FAQ: Admin Menus Not Working or Missing

yosamaster · Post by **yosamaster** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 10:07 am

Joey2804 wrote: 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?

I have also this problem and I have checked everything mentioned in this topic.

First everything was 100% and after some modifications to /includes/version.php this came up. I have re-installed version.php (ascii) and still not working.

Any ideas?

howareya · Post by **howareya** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:20 pm

Ok..i'm having problems witht the missing admin menu but i'm a newbie and have no clue how to change or fix tables in a database.
any help?

itsallvoodoo · Post by **itsallvoodoo** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:17 pm

I'm having a problem with the admin main menu page.
My admin seems to be working ok except when i try to access 'menu' 'main menu'
all i get then is a blank page. all other pages seem to be ok.

Originally i was running mambo 4.5.2 and then upgraded to joomla 1.0.7
I did this by removing mambo (after backing up)
I ftp the file to my server then unzipped via shell command,
I removed the installation folder (after saving the update mysql file to a location i could then access with php myadmin)
I then updated the mysql
I followed the rest of the migration instructions.
The only files i transfered from mambo were, configuration.php, components, modules and related admin components
(i checked the migration list first)

I have trawled the forum and i am still non the wiser
any help would be appreciated

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:39 pm

Hey - I'm getting a similar but slightly unnerving version of this problem. When I hit save ANYWHERE in the administration area, I get taken to mysite/administrator/index2.php, but it is really the frontpage with this url! And nothing is saved! This is the same if I hit reply.

This happens when I save anything - except for 1 line articles in add content. Anything more than 1 line takes me to this peculiar redirect.

I installed the joomla/smf bridge last night (saturday, 11, 2006).

This problem occurs using IE and Firefox. Cleared cache, Norton settings fine. No server updates since yesterday. But anywhere I hit save or apply (global config, add content ((more than one line)). I get taken to the frontpage appearance, with the administrator/index2.php url.

I used to hand-code my zine, but moved to Joomla, because it was killing me editing and coding--boy, now I can;t even save anything.

Pls help!

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:51 pm

P.S. the only place where this doesn't occur - is in adding a new user! I hit save, and it works perfectly. I guess this problem is due to a redirect somewhere in those admin componets, but I'm stumped. Essentially it should keep you in the content area, or the global admin area, so I'm guessing that there is some wonky code.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 8:08 pm

Does installing the bridge software involve any changes to the .htaccess file for your main Joomla site?
That is the only thing I can think of.
If you had a slightly out of date copy of firefox with the liveheaders extension you could follow what happens once you click save.
Unfortunately the LiveHeaders extension does not work with up-to-date installations of Firefox so I can't help.

Standard debugging is to look to the last thing you changed before the problem became apparent.
Sorry I don't have anything more to add at this stage.
Is there a support site for the component you added - perhaps there is a recognised issue, or perhaps you missed a vital step during installation.

Dean.

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 8:27 pm

Hey,

I uninstalled the component, and have reinstalled all files from the upgrade to 1.0.7, so it's clean.

However, I still get this issue:

/administrator/index2.php?option=com_config&hidemainmenu=1

goes to /administrator/index2.php

Uninstalling and doing a full reinstall would be really tricky at the moment.

I've checked out the smf forum - nothing that matches this issue throughout the site.

Thanks!

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:18 pm

Hi,

So I backed up my content and uninstalled Joomla with cpanel. I then reinstalled it. Same problem. This is obviously an issue I'll have to take up with my host. I seem to be the only person with this issue, so I wonder whether there aren't new measures implemented. It really does look like a redirect issue, however, since taking the user to the frontpage without error message is strange.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:37 pm

Sorry I can't offer any solid suggestions.
Just check that you haven't left any .htaccess files laying around that could be interfering with things.

Many ftp programs hide dot files - those with a leading dot, period, full stop - such as .htaccess, this has been known to cause issues.
If someone out there has the Live HTTP Headers extension in Firefox they could assist in tracking down what is happening.
Alternatively you may be able to find HTTP sniffer programs to run from your PC that will monitor the HTTP conversation between your server and browser.

Another idea might be to try the Joomla Demo site - just to make sure the problem isn't evident there. It is always possible a bug slipped through the net - unlikely, but possible.

Dean.

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:47 pm

Thanks a lot Dean,

I'll keep plugging at it - I'm reinstalling now. I didn't see any issues with the test site, I'll report back if I find the problem/fix it. (doubtful

)

leolam · Post by **leolam** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:57 am

my 2 ct's from our related tutorial ::

Most encountered cause: FTP-uploads

No matter how many different FTP clients we have tried, none of them work perfectly. Loads of people encounter regularly FTP-upload problems. Either the uploads are corrupt or they are incomplete causing the problems to occur. FTP is a single command line protocol and will often create problems when uploading multiple nested folders to a server...Regretfully that is fact of life and cannot be changed using FTP. Users and especially inexperienced users upload text files such as php- and js- files in BINARY mode rather than the required ASCII mode. This of course creates havoc with the files. Another option with FTP is that it is allowed to change file-names during transfer. Changing Caps to Lowercase during upload is one of the culprits and is error-prone. Try to minimize those settings is one way of doing it.

Repairing General:
Re-uploading the files in ASCII format (with filename case changing disabled) should clear the error. Overwrite!

Another option which we clearly prefer for users who have access to cPanel is:
Upload the entire .zip to cPanel’s backend and them extract them from here. This is almost without errors because you only upload a single file and not multiple nested folders. We advise to upload zip files then uncompress remotely via the cPanel backend. You can upload the file using CuteFTP / WS FTP or whatever “good” client; then go into your website’s cPanel and browse to the file manager. From there you can unzip the file you uploaded. This is almost monkey-proof.

The most errors we have found are corrupt administrator/incude/js – folder and the files within the folder. Before uploading the entire admin folder try to solve the issue by uploading only the mentioned folder.. Most often that already solves any issues related in 80% of the cases…If the upload as mentioned above does not do the trick for you try uploading two major folders: /includes with all files and /administrator with all files

Why these specific files and folders? The contain all the javascript files needed (amongst others) to drive the admin-menu.

Leo

itsallvoodoo · Post by **itsallvoodoo** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:30 pm

My problem has been solved with this thread
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,34648.0.html

check it out there may be some solutions for you

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:31 am

Hey again,

I have done two things:

1. reupload administrator and includes in ASCII mode.

2. install a version with cpanel's Fantastico installer.

Both have the same result. In global configuration and saving any more content than a few lines i get this:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /administrator/index2.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.34 Server at http://www.mysite.com Port 80

All permissions 777, everything installed as it should be.

If this is happening both on Fantastico's installation and mine, it suggests a global problem.

I am more than willing to give someone admin access to poke around Joomla and have a look see. LMK.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:13 am

Just type /administrator/index2.php
into your browser and see what happens?

What do you get in your browser - a forbidden error message or do you get redirected to Joomla's login page at /administrator/index.php

Dean.

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:31 am

Forbidden now - I did get redirected before. All permissions are definitely sorted.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:42 am

777 is sometimes considered 'evil' and some hosts will throw a spanner in the works when that is encountered.
You may have a .htaccess file laying around that is causing problems.
Are you sure the file and ALL of it's parent folders are accessible?

That is about all I can think of really.
One possibility is some sort of 'ownership' issue if the script was installed by another script - such as a hosting control panel installation.

Dean.

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:50 am

That's the funny thing - no extra .htaccess files, and index2.php works with every other component except for global config and add content.

Also - this error is occuring on a sub-domain installation and a main-domain installation.

I didn't have any troubles when I tested this beast for 2 months in a folder.

The thing is - everyone's advice is really sensible, and if this was a total problem in admin I'd be ok (ish) - it's the global and content on both cpanel AND ftp installations.

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:11 am

I don't want to start hogging this forum, but when I deleted and reuploaded .htaccess, just on a whim, the 404 error disappeared, and I was again redirected to the frontpage with the /administrator/index2.php url. This was from THE SAME installation package--so no changes had been made.

pl1000 · Post by **pl1000** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:00 pm

An update on this issue. My host had indeed introduced a security feature that disabled the correct operation of Joomla. They have since turned this off, and the site is working correctly (after 2 weeks!). I would like to thank the Joomla team and Dean in particular who was incredibly helpful, and proved to me that the open source community offers the products and support commercial ventures aspire to. Thanks again!

wodfer · Post by **wodfer** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:30 pm

Had a problem with missing admin menu after migrating from Mambo 4.53 to Joomla 1.07. Here's my thread and how it got solved:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg175695

Hint: Incorrect linebreaks!

Andreas

ugsmi0 · Post by **ugsmi0** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:46 pm

BINARY vs ASCII

i use transmit and its set to auto, if you try setting it to ASCII only it will say some files that are in the dir are not made for ASCII format

what is the difference between binary and ascii ?

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:29 pm

ugsmi0 wrote: BINARY vs ASCII

i use transmit and its set to auto, if you try setting it to ASCII only it will say some files that are in the dir are not made for ASCII format

what is the difference between binary and ascii ?

Text files ( .php .html .js .css .txt .ini ) should be transmitted in ASCII
Images ( .gif, .png, .jpg ) word documents, fonts, .zip, .gz should be transfered in ASCII

It is all to do with how different systems indicate end of line characters and other 'special' characters.
ASCII format makes an attempt to correct text files for the destination server.

You do NOT want to transfer all files in ASCII - just the ones that are PLAIN text.

Dean.

ugsmi0 · Post by **ugsmi0** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:41 am

The first post in this thread covering the possible causes for issues, some might consider a waste of time or an insult, perhaps even a smokescreen as well. Lets have people run around in loops to try and figure out the possible causes.

In realness, there shouldn't be any upgrade problems, apparently its not just the user end but joomla that may be creating the issues. Hence, no need to look for possible causes instead maybe joomla needs to rethink its upgrade process.

Checking for possible causes could take hours, days, weeks, months. All this tread does is take the heat off joomla and make the user to check on their end, no disrespect of course but sometimes you gota say maybe its joomla and not the user.

Many of the issues that are appearing during upgrade simply should not be happening. I'd rather stay at a older version for years until joomla can set up an upgrade method that works.

Its kind of scary when people are afraid to upgrade

it's really an insult to all to keep saying well there can be many causes for issues so check these 1000 items and when you are done with that we'll give you 100 more you can check.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:17 am

I know I shouldn't rise to the bait - but I am big enough and ugly enough to take care of myself - but I have to say I resent the tone and hate the 'he who shouts loudest gets attention' thing that you have going on there:

Go on then give us the url and when I find the problem is already covered in the thread I will invite you to delete the post - how's that. I don't know what convinced you that this thread had much to do with the specific problems of upgrading, but I can assure you that following the steps listed above will identify the issue in the vast majority (99%) of cases of admin menu's not working.

When I started the thread I was referring to menus that were present in the page but that did not appear to do anything.
Menus that don't appear on the page are a less frequent problem - usually still a javascript error - visible in the status bar of internet explorer as a yellow warning triangle or in Firefox in the Error Console (Tools -> Error Console). Missing menus of this type are usually caused by 'control characters' making their way into the database. Database entries are used to make the menu javascript, so the control characters break lines in the wrong place. This is, in my experience, usually caused by the user transfering text files - (.php, .sql, .css, .html, .txt, .js) in BINARY mode.

This specific message from this thread may also be relevant:
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg130555

I notice in another thread today you mentioned having permissions problems - this is another likely candidate.
If a .js file cannot be accessed then the menus may disappear.

PM me the url, and an admin username / password and I will look into the matter for you.

Dean.

ugsmi0 · Post by **ugsmi0** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:01 am

I'll may just hold out with the previous version until joomla comes out with an upgrade that works 100% of the time for everybody

I know my tone sounds harsh but sometimes its necessary, the point is there's way too many people having issues which IMHO should not be having. Perhaps the complexity of joomla prevents it from being a smoother upgrade who knows. I know for myself every upgrade has been a nightmare and had to do new install even after having read every post on the subject of upgrading and of course i'm not the only one who's experienced this. What I may end up doing is try to upload each file individally one at a time and see how that goes, i usually just drag and drop folders from the upgrade patch but since some of these folders within folders are missing certain files they may end up erasing necesary files that were there from the old version. Everything else is peachy fine. A possible solution may be to keep the upgrade files small and not too many folders within folders.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:43 am

I think that the recent 1.0.8 release was very ambitious - there were a *lot* of tweaks in there - security and performance related, and there do appear to be some issues - from what I have read they seem to centre on SEF Url functionality and javascript links.

As a general rule I don't recommend anyone update a 'production' site (a live site) with software within the first week of release.
By all means download and test a new versions, but the safest course of action - with any software - is to let others be the guinea pigs.

You make reference to nested folders being deleted on the destination server - this is NOT normal.
I upload whole directory structures at a time daily and can choose to be prompted on a file by file basis or 'say yes to all/say no to all' when overwriting. Are you by any chance using a Mac - I have heard this comment before in relation to Macintosh FTP transfer deleting existing folders. This may be an issue with your FTP software - look through the options / preferences - but there are probably other ways around it. Perhaps upload the new file structure to a new folder and then use a hosting control panel to 'move' the files.

Personally I use a 'stand-alone server' to work on day in day out - it is MSAS and it is currently running about 20 installed 'sites' - some real sites some just test beds. Working locally and uploading the files ONCE EVERYTHING WORKS is the only way to upgrade efficiently and effectively.

Dean

potsandpeaks · Post by **potsandpeaks** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:16 pm

I have been keeping track of recent activities in this forum. I have this same problem, however I only have it on one of my computers...even had my hosting tech support verify they were able to create new content....alas, have not been able to track down the culprit on my workstation.

I run OSX at work, behind some kind of firewall. Works perfect in firefox.

At home, I am currently running OSX with firefox, but get no save, edit, or new function in menus. Had intego net barrier...hated it....removed it....maybe didn't "get it all"?

Kind of a newbie....what do I need to do to verify/check permissions?

Oh last thing...in JavaScript Console for FireFox I get errors referring to MM_preloadImage

thanks for any help anyone can offer. I have tried several of the things listed, but as of yet cannot trace it to this one computer at home.

DeanMarshall · Post by **DeanMarshall** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:28 pm

I suspect either a text encoding issue or a 'mime type' issue from the server.

Load up a page with non-functioning menus.
Click to 'view -> page source' in Firefox.
Look at the .js files referenced in the html.
Copy and paste each .js file's address into a new browser window's address bar.
The text contents of each file should appear in the browser's window
I suspect that one or more of the .js files triggers a download dialog rather than appearing in the browser window.
Failing that you are looking at a probably anti-virus, firewall or privacy software interfering.
Temporarily turn off as much security as you dare. Suspend active scans (memory resident antivirus software)
Close as many apps or processes that might be security related - until you get a working website.
Does your Operating System have a 'safe mode' or equivalent, or perhaps a 'diagnostic startup'?

Hope you find a clue in there somewhere.

Dean

potsandpeaks · Post by **potsandpeaks** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:59 pm

thanks for the reply.....still no luck on the home computer.....again, working fine on same OS X system at work this is the errors I am getting in JavaScript console

Error: hideMainMenu is not defined
Source File: javascript:hideMainMenu();submitbutton('new');
Line: 1

Error: MM_preloadImages is not defined

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80070057 (NS_ERROR_ILLEGAL_VALUE) [nsIWebNavigation.loadURI]" nsresult: "0x80070057 (NS_ERROR_ILLEGAL_VALUE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://global/content/viewSource.js :: viewSource :: line 140" data: no]

This last error is the one that shows specifically when I am trying to Save, Close, or Apply in a content editor

still trying to locate the rest of th js files in source and load to browser....

Thanks for the help

Tim

Necromagvs · Post by **Necromagvs** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 1:40 am

I´d been having the same issue mentioned here but only with the SAVE BUTTON when trying to update content, sections or categories.
It is a fresh new installation, and everything else is working fine. All other buttons are working ok, even the save buttons on another admin menues.

This is the IE error that I am getting when I hit the save button:
Line: 217
Char: 3
Error: ´tinyMCE´ is undefined
Code: 0
URL: http://silluminati.byethost7.com/admini ... enu=1&id=1

I get the source code for the page and found this on line 217:

function submitbutton(pressbutton) {
var form = document.adminForm;
if (pressbutton == 'cancel') {
submitform( pressbutton );
return;
}

if ( pressbutton == 'menulink' ) {
if ( form.menuselect.value == "" ) {
alert( "Please select a Menu" );
return;
} else if ( form.link_type.value == "" ) {
alert( "Please select a menu type" );
return;
} else if ( form.link_name.value == "" ) {
alert( "Please enter a Name for this menu item" );
return;
}
}

if (form.name.value == ""){
alert("Section must have a name");
} else if (form.title.value ==""){
alert("Section must have a title");
} else {

this is line 217: tinyMCE.triggerSave(); submitform(pressbutton);
}
}

The rest of the script is working fine, i get and error if the the section has no name or title. but the mentioned line is making all the mess.
I tried to change the Editor to JCE, but strange thing I kept having this same error.

What you think guys?

The Joomla! Forum™