Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Wednesday, 01 June 2016 00:33 CDT

lt635

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:

After updating Akeeba to 5.0+ I keep getting the following error on all sites I have tried to upgrade:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Akeeba\Backup\Admin\Dispatcher\Dispatcher::onBeforeDispatchViewAliases() in /home/ltwomey/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/Dispatcher/Dispatcher.php on line 73

I first updated to 4.7.2 before the 5.0.4 became available.

Thanks
Regards
Lene

Wednesday, 01 June 2016 00:55 CDT

nicholas

You need to download and install Akeeba Backup Professional's ZIP file twice in a row on your site, without uninstalling Akeeba Backup before or in between. This will work around a Joomla! bug that affects about 5% of all updates ever since Joomla! 1.5.5 (not a typo: one point five point five, back in 2007): if the new version has major folder structure differences to the old version Joomla! will sometimes forget to copy files / folders, causing random issues. Installing twice in a row fixes that.

The exact mechanism that triggers this Joomla! bug is still unknown. Several developers, including me, have witnessed it happening but were unable to reproduce it reliably enough to debug it.

However, I do NOT recommend running Akeeba Backup 5.0.4. There are known bugs. Yesterday I released 5.1.0.b2 which solves the last remaining issues. I plan releasing 5.1.0 on Friday or Monday at the latest. Please use 5.1.0.b2, it's much more stable than 5.0.4.

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, 01 June 2016 01:52 CDT

lt635

Hi Nicholas,

Is it best to just leave it at v4.7.2 until 5.1.0 is released?

Thanks
Regards
Lene

Wednesday, 01 June 2016 06:10 CDT

nicholas

I advise against that. Going back to 4.x is not possible without uninstalling Akeeba Backup. If you do that you will lose all existing backups and all your settings. 5.1.0.b2 is actually more stable than either 4.7 or 5.0.

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, 05 June 2016 17:55 CDT

lt635

Thanks for that. I re-installed 4.x after the failed 5.0.4 update, obviously did the wrong thing... I will download and install 5.1.0.b2.

Sunday, 05 June 2016 18:51 CDT

lt635

Hello,

I just installed version 5.1.0.b2 on a website, when I try to go to Akeeba Backup is gives me the following error"

The iceboxliquor.com.au page isn’t working

iceboxliquor.com.au is currently unable to handle this request.

HTTP ERROR 500

The site is running on Joomla 3.5.1 and PHP Version 5.4.45.

Can I just re-install the 4.7.2 over the 5+ installation and run setup configuration?

Thanks
Regards
Lene

Sunday, 05 June 2016 18:54 CDT

lt635

I will have to uninstall and re-install the 4.7.2 version. But there is obviously a problem with the new version on some servers so probably worth reporting....

Edited by lt635 on 2016-06-05 18:55 CDT

Sunday, 05 June 2016 23:41 CDT

nicholas

I believe that the problem is your PHP version. Do not trust what cPanel reports: that is the PHP version cPanel runs under, not necessarily the PHP version your site runs under.

Please go to your site's administrator back-end, System, System Information and click on the PHP Information tab to the far right. You will see the PHP version in big, bold, black letters right under the big PHP logo. Example:

If the version listed there is not 5.4 or later ask your host for further information on enabling PHP 5.4, 5.5 or 5.6 (PREFERRED) on your site. Usually it's something like go to cPanel, click on PHP Versions, select the public_html directory, select 5.6 and then repeat the same thing for the administrator directory (the last bit is important, many servers require you to also set the PHP version on the administrator directory for this to work).

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!

Monday, 06 June 2016 23:40 CDT

lt635

Hello,

That is where I checked and it says PHP Version 5.4.45.

I am sure the hosting has a php selector. Do you know if changing the PHP version would affect Joomla in general?

Regards
Lene

Tuesday, 07 June 2016 03:03 CDT

nicholas

OK, now that we've ruled out the PHP version we can try something else. As I said in my first post you have to install the new version twice in a row. I know it sounds odd but no, you must not skip this very important step. If you don't do that you have ended up in a situation where Joomla! has half-installed Akeeba Backup on your site. Remember, this is the problem you had in your original post and this is the solution in my first reply.

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, 07 June 2016 19:15 CDT

lt635

Hi Nicholas,

I just installed the Akeeba Backup 5.1.0 through the Joomla update, the I installed it again another two times through normal install and I still received the following error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Akeeba\Backup\Admin\Dispatcher\Dispatcher::onBeforeDispatchViewAliases() in /home/irlendys/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/Dispatcher/Dispatcher.php on line 73

Then I tried to install 5.1.0.b2 twice and again I received the following error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Akeeba\Backup\Admin\Dispatcher\Dispatcher::onBeforeDispatchViewAliases() in /home/irlendys/public_html/administrator/components/com_akeeba/Dispatcher/Dispatcher.php on line 73

When I first go to Akeeba Backup after install it looks fine, but as soon as I click on Backup Now or refresh the screen it comes up with white screen and the error. I have tried to clear expired items but it makes no difference.

(PHP Version 5.4.45)

Regards
Lene

Tuesday, 07 June 2016 20:58 CDT

nicholas

Having handled your ticket I actually did test against PHP 5.4.45 and cannot reproduce this issue. Also note that nobody else has reported this issue.

The only explanation that I have is that you are the victim of PHP opcode caching. Please ask your host how you can clear any PHP opcode caches. If that still doesn't help please try using a different PHP version: your host should allow you to use PHP 5.6 just fine.

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, 08 June 2016 00:14 CDT

lt635

Hi Nicholas,

All the websites I have tried updating is using the same hosting server. I will look into it and get back to you with feedback.

Thank you
Regards
Lene

Wednesday, 08 June 2016 01:43 CDT

nicholas

Thank you, Lene.

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, 08 June 2016 01:51 CDT

nicholas

Another thing which may be of importance. Go to Extensions, Manage, Manage. In the search box type FOF30 and click on the magnifying glass icon next to the field. What is the Version and Date displayed for the search result? It should normally be 3.0.10 and 2016-05-06 08:59:53. If you get this problem with this version and date please download the FOF 3 installable ZIP package and install it on your site twice in a row, without uninstalling it first.

The thinking behind this: Joomla sometimes forgets to copy files when updating an extension. This also applies to libraries like FOF 3. Installing twice in a row fixes that issue. With Akeeba Backup you just have to install the package twice. However, even though FOF 3 is included in Akeeba Backup's package it is only installed if it's either not installed at all or out of date. When FOF 3.0.10 is already installed it won't be attempted to be reinstalled. Therefore installing Akeeba Backup's package twice doesn't let you work around a half-updated FOF 3. This is why you need to install FOF 3 itself twice. Now that I'm thinking about it I will change the behaviour of the package to always attempt to reinstall the existing version of FOF 3 even if it's already installed.

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, 08 June 2016 19:29 CDT

lt635

Hi Nicholas,

It must have been an issue with the PHP version. I changed the PHP version through cPanel to 5.6, the two websites now running on PHP version 5.6.22. I installed Akeeba Backup v5.1.0 twice, no errors showing and I performed a backup without issues. I have not tried to restore the site from backup at this stage, I will in near future.

Thank you for your support!!

Regards
Lene

Thursday, 09 June 2016 00:26 CDT

nicholas

We have tracked the problem down to the use of eAccelerator's opcode caching. The eAccelerator project is dead since 2012 and its last official release was back in 2010. Unfortunately eAccelerator does NOT support the new PHP language features added in PHP 5.4 and later – even though misguided hosts can still idiotically compile it and moronically enable it by default on their unfortunate clients' sites. Of course this obliterates any chance of running any semi-modern PHP code which uses PHP 5.4 features, like our component. Since Joomla and most third party extensions don't use such features you had never noticed this problem before.

My suggestion is to look for a host that actually knows what they are doing. There is no excuse for running broken code, abandoned four years ago, on a production machine. If they have screwed up something as basic as this I really don't want to know how borked the rest of their server setup is. My advice is run, run away, run as fast as you can. Unfortunately I haven't used any hosts down under myself so I can't really advise you where to go to. Sorry :(

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!

Thursday, 09 June 2016 18:19 CDT

lt635

That does not sound good. Thanks for your feedback.

Regards
Lene

Support