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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#34969 configuration.php Site Name, Meta Description, Etc gone on restore

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
This is a public ticket

Everybody will be able to see its contents. Do not include usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information.

Environment Information

Joomla! version
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PHP version
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Akeeba Backup version
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Latest post by on Friday, 30 April 2021 20:17 CDT

cybersalt

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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 creates copies of my J sites within the same hosting account to use as sandbox sites for testing.  These copies are always in their own subdirectory.

I back up the main site, copy the jpa file into the sandbox directory, and then restore from there. 

At one step I am offered the same db info as the live site, but I change that to the db for the sandbox site.

During the restore (and after the sandbox site is restored) the site name, meta description, and keywords are not populated during the process.

It seems to me that they should carry through from the backup. I am wondering if there is a setting I am missing or some factor I am not aware of.

Thanks

Tim

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Tim Davis

cybersalt-logo-tr.png

 

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Make sure that you are including Joomla's configuration.php file of your site in your backup, the file is named exactly configuration.php (all lowercase) and stored in the root of your site. If you have customised the name or location of this file e.g. by editing Joomla's defines.php file, or if this file merely includes a different file in a different location the restoration script cannot find and read it, therefore it cannot copy over the global configuration information normally stored in that file.

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!

cybersalt

Yes, it's right where it should be and is named as it should be.

 

Do you think it's because I am restoring to the same hosting account (different folder still) and don't go with the suggested database info, which obviously is coming from the configuration.php file, right?

 

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Tim Davis

cybersalt-logo-tr.png

 

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

No, the database information is totally irrelevant. 

Let's start from the beginning.

When you start the restoration of the site with ANGIE there's a waiting page. What happens there is that we run an XmlHttpRequest back to ANGIE which tries to load and parse the configuration.php file from the root of your site. If it fails, it loads a copy of the blank values Joomla configuration.php-dist which we ship in ANGIE itself. This is stored in your session.

When you click on Next in the Site Setup page, your database information, a new site key and the options in the Site Setup page are merged with the configuration we had read and stored in the session at the very beginning. The result goes through the same code Joomla uses in Global Configuration to produce a new configuration.php file. This file is the written to disk — or you are told this is its content, paste it yourself, if we can't write it.

What you describe tells me that reading the configuration.php file failed. As a result the blank values configuration.php-dist file was used. This would mean that any of these happened:

  • You were too impatient and didn't wait for the initial ANGIE page to load before clicking Next. This means nothing was read into the session and you are starting with a blank configuration.php file.
  • The configuration.php file was not backed up or its name is not exactly y configuration.php (character case matters, i.e. configuration.PHP is a different file which can't be read). You said this is not the case.
  • The configuration.php file does not exist in the site's root but somewhere else. You said this is not the case.
  • The configuration.php contains anything OTHER than just the JConfig class definition, e.g. an include to a different file, some other PHP code etc which would make including it in a PHP context outside Joomla to fail. You said this is not the case.
  • The file was unreadable. Check its permissions.
  • The file is otherwise corrupt.

How sure are you that the file is being backed up? If you extract the archive in a completely blank directory do you see a configuration.php file BEFORE you run the restoration (before visiting /installation/index.php)? If not, it's not being backed up.

If the file is there I am pretty sure it contains some PHP which makes it fail to load when we try to include it. The most likely cause would be that your host is using a very old PHP version (5.4 or earlier) by default whereas your site is using PHP 7.4. This mismatch could indeed cause the configuration.php file to be impossible to read.

If you could ZIP and attach your original configuration.php file I could help you determine if the file itself has something which prevents it from being read correctly. Attachments are private, even in a public ticket, i.e. only you and us will be able to see them.

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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