Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Sunday, 16 November 2014 00:46 CST

MeGeeTee

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach a ZIP file containing your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue. If the file is over 2Mb, please upload it on your server and post a link to it.

Description of my issue:
I have been happy using the core functionality, and decided to upgrade to professional for the ability to backup to dropbox and to get the pro version of Admin Tools too. Since I upgraded I have been struggling with the menus for Akeeba Backup, sometimes the Configuration Menu only has the 3 warning messages, sometime the full menu is there. I have installed and uninstalled several times, and even recovered the full backup from before I installed the pro version, and it was still like that. I was in the process of raising a ticket to ask for help, and was signing in and out trying a few different things and getting all the information to do this with, when I realised when it works and when it doesn't

When I sign into my site as www.xxxxxx.co.za (real name hidden for privacy reasons) then it doesn't work, the configuration menu is blank and non-existent. When I sign into my domain simply as xxxxxx.co.za (ie without the www. part) then it works perfectly. I have tried this several times since I realised that, and it is consistent every time.

If I use the full domain name including the www then I cannot access the configuration menu. If I drop the www section then I can access the menu.

I dropped a screenshot into a word doc and attached for reference.

regards
MeGeeTee

Sunday, 16 November 2014 08:54 CST

nicholas

Unfortunately it is impossible to view your screenshot. A Word file is the least appropriate means of providing screenshots. I have Microsoft Office 2010 installed on my computer and it cannot open the file at all. Neither can Microsoft Word on my iPad. It would be best to provide your screenshots in JPG or PNG format.

However, after reading the description of your issue, it doesn't have anything to do with Akeeba Backup itself. This is a server / site configuration issue. The menu is rendered by Joomla! itself, not Akeeba Backup. Our component does not and can not interfere with menu rendering. The most likely causes are:

Your server requires the $live_site parameter in your Joomla! configuration.php file to be non-empty but you have left it empty.
The $live_site parameter in your Joomla! configuration.php file references the non-www URL to your site.
Your server requires the
```
RewriteBase /
```
line in your .htaccess file to be uncommented but you have either left it commented out or do not have a .htaccess file (htaccess.txt is a DIFFERENT file which is not taken into account)
You have a third party plugin, such as a SEO, SEF or security solution, which prevents access to server resources when you are accessing your site using the www URL.

Since this issue has to do with the Joomla! core code and your server / site configuration we cannot provide support. We can only provide support for our own code. I guess the best solution is to log in to your site using the non-www URL.

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!

Sunday, 16 November 2014 10:45 CST

MeGeeTee

Thanks for the feedback, I will try these and see if it resolves. What is strange for me is that I have been using Joomla for over 5 years, and have helped build several websites with it, and never had this happen to me before where an extension is dependant on the site URL to work. I will take your advice and try these various options to see if I can pin down what is causing it.

It is also strange that another site I have, hosted by the same hosting company on the same infrastructure, with the same setup, including the way that the $live_site parameter is setup, works fine using both urls. The only extension installed for security or SEO purposes is your Admin Tools one (on both sites). The only other extension on this site that is not on the other one is the jDownloads one to manage a file download area, so will try troubleshoot with that too and see if that causes any of the problems.

Attached is the jpg that shows how the entire screen is basically blank when going into the configuration menu.

I also spent a few minutes looking at the Element Inspector to see if I could figure out what was forcing the content to disappear, and in the one the entire <div id="akeebagui"> section is basically blank with no content.

The page source is simply:

<div id="akeebagui">
</div>

regards

Monday, 17 November 2014 02:17 CST

nicholas

never had this happen to me before where an extension is dependant on the site URL to work

Most extensions do not. However, there are very few extensions which do depend on the URL. For example, when you are using Admin Tools' .htaccess Maker you need to give it the correct URL and directory for your site because Apache (your web server which parses the .htaccess file) depends on it. The same goes for SEF/SEO extensions which need your "canonical" domain name to prevent duplicate content. There are even more cases but you got the picture ;)

in the one the entire <div id="akeebagui"> section is basically blank with no content.

You have almost figured out the problem yourself. So, it's not the menu which doesn't display, it's the configuration interface. This means that you have a Javascript issue. Instead of Inspect Elements try taking a look at the network requests (using Chrome instead of Internet Explorer would make this much easier). You will see a few requests having a 403 Forbidden status. This means that your server does not allow your browser to load the necessary Javascript files when using the www URL of your site.

Now, as to what causes it: your guess is as good as mine. However, I do have a viable solution. Use Admin Tools' .htaccess Maker to generate a .htaccess file for your site. In the .htaccess maker remember to set the "Redirect www and non-www addresses" to "Redirect non-www to www" and set the "Host name for HTTPS requests (without https://)" and "Host name for HTTP requests (without http://)" to your domain name WITH the www prefix.

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!

Wednesday, 19 November 2014 00:30 CST

MeGeeTee

Thanks, will work through all of this and try sort it out when I have the time. For now, I am just being selective in what domain I use to sign into the backend admin system

Regards

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