The table prefix must start with a letter

[tmad40blue]

I can't believe nobody else has had this issue...

I am attempting to install Joomla! 2.5.1. I cannot get past the Database Configuration phase because of the following error:

The table prefix must start with a letter, be followed by optional alphanumeric characters and by an underscore

This is unfortunate. My hosting provider does not allow me to change the table prefixes for my database, so it is stuck as 2222_. Is there a fix being worked on for this, or do I need to dive into some files and edit some code?

Thanks!

[tuum]

I tried this out on my computer, and yes it does seem that there has been a validation rule added to force the prefix to start with a letter.

This is caused by the regex rule in
/installation/models/rules/prefix/prefix.php

//line 24

Code: Select all

protected $regex = '^[a-z][a-z0-9]*_$';

Which is due to /installation/models/forms/database.xml

Code: Select all

			<field name="db_prefix" type="text" id="db_prefix" class="inputbox"
				label="INSTL_DATABASE_PREFIX_LABEL"
				default="jos_"
				required="true"
			/>

Which was changed to

Code: Select all

			<field name="db_prefix" type="prefix" id="db_prefix" class="inputbox"
				label="INSTL_DATABASE_PREFIX_LABEL"
				required="true"
				validate="prefix"
				message="INSTL_DATABASE_PREFIX_MSG"
			/>

Essentially by changing the field type to "prefix", it causes the prefix rule to validate the field. So you can either adjust the regex string in prefix.php, or change the field type in database.xml to get round this issue.

Sounds like this should be reported as a bug on the Joomla CMS tracker
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla ... er_id=8103

[tmad40blue]

Thanks so much for the time, tuum. I'll try our your suggestion this evening and report back my results.

[Lawrence1502]

The table prefix must start with a letter, be followed by optional alphanumeric characters and by an underscore

please explain

Lawrence

[itoctopus]

Just go with the table prefix that is generated by Joomla and you should be OK - don't change it to start with a number or something other than a letter.