not for the same reason as for Tom)
BTW I had the same issue as Mike in that after initially clicking “continue” in Webobs 2 nothing happened. It worked on second go but then brought up a number of unexpected errors - I gather it will currently only accept a single comment code, and did not recognise “Miu CEP” - anyway, after amending to single codes and “Mu. Cep” the file successfully uploaded.
I then noted a few “fainter than” observations hadn’t been recognised as such, so I have deleted them. It appears the manual submission screen in Webobs 2 does have provision to mark obs as FT, so I may attempt to resubmit them that way - also appears to accept multiple comments
Would it be possible to enable deleting more than 25 observations at a time? I am in the process of deleting a time series to then resubmit it with an update to the comments. That requires 400/25=16 check/delete/confirm clicks so 48 clicks to delete a time series. The option to list more than 25 observations at a time would resolve this. Thanks!
-Walt
Yesterday, after WebObs 2.0 stopped uploading for me, I tried to use 1.0 by clicking on the “Observation FIles” option at WebObs | aavso. The link took me to Webobs 2.0.
I am also having issues with WEBOBS 2.0 and APASS DR10 comp stars. Apparently the old webobs accepts char lengths more than 20 whereas the new one does not.
Also have the same issue that Webobs 2.0 does not accept uploads and nothing happens. Have given feedback on this already.
Would also like to see a delete option for more than 200 data points like in the old system limits.
At least 1000 point per delete should be possible.
I sometimes delete several 1000 points which is tedious with only 200 to go per delete.
Josch
I too have not been able to submit observations from 20250524 -(Last Night) Using the latest version of WebObs. I have been able to use WebObs 2.0 for several months with no problems.