Support

Description of my issue:

Hi I have unzipped the files then ran the wizard - but all I get is error messages.

This is the website - www.radicalviews.org -

It was on Joomla 2.5, Akeeba latest version, PHP = 5, MSSQL

I am newbie, please help

regards

Yamin

Yamin,

It would be helpful if you told me what error messages you are getting. I can not help if I do not know what is wrong.

Dale

HI

This is it - hence I posted the site address -

Warning: require_once(/home/radicalviews/public_html/media/plg_jblibrary/includes/defines.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/radicalviews/public_html/plugins/system/jblibrary/jblibrary.php on line 23 Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '/home/radicalviews/public_html/media/plg_jblibrary/includes/defines.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') in /home/radicalviews/public_html/plugins/system/jblibrary/jblibrary.php on line 23

My apologies, I thought the install wizard was giving the errors.

The error indicates that the file is missing or can not be read. Are you able to log in to the back end of your site? When you unzipped the backup archive, did you get any errors? What did you use to extract the archive?

Dale

HI

HI


No I cant log on at the back -

When I unzipped the latest one I got error, so I went back couple of version. I used Akeeba extractor and uploaded the contents using FTP. Then ran the wizard and it went through.

Then I got the error.

This is the first time I am using this product.

Regards

Yamin

Yamin,

Are you restoring over the files of an existing site or is the site empty when you start? If you are restoring over existing files, we need to delete the files first and start with a clean slate.

Does the file '/home/radicalviews/public_html/media/plg_jblibrary/includes/defines.php' exist? You can check this with your ftp client. Log into the site with ftp, find your public_html folder and from there find the rest of the path. If the file exists, we need to restart and use Kickstart's ftp mode. This changes the way the file permissions are set.

Dale

Hi

No I only created the site in cpanel - it was empty, not even Joomla was installed.

Then I unzip the backup, uploaded it and went through the wizard.

As for the file, the plg_jblibrary is missing.

Is it possible we can do this process again using the latest backup but that has two sets of files.
*.jo1 and a *.jp1 - so how do I do it from this. Do I need to unzip both of them?

Regards

Yamin

Ah! You are using a split archive, it is broken into multiple parts. The main part is .jpa, or .jps. This would be the smallest part. The remaining parts would be sequential, .j01, .j02, etc. and the file sizes would all be the same. There should not be a .jp1 file. All of the parts of the archive file must be in the same folder in order to extract them. Akeeba eXtract Wizard will automatically extract all of the parts, you don't have to do them one by one.

You extracted the archive to your local computer before you uploaded the files using ftp, is the file '/media/plg_jblibrary/includes/defines.php' present on your local computer? If the file is on your local computer, we have an upload problem. If it is not there, we have an extraction problem.

Dale

HI

I have the backup file - the jpa file is 251,436 and the j01 file is
444,485

This appeared on my last backup, previous ones were single file. I assumed the splitting was automatic caused by the increase in the size of the file. Anyway, when I tried to extract it, I got an error message saying "Invalid Archive", a screen shot of that is also attached,

Then went to the previous one - that said file was truncated or something. Use binary mode to download via FTP.

So, then I went to the back up before that and it extracted successfully. But the directory plg__jblibrary is missing.

I then went to the previous which also extracted successfully but the above plg_jblibrary is also missing

Please advise.

Yamin

I can not explain why that folder is missing from the backup. It is possible to exclude a folder from a backup, we do that sometimes for large folders that slow down the backup or make it too large. But it is not possible to do it accidentally. The truncated archive is probably missing the .j01 file. The invalid archive format is a corrupt file, it usually happens when moving the file from one computer to another.

The plg_jblibrary folder looks like some kind of slide show. That is a wild guess based on very little evidence. If you are using a slide show module on your site, unpublish the module and see if your site will load. If the site will load, we may be able to re-install the slide show extension and be back in business.

The fact that I don't know why that folder is missing makes me very nervous. I also don't know what else may be missing.

//The invalid archive format is a corrupt file, it usually happens when moving the file from one computer to another.//

Is this because I downloaded by clicking the backup using HTTP? Then how should I download them in the future? Using FTP binary mode t ransfer?

//The plg_jblibrary folder looks like some kind of slide show. That is a wild guess based on very little evidence. If you are using a slide show module on your site, unpublish the module and see if your site will load. If the site will load, we may be able to re-install the slide show extension and be back in business. //

Yes, I did have a slide show. But I how can I unpublish the module when I am trying to restore the site? After going through the wizard - I get error message, even if I try to access the backend. Please advise.

Clicking the archive in the Administer Backups screen almost always works. Almost. Nicholas would love to remove that download feature altogether but his customers would boil him in oil if he did. We recommend that you download your backups via FTP in binary mode. Binary mode is important because ASCII mode will damage the archive. In Auto mode, FTP has to guess which mode to use, so you never know.

I could not see from rereading the thread if you could get to the back end or not. So we can not do what I had in mind.

Does the original site that you backed up still exist? Is it possible to FTP that folder up to the restored site?

What is the name of the slideshow extension that you are using?

//
Does the original site that you backed up still exist? Is it possible to FTP that folder up to the restored site?//

Yes I have a raw backup and I can that missing directory, so I will try it from that.

HI

Yes, I uploaded the file and now I am getting error 404 on the front page. I can also login to the back, too.

I uninstalled the module adn the compoenent for the slide show but stil no joy.

Maybe you can have a look at the back end?

Althernatively, is there a way I can extract the contents - the atrticles etc. And build a fresh site.

Regards

Yamin

HI

Also can I upload the raw backup that I did with FTP? Then I am worried out missing files and folders in other directories.

Yamin

Yes, go ahead and upload the files via FTP. You can set it not to upload existing files, that will be quicker. That may also solve our 404.

HI

That seems to have done the trick. BUt I am not sure if all the files are present and site is stable. Is there way to check for this after restore?

OK, what if I want to move the content to a new version of Joomla (2.5 to 3.0)? Do you know how that can be done using Akeeba?

Also, how is it best to test the data? I have spare domains, shall I use them and see if it works?

Regards

Yamin

There is really no way to verify the site at this point. You can do a before and after comparison with our SiteDiff program, but we don't have a "Before" to compare to, so that won't help. The best we can do at this point is to go through various pages and make sure you don't get any more 404 errors.

You can not upgrade your Joomla! version using Akeeba Backup. Think about it for a minute, you can restore your site to a bare host using Akeeba. So no matter what version of Joomla! is installed on the host, your restore process is going to overwrite it and you will end up with the version you backed up. That is not 100% true, but it is close enoubh for this discussion.

HI

OK - then tell us how I can test the backup - this experience has taught me now (LOL). Its time to look at the future.

Should I use a dummy domain and unzip the file there? But will the links work? Because a articles will have say http://www.domainx.com/article and in the test domain, domainx will be domainz.

Regards

Yamin

I am sorry, I was thinking of "test" in another context. Yes, you can restore the site to a spare domain, or even use a local server or an IP address for your test.

The articles don't actually exist on your site as pages, they are stored in your database and created by Joomla! on the fly. The articles themselves would use the url of the current site. You can run into problems with images, for example, if you have used an absoute url instead of a relative url. For example, http://www.domainx.com/images/sample.jpg would pull the image from the live site, where just /images/sample.jpg used in the article would pull from the test site.

Some extension software stores absolute paths in their configuration files. Older vesions of DocMan and VirtueMart are examples. I believe the current vesions of both have gotten away from that practice. If you have one of them, you just have to remember to change the path when you restore to a different server.

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