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Control panel dysfunctions: (still running the 7.5.8)

First signs of trouble:
Created a forum and set permissions for users. The edit_post field options could not be controlled any other way than through phpmyadmin. Control panel commands to update ignored requests to allow and autofilled all groups with "0". Going into phpmyadmin and manually adding "1" for particular groups was the only way to accomplish task.

Moderator Edit: Issue was caused by a low PHP max_input_vars value for the amount of forums on the users install (30*totalforums=lowest value); issue was fixed by increasing the value at the host level.

Continuing trouble:
When we exceeded the number of forums limit (195) I began renaming and reusing disabled forums. (We wanted this forum to retain history of club business, so new forums were created.... little did I know that this was a sinking ship.)
e.g. 3rd quarter meeting renamed 4th quarter meeting. Forum rename appears correctly in the Forums List but breadcrumbs still show old name.

Control panel forum lists aren't updated.
e.g. Attempting to delete forums results in fatal error message, and the forum I was trying to delete would still be showing in the forum settings list view, but when I click to view details, there are none. Checking in phpmyadmin, the forum is not there. Yet it remains in the forum settings list of the control panel.

After consulting with Gizmo:
I've increased the input max to 6000 variables
Plenty of execution time (60) and memory (256M).
I'm still getting fatal error message.
I've run the content rebuilder on Posts, Topics, and Forums. (Doesn't that rebuild from server content?)
Still can't delete a Forum from the Forum Setting. Only get the error message.

Fatal error occurs at line 733 in ubbthreads.inc.php....

This is what begins is on line 732 of that file:

function get_parents($forum_id,$array) {

global $pre_tree;

if ($pre_tree['parent'][$forum_id]) {
$array[] = $pre_tree['parent'][$forum_id];
$array = get_parents($pre_tree['parent'][$forum_id],$array);
}
return $array;

}


What's weird:
All 198 forums -- at least 198 rows -- are present in the both the bluehost server database and ubbt_FORUMS settings table.
--however the forum ID numbers don't match. Some are missing in one not the other and vice-versa.
For example, the first instance of a discrepancy in the lists is at Forum_Id=77 (which is present in the database on the hosting server, but not in the table list in Forum Settings). I would have thought that data was stored and retrieved from the server to populate the accessible forums on log in. The info populating the tables in my admin table should be stored on the server, yet it seems to be pulled from a cache somewhere. And I'm unable to clear the cache... The clear cache command in the Tools & Info section is also unable to proceed due to exact same fatal error as the forum delete.


Help would be much appreciated.
Tearing out my hair.

Last edited by Gizmo; 12/03/2015 7:12 PM.

Druwallpat
Joined: Jun 2006
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UBB.threads Developer
UBB.threads Developer
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,292
Likes: 116
I edited your post to include this bit for your initial issue, which was that the server was not configured to support the amount of variables that where being generated for the amount of forums that you had configured (30 permissions * total forums) as the value was the default (1000, which would max out at 30 forums).
Quote
Moderator Edit: Issue was caused by a low PHP max_input_vars value for the amount of forums on the users install (30*totalforums=lowest value); issue was fixed by increasing the value at the host level.


I am a Web Development Contractor, I do not work for UBBCentral. I have provided free User to User Support since the beginning of these support forums.
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UBB.threads Developer
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I have been very busy over here with a ton of unrelated issues. But here are a bunch of items to check off. These were collected from random chats between Gizmo and myself from earlier today. They are based on your original messages to him (where he has shared the questionable technical bits with me), and based on the instructions he has already given to you. My chat comments are the random 2 to 5 minutes I could muster up during my busy day smile

--
• are your scripts stock?
• have you compared them to stock scripts?
• have you replaced the stock /admin /scripts and /libs folders with the ones from the stock archive -- after you've made a backup of your site?
• what about your forum titles/descriptions. are they all using regular UTF chars? do they have quotes or apostrophes or slashes in them? these shouldnt really matter, but i figured I'd ask anyways.

Mostly Bluehost and shared hosting related stuff beyond this point --
• if the server you are on times out after 30 (or 60) seconds (test by doing a search, to see how long it takes to return results) then your forum probably has outgrown the shared hosting plan you're on. THAT was the reason I upgraded on Bluehost from starter (skipping mid) to Pro Business in 2007.

I'm rambling some basic testing ideas here.
• Test if your pages only fail during the main forum listing. but the post list works fine.
• If pruning times-out on Bluehost, check from your Bluehost cPanel, if your CPU is being throttled. If it is, then thats why you are getting a timeout, WITH error. You have outgrown your current hosting tier.
• If you have 187 forums (thats a lot for for an entry level hosting package), your site has probably been around for a while. and that may be the case. I reached my max hosting capacity on Bluehost starter package when I hit about a 600MB database size in 2007. You can view the total uncompressed size through phpMySQL table list.

I'm still just rambling issues that I came across and what I found was the errors from my experience with Bluehost shared starter pkg.
When I then upgraded my hosting package to a Bluehost Business Pro account, I regretted trimming/purging my forums, since the problem was that I outgrew my hosting, and not the software. For the following three years, I regretted doing that prune. Then I looked back and saw that it was a good idea because of how my pruning was done. As a site owner, providing quality content is more desirable to me, than just providing the daily chit-chat of general discussions from five years ago. Especially when the intentions for my sites are to provide a useful resource for my niche topics. I want a visitor to come to my sites and find the information that they are looking for through quality content. My advice for "pruning best practices," is that it needs to be done by actually paying attention to the "poor quality" posts and removing those. Keep the good ones. In fact, when you find a good one, move it to a section out of general discussion areas and keep it for an Advice/HowTo/FAQ/Technical... useful information section.

Are you having shared hosting server issues that are preventing you from pruning?
• close the forum.
• then wait 5 minutes before pruning.
• use the default 5 seconds before page refreshes. and the default post settings from within the scripts. if your admin scripts are stock, then this step is already good.
• use a smaller prune range and stack your prune executions/submissions in batches. Closing the board will lower the chances of you triggering the CPU throttling on your Bluehost shared hosting account.
Hint: run this procedure at outside of peak times. A Sunday/Monday. Past midnight. But before 3am... (again, I'm purely guessing) to avoid fighting others on your server, for CPU cycles and CPU throttle triggering.
And as always, closing your forums should be done when any sort of pruning or other site maintenance is performed.


EDIT -- I have a text file at my home office with a few slight php.ini updates to be done for larger UBBT forums. its really basic. one was the "128MB" mem limit set to scrips. and the other was an script execution time, and i think there was one more minor thing. im not home atm, so im just going from memory of nearly 5 years ago.

----php.ini for medium to larger ubbt forums----
; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume
memory_limit = 128M ; [PHP5.4 DEFAULT = 128M]

; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
; http://php.net/max-execution-time
; Note: This directive is hardcoded to 0 for the CLI SAPI
max_execution_time = 30 ; [PHP5.4 DEFAULT = 30]
----php.ini for medium to larger ubbt forums----

If you're on Bluehost, chances are you are on one of their servers where the minimum version of PHP is set to PHP5.4. They sent an email to all their current customers in late 2014 (IIRC) stating they would no longer be supporting older PHP versions such as 5.3, 5.2... 4.x, etc.

I believe the php.ini lines posted above, were settings that I increased when my forums were running on PHP 5.2 (2012 IIRC) -- before the 128MB memory_limit was the default in PHP 5.4. So you should already have them in your PHP54 php.ini as their default settings. It would not hurt to double-check them on your box though. For PHP 5.2, its default was memory_limit=32MB, and max_execution_time=30 was the same.

My CURRENT php.ini on Bluehost is basically stock, with one minor change for an unrelated script I'm using on an unrelated-to-ubbt addon domain.

In your cpanel, chose the "phpconfig" option to use "PHP 5.4 (Single php.ini) Same as PHP 5.4, but all sub-directories will use ~/public_html/php.ini"
This will eliminate the chances of a misplaced php.ini floating around in one of your directories, causing havoc. And UBBT7.5.8 should work just fine on PHP5.6, but since that version of PHP is still in on Bluehost's cPanel, I cannot confirm that it does or does not work -- there is no sense in my testing production software on a beta platform.

Again, everything above is just a dump of the information I tossed around in a Google Hangouts session with Gizmo earlier today. I've only edited it mostly to add bullet points and replace "has he" with "you might try" verbiage.

---extra bits---
•Bluehost has their own custom cpu throttling settings. BlueHost's founder, Matt Heaton calls this "Hosting Nirvana."
http://www.mattheaton.com/?p=185
http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/bluehost/
http://www.bluehostforum.com/showthread.php?19623-CPU-throttling
https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/564
• Shared hosting should be avoided for high-traffic sites with high demands on a databases. But if you must to use it, opt for the highest level of service provided. Currently "Bluehost Business Pro."
• Are you using a current php.ini file? (MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR .htaccess and php.ini) In the Bluehost cPanel, switch your php version from "PHP 5.4 (Single php.ini)" to "PHP 5.6 (Single php.ini)" and then back again. Your old php.ini files will be backed up with a unix time-stamp added to the file name in ~/public_html/php.ini. This will give you a fresh new php.ini file to work on. again, mine is basically stock. over 900MB for my larger forum db install since 2001. I've done a lot of cleaning over the years.
Attachments
20151204_01-41-00.PNG


Current developer of UBB.threads PHP Forum Software
Current Release: UBBT 7.7.5 // Preview: UBBT 8.0.0
isaac @ id242.com // my forum @ CelicaHobby.com
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UBB.threads Developer
UBB.threads Developer
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,945
Likes: 145
One more question to ask, and I feel its important enough to deserve its own post --

Have you modified your database tables or data in any way, outside from the UBB.threads admin control panel?


Current developer of UBB.threads PHP Forum Software
Current Release: UBBT 7.7.5 // Preview: UBBT 8.0.0
isaac @ id242.com // my forum @ CelicaHobby.com
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,560
Likes: 78
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,560
Likes: 78
My first inclination is you have some type of permission error.
You should never have to edit the database for normal permissions set in the control panel.
Now when I say permissions, it is not just file/folder permissions.
But other issues such as Suhosin or mod security which limits the maximum amount of data submitted or what is submitted,Could be a culprit.

As stated if you modified the code or are mucking with the database tables. Then who knows what the issue is.

Also it has always been frowned upon to delete forums, but to disable them and recycle them.

Last issue is what do you expect for a shared hosting plan?
Sorry for that last remark!

My 2 cents.
Make a full backup including the database.
Reinstall a virgin v7.5.8 in a test folder and link it back to the database in config.inc.php after you test it with a clean net new database.
Then link it to your old database.
See if that resolves your issue.


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I noticed an error in the config.inc.php (and Master Settings).

The "full path" appears as written: /home8/nemdasto/public_html/forums

But actually it's now: /home2/nemdasto/public_html/forums

Could this be my problem?


Druwallpat
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,945
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UBB.threads Developer
UBB.threads Developer
Joined: Apr 2004
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Likes: 145
Originally Posted by druwallpat
I noticed an error in the config.inc.php (and Master Settings).

The "full path" appears as written: /home8/nemdasto/public_html/forums

But actually it's now: /home2/nemdasto/public_html/forums

Could this be my problem?

That is the "Absolute PATH to Main Directory" from:
Control Panel Master Settings > DB, Paths & URLs > Paths & URLs TAB

It looks like at some point your site was moved on Bluehost from one box/directory, to another box/directory.

Confirm that the information you enter in that section, is similar to the information shown on your Bluehost account's cPanel page (see attached image)
If Bluehost cPanel says: "/home2/nemdasto"
UBBT CP setting should be similar to: "/home2/nemdasto/public_html/forums" -- just as you mentioned above.

Make the path corrections and attempt to perform your maintenance tasks again.
Attachments
20151208_12-08-12.PNG

Last edited by id242; 12/08/2015 4:44 PM.

Current developer of UBB.threads PHP Forum Software
Current Release: UBBT 7.7.5 // Preview: UBBT 8.0.0
isaac @ id242.com // my forum @ CelicaHobby.com
Joined: Apr 2014
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Yes, here's my Bluehost info and the Master Settings.
Attachments
Bluehost 12_8_15.JPG UBB Info.JPG


Druwallpat
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Joined: Dec 2003
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Also the relative url should not start with http
It should be something like.
/forums.nemda.org
Hard to say without more info.


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UBB.threads Developer
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Originally Posted by Ruben
Also the relative url should not start with http
It should be something like.
/forums.nemda.org
Hard to say without more info.

There is no problem with using an absolute URL instead of a relative URL in that box.
I've been using absolute URLs on all of my sites since the mid 90s -- even within UBB.threads.
Especially for my SSL/HTTPS secure sites.

---

Relative vs. Absolute URLs and SEO.
A relative URL is any URL that doesn't explicitly specify the protocol (e.g., " http:// " or " https:// ") and/or domain ( www.example.com ), which forces the visitor's web browser (or the search engine bots) to assume it refers to the same site on which the URL appears.Jul 11, 2014

The Case for Absolute URLs:
Any time you leave something up to the bots to decide, you're asking for trouble. Googlebot is extremely sophisticated, but it can still make mistakes when encountering any unusual circumstances involving relative URLs. Less-sophisticated bots are even more likely to get confused by relative links, even under typical circumstances. The only way to ensure that you've eliminated these uncertainties is by utilizing absolute URLs, and doing so consistently across the site.

SOURCE: http://www.dirigodev.com/blog/seo-web-best-practices/relative-vs-absolute-urls-seo/


Current developer of UBB.threads PHP Forum Software
Current Release: UBBT 7.7.5 // Preview: UBBT 8.0.0
isaac @ id242.com // my forum @ CelicaHobby.com
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,560
Likes: 78
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,560
Likes: 78
If that is true then I stand corrected.
How ever when you do a net new install in past versions it elects to not place the http:// prefix.

Last edited by Ruben; 12/08/2015 5:58 PM.

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So any guesses as to what hell will be unleashed when I make the setting change? Will the Forum list become what's on the server? Remnants of the cache on my machine? I'm more than a little nervous about this. How can I protect the functionality (albeit limited) that exists to my Forum users?


Druwallpat
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,292
Likes: 116
UBB.threads Developer
UBB.threads Developer
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,292
Likes: 116
Originally Posted by druwallpat
So any guesses as to what hell will be unleashed when I make the setting change? Will the Forum list become what's on the server? Remnants of the cache on my machine? I'm more than a little nervous about this. How can I protect the functionality (albeit limited) that exists to my Forum users?
I'm surprised it's running at all using the wrong path; if it doesn't work when you use the correct one you can always edit the wrong path back into the config file.


I am a Web Development Contractor, I do not work for UBBCentral. I have provided free User to User Support since the beginning of these support forums.
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