Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

merz1 · 2011-04-26 14:46:28

@Marjolein Hi, nice to meet you here. You might know me from identi.ca/m1. That said … welcome to Textpattern :)

As your post really is pretty long & specific I would recommend to copy & paste the content into its own thread (and only leave a link here in the original post). The title could be:

TXP 4.4.0 installation issues: TXP symlink, multi-site install, admin in subdomain

PS: I can’t help because I have an old installation without all those fancy features you try to use. But helpful people and the developer team is around :)

Edit: Argh, as always, having the tab sit open for a couple of minutes and the crowd jumps on the issue(s) like crazy frogs. I still think a new thread would help to avoid cluttering this thread :)

Last edited by merz1 (2011-04-26 14:53:37)

marjoleink · 2011-04-26 15:11:46

Thank you for the extensive reply, Ruud!

ruud wrote:

PS. I’m not responding to the multi-site stuff, since that was added after I left the development team and I’m not familiar with that part of the code.

Taking this first — I understand. However quite a few problems I reported actually are a result of the fact the installer and the admin area are not fully ‘aware’ of the multi-site installation. I’ll explain further below.

ruud wrote:

marjoleink wrote:
Since the instructions mentioned symlinks here and there I uploaded the archive to the server and unpacked it there, resulting in a ‘textpattern-4.4.0’ folder. I created a symlink to that called ‘textpattern’ so that in principle a future update could live in its own folder and I’d only have to update the symlink (and copy over the sites directory tree, of course).

Don’t forget to copy the config.php file to the folder containing the latest TXP version.

Good point – but what I mentioned is a multi-site refinement: the “sites directory tree” I mention is where the code for each site resides, and it’s located within the main textpattern directory. Each site will have its configuration file within [path]/textpattern/sites/[sitename]/private. Copy over the whole tree to the new install, and it will pick up the configuration files for each of the installed sites

ruud wrote:

marjoleink wrote:
2. Worse: Going to my new site’s homepage, I saw a bunch of errors referring to database problems; the partial page below that was completely unstyled (raw HTML).

I think those are “normal”. They disappear after logging in on the admin side.

The quotes are telling. :) Those warnings/errors may be normal for an experienced Textpattern user, but it would be nice if the installer gave a clue this was/might be going to happen. I didn’t see any such warning and was quite taken aback after an install that progressed so smoothly.

ruud wrote:

marjoleink wrote:
Web Domain DNS lookup fails: nul.lt ?
What is it using for DNS lookup?? The domain resolves fine for me – and actually (as a result of mentioning the domain on identi.ca) Yahoo’s crawler has found it already, too. I know it may not have fully propagated yet, but I wonder where it gets this result…

TXP simply uses a PHP function to lookup the domain name. Domain propagation could be a problem, but it’s also possible that the server itself cannot perform DNS lookups due to misconfiguration.

marjoleink wrote:
Clean URL test failed.
Very odd – because it does seem to be working on my home page! How does it come to this conclusion? It’s obviously wrong.

DNS lookup again. TXP tries to fetch a test URL but fails if it cannot lookup the domain name.

Thank you, this is very useful information. I’ll have to do some tests whether the problem is indeed on my server’s end. It might well be since the VPS is running its own DNS (though I did not originally set it up – it came with the system).

ruud wrote:

marjoleink wrote:

The .htaccess shown is what I created based on the diagnostics suggestion. I note hhowever it’s different from the one in the installation folder. Why?

I always use the .htaccess that comes with TXP. Usually there’s no need to create one manually.

This is a multi-side issue again:

For a single-site setup, there’s a .htaccess file in the textpattern directory, and (as I now know) a .htaccess-dist in the textpattern/files folder. But for a multi-site setup these need to be in the appropriate places inside the textpattern/sites tree. They aren’t there to begin with, and because the installer is not multi-site ‘aware’, it doesn’t copy them from the original location either. So 1) it suggests a .htaccess (which then should be placed in textpattern/sites/[sitename]/public) but which is different from the .htaccess file in textpattern/; and 2) it doesn’t suggest (let alone copy) anything for textpattern/sites/[sitename]/public/files

I’m suggesting it would probably not be hard to make the installer multi-site ‘aware’ and once it is, to copy those files to where they need to be (for the current site) in the sites tree.

(During the installation I was not even aware there’s supposed to be a .htaccess-dist in the Files folder — until I started reading through this thread when I encountered these problems.)

ruud wrote:

marjoleink wrote:

On the first screen of the installation, the installer asks for the Site URL. At this point, the installer also “knows” where it’s running, and could ask for (and even suggest) the Admin URL. This information could then be used to generate the helpful links in the default home page.

Good idea.

Thank you. :)

I have yet to look at the code, but I have a feeling it would not be too hard to use something like this to make the installer ‘multi-site’ aware. Supplemented with a a few extra rows in the prefs table, of course!

Cheers,

marjoleink · 2011-04-26 15:44:32

merz1 wrote:

@Marjolein Hi, nice to meet you here. You might know me from identi.ca/m1. That said … welcome to Textpattern :)

Yes, I remember you – came across you earlier somewhere else around here (themes? plugins? can’t remember) and recognized you immediately as a fellow denter :) I’ve been denting quite a bit lately of my CMS selection and trialling adventures – try my notices tagged with textpattern to get an idea ;)

merz1 wrote:

As your post really is pretty long & specific I would recommend to copy & paste the content into its own thread (and only leave a link here in the original post). The title could be:

TXP 4.4.0 installation issues: TXP symlink, multi-site install, admin in subdomain

Well, it seemed this thread was intended specifically for feedback on the 4.4.0 release, which is why I appended it here. If the forum admins think it should be its own thread, I don’t mind if it gets moved. Hey, I’m new here! :) I’ll go with the flow.

Edit: Argh, as always, having the tab sit open for a couple of minutes and the crowd jumps on the issue(s) like crazy frogs. I still think a new thread would help to avoid cluttering this thread :)

Happens to me too – while I’m typing a reply to a reply another reply comes in… That gives a good feeling. (I left two posts on the Jojo CMS forum two days ago and have yet to see a reaction…)

If I’m going to stick with Textpattern (no real negatives so far!) I’m going to dive in deep and will need to create a plugin (or more) for what I’m planning to do – I’m sure I’ll need help with that at first, and an active and helpful community will then be very important.

Cheers,

Last edited by marjoleink (2011-04-26 15:48:14)

merz1 · 2011-04-26 16:15:56

Well, it seemed this thread was intended specifically for feedback on the 4.4.0 release, which is why I appended it here. If the forum admins think it should be its own thread, I don’t mind if it gets moved. Hey, I’m new here! :) I’ll go with the flow.

No pun intended. You are absolutely right (here) but your feedback is worth to have its own thread as the issues are pretty complex & specific. It will be easier for users having the same issues to find the solution(s)/answer(s) instead of combing through a generic feedback thread.

Take my remark as a compliment for your detailed original post :)

(This forum like many others hides many solutions to complex problems inside pretty lengthy threads.)

[OT] .@all I am collecting some Textpattern solutions in my public Zotero group. Feel free to join the group and add/archive valuable content like specific comment links which offer a specific TXP solution :)

Last edited by merz1 (2011-04-26 16:22:56)

marjoleink · 2011-04-26 16:57:43

merz1 wrote:

Take my remark as a compliment for your detailed original post :)

Thank you :)

(This forum like many others hides many solutions to complex problems inside pretty lengthy threads.)

I’m sure! It has a good search function though (and I’ve already used that). ;)

[OT] .@all I am collecting some Textpattern solutions in my public Zotero group. Feel free to join the group and add/archive valuable content like specific comment links which offer a specific TXP solution :)

I have nothing to add for now, but that looks useful. Thanks for that link: added to my growing collection of Textpattern bookmarks!

Cheers,

maverick · 2011-04-26 21:02:57

Welcome marjoleink

Multi-site Install Quirks is a thread I started in an effort to collect and collate the various issues Multi-sites present, as well as tips, work-arounds, etc. Feel free to add specific ideas, suggestions, etc. there if you like.

Last edited by maverick (2011-04-26 21:04:01)

marjoleink · 2011-04-26 21:52:48

maverick wrote:

Welcome marjoleink

Multi-site Install Quirks is a thread I started in an effort to collect and collate the various issues Multi-sites present, as well as tips, work-arounds, etc. Feel free to add specific ideas, suggestions, etc. there if you like.

Thanks, maverick! I will do that (but tomorrow, it’s almost midnight and my brain needs a rest :))

Cheers,

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#106 2011-04-26 14:46:28

Re: Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

#107 2011-04-26 15:11:46

Re: Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

#108 2011-04-26 15:44:32

Re: Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

#109 2011-04-26 16:15:56

Re: Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

#110 2011-04-26 16:57:43

Re: Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

#111 2011-04-26 21:02:57

Re: Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

#112 2011-04-26 21:52:48

Re: Feedback for the Textpattern 4.4.0 release

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