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#13728 SEF turned on, possible problem with htaccess?

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
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PHP version
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Admin Tools version
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Latest post by nicholas on Tuesday, 02 October 2012 12:59 CDT

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 10:36 CDT

user39895
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 2.5.7
PHP version: 5.4.x
MySQL version:5.x
Host: Bluehost
Admin Tools version: 2.3.2

Description of my issue:
When turning on Core Joomla SEF, I have a problem with getting to any of the links in the menu. At first I thought this was a problem with RSForm Pro, as that was the only menu item I had. I just created a test article and I have the same issue. In reading the admin-tools.pdf, section 7.2 on Exceptions, I would guess this is what I need. There is a lot of talk about passwords in this section of the document, so I could be wrong.

Could you help guide me in the right direction? I eventually will get a professional SEF component, but I need to understand how this works before I start spending more money.

Thank you,
Ryan

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 10:37 CDT

user39895
Sorry, I cannot edit the opening post. I think that the subject line does not quite match what is going on here. I apologize for that.

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 10:38 CDT

nicholas
Hello Ryan,

If you have a problem with ALL SEF URLs then maybe you have a server setup issue.
- What does "I have a problem" mean? Exact error message, or result please
- Have you used the .htaccess Maker?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:17 CDT

user39895
Not sure if this is a server issue, but I have seen in research that the creation of a strong htaccess can cause a problem with SEF related redirect.

The error on a choice of any of the menu items is:
"No input file specified."

As soon as I turn off Core Joomla SEF that error is gone.

I am not sure if the htaccess file, or the extension itself would make a difference. I can rename the htaccess and uninstall the component as a test, I suppose.

I did use the htaccess builder, and have it verbatim in the file. The only thing I commented out, which has caused errors on both servers I have tried it on is the "Options" line:

##### No directory listings -- BEGIN
IndexIgnore *
#Options All -Indexes
##### No directory listings -- END

If you would like to see the file, please change this to private. Also, the only components I have installed on this site right now, are admin tools, and rsforms pro

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:20 CDT

user39895
Also I have some random image gallery extensions. I forgot to mention that, sorry.

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:20 CDT

nicholas
What you say would only be related to Admin Tools only if a specific feature of a specific component didn't work. Please note that this applies to features which try to access arbitrary .php files on the server. Joomla! SEF URLs are handled JUST FINE by .htaccess Maker because, unsurprisingly, we use Joomla!'s own .htaccess code to handle them. This why I asked my questions.

The "No input file specified" probably means that you have a server setup issue, but let's check anyway. If you suspect an issue with the .htaccess file, replace its contents with the contents of the stock htaccess.txt file shipped with every version of Joomla!. If you are on GoDaddy please wait for 1-30 minutes for the changes to be effective. Then, retry loading the problem page. If you can still reproduce the error, then it is not caused by .htaccess Maker.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:21 CDT

nicholas
PS Let's try to tackle one problem at a time :) We'll begin with the SEF URLs and then move onwards. OK?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:23 CDT

user39895
I am in the process of following your recommendation right now. Here is a possibly related interesting forum post:
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?t=594932

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:30 CDT

user39895
It looks like the name change of htaccess is not the cause. This specific site is on godaddy, but I believe the file name change has taken effect.

I can write a problem causing line into the file (htaccess) and try to load the page with a failure. Then I comment out that line and the site loads.

Exceptions?

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:32 CDT

user39895
My guess is that you may want to blame this on the host.... :(

That is entirely possible, however this is not the first time I have run an SEF setup on this host. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:33 CDT

nicholas
Ah, GoDaddy! You should have told me. You said "BlueHost" in your original message. I have seen that again and I may have a suggestion. You'll have to edit the $live_site variable in your configuration.php file, but I will need to know the exact URL of your site.

Also note that on GoDaddy, unlike all other hosts, .htaccess changes take 10-30 MINUTES to be applied. Right now your changed .htaccess is probably not taken into effect yet. Moreover, if you're not hosting your site in the root of the domain but in a subdirectory you will not be able to use SEF URLs. Yes, that's one more stupid thing GoDaddy does...

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:42 CDT

user39895
Ok, this one is in the root. This is not my own site, that one I followed your recommendations and moved elsewhere. Unfortunately that is not something I can do on this one.

I am so sorry about typing bluehost in there, I am bouncing between three sites here and I made a mistake.

I was just looking at this: http://support.godaddy.com/groups/go-daddy-online-security/forum/topic/mod_rewrite-not-support-in-godady/

Did a quick find in this site's htaccess, and mod_rewrite is not in it.

However, and quick attempt at the same setup between the site on bluehost, and the site on godaddy, nets that I can use the core joomla SEF without error on bluehost.

I should never question you....


url of this site is: www.bbshandymanservices.com

configuration.php line at this point is:
public $live_site = '';

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:44 CDT

nicholas
I should never question you....

LOL! I am usually right, but not always. Thanks anyway :)

OK, let's edit the $live_site and make it read: 
public $live_site = 'http://www.bbshandymanservices.com';
Does that help?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:45 CDT

user39895
For this test, would you like me to retain the stock joomla htaccess file, or change back to the admintools one?

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:46 CDT

nicholas
Try the stock .htaccess file with one twist. Change this line 
# RewriteBase /
to 
RewriteBase /
(remove the hash sign in front of the line)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 11:46 CDT

nicholas
And, of course, since this is GoDaddy, wait 30 minutes before retrying to load a page.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 12:05 CDT

user39895
No love... :(

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 12:53 CDT

user39895
nicholas, I got it, but I don't understand why it works. Here is the explanation

The htaccess files are both created by the admin tool, and are nearly identical (different domains)

Godaddy host site:
Configuration #1
Global Configuration>SEO Settings
Search Engine Friendly URLs - ON
Use URL rewriting - ON
RESULT - No Error

Configuration #2
Global Configuration>SEO Settings
Search Engine Friendly URLs - ON
Use URL rewriting - OFF
RESULT - Error


Bluehostt site:
Configuration #1
Global Configuration>SEO Settings
Search Engine Friendly URLs - ON
Use URL rewriting - ON
RESULT - No Error

Configuration #2
Global Configuration>SEO Settings
Search Engine Friendly URLs - ON
Use URL rewriting - OFF
RESULT - No Error

Any idea as to why this is making a difference on Godaddy?

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 12:54 CDT

nicholas
GoDaddy is a terrible host. They have very bizarre server configuration and they don't properly support most features required by modern web applications. Well, the explanation is that GoDaddy is being GoDaddy, i.e. consistently lousy. I'd seriously recommend migrating the site to a proper host.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 12:56 CDT

user39895
I will see if I can convince this client to do so. At least this is working and I can move forward. Thank you for attempts to fix something that was not a result of your component setup.

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 12:59 CDT

nicholas
You're welcome!

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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