Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

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poundsixzeros
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by poundsixzeros » Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:28 pm

Try checking your php memory limit. Temporarily increase to run the script.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by nlmg2012 » Sun May 06, 2012 11:56 pm

Have run this but all I get is a bunch of stuff I can make no sense of

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Mon May 07, 2012 12:14 am

The FPA is a diagnostic too. It provides details about the hosting environment and if the FPA script is installed in the same place Joomla is installed, will provide information about the Joomla installation. If you are having trouble installing Joomla then go to the http://forum.joomla.org/viewforum.php?f=615 for help.
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by nlmg2012 » Mon May 07, 2012 12:24 am

I have gone to my control where would I go to check my php memory

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by HerryYawp » Tue May 08, 2012 11:42 am

Same problem here too. displaying fpa-en.php leaves me with a nice white screen with nothing on it. Diagnostic mode doesn't change that.

When I redirect the file in a terminal, by doing this
php fpa-en.php > result.php
my terminal shows me a couple of error messages pointing to an undefined index variable, called "act" and later displays some additional errors about missing env vars.

When I display result.php in a screen I get the page I expected from the manual. Then, when I try to create the post output, I also get the "hang on in there" messages, which will never go away, and no information comes up.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Tue May 08, 2012 3:23 pm

there was an undefined variable "act" which I defined. that should take care of that error.

Some environment variables are not available from the command line or available in the same way. FPA makes use of environment variables to gather server information. If for some reason those variables are not available, then php will generate errors about them.

Did you check the checkbox PHP "Out of Memory" or "Execution Time-Outs" errors? checkbox? I have seen this option produce a white page and also a white page with the "hang in there" message that never goes away when checked. I have also seen this checkbox produce an out of memory error. If I remember correct the code for this is rather simple. Request the current memory limit, multiply by 2, set the new limit.
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by HerryYawp » Tue May 08, 2012 8:43 pm

PhilD wrote:there was an undefined variable "act" which I defined. that should take care of that error.

Some environment variables are not available from the command line or available in the same way. FPA makes use of environment variables to gather server information. If for some reason those variables are not available, then php will generate errors about them.

Did you check the checkbox PHP "Out of Memory" or "Execution Time-Outs" errors? checkbox? I have seen this option produce a white page and also a white page with the "hang in there" message that never goes away when checked. I have also seen this checkbox produce an out of memory error. If I remember correct the code for this is rather simple. Request the current memory limit, multiply by 2, set the new limit.
Hi,
Thanks for the response. I tried doubling the memory limit, but to no avail. Not even quadroubling it to 512M.

In FPA there really is nothing to click, as the fpa-en.php is the one producing a white page. The only way to see anything, is by generating the output file on the CL. But that, as you pointed out, doesn't give all the info, cos the env vars are omitted.

Here's a little info about how I run things.
My workstation is Fedora 16
Apache 2.2.22
MySQL 5.5.22
PHP 5.3.11
And I use Eclipse to code
My files are located in /var/www/vhosts/{domain_name}/ which is configured so to locally host whatever domain I make. The domains are stored in /etc/hosts
This is how I set up my development machine.

So far I always coded from scratch (for over 15 years). But as I needed to speed things up, I wanted to give Joomla a try. But I ran into problems instantly, as all dirs were unwritable. They stayed unwritable even if I chmod'd the whole site to 0777. Also when I made Apache (which is the user running httpd) owner of everything.
So someone suggested me to make an FPA post. But that doesn't work either.

It's a weird issue, and I assume it has something to do with the Fedora setup. But when coding barebottom I never ever experienced any quirks.

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Forum Post Assistant

Post by ylavoie » Wed May 09, 2012 3:31 pm

I am getting this from FPA v1.2.1-Beta when using a socket connection.

Code: Select all

Connection Error:
2005:Unknown MySQL server host 'localhost:/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2) ( may not be an error, check with host for remote access requirements. )
IMHO, it should pass, it is working properly with Joomla.

Yves

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by HerryYawp » Wed May 09, 2012 9:09 pm

In the meantime I succeeded running the fpa-en.php script. It seemed that if I fiddled around too much with the permissions and ownerships of the Joomla-files, FPA refused to run.
I completely removed the entire Joomla setup and reinstalled the whole package. After that, FPA ran fine.

So if anybody ever runs into troubles and can't run FPA to start with, make sure all permissions are default.
(Now I hope to find an answer to the orignal problem of unwritable files and dirs)

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by Fintan » Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:09 am

I new to FPA, but running it on a clients site gives a internal Server Error 500.

What can cause this?

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Re: Forum Post Assistant

Post by PhilD » Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:07 pm

ylavoie wrote:I am getting this from FPA v1.2.1-Beta when using a socket connection.

Code: Select all

Connection Error:
2005:Unknown MySQL server host 'localhost:/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2) ( may not be an error, check with host for remote access requirements. )
IMHO, it should pass, it is working properly with Joomla.

Yves

Sounds to me as if the server is not configured properly. Mysql may not be bound to localhost properly or a port such as 3306 has been blocked. Also any changes to mysql setups require a restart of the mysql server.

Is there a line number the error gives for FPA? I can also look at how Russ is getting the database connection and see if testing for some option may work. My guess would be a simple connect statement like this one is used in FPA:
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mydbuser', 'mydbuserpsswrd');

It may need a way to discover options in connections
PhilD

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:13 pm

Fintan wrote:I new to FPA, but running it on a clients site gives a internal Server Error 500.

What can cause this?
Well, you don't provide enough information.
There is nothing within the script that should generate any 500 server errors.

What type of server is it? *nix or other
What versions of mysql and php?
Is php enabled on the domain?
what were the FPA script permission settings?
Where (what directory) was the FPA script uploaded to?
does anything else work on the server (Joomla, html etc?)
PhilD

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by anyilala » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:39 pm

I've just installed the FPA and like some one else in cant seem to get pas this page

Forum Post Assistant
Hang on in there while we run some tests...

v1.2.1-Beta (playGround-en-GB)

** SECURITY NOTICE **

Due to the highly sensitive nature of the information displayed by the FPA script,

it should be removed from the server immediately after use.

If the script is left on the site, it can be used to gather enough information to hack your site.

After use, Click Here to delete this script.

I've changed the following line as advice and nothing changed; still not going beyond above message.

What to do now?

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by ninett » Sun Jul 15, 2012 8:50 am

About the FPA. I have installed joomla 2.5. But have difficulties with getting email send from the server. Want to use the FPA so that you get the right information, but in the "Read me" it is not mentioned that this tool also covers joomla 2.5. Can I still use it?

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by mandville » Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:55 am

It works with all current and legacy versions of joomla.
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by nicyjones » Sat Sep 29, 2012 12:44 am

May be a dumb question, but does Joomla have to be sucessfully installed for this to work? It was suggested that I use the FPA to troubleshoot an installation problem but my install has been hanging on the Database Creation and never generated a config.php file.

FPA is sticking on the "Hang on while we run some tests" screen and won't continue. I am using shared hosting and trying to help out a non profit and have been having no success.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by Per Yngve Berg » Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:17 am

If no Joomla is installed, it will only show the server set-up and no Joomla configuration.
Have you deleted configuration.php before running FPA?

Looks like your database server is hanging.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by nicyjones » Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:19 pm

I downloaded the forum post assistant after having some issues trying to install Joomla 2.5 on a shared host. I am trying to help a non-profit and they have been using Network Solutions.

I tried installing 2.5 on their server with a fresh install as I have done in the past and it hangs on install. I was able to install Joomla 1.7.3 using their installer on the back-end administration. But I have not been able to upgrade it to 2.5. Yet I digress.

I was able to install the FPA on my personal machine running WAMP, but on their remote server it comes up with the screen "Hang on while we run some tests" and it has no other options but to delete the FPA script. And it never proceeds to the next item.

I think if I could figure out why the FPA won't run on their servers, it might also solve my issue with the 2.5 installation.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Mon Oct 01, 2012 12:04 am

A few comments here.

Any host that is offering a Joomla version of 1.7.3 does not know what they are doing and their servers are probably insecure. The 1.7 series is dead, was an interim version, and is also insecure security wise. You won't find 1.7 available for download on the official Joomla download site so this should be a clue to look for a new host.

There should be no issue to install Joomla 2.5 on a host provided the host software is new enough to support the requirements of 2.5. The tech requirements do say they are the same so you should not have an issue. http://www.joomla.org/technical-requirements.html

I would suggest that you find another host.

Now FPA
What version of FPA is being used? Current version displayed is 1.2.3.
Last edits were made made 9-23-12 and this info can be found withing the script.

Generally when the FPA does not complete, and shows only the top display box (by design) then there has been a fatal (usually php) error produced. This can be caused by server misconfiguration or by a configuration that blocks scripts that request certain server information from running.

You can turn on FPA logging of errors by removing the // from line 27 to see if FPA is able to get far enough to log the error. The error log will be created within the same directory as the FPA script.
Line 27:
// define ( '_FPA_DIAG', TRUE );
change so it looks like this:
define ( '_FPA_DIAG', TRUE );
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:14 am

Wrong Post
PhilD

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by nicyjones » Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:14 pm

Modified the script as you described and had the same results. There was no log file created but it did say that diagnostic mode was on and there were no errors.

See the screenshot below.

Image

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by nicyjones » Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:47 pm

Update:

I have fixed the problem by modifying my PHP.ini file.

The host: Network Solutions on a Shared Unix server had the setting:

allow_url_fopen = 0 and this was causing my problems in Joomla 2.5 as well.

I have modified the file to allow_url_fopen = 1 and increased the memory as well.

http://www.networksolutions.com/support ... sting-faq/

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:20 am

Well thats good news.

Did you try the FPA after you made the adjustments and did it work?

If you don't mind what were the original settings for memory? You can Pm it to me if your more comfortable with that.
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by nicyjones » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:38 am

Yes, I ran the forum post assistant after updating the memory but it didn't work until I changed the allow_url_fopen setting.


The memory was set at around 8 Meg and I updated it to 32 Meg.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by symmetric » Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:37 pm

I was having the same problem with FPA hanging (I'm using version 1.2.3). I turned on _FPA_DIAG and got this error repeatedly on line 1475:

Code: Select all

PHP Warning: readdir() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given
That was meaningless to me, so I added a log statement and figured out I had a phpMyAdmin folder with permissions turned all the way down. Changing that allowed the script to complete.
Last edited by symmetric on Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:56 pm

Your using a very old version of the FPA. The current version of FPA is 1.2.3. Please download the current version and try again.
https://github.com/ForumPostAssistant/FPA/zipball/en-GB
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by symmetric » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:29 pm

PhilD wrote:Your using a very old version of the FPA. The current version of FPA is 1.2.3. Please download the current version and try again.
https://github.com/ForumPostAssistant/FPA/zipball/en-GB
Sorry, I probably shouldn't have quoted that post (I changed my post). I'm am using version 1.2.3.

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by PhilD » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:58 pm

The error is a bug in php not handling directories it can't parse.

For best results the FPA script is designed to be placed in the same directory as the Joomla installation. This is usually the public_html directory (www, htdocs are other names), though if Joomla is installed in a sub-directory then you would place the script there.

If Joomla is in a sub-directory and the script is placed in the public_html directory (www, htdocs are other names) and run from there, then a limited report of Joomla will be given as the script will not find the Joomla configuration.php file which is needed for more extensive testing of Joomla. The script will report on php version and whatever else it can find about the server environment.
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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by shiyde2 » Sat Mar 16, 2013 2:30 pm

hello

i'm having same problem as revjeno.

so i applied the code :

Code:
//define ( '_FPA_DIAG', TRUE ); // diagnostic-mode, turns on PHP logging errors, display errors and logs error to a file.

change the line to:
Code:
define ( '_FPA_DIAG', TRUE ); // diagnostic-mode, turns on PHP logging errors, display errors and logs error to a file.


but it showed thousand of error code lines, weight more the 3go for the file, nothing else inside !


on the db, all users havent been changed to same pasword with an Super user status.
and i cannot access the back end of the website.

on frontend, it is signed :

by [kudos]

could you please help me to fix all this

thank you
Last edited by mandville on Sat Mar 16, 2013 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: removed hacker kudos,

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Re: Forum Post Assistant / FPA Discussion

Post by mandville » Sat Mar 16, 2013 11:19 pm

shiyde2 wrote: could you please help me to fix all this
try http://docs.joomla.org/Security_Checklist_7 and post in your own topic.
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