Geeklog Forums

It's created from a description that's stored in the database.



I'm afraid the database entries for the Configuration aren't really "user serviceable".

What you can try is setting some options in the siteconfig.php, i.e. just like in the old config.php files. Yes, you can even set config options for the static pages plugin there. Not sure if that's really going to help.

bye, Dirk

OK, maybe you can walk me through this.

Assume there are old files from earlier versions of GL that are somehow "corrupting" my current installation.

What I want to achieve is a completely clean install, without losing all of my data. That's the most important thing - keeping all of the older articles and data.

All of the plugins and upgrades, I can either re-do again later, reinstall, or what have you.

Since I've already done an upgrade one, the "install" program just tells me that "the database has already been updated".

So, is there anyway to basically reinstall all of the operating files again? If I just write over everything, will that completely screw up my current installation which is actually working halfway? I mean, I want to fix things, and not take steps backwards.

Don
www.panama-guide.com

If you want to keep the database in it's current state, you can simply overwrite all the files to make sure that they're all up to date.

The 2 files you should keep (before you do that) are db-config.php and siteconfig.php. These are the only files that are modified during the install/upgrade (and lib-common.php does not have to be changed any more).

So make copies of those two files, upload all the files from the 1.6.1 tarball again, then put your copies of db-config.php and siteconfig.php back in their place (overwriting the "blank" copies that came with the tarball). Since your database is already up to date, you don't need to run the install script again.

bye, Dirk

OK, thanks. That's the next thing I'm going to do.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to "clean out" all of the old files from the dozens of previous upgrades and random plugin installations (that are no longer being used) as well.

So, since the database has already been converted to 1.6.1 compatible, and as long as I have copies of those two files, then I can nuke everything else and it should work, right?

I was just wandering through the database, and there's a whole bunch of old crap in there that's no longer being used.

I think my problems are just a case of one single install that's gone through too many upgrades and "improvements" over the years, all done by yours truly - meaning, of course, that most of the time I don't have a clue as to what I should be doing.

Is there someone I can pay to "scrub" the database? I'm way over my head in that department. Are there any hired guns out there who specialize in fixing Geeklog sites?

Don

Keep in mind that when you remove plugins without uninstalling them, their tables, permissions, groups, etc. will still be left in the database. While it's easy to, say, get rid of the tables that contain all forum posts, it's not so easy to get rid of the permissions manually. So I'd say disable the plugins for now and when you're back in business, enable them again and uninstall them properly.



Here's a list of people who would be happy to help you.

bye, Dirk

OK, got it. I went back through every plugin, and used Admin / Plugins / Edit / Delete / Delete (confirm) to remove them all.

I now have the site stripped down to just the six "approved" plugins that ship with GL 1.6.1 - namely Calendar 1.1.1, Links 2.1.0, Polls 2.1.1, Spam-X 1.2.0, Static Pages 1.6.1, and XML Sitemap 1.0.0

I also went through the entire database, and removed all of the "old" data tables from ancient plugins that were tried once a long time ago and are no longer being used - like Chatter Block or Loud Blog for example.

I kept Openx loaded because I use that to manage the paid banners on the website, although a couple of them are not running right now because I still have to work past the configuration and formatting issues before I can safely modify the header.thtml file to get the banners running again.

So, housecleaning complete. However, the problem I'm having with the incorrect or inaccurate presentation of the Configuration screens persists. I simply have to get this fixed, one way or the other.

Since these screens are generated by the database, what's my next step?

Is there some way I can post a "screenshot" or a "snap" to be able to show you what I'm seeing? Maybe that will shed some light.

Don
www.panama-guide.com

Does that affect all the plugins or only some of them?

As I said above, I'd try reinstalling the database from a backup and running the upgrade again. The only smaller step I could think of is trying to uninstall then reinstall one of the bundled plugins (which of course means that you'll lose all the data in that plugin and would need to restore that from backup later on anyway).



Not on geeklog.net, but since you do have a website - why not put it there and post a link here?

bye, Dirk

OK, here's where I'm at right now.

I had a backup of the database restored from before I started to attempt the upgrade, so right now the data thinks it's GL 1.4.1 so the data is pre-upgrade.

This is confirmed by looking at the Admin / Plugins screen.

However, the software and programs on the server for Geeklog are all 1.6.1.

I have not tried to run the install program again - that's my next step. Before I do that I'm first going to delete all of the old Plugins (again), I had to reinstall them all after I had the data restored.

Notably, the original problem that I had to start all of this - not being able to access the Configuration screens correctly - is happening right now with the GL 1.6.1 programs installed and running over the 1.4.1 data.

Therefore, that tells me maybe the data was never properly or correctly updated to 1.6.1?

Anyway, that's were I'm at right now. I tried to save an article with a screen snap of the problems with the Configuration screen, but right now apparently I can't post a new article, probably because the site is running on 1.6.1 software over a 1.4.1 database. Let me run the install program before I do anything else...

Don

IT WORKED!

Here's what I did differently this time.

During the installation process, I provided the information asked by the dialog for the database, and at the bottom of the screen there are two buttons - on that says "Upgrade" (I think) and another that says "Upgrade and configure additional plugins"

The first time I just hit the "Upgrade" button, because I was thinking that I could configure any additional plugins later as required. That didn't work, and in fact it screwed up my entire website, and cost me about five solid days of screwing around, trying to fix the problem.

After reloading the database from a backup and running the installation program again, this time I selected the other option, to "Upgrade and configure additional plugins." And, lo and behold, it worked. The static pages are there, links, etc.

NOT HAVING THE DIFFERENCES CLEARLY DEFINED IN THE DOCS OR INSTRUCTIONS IS A SERIOUS MISTAKE!

I made an innocent mistake, because I simply didn't know better. It shouldn't be that easy to screw things up that bad.

Don

You're right - and it isn't. The only difference between the two options is that the second one allows you to pick plugins that you don't want to be installed. In other words, it lets you disable plugins before they are installed. The rest of the process is exactly the same.

I'm glad to hear you got your site back up and running, but this was not the cause of your problems.

bye, Dirk

Actually, I think it almost certainly WAS the cause of my problems.

When I selected the second button this time, the program never actually took me to the screen you describe. A few error messages appeared in black text on the top of the screen, which I couldn't read. I just went to the homepage, checked the Configuration section, and everything appears to be working (now).

It appears that the database was not properly updated the first time around, and the second time around it was.

The only thing I did different was - the second time I hit the other button.

If it wasn't that, then what else might have caused this problem?

I think there's a serious "glitch" in the database update code somewhere.

Don
www.panama-guide.com

In looking at the Plugin List, it appears that most of the new "core" plugins did not property upgrade to GL version 1.6.1 in this most recent attempt to install the software.

After five days of screwing around, I finally restored a backup version of the database and tried to run the installation script again, and this time I got better results because I selected the "Upgrade and Configure Additional Plugins" option. However, the program never made it to the next screen properly, and I got several error messages.

When I went to the homepage apparently the site is running alright. Most importantly, the problem that I had before with missing static pages, missing links section, and a screwed up configuration area were resolved.

However, now it appears that most of the "core" plugins seem to think I'm running GL 1.5.0 (which has never been installed). See below;

Plugin Name - Plugin Version - Geeklog Version
Autotags 1.02 1.4.0
Bad Behavior2 2.0.11 1.4.1
Calendar Data: 1.0.3, Code: 1.1.1 Update! 1.5.0
Filemgmt Data: 1.5.2, Code: 1.5.3 Update! 1.4
Forum 2.7 1.4.1
Glmenu Data: 2.1, Code: 3.1 Update! 1.3.11
Glutil Data: 1.0.4, Code: 1.1.0 Update! 1.4.1
Gus 1.7.0 1.3.11
Links Data: 2.0.1, Code: 2.1.0 Update! 1.5.0
Mdigest 1.3.1 1.3.7
Mediagallery 1.5.0 1.3.11
Polls Data: 2.0.2, Code: 2.1.1 Update! 1.5.0
Rating Data: 2.2beta, Code: 2.3.0 Update! 1.4.0
Spam-X Data: 1.1.2, Code: 1.2.0 Update! 1.5.0
Static Pages Data: 1.5.1, Code: 1.6.1 Update! 1.5.0
Tag 0.3.1 1.4.0
XMLSitemap 1.0.0 1.6.0
Youtube 1 1.4.0

Notice that there are "Update!" options all over the place. But when I hit those links, nothing happens.

Any ideas? I am absolutely convinced there is a major problem with the script that updates the databases. It still has not worked properly on my site.

Don
www.panama-guide.com