Text only articles following upgrade from 3.2.2 to 3.3.6

[bstrummer]

Greetings,

I am new to this forum and this is my first post.

I've been running a Joomla site for a year almost to this day and have found it to be an excellent cms, perfect for my requirements. Sincere thanks to the developers for all their hard work creating and maintaining such a great product!

However since upgrading to version 3.3.6 I have struck a problem that I have been unable to resolve. I've spent an hour or more searching for the answer but there doesn't appear to be anyone experiencing the same.

I upgraded from version 3.2.2 to 3.3.6 via an update offered by my ISP Plesk panel. Note that the update was not appearing under the "Joomla! Update" option within the admin components menu item. So the plesk upate option appeared to solve that particular problem.

Following the update my web site loads properly and all menu options are fine too. However when an article is opened from any of the main pages all page formatting is lost. The menu options, page text and links are listed left justified down the page as text only. As far as I can tell all other functionality, including the admin area, is working as it should.

I have tried creating new articles but those articles too appear as text only. I also created a new test menu (category article list) but articles published under that menu item still appear as plain text (i.e. with links still active.)

Note - just discovered while typing this message - within the 'text only' page, the page title appears as a link. When you click on the page title link, the page re-appears properly formatted i.e. back to normal. This is happening with all the articles. First you see the text only page - then when you click on the title, the page appears normally.

I have tried downloading and applying the patch "Joomla_3.3.x_to_3.3.6-Stable-Patch_Package" which has made no difference. I have downloaded the full package "Joomla_3.3.6-Stable-Full_Package" and tried copying core files via ftp replacing the ones on my site. But that also did not work.

Clearing the system cache as some forum posts suggested (admittedly in relation to other issues) has made no difference.

I have also tried running the Forum Post Assistant without success meaning I am unable to post FPA results here.

The following details about my site are listed in case helpful:-
Site address: http://www.brucepaine.co.nz.
Hosting: Apache server with php 5.3.25 and mySQL 5.5.31-cll

The best option right now seems to be to ask my ISP to restore the site to a backup prior to the upgrade. However the updated site is very close to working and hopefully there is an easy solution .

Has anyone else experienced similar site behavior after upgrading to 3.3.6 and does anyone know how to fix the problem?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

P.S. I've attached examples of one of the pages, before and after clicking on the page title link. Also the Joomla update log contents are listed below:

Update Log File contents…

#
#<?php die('Forbidden.'); ?>
#Date: 2013-12-04 03:51:56 UTC
#Software: Joomla Platform 12.2.0 Stable [ Neil Armstrong ] 21-September-2012 00:00 GMT

#Fields: datetime priority category message
2013-12-04T03:51:56+00:00 INFO update COM_JOOMLAUPDATE_UPDATE_LOG_DELETE_FILES
2014-03-08T00:12:21+00:00 INFO update Update started by user Administrator (62). Old version is 3.2.2.
2014-03-08T00:12:22+00:00 INFO update Downloading update file from .
2014-03-08T00:13:03+00:00 INFO update Update started by user Administrator (62). Old version is 3.2.2.
2014-03-08T00:13:03+00:00 INFO update Downloading update file from .
2014-03-08T00:16:45+00:00 INFO update Update started by user Administrator (62). Old version is 3.2.2.
2014-03-08T00:16:45+00:00 INFO update Downloading update file from .
2014-03-08T00:16:57+00:00 INFO update Update started by user Administrator (62). Old version is 3.2.2.
2014-03-08T00:16:57+00:00 INFO update Downloading update file from .
2014-03-08T00:17:36+00:00 INFO update Update started by user Administrator (62). Old version is 3.2.2.
2014-03-08T00:17:36+00:00 INFO update Downloading update file from .
2014-10-12T10:23:30+00:00 INFO 222.152.143.220 update COM_JOOMLAUPDATE_UPDATE_LOG_DELETE_FILES
2014-10-12T10:29:19+00:00 INFO 222.152.143.220 update COM_JOOMLAUPDATE_UPDATE_LOG_DELETE_FILES

[Webdongle]

The best option right now seems to be to ask my ISP to restore the site to a backup prior to the upgrade.

Correct ... or restore with the backup that you made before updating.

Once you have your site restored then make a backup http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions ... ackup/1606

Then go to Components >>> Joomla update ... and Purge cache. The update should show. If it doesn't then install the full package http://www.joomla.org/download.html via the Extension manager.

If the problem persists then either core files were edited in your Joomla or the Template is incompatible.

[bstrummer]

Many thanks for the advice. I have made my own backup prior to upgrading and the option of restoring it.
Thanks for the tip to use Akeeba Backups. It is new to me.
Incidentally none of the core files have been edited and I use a standard template. I've tried to keep things as straightforward as possible.
Will follow the advice see what happens!

[bstrummer]

Hello again, I have made further progress attempting to resolve this issue.

The ISP hosting my site wanted to charge $150 to restore the earliest possible backup dated October 4th. Fortunately I had my own backup from the same date, so did the restore myself. That took my site back to version 3.2.3. What I then discovered, and hadn't realised earlier, is that the problem described in my original post was in evidence with version 3.2.3.

Logged in as admin, this time the Update to 3.3.6 automatically appeared. The cache cleared successfully but when I tried installing the update failed to download. I then installed the full 3.3.6 package via the extension manager. That returned the message "Installing file was successful." However and unfortunately installing the full package has not resolved the problem.

The next option I am considering is to roll back to my only other available backup dated June 8th. Not ideal but it will take me back to the previous version 3.x.x. I cannot remember which version was prior to 3.2.3 - perhaps I should have kept a record of changes. Hind sight is a wonderful thing!

Another possibly better option is to create a backup of the current mySQL database (as things stand with version 3.3.6), then create a fresh install of 3.3.6. and restore the database from the backup.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Am I on the right track?

Thanks again.

[Webdongle]

Looking at the source code of your site /media-list is being prefixed to the paths in your header.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/media-list/templates/protostar/css/template.css" type="text/css" />

Have you made modifications to the Protosar Template ?

[bstrummer]

Thank you for the observation. It is interesting because 'media-list' is the alias of one of my site's menu items. The menu title is 'media'.

I cannot recall ever having to make changes to the Protostar template. When I switched from Mambo to Joomla a year ago I decided to avoid making any code changes.

Another observation is there's never been a 'media-list' folder under httpdocs. Checking the June backup confirms it.

Also interesting is that the stylesheet href="/templates/protostar/css/template.css" appears when you open the DVD/CD link from the home page. When you click on the concert announcement link from the right panel, the stylesheet href is "/performances/templates/protostar/css/template.css". 'performances' is the alias for the 'Concerts' menu item.

[Webdongle]

Something must be causing Joomla to put the menu alias's in the Joomla base path as well as the frontend url path ?

Best guess ... some variable in the code (where the base href is defined) is causing this. Perhaps look at the configuration.php public $live_site = ''; ... if it's defined then edit/remove the definition. If it isn't defined then define it. Also check the .htaccess RewriteBase and for any other Rewrite code ?

[bstrummer]

Fantastic. Your second best guess was bang on.

The $live_site variable in configuration.php was undefined as follows:-
public $live_site = '';

The problem was resolved when $live_site was set to the site's domain, e.g.:-
public $live_site = 'http://www.domainname.com/';

Thank you so much! I hope this helps others who experience the same problem.

[bstrummer]

I thought it also worth mentioning that I manage another Joomla site hosted with a different ISP. That site was successfully upgraded to version 3.3.6 and is behaving normally. The $live_site variable is also undefined. My assumption is that the difference is due to the hosting environment and the variable doesn't always have to be set.