Configuration problem

[cyberhorse]

I have upgraded from V1.9 to latest version.

Configuration has not been copied in the upgrade and I now find it impossible to set the upload path and all the other settings.

On the old version I specified the upload directory as "downloads" which is at the root Joomla level with the right 755 permissions. Its set up exactly the same on the new version but when I save the configuration the entry is blanked after clicking on the Download tab.

What am I supposed to put as the upload directory? Is it the full path starting with /home ? Why does saving the configuration not save anything?

I don't know why the upgrade didn't just copy the previous configuration setup.

[cyberhorse]

At first glance this might seem like a "read the documentation" problem. I did that.

On further investigation when the upgrade was done from v1.9 the table jdownloads_config was created with no records.

So the configuration was empty and when I tried to save a new one it was never saved. No error message either.

I had backed up the old 1.9 database and was able to restore jdownloads_config from the backup. However I have no idea if the config table has been changed as I don't have the 3.2 version format to compare it too.

I've also noticed that several of the tables in the old 1.9 version have continued into the 3.2 version but they are of type MyISAM instead of InnoDB. Would that have a bearing on the config table creation problem?

[Arno]

Hi,

Configuration has not been copied in the upgrade and I now find it impossible to set the upload path and all the other settings.

Why not? Was the import process not succesful ended?

In the new version is required the absolute path to the upload folder, not only the name from folder self.
You can get the path from here here (see pics).

When this not helped send me login data for your backend via PM.

[gelöscht durch Administrator]

[cyberhorse]

Import did end successfully.

Its just that it created jdownloads_config with no records.

And then the Downloads tab in Configuration did not recognise that there was no record to start with and further did not try to create a record if none existed.

So I went through several iterations of filling in all the blank details on the Downloads tab and saving them only to have them never saved but no error displayed either.

I haven't looked at the code but I suspect that you don't recognise a situation where the config record is non-existent.

[Arno]

Import did end successfully.
Its just that it created jdownloads_config with no records.

I haven't looked at the code but I suspect that you don't recognise a situation where the config record is non-existent.

When you have not any data in the configuration table was your import process not correct. But i have never seen a result like this before (with an empty config table). Are you sure that you have done it as described in the instructions?

When you will, send me your jD backup from your old 1.9 installation. Then i will import it here correct and can send your the data.

[cyberhorse]

Arno, no need to do anything at your end.

I think I've reconstructed the config table OK. At least JD can now find the downloads and appears to have indexed then correctly.

Just thought you'd like to know that it is possible for there to be no config record despite a successful import and make the necessary mods in case it happens again.

[Arno]

Okay. I will try to add an additional check.

[cyberhorse]

No matter what I did I could not get the new version to index all of the downloads on the site.

So I went back and did a clean install after deleting all of the old software and the JD database tables.

Now it has found all 2185 categories but stops after finding 55 downloads. There are over 20,000 downloads and I have no idea why it is stopping.

I have SSH access to the server. Is there a php program I can execute which will show progress and/or error messages so I can see what is going wrong?

JD is proving to be a very frustrating component. I have never had so much trouble with a Joomla component upgrade.

[ColinM]

Hi
The most likely explanation is that your server is running out of time, and this is beyond the control of jD.  There is a large amount of database work. You could ask your hosting service to grant you more time.
Or you could take up Arno's offer. 
Some other people have used an XAMMP setup to convert large sets of Downloads, and then transferred back.

Colin.

[Arno]

We have only get very small informations about what you have done exactly.
A few examples:
- what was your old version (1.9.1.x for Joomla 2.5 or 1.9.2.x for Joomla 3.x)?
- what are your server settings?
- can it be that you get timeouts?
- which migration instructions have you used?
- why will you not use the locally migration or give me a try to do it for you? All what i need for it is the backup file created with the jDownloads backup function from your old installation. I need not your files.

Is there a php program I can execute which will show progress and/or error messages so I can see what is going wrong?

You can activate for a test the Joomla debug option - also described in our documentation.

JD is proving to be a very frustrating component. I have never had so much trouble with a Joomla component upgrade.

The jDownloads serie 3.x is a nearly complete new developed component. This was required to support the Joomla user permissions to hundred percents. Many thousand users have succesful imported her old data in this new version. I know that only a handful users had really problems with this. But we could solve it together.

I know not the reason for your problems. But to get (as example) an empty configuration after the import process is very strange and not normally. You have tried to repair the configuration table. But nobody knows whether all required configuration values are now existent. The new version has much more.

jDownloads is a open source script and nobody must pay to use it. Sure, we could more time invest to rework the import process. But we work now already every day some hours for user support via forum and e-mail and have only small time for the developing. And the import process is only required temporary.

I know that an upgrade can be very frustating. But only when the environment is not normally (e.g. to restrictively server settings) or user faults.

[cyberhorse]

I originally had a version of JD 1.9 on Joomla 2.5 which had a vulnerability which you patched after it was exploited by some Islamic terrorist outfit. Crashed not only the Joomla site with JD installed but infected every other site on my server which cost me weeks of work to clear up and problems still occur today.

For a long time I didn't dare try to upgrade to Joomla 3 because there was not a version of JD which worked on Joomla 3.

Then when support ended for Joomla 2.5 I knew I had no choice but to upgrade. I went from 1.9.6 to 1.9.11 as recommended and then to 3.2.

As you know the config table got deleted in the upgrade.

No I did not go the XAMPP route. Why should I spend days setting up a "home" version of a web server when I have a hosting company who are professionals? I don't know how much time it would take to go and learn every aspect of web hosting technology when the job should be possible on the live server.

After my posting today I realised that repeated running of the Check Download script would index a few more downloads on each run so I just ran it as a cron job every hour. Now 12 hours later all 21,000 files are in the downloads database. Of course they were all marked as unpublished for God knows what reason so I just set the published flag on using Mysqladmin. No one should have to go to that much trouble and work directly on the database.

As a suggestion JD should first traverse the downloads counting how many categories and files there are to be indexed. The user can then be advised that the number is large and it may take x hours to index everything. Then based on the actual experience with database insertions for that installation the user could be advised that the downloads should be indexed 1000 at a time or whatever. At least that way people would know what they were up for and plan accordingly. 

Now I still have to go through 22,000 users and allocate them to one of three user groups. I chose to do a fresh install because its obvious there is no way to accomplish that automatically through the normal upgrade process.

I contrast this JD upgrade process to that of PayPlans which is an equally complex product on the same site. Their process was simple. A few apps had new versions which were clearly marked as needing an upgrade. The Joomla 3 version worked out of the box. Maybe an hour of work for me.

I'm still working on the JD upgrade after 3 weeks!

[cyberhorse]

And now I get to the most confusing part of all.
Spent a whole day getting the downloads indexed.
Made the mistake of not setting the download permissions on the top level directories first.
So now I have a whole lot of downloads with access set to public and I have no idea what permsssions were set.
I really, really really don't want to reset all the permissions and spend another day re-indexing the downloads.

I have 3 user groups and each has access to their own set of files.
All 3 groups have access to a fourth set of files.
But no matter which group a user belongs to all they can see is their top category page with a message "Number of subcategories 101".
Of course they can't see those subscategories, let alone click on one and download the files in it.
So I'm endlessly going around in circles to find the problem.

Do the categories need to have access code Registered or Public? If its Public can they be seen but not downloaded? If its Registered can they be seen and downloaded? So far it looks like they can't be seen no matter what the setting.
Then the permissions.
If the category has download permission for the group the user is in will subcategories be revealed to that user? Apparently not.
Do all the downloads in a category inherit the permissions or are they set when the download is indexed?
Maybe the category layout has something to do with what is displayed?
I have no idea.

[ColinM]

Cyberhorse,
Joomla! permissions are seemingly complex at ones initial  contact with them.  But like riding a bicycle, a seemingly difficult task is quite straight forward when one gets down to it. 

In the  following I assume you have created the relevant UGs that you wish to be allowed to Download.  I will call them here UsergroupA, UsergroupB and  UsergroupC.  Each of these should have Registered as their parent UG, using any other parent may cause unwanted interactions later.  At the same time create View Access levels ViewA, ViewB and ViewC where ViewA has as its only member UsergroupA and similarly for the other two Access levels.  Later we add these to relevant jD top level categories.  I will also refer to these top level Categories as CatA, CatB and CatC.

Note that jD fully supports the cascading of permissions from top level categories to their sub categories and onto the Downloads.  That means we really only need to set up the top level categories.  We now need to get the Download permissions to a known state.

Firstly in a new install jD sets what are known as the component permissions for the Public User Group (UG) to Download permission to Allowed.  There are several ways to access this permission set.  One is to go to the jD Control Panel and use the Options button on the Toolbar.  Set the Public permissions to Inherited. Never set a permission to Denied as it can have many unintended consequences.  If you find you need a Deny permission in regard to jD it is highly likely that there is something wrong with the arrangement.

There are two Permissions tools in the jD tool Box.  These set the Downloads permission for all Downloads and all Categories back to the Inherited state.  So if you set the Component permission as above and use the two tools then at that time no one, except Super Users, can download.
So now we go to each of the top level cats in turn.  Using CatA as an example open it in the backend, then use the permissions tab to set the Download permission fo UsergroupA to allowed.  Leave all other permissions for all other UGs as inherited.  After setting the permission to Allow you need to do a Save.   Thgis is a Joomla! requirement.  Also for CatA set its access permission to ViewA.  This means that only members of UsergroupA will be able to see and download any Download in CatA or any if its sub cats.  Repeat appropriately for CatB and CatC.

Next we need a menu item that will allow users to see their Downloads.  So first create another View Access level, called say ViewABC, whose members are the three UGs.  Then create a menu item of type  List All Categories and set its Access level to ViewABC.  So this menu item will only be visible when a user in one of the three UGs has logged in.  Note you need a List All Categories type menu item even if it is in a hidden menu so that jD can find the correct linkage.

So at this stage everything should be OK.  Note all of the above is required by Joomla! they are not imposed by jD but of course jD has to be compliant.

The scheme outlined is described in our documentation.  As described above it does not include the necessary permissions set up for users to upload from the Front End.  The documentation covers that aspect.

If you have other queries or concerns about permissions and view access in relation to jD please let me know.  Also if you like I will set up the permissions for you as outlined above but to do so I would need Super User access to your site which you should send to me by PM if you would like me to do that for you.

Colin
PS I have another reply discussing your previous Note in this topic but I have restrained myself from posting it as it could have been seen as being counter-productive!!  That would not be my intent as our primary objective is to help you get on the road.  C
EDIT
PPS I forgot to note you have a set of Downloads accessible to all three UGs. So if these Downloads are in CatD or one of its subcats, then inn CatD set the Download permission for all three UGs to allowed, and set its Access level to ViewABC.  C