PHP 8.0 breaks tag urls in Joomla 3.10.11 Topic is solved

[bomblord]

After updating to PHP 8.0 today in order to stay at the minimum PHP version for security updates all of my pages that populate tags are broken with a 404 error. I've spent about 4 hours attempting to fix it and at this point I've come up with absolutely no solutions other than downgrading to PHP 7.X (which does work but is not a real solution due to security risks). With no other avenues to explore I am hoping the forum can steer me in the right direction.

The only non-standard component I have installed is my template (but I tried using protostar as at troubleshooting step but that did not fix it), Akeeba backup, and a custom plug-in needed to display specialized carousels developed by a third party we are partnered with (it doesn't affect tags or urls).

From what I gathered I believe the issue lies somewhere in how the URL is being handled

Joomla generates a URL for tagged items in this format

Code: Select all

index.php?option=com_tags&view=tag&id[0]=50

Which if I use the protostar template (which I did as a troubleshooting step) it gives me this error

Code: Select all

urlencode(): Argument #1 ($string) must be of type string, array given 

So far I have tried

- Googling the error in various formats and applying anything that looked like a fix (and undoing anything that didn't work)

- Manually typing in the URL and removing the $id[0]=50 and replacing it with $id=50 which makes the page partially populate but it's still broken and only populating a series of broken unformatted images with links to the actual items.

- Inspected the tag.php file as similar issue was found in Joomla 3.10.8 but the recommended changes did not resolve my issue and were reverted. The topic also claimed it was fixed in an update that I have already applied.

- Overwriting the Joomla files via the update tool but was also to no avail.

- Enabled PHP debugging on my hosting provider and checked the error logs (there was nothing relevant only a reference to xmless being forbidden).

Updating to Joomla 4 is a long-term project as when I used a staging site to test the update it broke the site severely.

Edit:
FPA

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.10.11-Stable (Daraja) 14-August-2022
Joomla! Platform :: Joomla Platform 13.1.0-Stable (Curiosity) 24-Apr-2013
Joomla! Configured :: Yes | Read-Only (444) |
Configuration Options :: Offline: false | SEF: true | SEF Suffix: false | SEF ReWrite: true | .htaccess/web.config: Yes | GZip: true | Cache: false | CacheTime: 15 | CacheHandler: file | CachePlatformPrefix: false | FTP Layer: false | Proxy: false | LiveSite: Is Not Empty | Session lifetime: 15 | Session handler: database | Shared sessions: false | SSL: 2 | Error Reporting: default | Site Debug: false | Language Debug: false | Default Access: Public | Unicode Slugs: false | dbConnection Type: mysqli | PHP Supports J! 3.10.11: Yes | Database Supports J! 3.10.11: Yes | Database Credentials Present: Yes |

Host Configuration :: OS: Linux | OS Version: 4.14.117-grsec-grsec+ | Technology: x86_64 | Web Server: Apache | Encoding: gzip, deflate, br | System TMP Writable: Yes | Free Disk Space : 300.77 GiB |

PHP Configuration :: Version: 8.0.22 | PHP API: cgi-fcgi | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: 0 | Error Reporting: 22519 | Log Errors To: | Last Known Error: | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Allow url fopen: 1 | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 512M | Max. POST Size: 10M | Max. Input Time: -1 | Max. Execution Time: 120 | Memory Limit: 128M

Database Configuration :: Version: 8.0.28-0ubuntu0.20.04.3 (Client:mysqlnd 8.0.22) | Database Size: 51.29 MiB | #of Tables with config prefix:  84 | #of other Tables:  138 | User Privileges : GRANT SELECTUser Privileges : INSERTUser Privileges : UPDATEUser Privileges : DELETEUser Privileges : CREATEUser Privileges : DROPUser Privileges : REFERENCESUser Privileges : INDEXUser Privileges : ALTERUser Privileges : CREATE TEMPORARY TABLESUser Privileges : LOCK TABLESUser Privileges : EXECUTEUser Privileges : CREATE VIEWUser Privileges : SHOW VIEWUser Privileges : CREATE ROUTINEUser Privileges : ALTER ROUTINEUser Privileges : TRIGGER

PHP Extensions :: Core (8.0.22) | date (8.0.22) | libxml (8.0.22) | pcre (8.0.22) | sqlite3 (8.0.22) | filter (8.0.22) | hash (8.0.22) | intl (8.0.22) | json (8.0.22) | mbstring (8.0.22) | SPL (8.0.22) | PDO (8.0.22) | Reflection (8.0.22) | session (8.0.22) | pdo_sqlite (8.0.22) | standard (8.0.22) | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 8.0.22) | cgi-fcgi (8.0.22) | bcmath (8.0.22) | bz2 (8.0.22) | calendar (8.0.22) | ctype (8.0.22) | curl (8.0.22) | dom (20031129) | exif (8.0.22) | fileinfo (8.0.22) | ftp (8.0.22) | gd (8.0.22) | gettext (8.0.22) | iconv (8.0.22) | imap (8.0.22) | mysqli (8.0.22) | openssl (8.0.22) | pcntl (8.0.22) | pdo_mysql (8.0.22) | zlib (8.0.22) | posix (8.0.22) | pspell (8.0.22) | sodium (8.0.22) | SimpleXML (8.0.22) | soap (8.0.22) | sockets (8.0.22) | tokenizer (8.0.22) | xml (8.0.22) | xmlreader (8.0.22) | xmlwriter (8.0.22) | xsl (8.0.22) | zip (1.19.5) | Phar (8.0.22) | imagick (3.5.0) | Zend OPcache (8.0.22) | Zend Engine (4.0.22) |
Potential Missing Extensions ::

Switch User Environment :: PHP CGI: Yes | Server SU: Yes | PHP SU: Yes | Potential Ownership Issues: No

Core Folders :: images/ (755) | components/ (755) | modules/ (755) | plugins/ (755) | language/ (755) | templates/ (755) | cache/ (755) | logs/ (755) | tmp/ (755) | administrator/components/ (755) | administrator/modules/ (755) | administrator/language/ (755) | administrator/templates/ (755) | administrator/logs/ (---) |

Elevated Permissions (First 10) ::

Database statistics :: Uptime: 9845923 | Threads: 28 | Questions: 8515887029 | Slow queries: 443172835 | Opens: 930358483 | Flush tables: 3 | Open tables: 2048 | Queries per second avg: 864.915 |

Components :: Site ::
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3rd Party::

Components :: Admin ::
Core :: com_admin (3.0.0) 1 | com_ajax (3.2.0) 1 | com_banners (3.0.0) 1 | com_cache (3.0.0) 1 | com_categories (3.0.0) 1 | com_checkin (3.0.0) 1 | com_config (3.0.0) 1 | com_content (3.0.0) 1 | com_contenthistory (3.2.0) 1 | com_cpanel (3.0.0) 1 | com_finder (3.0.0) 1 | com_installer (3.0.0) 1 | com_joomlaupdate (3.10.1) 1 | com_languages (3.0.0) 1 | com_login (3.0.0) 1 | com_media (3.0.0) 1 | com_menus (3.0.0) 1 | com_messages (3.0.0) 1 | com_modules (3.0.0) 1 | com_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | com_plugins (3.0.0) 1 | com_postinstall (3.2.0) 1 | com_redirect (3.0.0) 1 | com_search (3.0.0) 1 | com_tags (3.1.0) 1 | com_templates (3.0.0) 1 | com_users (3.0.0) 1 | com_associations (3.7.0) 1 | com_fields (3.7.0) 1 | com_actionlogs (3.9.0) 1 | com_privacy (3.9.0) 1 |
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Modules :: Site ::
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3rd Party:: Blank Module (6.0.14) 1 | mod_wiseaanwinsten (3.6.4) 1 | mod_wisenewadditions (3.6.4) 1 | mod_wiseboekenlijst (3.6.4) 1 | mod_wisedigitalebron (3.6.4) 1 | mod_wisebookcarousel (3.6.4) 1 | mod_wisemyaccount (3.6.4) 1 | mod_wisesearchbar (3.6.4) 1 | mod_wisewrapper (3.6.4) 1 |

Modules :: Admin ::
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3rd Party::

Libraries ::
Core ::
3rd Party:: Regular Labs Library (17.5.13702) 1 | file_fof40 (4.1.0) ? |

Plugins ::
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Templates :: Site :: beez3 (3.1.0) 1 | frontend (1.0.0) 1 | OrdaSoft Template - Base Template (2.5.0) 1 | protostar (1.0) 1 | obits (2.5.0) 1 | fullscreen (2.5.0) 1 |
Templates :: Admin :: hathor (3.0.0) 1 | isis (1.0) 1 |

[SharkyKZ]

Enable debug and post stack trace.

[bomblord]

Enable debug and post stack trace.

I turned error logging to debug but the page just says "error"
I also tried maximum but that just gave the same error I listed in my OP.

[sozzled]

Some ideas:

1) Change the line in configuration.php where it is written (around line 28 or thereabouts), from

Code: Select all

	public $live_site = 'something';

to

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	public $live_site = '';

2) In the file configuration.php (at about line 83 at a guess), change

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	public $session_handler = 'database';

to

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	public $session_handler = 'none';

3) Look for a file named error_log (in the root folder where you will find configuration.php); it’s a text file. Any errors there?

[toivo]

Joomla generates a URL for tagged items in this format

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index.php?option=com_tags&view=tag&id[0]=50

That format is odd because it should not have any square brackets at all.

Tag links look like this in Joomla 3.10.11, when Search Engine Friendly URLs are not configured:

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http://example.com/index.php?option=com_tags&view=tag&id=5:testing

Check if the html folder of your front end template contains a sub folder com_tags, which means that a template override changes the way tags are displayed.

If that does not help, suggest that third party plugins are disabled one at a time to identify the culprit.

As an aside, Joomla 3.10.11 presents tag links in several formats, depending on how SEF URLs have been configured in Global Configuration.

Both Search Engine Friendly URLs and URL rewriting configured:

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http://example.com/component/tags/tag/testing

Search Engine Friendly URLs configured without URL rewriting:

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http://example.com/index.php/component/tags/tag/testing

If there is a menu item of the type 'List All Tags' and the menu item is called 'All Tags', a tag link looks like this, assuming that Search Engine Friendly URLs and URL rewriting are configured:

Code: Select all

http://example.com/all-tags/testing

BTW, the following anomaly should be fixed by your host:

Max. Upload Size: 512M | Max. POST Size: 10M

The POST Size value is normally larger than the Max. Upload Size. Recommended values for both are 32M or 64M.

[sozzled]

Good points, @toivo.

Using "unlimited" PHP values, e.g Max. Input Time = -1, is not a good idea. Unlimited/undefined time limits, like these, are known to cause problems with updating from one version of J! to another and problems with backup/restore. Define a reasonable value, say 60 seconds, instead of using "-1"; 60 seconds should be enough for most purposes. In addition to what you recommended about PHP, these are my suggestions for absolute minimum values in configuring PHP:

[bomblord]

After another several hours of troubleshooting I found a component that's part of our 3rd party integration was causing the issue and somehow intercepting or modifying how URL's are handled (although the url's still show the brackets). I've disabled the component for now and emailed the developers.

[bomblord]

So it seems that something deeper is going on here.

For no discernible reason pages that populate tags now just reload the page when clicking on a link despite the links being clearly correct in the HTML. I can even right click and open in a new tab or copy it and ope it elsewhere and it will go to a different page but if I click it on the page it just reloads... This is with every non-standard module other than Akiba backup disabled.

Edit: Was able to fix it by removing a form from the com_tags php file.