(disregard my recent post here about missing package -- that wasn't the elog server!)

I can see that ckeditor was upgraded 11/19, which is would be prior to my recent attempts to use elog.  It was apparently a security update, so I am not sure it is sensible to downgrade.  OTOH, I am the only person here, and I have all sides carefully barracaded, so I don't think it would be much of an issue.   But please disabuse me of my ignorance if need be.

Thank you for your quick response, Sebastion.  The new version of ckeditor is 4.5.7 -- is this version compatible with elog 3.1.2?  It is possible that I am using an outdated elog or outdated ckeditor due to the fact that this server is a bit old; I am looking to upgrade this machine soon, but I have several other issues to resolve first.

Hello Harry,

the elog server (elogd) is a standalone application written in C and contains a full webserver and logfile management system.
There are no other dependencies to apache or python.

You can use a webserver like apache or nginx in combination with elog to act as a proxy,
e.g. to handle the encryption part of the communication between your web browser and the elogd, but you don't need to.

Regarding the first part of your message:
The elog server worked normally; entries (including the text body) got saved correctly until the last update? 
The only thing in your list of updates, I can think of making this problem could be the update of ckeditor as it is the text editor used by elog.
The other packages should not be related to elog... but I am not a package maintainer.
I compiled elog from source and it brings the necessary files with it.

Best wishes,
Sebastian

I've been using elog for a few years now.  I've had the current setup working for me up until today.  

If I create a new message (entry, whatever they are called), or if I attempt to update an existing message, only the header information is saved.  The body (the part I can see in the editor) does not get saved.

Yesterday, I did do some updates on the server machine.  Among them was an update to apache2, but I am not using apache2 (I can disable apache2, and elogd continues serving elog on client machines).  Also updated were several python3 packages; I ran into a compatibility problem with python3 with a different package, so I wonder if that could have some impact for elog also.  About 50 packages were updated altogether.

Here are the packages that were updated yesterday (in case this is of interest to solving the issue):

 bind9-host:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 ckeditor:amd64 (4.5.7+dfsg-2, 4.5.7+dfsg-2+deb9u1)
 cron:amd64 (3.0pl1-128+deb9u1, 3.0pl1-128+deb9u2)
 dnsutils:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 firefox-esr:amd64 (78.14.0esr-1~deb9u1, 78.15.0esr-1~deb9u1)
 libapache2-mod-php7.0:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 libavcodec57:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 libavfilter6:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 libavformat57:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 libavresample3:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 libavutil55:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 libbind9-140:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 libcups2:amd64 (2.2.1-8+deb9u6, 2.2.1-8+deb9u7)
 libcupsimage2:amd64 (2.2.1-8+deb9u6, 2.2.1-8+deb9u7)
 libdns162:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
libdns-export162:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 libdw1:amd64 (0.168-1, 0.168-1+deb9u1)
 libelf1:amd64 (0.168-1, 0.168-1+deb9u1)
 libfaad2:amd64 (2.8.0~cvs20161113-1+deb9u2, 2.8.0~cvs20161113-1+deb9u3)
 libicu57:amd64 (57.1-6+deb9u4, 57.1-6+deb9u5)
 libisc160:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 libisccc140:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 libisccfg140:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 libisc-export160:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 libjbig2dec0:amd64 (0.13-4.1, 0.13-4.1+deb9u1)
 liblwres141:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u10)
 libnghttp2-14:amd64 (1.18.1-1+deb9u1, 1.18.1-1+deb9u2)
 libntfs-3g871:amd64 (1:2016.2.22AR.1+dfsg-1+deb9u1, 1:2016.2.22AR.1+dfsg-1+deb9u2)
 libopencv-core2.4v5:amd64 (2.4.9.1+dfsg1-2, 2.4.9.1+dfsg1-2+deb9u1)
 libopencv-imgproc2.4v5:amd64 (2.4.9.1+dfsg1-2, 2.4.9.1+dfsg1-2+deb9u1)
 libpostproc54:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 libpython3.5:amd64 (3.5.3-1+deb9u4, 3.5.3-1+deb9u5)
 libpython3.5-minimal:amd64 (3.5.3-1+deb9u4, 3.5.3-1+deb9u5)
 libpython3.5-stdlib:amd64 (3.5.3-1+deb9u4, 3.5.3-1+deb9u5)
 libruby2.3:amd64 (2.3.3-1+deb9u9, 2.3.3-1+deb9u10)
 libsdl1.2debian:amd64 (1.2.15+dfsg1-4, 1.2.15+dfsg1-4+deb9u1)
 libswresample2:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 libswscale4:amd64 (7:3.2.15-0+deb9u4, 7:3.2.16-1+deb9u1)
 ntfs-3g:amd64 (1:2016.2.22AR.1+dfsg-1+deb9u1, 1:2016.2.22AR.1+dfsg-1+deb9u2)
 php7.0-cli:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-common:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-curl:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-intl:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-json:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-mbstring:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-opcache:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-readline:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 php7.0-xml:amd64 (7.0.33-0+deb9u11, 7.0.33-0+deb9u12)
 python3.5:amd64 (3.5.3-1+deb9u4, 3.5.3-1+deb9u5)
 python3.5-minimal:amd64 (3.5.3-1+deb9u4, 3.5.3-1+deb9u5)
 ruby2.3:amd64 (2.3.3-1+deb9u9, 2.3.3-1+deb9u10)
 tzdata:amd64 (2021a-0+deb9u1, 2021a-0+deb9u2)

This is a devuan ascii server only for clients on a local area network.

Hi Sebastian,

thanks for the reply. It is just a bit confusing that these similar settings behave so differently. For me it is no big deal to set the time for every logbook independently instead of [global], but it leaves more room for configuration errors.

Best,
Chris

Thank you Sebastian!

I admittidely haven't looked through the page in a while, so I completely missed this feature.  This should solve the problem, although in a slightly different implementation than what I was trying for.

Hi Anthony,

the elog has a mirroring function, which synchornizes config and logs between multiple instances.
See the bottom section of https://elog.psi.ch/elog/config.html

Best wishes,
Sebastian

Hi,

I'm wondering if it's possible to have a shared logbook and elog.cfg between multiple instances of elog.  Ideally, I'd like to have my logbooks folder and elog.cfg hosted on a nextcloud instance while running the elog service locally.  I've tried this using symlinks and shortcuts on windows with no luck.  I was able to install elog into my mounted nextcloud folder, but this isn't ideal as I would like this to work from multiple computers.

Any ideas or thoughts on how I can do this (if I can actually do this)?