While writing some documentation for the export system, I noticed something peculiar:

I originally imported a string from wowhead comments. This worked perfectly and I was able to use it ingame. However, I now used the same item for the documentation example, but after exporting it the generated string was very different.

Import String:

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

Export String:

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

It's obvious both aren't the same. And what's worse, the second one - the one I actually exported ingame - is apparently invalid, or at least it can't be imported again. I deleted the original item to make sure it's not just a misleading error message, to no effect.

I remember that when Allara was still maintaining the addon, I encountered an issue with the export system that would basically render it broken. IIRC Allara used Lua's "#" operator to count the number of contained items and it would always return nil since it can only count the array part of a table. This should have been fixed, however. Also, it wouldn't explain why the Export String is much larger. I suspect too much or invalid data is being encoded instead.

To be determined:

• Is this the same issue cropping up again, or something completely different? (Review SVN history from 2016 or so?)
• Can it be reproduced with arbitrary items? (Have to test ingame)
• Maybe the Export String includes data that it shouldn't, possibly some that we added retroactively and that wasn't originally there when the export system was first designed? (Refactor the export/import logic and unit test it?)

Another string that's reportedly not working:

AzhZAv8Caih6K5RsI2S2kJsScVcodZuqnZT2ot0q7ZfCT6HKMNJvVR1TZaikDJbEcAoHpeiXUDiscI6ihRJlqUS1GEotJ9RDCXgqWkbluWCiBJlKMFlK08FFKHRZ6RnRdUnaKFXnJWSzVE4rWieBpkE+S6THUDVSqBgnQY2GgvFCVScl1S2oXIOSexJqpVC0Vqj0TcV8FJgT1gcKtJICc+MbXwwsY0YjQBNgvQGBFj1mN28bKNA+Csxb9bSPCR9G1ARYb0CgRY8J0y97dOQRqVNTFal0yg6HJBM+jEiYftmjI49InZqqSKVTdjgkmQNgvQGBFj0CgQnTL3t05BGpU1MVqXTKDock8xr4QIH20T7TPJLAbAdsoEDr1CEtrFgUmDD9skdHHpE6NVWRSqfscEgyB8B6AwItegQCc8L6ekvrnOmwmHsHdrQtsZlQZCyzLmAsYfoFDL9l2loBpnhH1ARYb0CgRY8JH0bUz9sG2sfsfvW2LGPe4ZcZq3zx09iCjUrJwPziRiXOj4oalZr4w+Jh/tuo1D7Mf2Mz8RjGxS/tw1JmNAII0y97dOQRqVNTFal0yg6HJDNsCPN%^&yYftmjI49InZqqSKVTdjgkmQNgvQGBFj0Cc/8CrDcg0KJHIDDDLL0DquJllvd1VyuEMONhxlR7obR+8THiNouLmdjVGbW0R0oCCQ==

Source: Discord (and wowhead)

The export string that's not working appears to be garbled or copy/pasted incorrectly:

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%^&yYftmjI49InZqqSKVTdjgkmQNgvQGBFj0Cc/8CrDcg0KJHIDDDLL0DquJllvd1VyuEMONhxlR7obR+8THiNouLmdjVGbW0R0oCCQ==

^1^T^Sitems^T^N3^T^Sexport^B^SlastAttempts^N41^Sfinds^T^N1^T^Snum^N1^StotalAttempts^N41^Stime^F4737602090040320^f-43^StotalTime^F4737602090040320^f-43^Sattempts^N41^t^t^Stime^F4737602090040320^f-43^Snpcs^T^N1^N19973^t^Sdates^T^N20240805^T^Stime^F4737602090040320^f-43^Sattempts^N41^t^t^SitemId^N22925^Senabled^b^Stype^SITEM^Smethod^SNPC^SrealAttempts^N41^StotalFinds^N1^Sfound^B^Sname^S[Recipe:Major~HolyProtection~Potion]^Schance^N150^SlastTime^F4737602090040320^f-43^Ssessin^eteFA/f^F4^bS0g0403Ates2S^^^Pts3mptste4o^t19o0tte^e74sM3at-js3gnaN0S4e^euee0Se^eT/2a1jl^3eesaFmSc/ldfZ^i~a`iSI4na4sT^^
Libs/AceSerializer-3.0/AceSerializer-3.0.lua:232: Invalid AceSerializer control code '^e'

Might just be incomplete? Either way, I've no way of knowing what exactly the original commenter exported. The other strings are working for me. The difference is due to user attempts being exported (separate issue).