FAQ: Admin Menus Not Working or Missing

d3vlabs · Post by **d3vlabs** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:13 am

thanks, now I have something to link when users in #mambo ask this :x

discussion thread for the FAQ item located here:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,474.0.html

[ mod edit: added reference of the main FAQ article ]

guilliam · Post by **guilliam** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:03 am

"being uploaded in BINARY mode rather than ASCII is another possibility."

^^it didnt only happen to me once.. it actually happen twice. i'm guessing but this is the more logical guess i came about(the qouted statement above"..

what happen before the error:

in using the defualt menu(mainmenu) and adding a charavter like ampersand "&" and single qoute..

SINGLE QOUTES are a known issue in php(for obvious reasons) in which i didnt know that it was an issue with *ambo too.

SOLUTION: edit the the mysql file and take off that undesired character. though searching for that "single qoute" is like searching a pin in a haystack(mysql will surely return tons of results is you'll search for a single qoute, ahihihihi!),.. this could have been easier compared to searching "&" or an ampersand character. the search in mysql db is the best option/solution you have NOT unless you have a back up of the mysql db before this happen.

guilliam

obiONE · Post by **obiONE** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:37 pm

I remember having this same problem, and it seemed to be intermittent, which totally baffled me!

Well, in my case, the culprit turned out to be my ZoneAlarm firewall.

I disabled the Ad Blocking feature and my Admin menus are now working reliably.

tesla · Post by **tesla** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 7:05 pm

ObiONE, I also have Zonealarm, i'm looking for the "Ad Blocking Feature", i'm not finding it as stated, If you can please let me know specifically what did you chage ?

obiONE · Post by **obiONE** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 9:20 pm

You can find the Ad Blocking feature by clicking on the Privacy section, and you'll see it under the "Main" tab. (By the way, I'm running ZoneAlarm Security Suite 5.5) It can be set to High, Med. or Off. I had it on Med., but set it to Off so that my Admin menus would work.

mlsred · Post by **mlsred** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 6:12 pm

I had this problem, it turned out to be Norton Internet Security 2005..

Once I turned off pop-up blocking everything worked as normal..

hope this helps someone..

t3.6k · Post by **t3.6k** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 12:27 am

mlsred - it helped me - so thank you - turned off the Norton Popup blocker and it now seems to work fine.

It was intermittently failing and working before in IE - but work solidly in Firefox with the pop-up blocker enabled.

emeyer · Post by **emeyer** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:53 pm

As a side note: as of 1.0.2, the administration menu doesn't work if you have Norton installed with popup blocking enabled. If you turn off popup blocking, the menus work again.

This was not a problem in previous releases, so it may catch some folks unawares.

- Ernest

matt02 · Post by **matt02** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:16 am

I had the same problem, ( Admin Menus not Responding)
After an hour of trying to figure out what was wrong I went into Tools, Internet options,Advanced, under Browsing and unchecked (always send URLS as UTF-8)

and never had the problem again.

Uncle_Buck · Post by **Uncle_Buck** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 11:43 am

Yep.... N.I.S. 2005 did it to me too.

Once I disabled the pop-up blocker the admin menu worked like a charm.

crazydame · Post by **crazydame** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:50 am

i have Norton and disabled. will try again. TX

Bandit · Post by **Bandit** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 5:12 am

Yep, NIS 2006 got me. However, you don't have to totally disable the popup blocking features. You can set customized settings on a per site basis. Open NIS, click on the popup blocking, click configure then click the advanced button. On the left, you'll see a list of sites, click on the add button at the bottom and add your site to the list.

Now, your admin menus will work, and you won't have to put up with annoying popup windows from other sites.

Deb

dustybin · Post by **dustybin** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 2:34 pm

I was having the same problem and because I knew no better, I ended up upgrading from Mambo to Joomla to solve the problem! Sledgehammer to crack a nut, but it worked... For a few days.

Today, same issue, different sites, different PCs, different browsers, but not all the sites, but all the sites were on the same host, using Fantastico installer so no problems... Right?

Anyway, I did the stuff up-thread, as far as I could understand what to do

No success and having u[graded to Joomla, what was left to try?

I just did one thing more. The URL that I was working from had 'WWW' in front of it. I know that when I started out I did not have it, probably picked up by IE, from typing in the domain name. I removed it.

EUREKA!

So, just a little thing, it would not have happened if I was using anything but a .com domain.

Try removing 'WWW' from the domain name and see what happens. But why did it make a difference? Any ideas? This has taken hours of time to sort out.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 2:46 pm

DeanMarshall wrote:A final outside chance
Have you checked that when you access your site the URL you use matches the 'live site' setting in configuration.php - there have been issues caused by a mismatch between the two - mainly the javascript behind WYSIWYG editors, but who knows. Essentially check that if the live site variable contains www. then so should the URL you access your site. If the livesite variable doesn't contain www. then neither should the URL you use to access your administrative section.

I don't like to say it - but ITYS.

Dean Marshall

Forward · Post by **Forward** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:48 pm

Yesterday I read this thread with great interest. Reason? I could no longer login to my backend.

I tried every suggestion above, but nothing seemed to work.

Finally, I went trough all the changes I've made the last 24 hours before I was locked out from the admin-panel.

One of the things I did prior to the lockout, was to change the language. I had uploaded the official danish language pack and made it the default language. The change appeared successful.

To solve the admin-login problem, I manually changed the language back to English. I did that simply by uploading a new danish.php - which was in fact just a renamed copy of english.php.

Now I was able to login.

Afterwards I tried to change the language back and forward a few times. Everytime with the same results. Now I'm pretty sure, that the official danish language pack was causing the trouble for me.

christom · Post by **christom** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 10:46 am

Had the problem which I thought was due to a bad upload, but repeated uploads did not fix it, until I set the behaviour of Filezilla to "overwrite all files" instead of only "overwrite if newer"
C

alexwalker · Post by **alexwalker** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:47 pm

I have tried all of the above but to no avail. I am still without an admin toolbar. I have reinstalled all the Joomla 1.0.4 files by ftp'ing them, but still no good. Without the admin toolbar I am limited in what I can do. Any more suggestions, please?

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:26 am

Alex: Can you start a new thread in the General forum and PM me a link.

It would help if, in that new thread you could provide answers to the following questions:

Does the Joomla Demo site work for you?
http://demo.joomla.org/  user: admin - password: admin
http://demo.joomla.org/administrator/

If not then the problem is probably security / privacy software on your PC.
If it does work then we can eliminate this possibility.

Can you be more specific about what you have tried.
Can you go through the faq above and check them off one by one - just in case? I know it is a hassle - but you can't expect other people to go to any trouble if you can't show that you have checked them.
In particular I would draw your attention to the $mosConfig_livesite variable.

Is it just the backend menus - or the front end editing buttons too?
A link to your site might also help - as would a temporary user account with access to front AND maybe backend access.

Cheers
Dean Marshall.

alexwalker · Post by **alexwalker** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:53 am

Dean
1. I would be grateful if you could register at this site where I am without the admin toolbar and take a look at what is happening. The site is at http://www.lrcd.org.uk
2. The site url in 1. is a mask for the actual url of http://www.lancaster.streamlinetrial.co.uk
3. The mos_config_livesite url is set at http://www.lancaster.streamlinetrial.co.uk . I didn't want to change this to http://www.lrcd.org.uk in case it caused a problem. Will it?
4. The loss of my admin toolbar occurred after I uninstalled the Joomlaforum component and then the associated database files from MySql. Not sure if there is a connection there ?
5. I then reinstalled the 1.0.4. patch files and when that didn't work...
6. I then reinstalled the complete 1.0.4 files via ftp
7. If I push any item link in the Latest Item tab in admin, then I can see the admin toolbar greyed out. (see attachment)
If you can solve this for me, I will send you a Christmas card !
Regards

TarantinoArchives · Post by **TarantinoArchives** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:13 pm

what helped for me was re-uploading all .js files from the includes/js folder

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:36 am

Alex: Your problem is now solved - ( although you don't know it yet

)

For anyone else here is what happened.
The mos_components table contains an entry for each installed component - this contains the link for that component in the admin menu and the menu text. This gets written into javascript in the /administrator/ pages. In this instance, somehow a line break somehow found its way into the database entry for the component's link text - breaking the javascript.

Solution -
View the source of your /administrator/ pages and pay attention to the JavaScript for the menu. Most of it is indented with tabs. If you see a word at the start of a line - identify which menu entry it refers to.
browse the mos_component or jos_component table in your database checking the entry for that component. Click to edit. Delete and rewrite the affected text.

Clear your browser's cache - or reload the index2.php page with the the shift key pressed to bypass the cache.

It should then work.

Dean.

alexwalker · Post by **alexwalker** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:55 pm

Dean
Many thanks. Admin toolbar restored. Christmas card on its way to you !
Regards

marenbas · Post by **marenbas** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:16 pm

I had the same problem as Alex. No menubar on the Admin page. It happened only in IE, Firefox was perfect, and it drove me crazy for more than a day. I tried all possibilities on this page with no luck.
Then I saw the solution that Dean offered to Alex and found the solution of my problem.
It was in the Docman component. There is a menu item called Categories in English but Categorieën in Dutch. The letter ë was translated as "chinese letter,backslash, capital A" in the source of the admin page, breaking the javascript. I changed it back to the English Categories in the jos_component table of the database and, bingo, there was my menubar.

Thanks Dean!

Bas

johanhorak · Post by **johanhorak** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:46 pm

Hi Dean

Your advice is great. Txs.

I will try and explain my problem.

My domain name is not live yet. And I am using http://66.6.209.99/administrator/index2.php
to access my admin.

This could be one of the problems because the install was done with my actual domain name and not 66.6.209.99.

I have checked the live demo and admin works fine there.

I am not sure what to do other than to wait for my domain to be available -

I suppose I can change the configuration.php and change it again later.

For more info I have included the attached screenshots of the Java script errors.

What these errors mean is meaningless to me :-)

But they may help you - so you can help me.

Thanks for helping

Regards

Johan

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:14 pm

@Johan

It looks like one of two possible issues.
1. One of the Javascript files loaded with that page is not loading (or downloading) correctly.
How to tell. Open your index2.php file in your browser (log in in other words) and hit view source in your browser.
Look for each referenced .js file. Copy the address of each in turn into your browser's address bar.
If each file is visible in your browser all is well.
If you get an error message or a download dialog then you have found your problem.

2. You may be using an out of date admin template - especially if this is an upgrade of a previous install, Mambo especially.
Does this ring any bells. You should know instantly if you are using an upgrade.
If this is the case then you need to switch to a backend template that shipped with the updated Joomla.

Other possibles include antivirus software, rogue firewalls and ad blocking or privacy software blocking the .js file from loading or running.

Dean.

johanhorak · Post by **johanhorak** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:04 am

Hi Dean

I am a little

Sorry.

As I mentioned my domain breakingthebahits.com is not live yet.

But when I installed Joomla the configuration.php was created for breakingthebahits.com

I edited the configuration.php with my ftp program and changed breakingthebahits.com to 66.6.209.99
and every thing is working fine.

Again thanks for helping me :-*

Regards

Johan

thpublic · Post by **thpublic** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:42 am

I'm new to Joomla and don't know much about PHP or Apache, but I have programmed in the past. I couldn't login to http://demo.joomla.org/administrator/index.php with admin/admin, so I thought it was something with the site and installed Joomla locally onto XP using wamp 5.160 and joomla 1.05 but got the same results. Apparently it is something on my end.

I'm using Firefox 1.07 and no firewall/security software or hardware. Firefox > Tools > Options > Privacy shows java and javascript enabled. Not sure what to check - please advise.

-Terry

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 4:15 am

thpublic wrote: I'm new to Joomla and don't know much about PHP or Apache, but I have programmed in the past. I couldn't login to http://demo.joomla.org/administrator/index.php with admin/admin, so I thought it was something with the site and installed Joomla locally onto XP using wamp 5.160 and joomla 1.05 but got the same results. Apparently it is something on my end.

I'm using Firefox 1.07 and no firewall/security software or hardware. Firefox > Tools > Options > Privacy shows java and javascript enabled. Not sure what to check - please advise.

-Terry

Hi Terry,

You are a little off topic - but I will try to help. If none of these provides a clue you might want to start a new thread elsewhere and send me a PM (personal message) with a link to the new thread.

Have you tried with Internet Explorer?
Are cookies enabled?
Do you see any errors in Firefox's Javascript console on the tools menu?
Do you have any browser toolbars that might add script blocking or cookie blocking technologies.
Have you disabled javascript on your PC?
I think time settings might also interfere with logging in - is your date / time correct.
If you click the 'remember me' box when you login in the front end does the login succeed?

Dean.

Joey2804 · Post by **Joey2804** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:23 am

Dean I'm having an issue similar to what you described, but I can't find a solution for it.

Here is the error that I got on my admin cp

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in
/home/xxxxxxx/public_html/administrator/includes/menubar.html.php on line 473

I have no menus or no nothing, it load the top top menu bar (components, modules, etc), then nothing else.

Line 473 of that file is: $ref .= $GLOBALS['_VERSION']->getHelpVersion();

What is wrong?

Homy · Post by **Homy** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:02 am

Just wanted to add another case of ZoneAlarm blocking. :P

I added my site to "trusted" in the "Firewall Settings", and then it worked perfectly in Firefox.