Support

Hi

I'm a complete novice, so apologies if this is a simple problem, but I have no clue at all what to do about it :(

I have a Joomla site which I have constructed offline on localhost. I am now trying to transfer it to my web host's server to get it online.

I have followed all the instructions to use Kickstart, and everything works fine, up until the point here you 'push the big green button'.

If I select the 'Use FTP' option, I get the error message 'Wrong FTP or Port' in red. The initial configuration was for localhost and port 21, which didn't work - so I tried setting the FTP settings to exactly the same as they are in Filezilla (which I used to FTP Kickstart.php and the zipped backup file to the root directory) - but that didn't make any difference either.

If I select the 'write directly to file' option, I get a step further - after a few seconds, the screen changes to the 'do not close this window...' screen - but when I click on the link to open Joomlapack installer restore script, I get a page not found (HTTP 404) error message. (It is trying to access http://www.MYWEBSITE.com/installation/index.php at this point).


Can anyone help me with this? I've been trying to get this site online all day, but with no success - It looked like kickstart was going to fianlly help me do it, but no such luck so far!

Thanks in advance

Andy

Andy,

Kickstart in ftp mode is probably what we need. Entering the settings as they are in FileZilla is probably a good plan. The place where it went wrong is probably the path. FileZilla's "root" is likely not the root of the site, so just / isn't the right path there. Look at the location that FileZilla first shows you, what do you need to add to that path to get to where kickstart.php is? That is what goes in Kickstart's path field.

"Plan B" is to install the Native Tools archive from our Downloads page and extract the archive locally, then ftp the files up to the site. This is more time consuming, but it may be faster than fighting with kickstart if you need to get the site online. If you do it this way, you will be redirected to the install script when you load the site and you will have to manually delete the /installation folder when the installation is complete.

Thanks for the advice...

I solved that problem - used the FTP host address from Filezilla and the standard Port 21 instead of the one Filezilla uses (I thought I tried that before, but clearly not!) ... However, the next step then gives me a whole ton of error messages, none of which I can even begin to understand. So it's pretty clear that Kickstart isn't going to be the solution for me!

So - Plan B it is! Currently in the process of extracting the archive using Native Tools as recommended, and I'll try FTPin them up to the server... Thanks for the help!

Andy

Ok, latest problem - I tried using the eXtract utility (the latest version, downloaded from the website) - but it doesn't work.

I select the archive to be extracted (it's a fresh backup, just downloaded) and click 'next' - I get the 'eggtimer' but nothing happens (the progress bar remains empty).

After about five minutes, an error message appears in a popup, saying 'TProgressBar property out of range'. When I click on 'OK', the popup disappears and I am left with the eXtractor window, with the bottom commands greyed out and nothing happening at all.

I can't extract the archive using the standard windows .Zip extractor (it says the file is corrupt) or using 7Zip (it says 'cannot extract file [...] as archive )

Can you please advise me on how to get the eXtractor utility to work?

Alternatively, the screenshot on the link below is the error message I get when trying to use Kickstart - Any idea what's happening there?!

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1446/screenhunter02sep012025.gif

Hi Kick start has worked and I can access my joomla admin area fine, however the site is completely messed up!

Take a look:
fightingfantasy.com

It should look like
test.fightingfantasy.com

Any ideas?

That is a $live_site problem. Check the value of the variable in the configuration.php file. If it is blank, add the url address of your site, if it has your test address in it, delete it and leave just the two single quotes.

Joomla! 1.5.x generally doesn't need that variable filled in, but it can't point to the wrong address. On a few servers, Joomla! has trouble figuring out the address and needs the $live_site variable. Your site is what it looks like when it is wrong. :D

Any suggestions for my problem? I still can't get either Kickstart OR eXtract working...? Thanks! Andy

Andy, my apologies, I missed your new posts last night. :oops:

The "foreach()" error is a bug in kickstart 2.3, you need to upgrade to 2.3.2 on our downloads page. It worries me that eXtract wouldn't extract the archive locally, but let's give the latest kickstart a try.

I'm using Kickstart 2.3.2 - I thought I was as I only downloaded it a couple of days ago, but I re-downloaded now to make sure... and the same error message occurs. I've also reinstalled the latest version of Joompack and taken a fresh backup... Not sure what's happening really!

SUCCESS! - at least partially!

I've successfully uploaded and extracted the archive using the Cpanel on my host (FatCow) - I wasn't aware you could do that as they don't make it at all clear how to do it!

However - when i follow the enxt step in the instructions - typing the installation address into the URL bar ( http://www.newfuturesorganisation.com/installation/index.php ) I receive this error message :

The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

The script had an error or it did not produce any output. If there was an error, you should be able to see it in the error log.

Apparently it's a 500 internal server error.

I'm not sure where to find the error log - otherwise I'd attach it! The only file I can find called 'logs' contains an empty index.php file and nothing else.

Edit - I renamed the htaccess file - It was already called htaccess.txt but I renamed it to something completely different just to be sure. Makes no difference, I still get the above error.

Edit 2 - An idea I just had - I currently have an old (very basic, non-joomla) version of the site uploaded and running at that address - Do I need to remove this first before installing the new version? Could this be what is causing the problem?

I would expect a non-Joomla! site to affect the Joomla! site after the installation. If you call just the site url, www.newfuturesorganisation.com, it will execute an index.html file before an index.php file, so the old site would come up. The installation script is calling specific files in specific locations, so I don't think the install would be affected by the existing site.

The 500 error would be logged in the server error log. This is probably not going to be stored on your site. It would be available through your cpanel or some other host level access. The instructions to access it may be in your host's FAQ list. The error log is different from the access log, the two are frequently mixed up.

The error log appears not to have been created. Through the Cpanel, I can find the access logs but nothing else; and by looking at the directory through Filezilla I can find various usage logs and something called 'Webalizer.hist' - but the only reference to error logs is a flie called cgi_error_log which consists of 0 bytes and was last modified on May 7th!

I'm trying to contact FatCow (the host) to find out more, but unfortunately their responses are usually very slow :-(

Ok, I got a rreply very quickly form FatCow, who told me where to find the error logs - however, the log is empty. Nothing there. Looking again at the error message I got, it does say 'IF' there was an error - so presumably there wasn't, and it's something else?!

Is there any other way to get my site online if this isn't going to work? I dont understand why Kickstart will not work for me when it clearly does for other people - I'm using the latest version and i'm following the instructions to the letter, so not sure what's going wrong?!

SUCCESS AT LAST!!! :mrgreen:

I finally made Kickstart work by clearing the cache and then using the 'write directly to files' method instead of using FTP.

the Joomlapack Installer 4 is very easy to use and the instruction guide is excellent - easy to follow (other than my ignorance and lack of technical knowledge meaning I had to take a guess at the root directory, but luckily I got it right!)

One final question - As mentioned before, I currently have an old, non-Joomla site uploaded to the server, and as you pointed out this does load ahead of the new Joomla version.

To make it load the joomla site, do I simply need to delete or disable the old index.html file? or would I need to uninstall the old pages entirely?

(I can get to the Joomla site by adding /index.php to the end of the address - useful as I can leave the old version running while I tweak and edit settings on the new site and let a few other people know how to access it and give their opinion!)

I'm glad you got it beaten into submission! :D

Yes to both questions. You can disable the old site by deleting or renaming the index.html file. And in the mean time, you can get to the Joomla! site by adding index.php to the address.

Thanks so much for your help - Really useful, I was pretty much banging my head against the wall the other day!

Joomlapack is a great program, best of luck with it in the future!

Don't bang your head. That's why we have a support forum. Don't worry about asking simple questions, I like easy questions. :lol: