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Admin Tools

#17477 Layout destroyed, links don't work

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Admin Tools version
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Latest post by dlb on Thursday, 19 September 2013 14:07 CDT

relsig
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? yes
Joomla! version: 2.5.14
PHP version: 5.4.19
MySQL version: 5.5.31
Host: (optional, but it helps us help you)
Admin Tools version: 2.5.8

Description of my issue: It was quite a hassle to install the admin tool 2.5.8. The link in the mail didn't work. Error message something line it couldn't be unpacked. Installation as a component didn't work either. Manual installation then worked after switching of the System Restore Plugin.
Now the system tells me that the new Admin Tool Pro version is installed alright, but the css is missing and also all the links don't work.

I couldn't find any information either in the trouble shooting documentation nor the forum. Can you please advice?

Thank you

dlb
The css is missing and the links don't work for the entire site, or just for the Admin Tools component? My guess is that the problem is only in AT.

What manual install instructions did you follow? It sounds like something is not installed in the right place or the permissions are wrong on the files so they can't be accessed.

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

relsig
Hi Dale

Just the part on the picture misses the CSS and the links don't work. The rest of the backend and the front end are fine.

I followed these instructions https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/abinstallation.html

Regards

Roger

dlb
Roger,

Those are good instructions. Please try again, this time install Admin Tools twice without doing anything in between the installs or uninstalling the component. I've seen Nicholas recomend this several times over the past few days. It has to do with a "gotcha" in the Joomla! installer involving adding new files during a component upgrade.

Please let me know if that fixes the problem.

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

relsig
Hi Dale

How can I do that, since the latest version is installed? Can I just install from directory again or will this be prevented since I try to install the same again?

Regards

Roger

dlb
I just want you to install it again, two times, and overwrite the version that is there. Do not uninstall, that will make you lose your settings. Just install it from the directory again. There really is a method to my madness. :-)

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

relsig
Hi Dale
I installed it three to four times. Since it finds that the latest version is already installed there isn't much going on except that it tells me that everything was installed correctly. Is there a way to force a overwrite of all files?

I have two homepages with the same joomla version 2.5.14, the only difference is the php version. With the php 5.3.x version everything is ok. with php 5.4.19 there is this mess. I just found out the most of the links in Akeeba backup don't work either. (just a blank page)

I just read the article Troubleshooting instructions for February 2013 releases. I haven't tried that yet. I kind of refrain from deleting all those directories.

Is there another possibility I haven't tried yet?

Thank you

Roger

dlb
Roger,

The problem is aparently not what I thought it was. I'll ask Nicholas to take a look at this.

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

dlb
Nicholas had a different take on it. He said to follow the steps for a blank screen error. This is caused by a php error that isn't displayed on the screen, we need to increase the error display levels to be able to see the error. These are the steps to troubleshoot this type of error:

A white page or a page with a 500 Internal Server Error is, in fact, either a .htaccess issue to a PHP fatal error in disguise.

First, let's see if it is a .htaccess issue. Try renaming the .htaccess file in your site's root to htaccess.bak If there is a .htaccess file in the site's administrator directory, try renaming it as well. If that solves the problem, the issue was with a directive in your .htaccess file. We'd like to recommend you to try removing directives from your .htaccess until you find the one which causes the problem.

If that doesn't help, the error you are receiving is in fact a PHP error in disguise. First, check your server's error logs (not the access logs) immediately after visiting the page which throws the error. There should be an exact description of the PHP fatal error which occurred. Sometimes you can find the error messages in files called error_log or error.log inside the site's root and/or administrator directories. If unsure about the error log location, please consult your host. Most likely the error logs are available in your site's cPanel, Plesk control panel or similar hosting account management facility.

If your host does not give you access to the error logs and you have access to the Joomla! administrator area, please log in to your site's back-end, go to Global Configuration, click on the Server tab and set the Error Reporting to Maximum (Joomla! 1.5) or Development (Joomla! 2.x and later). Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a blank page, edit your configuration.php file and put the following code right after the final closing curly brace ( this is what a curly brace looks like --> } ) but before the closing PHP tag (it looks like ?> that is a question mark and a greater-than sign):
ini_set( 'display_errors', true );
error_reporting( E_ALL ); 
Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a white page, please remote the two lines from your configuration.php file. Edit the .htaccess file in your site's root. If you don't have a file named .htaccess create a new one. Beware that htaccess.txt is a DIFFERENT FILE and will NOT work! Add the following to the end of the file:
php_flag display_errors On
php_value error_reporting 32767
and retry loading the problem page.

If you still get a white page, remove the two lines from your .htaccess file. Now, create a file called php.ini with the following content:
display_errors=on
error_reporting=E_ALL
and upload it into your site's root and your site's administrator directory. Retry loading the problem page.

IMPORTANT: Sometimes the error won't show. Edit your configuration.php and find the line starting with public $error_reporting and set it to:
public $error_reporting = 'development';

This instructs Joomla! to enable maximum error, warnings and notices verbosity. In 99.9% of cases it will result in the error messages being shown on the browser.

If you still get a white page, delete the php.ini files your created and choose a different host. If your host doesn't allow you to debug any PHP-related issues there is no point paying them.

Please note that if you can not understand what the PHP error message means, just copy and paste it here verbatim so that we can take a look and point you to the right direction.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

relsig
Hi Dale

Thank you for your answer. I Diether following.

- renamed the .htaccess file to .htaccess.back in the joomla root, nothing happened. There isn't a .htaccess in the administrator directory.

- had a look at the error logs in the Cpanel from my hoster, I see error messages but not from Akeeba, they come from joomla mobile. None fatal error or so.

- set the debug level of joomla to development. Went to the admin tool component. The page still looks very strange. I then clicked on "repair and optimize tables". What then shows up is a blank page with the following error message on top: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected end of file in /home/samarch/www/cms.samariter-brig-glis.ch/libraries/fof/table/table.php on line 1611.

This is the exact message from the error log. [Mon Sep 16 21:16:12 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] FastCGI: server "/var/run/hcgi/14152" stderr: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected end of file in /home/samarch/www/cms.samariter-brig-glis.ch/libraries/fof/table/table.php on line 1611, referer: http://samariter-brig-glis.ch/administrator/index.php?option=com_admintools

Does this help you? Do I still have to try all this with the php.ini and the configuration.php?

Regards

Roger

dlb
Roger,

Yes, that is the answer. There was an error updating the FonF layer and it seems that reinstalling Admin Tools didn't solve it. I'll have to get together with Nicholas to find out how to fix it.

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

dlb
OK, Roger, we've got it on the run now! While Nicholas is talking about php 5.3, it applies to your 5.4 as well.

If your server is using PHP 5.3 but you get a blank page, PHP error or Internal Server Error 500

These issues can have a diverse source of root causes. The following instructions are an overkill in most cases but will solve all of the possible root causes.

Start by removing the following folders from your site:
  • libraries/fof
  • media/akeeba_strapper

If you have Admin Tools installed, also remove the following folders from your site:
  • plugins/system/admintools
  • plugins/system/atoolsupdatecheck
  • plugins/system/atoolsjupdatecheck
  • plugins/quickicon/atoolsjupdatecheck

Then you can install Admin Tools again and the damaged parts that we have deleted will be reinstalled. We're not deleting any tables, so your settings will be preserved.

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

relsig
Hi Dale

I finally managed to make it work again. Deleting all the directories and files you mentioned except the very last one, there wasn't such a directory.
I then had to install from a directory, the regular installation process didn't work.

Thanks for your help

Roger

dlb
Roger,

I'm glad you got it going! You're welcome!

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

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