1
stephenv
Web Links – duplication problem
  • 2005/11/10 22:56

  • stephenv

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 14

  • Since: 2005/3/8 1


Hi

I upgraded my site (yesterday) to XOOPS v2.0.13.2 [well, it was from 2.0.13 to 2.0.13.1 via cPanel and then I applied the differences patch to get it to v2.0.13.2].

Anyway, the one unresolved problem is that my Web Links (v1.1) are being displayed in duplicate. The physical link records / database entries have NOT been duplicated.

See what I am talking about here:
http://bluezeus.biz/modules/mylinks/

It seems to me there must be a routine that is cycling though one too many times.

Has anyone encountered this problem before? Any ideas on what I should do to fix it?

Regards,
Steve

2
gediminasbyt
Re: Web Links – duplication problem

Go to your Admin section, Tools, Templates and regenerate all templates needed for mylinks module. In order to do that you might have to delete template and then click on Generate.

Gediminas

3
stephenv
Re: Web Links – duplication problem
  • 2005/11/14 22:36

  • stephenv

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 14

  • Since: 2005/3/8 1


Hi Gediminas

Thank you for your suggestion, but I cannot seem to work out how to implement what you are suggesting.

When I go into the "Template Set Manager" section of my site [via: Admin -> System admin -> Templates] I only see one template set: "default" and there is no option to "delete" and also no option to "generate" anywhere that I can see.

The only options available to me are "Download" and "Clone"

So after a bit of googling, it seems to me that that what you are suggesting would require me to use a cloned copy of my template set.

So I tried the "Clone" option for my "default" set and created a new set called "cloned_default".

I notice now that MANY, i.e. not ALL, of the numbers next to the module names for this new template set (i.e. "cloned_default") are double those of the ones above (i.e. the "default" template set).

So anyway, I went into the Admin -> System admin -> Preferences -> General Settings [Edit] -> "Default template set" and chose from the dropdown menu the new set name: "cloned_default". BUT this did not seem to have any noticeable effect when I view my site - all sections look the same (main articles section seems fine, and the Web Links section still has duplicates showing).

So then I went back into the "Template Set Manager" and, next to the "cloned_default" set I clicked on the "[List]" link next to the module name "Web Links". Here I see there are duplicate names listed for all the web pages. So I deleted all the duplicated ones.

Again this did not seem to have any effect on my site. I still cannot see an option to "generate" or "regenerate" anywhere.

I really don’t know what else you could be meaning for me to try.

What am I doing wrong? What should I be doing differently?

Cheers
Steve

4
dickinsd
Re: Web Links – duplication problem
  • 2005/11/14 22:47

  • dickinsd

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 278

  • Since: 2004/11/14


YES

I have this problem as well.

I have the mylinks thing sorted, if you look in your database, look for this table mylinks_text (example xoops_mylinks_text)

You should see that each field has been duplicated.

Unfortunately I also have the problem with cloning the template set it is duplicating the number of templates and making the site very hard to manage - can ANYONE please help with this problem?

Please see this post for more information and screenshoots showing the duplicated templates:

My older post with images


Dave

5
stephenv
Re: Web Links – duplication problem
  • 2005/11/14 23:29

  • stephenv

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 14

  • Since: 2005/3/8 1


Hi Dave

Yes, your problem looks like what I am having.

And you are right: if I go and look at the MySql table "xoops_mylinks_text" that sure is where the records are duplicated.

So does it seem to you that the only way to sort this out is by removing the duplicated records in this underlying database table "xoops_mylinks_text" by hand?

This will obviously be a "hack" of a fix. If there is no other way, then I guess I will have do that to fix this problem.

But surely this is an indication of a problem / bug that needs fixing in XOOPS – or is it just in the "Web Links" module? Do you think that the "Template Set" problem is a related bug? Or a completely different one?

Cheers
Steve

6
dickinsd
Re: Web Links – duplication problem
  • 2005/11/15 0:25

  • dickinsd

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 278

  • Since: 2004/11/14


Not sure to be honest bud.

My problems started when I tried to clone my existing templates, this caused the duplicate weblinks and duplicate templates, whereas your problem with the duplicated templates came after the weblinks issue.

I have a feeling that the problem is related to mylinks, so far the problem has only effected sites that have mylinks installed, my other sites are not effected if I update or make lots of templates.

I hope someone comes along that understands what is going on and gives us a hand as I have been trying to figure it out for a while.

You can edit the database to remove the duplicated weblinks, if you use something like phpmyadmin you will be able to select individual tables, I did initially try to use something called dbpro which removed both the copy and the original which has left several of my links with no description at all.

This fix is a hack, you're right but to be honest I don't know how else to clean the problem up.

I will tell you that in my case the problems seem to get worse as I already have cloned templates, these templates are now all messed up and making template changes is extremely hard, and often results in me having to track the template down within the table and making the changes there.

As no-one has been able to provide a fix for my original post, and no one else had asked (until now) I was starting to think this was some cock-up on my half, but if this is happening to other users (1 more at least) perhaps one of the XOOPS gurus might be able to stop by and give some real advice.

Dave

7
dickinsd
Re: Web Links – duplication problem
  • 2005/11/15 1:02

  • dickinsd

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 278

  • Since: 2004/11/14


I take my suggestion that mylinks might be to blame back.

I have just tried to clone templates on another site which has mylinks installed, and there was no problem.

Can I ask a couple of things please:

What version of XOOPS did you start with before updates?
Can you give me a list of modules you have installed on your XOOPS site.

I am going to try to get an idea of modules that are on troubled sites, make a new test site and see if I can recreate the problem. (will also try updating the site after modules are installed)

I have included a list of modules that are on both of my troubled sites:

mylinks
xoopspolls
xoopsmembers
newbb
news
contact
multimenu

If any of these modules are on your site can you please post it, hopefully, you will not have the exact same list of modules... I have only included modules that are on both sites, as such, if you have modules that I have not listed, it is unlikely that they are causing/contributing to the problem.

Dave

8
dickinsd
Re: Web Links – duplication problem
  • 2005/11/15 10:19

  • dickinsd

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 278

  • Since: 2004/11/14


I just let my last question die as I was starting to think I was the only on that had the problem

I clearly am not the only person with the problem, can anyone help resolve this issue?

Dave

9
dickinsd
A solution?
  • 2005/11/15 15:36

  • dickinsd

  • Quite a regular

  • Posts: 278

  • Since: 2004/11/14


Ok the problem in my opinion comes from some upgrade script issue.

Is that fair? Probably not, I know the XOOPS core guys put a lot of effort into making updates and making it as easy as possible for us plebs.
And from what I have read elsewhere the problem seems to be related to what modules might leave behind when we decide to uninstall them, we then do an upgrade to the site and template errors appear.

But I am not sure, so please no one take offence.

Anyway Steve I have fixed the problem on one of my sites. However I am now using XOOPS 2.2.3. Not sure if this is way is too long?

1 Clear the duplicate text fields from you database to get rid of the duplicate weblinks.
2 Backup your database
3 backup a copy of your complete website
4 create a new directory or sub-domain
5 Get a full install version of xoops, I used Xoops 2.2.3 NOT the update version
6 Extract the HTML folder from the XOOPS file you just downloaded
7 From the backup of your site, take your all themes and all modules and place them in their respective folders in the XOOPS html folder from the previous step. (themes are not so important. to be honest)
8 Upload the entire contents of the HTML directory to the directory created in step 4 (Will take a long time if you have a lot of modules)
9 Open the browser to your directory or sub-domain created in step 4
10 This will give you the chance to install a fresh copy of xoops. Work your way through the installation.
MAKE SURE that you choose a different database prefix to that of your current site.
11 As part of the installation of XOOPS 2.2.x you are given the option to install any modules in the modules directory at the time of installing XOOPS on your site Select all modules and install them.(not sure if that is available with the older version of xoops, if not you will need to go to modules admin and install each module you use on your current site in turn)

You will then be told installation is complete, and remember to change the permissions for mainfile.php back to 444 and remove the install directory from your XOOPS installation.

12 Just incase this did not work as I had wanted I took this option to create a clone of the default template set.
13 Now go to your database with something like myphpadmin and backup the following tables seperately:
1_tplfile
1_tplset
1_tplsource
2_tplfile
2_tplset
2_tplsource
Where 1_ is the db prefix for your current working site and 2_ is the db prefix for the new site you have just created

14 The details of the sql file will include the db prefix as well, you need to open the following files:
2_tplfile
2_tplset
2_tplsource
And replace all reference from 2_ to 1_ and save as:
1_tplfile
1_tplset
1_tplsource
But in a different location than the location you saved backups from the database, that way you have the originals to fall back on if you need them.

15 Back in to myphpadmin and you want to drop the following tables:
1_tplfile
1_tplset
1_tplsource
Drop one at a time, after the table is dropped you should see a box which will say something like import file with a button called browse next to it, click on this and upload your new versions of the respective files.

My problem eventually became worse than yours in that I could not modify any templates which was a real pain in the ass, and every time I tried to clone the template set I was getting more redundant data in my database and the mylinks module was duplicating link descriptions as well.

The above 15 steps have resolved my problem, my templates now work fine, I can edit them as I wish, I can clone them and I do not get any other problem and I do not get duplicated web links any longer.

HOWEVER I accept that I have probably over complicated things and the size of this post might make it seem harder than it is, but until someone else says otherwise, this seems to be the only thing that fixes my problem.

If your not sure about my instructions, let me know what steps are causing the problem, if your not sure about the table editing I mention from steps 13 to 15, you take the backups and PM me I will give you an email address, I will make changes and email them back to you (don't worry there is nothing in thoses tables that could affect your security etc.

Hope the long post does not scare you off...

Dave

10
stephenv
Re: A solution?
  • 2005/11/15 22:18

  • stephenv

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 14

  • Since: 2005/3/8 1


Hi Dave

Thank you for the great amount of detail.

My site is on a hosted server to which I do not have full access – other than via my section of cPanel. I got them to upgrade the Fantastico version in order to get a newer version of XOOPS available for me to upgrade my site to (the intention being to overcome the vulnerabilities which v2.0.13.2 is supposed to fix).

As you will be able to see from my site, I am very new to Xoops.

As you can see above, I started on v2.0.13 [which was also installed via Fantastico]. The Fantastico upgrade by my hosting supplier made an XOOPS upgrade to v2.0.13.1 available, and I saw here [https://xoops.org/modules/core/singlefile.php?cid=3&lid=118] that the update patch to upgrade from v2.0.13.1 to v2.0.13.2 seemed pretty simple to apply, so I decided to go ahead with this.

I did a full backup of my site and went through the upgrade process to v2.0.13.1. I did have some directory permission problems [which my hosting supplier helped resolve – I guess the Fantastico upgrade script wasn’t quite thorough in the directory permission area – the web service process owner account’s group needed write permissions added for a few directories] but it seemed to have gone smoothly after that was fixed.

So then I did the update to v2.0.13.2 – which involved simply unzipping the zip file in my site’s root directory.

It was only then that I noticed the duplicates in the Web Links section. I suspect it most likely occurred as a result of the upgrade from v2.0.13 to v2.0.13.1, since the path from there to v2.0.13.2 didn’t seem to be as intensive a process.

At this time I am reluctant to try install the v2.2.3 since I don’t have full access to the server and this version is obviously too new to have made its way into Fantastico yet (or at least the version my hosting supplier has available to them).

Anyway, my site is still quite in its infancy [I’m still working out what works, what doesn’t, what might be better, etc], and it seems the simplest fix will be to remove the duplicates at the database end. I’d rather not go the route of something too much more involved than that at this time, if it is avoidable. Unless som “greater power” can suggest something better!?!?!!?!?!?

It is great to have such thorough feedback though – thank you again!


Cheers
Steve

P.S. By the way, for what it’s worth, I am using these modules:
- ForumEx (“Newbbex”)
- iMenu [well, it is installed, but not actively being used yet]
- Article Management System (“AMS”)
- News
- Links (“Web Links”)
- Contact Us
- Partners
- FAQ
- XHLD (“Headlines”)

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