Bugs with Beta

mitchellm

Okay, complete reinstall. But I'm facing the same problems. Can't access administration panel 90% of the time, can't create a new topic, etc. etc.

The Flarum files are at my main website, but one level down. So essentially html_public/flarum. If my website was wowza.net then my flarum is at: http://wowza.net/flarum/

Is there some adjustment that needs to be made?

Toby

Need more info! Are you getting any error messages? Have you tried using your browser's inspector to look at the AJAX request responses? What web server are you using?

mitchellm

Toby I'm using Safari. Also tried Chrome. Yes, getting error messages. A couple are attached. ... okay how do I attach screenshots in Flarum?

Here's some links to screenshots:
https://infinit.io/_/3n7TEXw

and
https://infinit.io/_/3fEdpiy

Often can't assess admin page (see screenshot) and I get error messages most of the time.

Here's the test site:
http://mathewmitchell.net/flarum/

There's no discussions there as, well, I don't seem to be allowed to post.

I have no idea how to find the AJAX request responses, but you are welcome to visit and join.

Franz

Nginx?

Please follow the installation instructions all the way. 🙂

mitchellm

Franz Well those instructions are a lot more detailed. But those aren't the instructions we see when initially downloading Flarum. Here's what I saw:
https://infinit.io/_/jMF63kd

In this case, how do I tell if I have either Apache (with mod_rewrite) or Nginx? When I go to c-panel here's the info I see:
https://infinit.io/_/cfSuPAy

Are you trying to say with Apache the flarum folder needs to be 777, not 755? (Sorry, I don't speak geek.)

Kulga

mitchellm Looks like apache since it has the apache version on there in the image.

mitchellm

Kulga Yes, that makes complete sense. The complete instructions say a requirement is:
Apache (with mod_rewrite)

I'm not sure what mod-rewrite means, or if I have it. Possibly that's the reason Flarum is running buggy for me.

txtd

Sounds like you are on a shared hosting enviroment.
You are probably petter off talking to your hosting provider since he is going to be able to tell what apache mods he's shipping by default.

mitchellm

txtd You could be quite right. But if Flarum demands that level of expertise at this time, then I'll just wait. The time involved to find this out just makes it not worth the time (to me) to do an early beta test. I have too many other things to do in my life.

Kulga

mitchellm with early, early beta (less then a day), expecting everything to work out of box is unfair.
It's that early beta that makes the stable install so much easier, the easy stuff to run into will of already been run into and fixed.
Beta == get your hands dirty 😉
I expect once it's in stable, it'll be as easy as 1-2-3.

mitchellm

Kulga Completely understood. And I'm beta-testing 2 other software products right now. And I'm glad to help out if I can. But once I hear things like I'll need to check with my hosting company, then I know things are still at too alpha a level for me. Or put differently, if the issue is with my hosting company setup then there's not much I can do about it. (I realize I can do some things, and make requests, but I'm not going through all that extra energy for an early beta.)

All this revolves around the early statement that I need Apache (with mod_rewrite). It's like sending a message to me in Tibetan. I have no idea what it really means, and at least with Tibetan I have handy Google translate! So maybe these early betas are truly for bona fide geeks, and I can contribute something later.

Franz

mitchellm Thanks for trying it out. 🙂

Felipe

Smile and wave...

Pete

You'll always need mod_rewrite for friendly URLs and the system won't work without it so at some point you'll have to drop a ticket to your host anyway to ask if it's on.

Before that though you could check if you have a file called .htaccess in your Flarum folder. If it's something like htaccess.txt (or similar) then rename it to .htaccess - if you have mod_rewrite enabled then that should work but if that file already exists and you can't access the admin then you need to contact your host to see if that is installed. I don't think anything that would change in Flarum would get you away from having to ask that question - it's a pretty common requirement for most CMS's and forum systems nowadays.

Of course it might not be that since you say sometimes it works which is odd, in which case you may have to wait for a new release, but don't let the simple request to your host stop you - it'll take them all of 2 minutes to check for you 🙂

Franz

Pete You'll always need mod_rewrite for friendly URLs and the system won't work without it

That's not completely true, though. 🙂

For one of the next beta versions, I plan to fully implement PATH_INFO-based routing, which means that URLs will look like index.php/d/567-bugs-with-beta or api.php/discussions. No .htaccess magic needed for those (but hard to get set up correctly with Nginx).

Pete

Well... applicable for now then 😉

d1a8lo24

When it comes to share hosting it's a whole different game.

It's very strange not to have mod_rewrite on a share hosting but it happens, and like Pete said most CMS/Forums/Social Networks etc... require it to remove the index.php from the URL to make friendly URLs.

In most cases this is necessary, but that's just the starting point when installing an application on a server.

Aside from worrying about a share host having mod_rewrite, you need to see if they even allow an htaccess file to be use on the server. Not only that but then you will have to worry about other requirements that may prevent an application from using all its features.

Some require the GD library and also some share hosts may not enable it or Imagemagick with Imagick.

And the worst of all is mod_security on a share host, because once you have your great app install all of the sudden you can't post something because some characters are not allowed by the share host filters on mod_security to be pass through POST.

So at the end you must know this information from your host not to just install this great application but because any application will have certain requirements and you need to know what your server can handle.

If anyone is thinking of running a medium to large community start thinking about the next level up like a virtual server or dedicated server.

Just because a share host says that everything is unlimited or that they have the latest software is really not true read the fine print and check the extra modules, settings and libraries that they offer because they will limit a lot of things so that your application doesn't use up all the resources.
Remember on a share host you're part of a group of people each one hosting a site on the same server and that is a reason why they limit many things to keep the resources of a server to a minimum.

As far as my experience with Flarum and the installation and use at this early stage is 100% satisfactory to me, one version up and it should be a stable release.

So keep up the great work Flarum team you made a great product and thank you for making it free.