Gossamer Forum
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Minor bugs
Before I forget...

1) a brief file to tell people to install via Telnet :) I tried by HTTP

2) also, on page 2 of the setup.cgi, the program did not "guess" the pages directory properly. I put the pages in two directories down ... /LinkSQL/pages and it chose just /pages. Maybe you need to ask "server root"? This is a small thing, but if you are trying to be complete :)

3) The main page screen links the "FAQ" to:

http://gossamer-threads.com/scripts/resources/

It should really link to:

http://gossamer-threads.com/scripts/resources/Links_SQL/

or

http://gossamer-threads.com/scripts/resources/Links_SQL/FAQ/


Another trivial thing, is the trailing '/' is missing from:

http://gossamer-threads.com/perl/forum

<G>

I said it was trivial!

4) Tried to re-sync the def files:

MailingIndex .. ok
MailingList .. ok
MailingListIndex .. ok
Click_Track .. failed: Failed to execute query: 'DESCRIBE devel_Click_Track' Reason: Table 'devel.devel_Click_Track' doesn't exist


NOTE.... "Click_Track" vs "ClickTrack"

5) In trying to install the Plug in again, you are given two choices:

Overwrite and Install, Overwrite and don't install.

A third option "abort" is really needed.

6)


PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
The plug in developer looks pretty cool :)

It really needs docs before it can be put to much good use. Some place to start.... I'm still working on getting a feel for the new layout.

But hitting "help" on the main page of it generates a major "file not found" error. Obviously your error trapping is working :) But that's pretty intimidating for a simple 404 error <G>

Just as I figured out all of life's answers, they changed the questions" <G>



PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


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Re: Minor bugs In reply to
BTW... the search logger variously reports it's version as 0.03, 0.04, and 1.0

PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


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Re: Minor bugs In reply to
in the nph-build file, the "backups" code seems to be missing, unless it's been moved somewhere else??

Not something I want to find out after I need them :)




PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


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Re: Minor bugs In reply to
Hi Guys,

Well after all the problems i've installed alpha6 and all works OK,

Just a small thig the Dynamic Displayed Templates i.e Yahoo etc, are giving the following unknown tags:-

site_title
date
time

havn't come accross any other problems yet, other than the ones Pugdog has mentioned above.




Regards

MDJ1
http://www.isee-multimedia.co.uk
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
Hi!

1.) It will work via HTTP. =)
2.) Can you expand? Did it just put in '/pages' for the directory? Or did it put in '/path/to/docroot/pages'? Which is what it should guess.
3.) Not if the name changes it shouldn't. ;) As for the forum, I've fixed it. Actually, that's important as it breaks cookies for some people.
4.) Fixed.
5.) Added.

Cheers,

Alex


--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
In Reply To:
But hitting "help" on the main page of it generates a major "file not found" error. Obviously your error trapping is working :) But that's pretty intimidating for a simple 404 error
Oops, fixed. The plugin help wasn't done anyways. =)

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
In Reply To:
the search logger variously reports it's version as 0.03, 0.04, and 1.0
Yes. The one that comes with .tar.gz is 0.04. The one that gets reported when you click on Show plugins on Gossamer Threads is 1.0 (it's hard coded to this), and the one you get if you download it is 0.03.

This is just testing. What will happen, is that there will be a repository of plugins on Gossamer Threads. Clicking "Show" will list all the plugins available, and versions that are newer then what you have installed, will show up green.

You can then just click to download them, and click again to install them.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
In Reply To:
Well after all the problems i've installed alpha6 and all works OK,
Did you have any problems with the install in alpha6?

As for missing tags in Yahoo templates, just copy the globals.txt file from default to yahoo folder and they will show up. This will be in the finished one.

Cheers,

Alex



--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
In Reply To:
in the nph-build file, the "backups" code seems to be missing, unless it's been moved somewhere else??
No, there is no backup yet. I'm looking at what needs to be backed up, and the best way to do it. Most likely going to use the SQL dump feature of mysqlman as it's usually the easiest way to restore.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
No Not in install,

The only thing i thought was unusual is the fact that the install script asks for installation paths, and the setup defaults to the /pages directory, i can see this could cause a lot of problems for poeple who dont bother to read the installs properly and result in a lot of duplicate dthreads in the forum,

Is there a way to pass the install information to a file to be imported into setup?



Regards

MDJ1
http://www.isee-multimedia.co.uk
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
1.) It will work via HTTP. =)
nope.... 500 server internal errors ... probably not sending content/headers

2.) Can you expand? Did it just put in '/pages' for the directory? Or did it put in '/path/to/docroot/pages'? Which is what it should guess.
yes, I set it up with my paths via telnet It just seemed odd that it did this. It got the first round of paths ok, but not the next. I really wasn't paying too much attention, since I'm used to making path changes, but I thought I'd mention it. It might be that the program doesn't specifically ask the install directory relative to the server root??

PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
In Reply To:
1.) It will work via HTTP. =)
nope.... 500 server internal errors ... probably not sending content/headers
It will work via HTTP, as in the future. =)

2. Yes, the install.cgi doesn't convey the path info to the setup.cgi as mdj1 pointed out. Strange that it defaulted to /pages though. I'll have to work on this a bit more.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: Minor bugs In reply to
That's the difference between you and me -- I'm living in the present, and you are living in the future <G> <ducking>

PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
I have a question about this. Does the new version of the links still require you to have a subdirectory to store all your category pages? For example.. is it still required to have a directory /pages vs just using the root / as the base document directory?

in the old version, that was required. Is it still required?

Thanks.

Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
Most likely yes. This is a good idea in any respect. If you ever have to remove the pages you won't affect other aspects of your site. If you are concerned about the URL, you can have users go to the main page with a simple redirect or a DirectoryIndex rule.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
Actually, I've used an 'ln -s /path/to/index.html index.html' command on some directories, and while I get some error messages in the log file every now and again, I've never not been directed to the new file.

Once a user clicks a link, the url's are re-adjusted. All my image paths and other URL's are relative to the server root, or absolute on that page, so I don't get broken images.

It's simple, and effective.

Using rewrite you could probably actually rewrite the url site.com/ to another place, but I haven't had to do that.

Just an alternative.

PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


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Re: Minor bugs In reply to
That was actually never required -- it is server dependent. I've actually yet to work on a server that requires it (for Links 2 or Links SQL), despite what everyone says...

Dan

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Re: Minor bugs In reply to
Dan

It has to to do with problems with page.cgi I think, and dynamic pages. not with static builds.

I forget what the base assumption is.... something requires something to be a subdirectory... or not the same level as something else.

PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ


Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
Have you tried setting it up building the main categories at root level? A dozen or so people have told me it's not possible for a variety of reasons -- I've even been told it wouldn't work on a specific site on a specific server (Links 2) -- and I have yet to see it not work. For that matter, I haven't run into a single problem that I can remember, even with page.cgi. I've never even had to set permissions or create the category/new/cool/etc. folders first...

Thus, my belief that it depends strictly on server setup (and I've tested this on very poorly setup servers as well as very good ones). Smile

Dan

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Re: Minor bugs In reply to
The main issue with building pages to the document root is with dynamic pages as pugdog mentions. If you are not using dynamic pages, then there is no technical reason why you shouldn't be able to (unless you are not allowed to chmod your document root directory).

That said, it's generally not a good idea. It's much cleaner to put it in a subdirectory so if ever you need to remove, replace, change, it's all in one place and you won't affect other files on your website.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
What's the problem with dynamic pages? I don't use them other than for testing, but I haven't seen any problems.

I think many of the people using Links are doing so (or wish to do so) with it being the main entry page to their site. In which case, I disagree that it is best to set it up as a subdirectory for cleanness. Redirecting to a subdirectory looks poor from the users' standpoint -- what would you think if Yahoo's main page redirected elsewhere?

Other than the index page, there are no other files that would be affected, unless you have main categories with names the same as other top level subdirectories on your site. That can be very easily avoided, if it is the case. Replacing/changing is not much of an issue, as rebuilding the database will overwrite the files in most cases. Moving is a bit more of a hassle, but not much more if you limit the number of main categories (which I think is a very good idea in order to keep the site friendly looking).

Dan

Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
In Reply To:
What's the problem with dynamic pages? I don't use them other than for testing, but I haven't seen any problems.
Try clicking on search or add while in dynamic mode. The problem is the script thinks it's a category and has rewritten the URL. I may be able to fix this in the next version, but for now you need to make sure your cgi directory is not a subdirectory of your pages directory.

In Reply To:
I think many of the people using Links are doing so (or wish to do so) with it being the main entry page to their site. In which case, I disagree that it is best to set it up as a subdirectory for cleanness. Redirecting to a subdirectory looks poor from the users' standpoint -- what would you think if Yahoo's main page redirected elsewhere?
If that's the only objection, here are three ways to redirect to a subpage, completely transparent to the user (i.e. the user does not see any redirection, it's only one request, and the URL stays the same).

1. Symlink the pages:

ln -s /path/to/pages/index.html index.html

in your home directory.

2. Add DirectoryIndex command to .htaccess:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm /pages/index.html

3. Use mod_rewrite:

RewriteRule ^/?$ /pages/index.html

Any of the above will do the job.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
Ok, I see what you mean with the search/add "pages." The search itself works, but the link to the search page does not.

I realize there are ways to transparently redirect, but I think most Links users either will not be aware of those options or will get themselves into trouble trying to implement them... I think the number of people wanting to make Links their main entrance is much higher than the number of people using the dynamic options, yet the recommended setup is geared toward just the opposite. Heck, I don't care how other people set up their directories or what is recommended for general use, but I see people being turned off or discouraged because the bulk of responses say it is not possible to set it up that way...

Dan

Quote Reply
Re: Minor bugs In reply to
It's a minor issue.... really.

I _do_not_ want my directory tree in my root directory, because it makes looking for bad files (security holes) harder.

If your root directory is bare, all it would need, is an index.html and a subdirectory, and if you are really hip, a robots.txt file. (I set up my security in the httpd.conf file, with no .htaccess overrides. Those files get to be a problem eventually.)

That index.html can be a symlink to the index.html in the pages directory. This is the option I use on all my sites (except Postcards.com where I have several legacy sites running off the same domain). But it's how the test sites work.

In Unix, symlinks are the saving grace for 90% of things.

If you have the ability, you can use rewrite in the httpd.conf file, but that takes a bit more care, because you may not see all the possibilities for problems.

I've just started to use the rewrite engine, even though it's been compiled in to my apache since day one.

I used a similar idea to as the /p/ in the forums here, to move the ./pickup.html/ file and the long /path/to/pickup.cgi?string&of&options to the much shorter /pickup/<%code%>

The pick-up URL is not being truncated in people's browsers any more.

The reason I mention all this... is that if someone is paying $450 for the program, and is setting up a links SQL site, they should have enough where-with-all to use symlinks!! :)

If they are setting up a dedicated site, I would _strongly_ suggest defining directory/layout conventions, and using the rewrite engine from the start to do it.

I'm going backwards, and I started out with a set of rules/conventions (based on smaller static sites I'd been running) and they are just not holding up for the larger, more dynamic sites. I'm patching rewrite code into the httpd.conf files , and I know once that's done, I'll have to go back and re-write my httpd.conf file <G>

Anyway... whatever you do, whatever method you chose to set up your sites... document it in a notebook, keep changes and "hacks" written, and try to follow your own rules as much as possible. COMMENT YOUR HTTPD.CONF FILE!!!! :)

The other thing, I mentioned before... is security from inside the httpd.conf file, rather than .htaccess files.

If you run your own servers, and do not have to allow multiple access to it, ie: you have one or two webmasters, and your server is a _SERVER_ not a general purpose free-for-all box, you _should_ (IMHO) set the security in the httpd.conf file. First, it makes you THINK before you make any "easy" or "convenient" changes that can come back to bite your butt. It makes it harder for anyone to change security across the server. And, back to the #1, it prevents you from taking short cuts to bypass server security when tired, or frustrated, and keeps you "honest" about your server security.

I'm sure people will disagree, and I have the minority position of running a _SERVER_ with no user access (except mail for the partners). I hate restarting Apache, since I have to log in as root, so any changes I make are _necessary_ to the future of the site, rather than a convenient solution to my problem.

Something to think about. Easy is _not_ always better.

PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ