Articles - Joomla Web Development Articles

Trying to install a Joomla 1.5.15 version, at step Database, at Install sample data, error appears:

The page at localhost says: Error: the XML response that was returned from the server is invalid.

Solution/Workaround:

1. Install without the sample data
2. Install sample data (...\yourjoomla\installation\sql\mysql\sample_data.sql) manually for example in phpmyadmin - navigate to your target database
3. Delete installation folder, then refresh frontend, now with the sample data installed

Additionally, turning off temporarily your php errors in php.ini might help to proceed with the installation.

1. Find your php.ini (root directory)
2. Search for this line in php.ini that says
   error_reporting = E_ALL
3. Uncomment then replace with this line
   error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
4. Restore this setting as needed

Hope this helps, please let us know how it goes and your workaround and fixes if you have any differently.

Articles - Joomla Web Development Articles

How to increase and override the maximum search word character limit in Joomla 1.5 to search for 21 characters or more. Reposting this very useful tip for hacking a common, default search limitation in Joomla 1.5... follow completely and in detail. Before doing below steps always ensure you have a backup of the files to be edited for easy restoration and recovery to default settings. Of course, numeric values will depend as desired.

1. Edit this file '/modules/mod_search.php'

Delete this line:

$maxlength = $width > 20 ? $width : 20;

Add this line:

$maxlength = $width > 50 ? $width : 50;

2. Edit this file '/components/com_search/views/search/tmpl/default_form.php'

Delete this line:

<input id=”search_searchword” maxlength=”20″ name=”searchword” size=”30″ value=”<?php echo $this->escape($this->searchword); ?>” type=”text”>

Add this line:

<input id=”search_searchword” maxlength=”50″ name=”searchword” size=”30″ value=”<?php echo $this->escape($this->searchword); ?>” type=”text”>

3. Edit this file '/administrator/components/com_search/helpers/search.php'

Remove these lines:

// limit searchword to 20 characters
if ( JString::strlen( $searchword ) > 20 ) {
$searchword = JString::substr( $searchword, 0, 20 );

Add these lines:

// limit searchword to 50 characters
if ( JString::strlen( $searchword ) > 50 ) {
$searchword = JString::substr( $searchword, 0, 49 );

4. Edit this file '/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_search.ini'

Delete this line:

SEARCH_MESSAGE=Search term must be a minimum of 3 characters and a maximum of 20 characters.

Add this line:

SEARCH_MESSAGE=Search term must be a minimum of 3 characters and a maximum of 50 characters.

Remember to save all your files then reupload. Clear browser cache and refresh your Joomla website and your search character restriction should have increased to 50 characters.

Articles - Joomla Web Development Articles

Phoca Gallery error when creating / saving a new category - "Save failed with the following error: Category must have title" Phoca and Joomla versions used: Phoca Gallery 3.1.1 and Joomla 1.7

Followed the threads and discussions to date, but this seems to be a bug at least for the versions used. Workaround seems to be a manual database install of Phoca Gallery tables...

1. http://www.phoca.cz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10083
2. http://www.phoca.cz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12731

Will update this with developments...

UPDATE:

Weird, re-installing the same Phoca version used did not work. I tried downloading a fresh copy of Phoca Gallery 3.1.1 (the same version used) and reintsalled it on the same Joomla 1.7 website, and it worked this time.

The only other difference is while creating the Category, I left out (did not specify anything) on the following and it got saved:

• Access Rights
• Upload Rights
• Delete Rights
• Owner
• Category Folder

I then entered the above, and then saved the settings again. This seemed to work. If you have similar experiences and different workarounds, please post here to help others.

Articles - Joomla Web Development Articles

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\libraries\dbi\mysql.dbi.lib.php on line 175

XAMPP apps versions

XAMPP version 1.7.7
+ Apache 2.2.21
+ MySQL 5.5.16 (Community Server)
+ PHP 5.3.8 (VC9 X86 32bit thread safe) + PEAR
+ XAMPP Control Panel Version 2.5 from www.nat32.com

1. Find in C:\xampp\php\php.ini below line / setting and change the 30 to a higher value as needed and required:
   
   max_execution_time = 30
2. Find the line in C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php, or C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config-inc.php, and change setting / value as required: 
   
   $cfg['ExecTimeLimit'] = 300; // maximum execution time in seconds (0 for no limit)
   
   If config-inc.php file is missing the above line or missing altogether then the file config.default.php in C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\libraries folder is used, edit value in below block
   
   /** 
   * maximum execution time in seconds (0 for no limit)
   * 
   * @global integer $cfg['ExecTimeLimit']
   */ 
   $cfg['ExecTimeLimit'] = 300;
   
   
3. Try also adjusting maximum execution time in C:\xampp\apache\bin\php.ini 
   
   ini_set('max_execution_time', 0)
   
   
4. Create your own php.ini and put the first line below and save it and put the file in your root folder of your application: max_execution_time=0

Use and apply above setting changes if managing your own server. Increasing the max exec time for loading and running scripts more than the usual, required time increases the risks of running malicious codes and scripts.

Articles - Magento Web Development

While installing Magento ver. 1.6.0.0 on local machine using WampServer Version 2.1, encountered error in Configuration step:

PHP extension "curl" must be loaded.
Please set all required settings before clicking Continue

Fix: Click on the Wamp icon on the system tray, then PHP and in php.ini, find and uncomment the line:

extension=php_curl.dll

Or for any Apache, PHP, MySQL web apps (like XAMPP)

1. Go to wamp or xammp folder
2. Find php.ini in php folder and edit it using any text editor (like Notepad or WordPad)
3. Search for the line extension=php_curl.dll
4. Then uncomment this line or remove ;(semicolon) before extension=php_curl.dll and save it
5. Restart wamp or xammp
6. Go back to installation or refresh page where error encountered

Articles - Joomla Web Development Articles

 Strict Standards errors displayed like below when installing Joomla 1.7 on local machine:

• Strict Standards: Static function JDatabase::test() should not be abstract in C:\xampp\htdocs\website\libraries\joomla\database\database.php on line 350
• Infinite loop detected in JError
• Strict Standards: Static function JDatabase::test() should not be abstract in C:\xampp\htdocs\website\libraries\joomla\database\database.php on line 350
• Strict Standards: Only variables should be assigned by reference in C:\xampp\htdocs\website\modules\modulename\libs\menucore.php on line 277

Local machine OS is Windows XP with the following services:

XAMPP version 1.7.7
Apache 2.2.21
MySQL 5.5.16 (Community Server)
PHP 5.3.8 (VC9 X86 32bit thread safe) + PEAR

Quick fix is to find your php.ini file (in XAMPP this is in C:\xampp\php), or if using other web server apps, simply do a search and find the file.

Open php.ini file using any text editors like Notepad, then find and set the following as below:

• error_reporting to E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
• display_errors = Off