Header Banner module fails to launch

[John Robi]

Hello,

This is an update more for those who follow along learning something.

First, a comment on the administrator of this forum. Impressive, knowledgeable, helpful. Eleven stars based on a ten star rating.

I took this exchange to Private Message with the Administrator due to certain reasons. Now I'll catch you up.

1. I found that the Header Banner failed to display because the URL was pointing to a non secure address, http:// and the in the General tab under Header Banner the module fails to launch for unknown reasons. Header Banner contains the configuration information. Without it what can one do.

2. While looking for something else and hunting around in the ACP I came across in the General tab Board Settings. When clicked on the screen shows Header Banner. This is, I guess, another place to configure the banner. I changed the URL from http:// to https:// and the banner now displays without incident.

3. My failure to import the database and make it work was due to my database being larger than 2mb. If larger than 2mb a special program must be used. I found Big Dump and used it to import the database. When one uses Big Dump certain parameters must be set and the export/backup of the database must be done in a certain way. All can be found by reading Knowledge Base - Transferring Your Board to a New Host or Domain found on the Community board.
Our Administrator put me on to it. Even though one may not be transferring, this document has a wealth of information in it. A must read for the novice and a refresher for others.

4. Our Administrator has lead me well and I now feel more confident to face my upcoming upgrade to 3.3.11. When done I'll post the results.

Thanks,

John

[Administrator]

Thank you John for the kind words, I hope all goes well as you move forward.

[John Robi]

Hello,

I upgraded to 3.3.11 and the board is up and running.

Bottom line, phpBB3 is still corrupted. Ideas anyone?

Exceptions / failures:

1. In the tab General, the menu item Board Settings when clicked gives the extension Header Banner configuration screen not Board Settings configuration. This is exactly the same error prior to the upgrade.

2. In the General tab the menu item Header Banner when clicked gives a general error and fails to display the Header Banner Configuration screen. This is exactly the same error prior to the upgrade. The error text of which can be found in one of my earlier posts.

3. If I disable the extension Header Banner in the Customize tab, Board Settings goes away, as in no longer listed in the General tab. And, Header Banner menu choice goes away as well. These are exactly the same errors prior to the upgrade.

4. The language pack is not British English but American English. I cannot set British English as the default because Board Setting displays the Header Banner configuration screen, not Board Settings configuration. This is exactly the same error prior to the upgrade.

5. I cannot set Board Settings configuration parameters nor view them because, as noted above, Board Settings goes to the Header Banner configuration screen. This is exactly the same error prior to the upgrade.

I'm still testing and exploring as I look for more anomalies.

Yours,
John

P.S. As a curious note, after the upgrade when on the board and submitting a post as a test, I got an error message in red text on clicking "Submit": "Your IP address has been blacklisted. You are not allowed to send emails, submit entries,.... go to this link to read about what one may do to change this". What the.... I went to the link*, looked at the information. I called my ISP and they were at a loss. I closed all app. and rebooted my PC, still blacklisted. After some time passed while exploring blacklisting, I opened a private browser window and logged onto the board. I was able to post without issue. I then, opened the browser in normal mode, logged in made a post without issue. Go figure. Haven't had any other issues or blacklist notifications since then.

* www.spamhaus.org

[Administrator]

Thats really weird, as you have upgraded to 3.3.11 I would have expected everything to be working correctly. I'll have to have a ponder

[John Robi]

I have found my phpBB3 program is most probably not corrupted.

Review:
In ACP on the General tab; category: Board Configuration; menu item Board Settings button launches the Header Banner module and the Header Banner screen appears to allow the user to configure the banner. I cannot get to the Board Settings screen. And, the Header Banner button causes a general failure message.

I concluded the Board Settings button issue must be by design and the failure of the Header Banner button is a bug. As for the Board Settings button, the coding must have been altered in the software. I found this to be a fact. In the image below one can see the coding calling the headerbanner module. And, it is associated with the Board Settings button. I placed a red arrow pointing to it:



The green arrow points to the code for the Header Banner button.

The image you see above is the index.php page as seen in View Page Source while the program is running. One thing about working with php, nothing is real and everything is a replaceable variable. So all of the text one sees is actually a variable populated by its definition. For those who dabble in php. Here is the section in the index.php file where the code is calling for the variable value to be called up.


Now what I need to do is find where the variable definition is located and correct the code. One clue is since this condition existed in 3.2.5 version and continues to exist in the upgrade 3.3.11 the coding must be in some common place that was past on to 3.3.11 without modification. There are several places this could happen. The upgrade instructions specifically state to leave certain files found in 3.2.5 to remain in place on the server without modification. Here are the folders to remain: ext, files, images and store, plus the file config.php. And the database of course.

I have looked at many of the files in the folders listed above and the database but, have not come across the definitions.

Someone, in the past found and modified the code to this phpBB3. So, one should be able to duplicate it. It is just a question of from where does the index.php page get its variable definition.

Anyone out there have an idea as to how to find the correct file or table in the database where the coding definitions reside.

Any help will be appreciated.

John

[Administrator]

If it were a bug, it would not be only effecting your board. This is a shot of my test boards relevant source

screenshot_430.jpg

as you can see its not displaying anything like yours. As you previously said, someone MUST have altered something somewhere to cause this, but I have no idea what or where it might be. Have you contacted the previous admin(s) to see what they say?

One final thought, have you checked your HTACCESS file? Other than that I am totally out of ideas.

[John Robi]

Hello,

As for first two admin folks I have no current contact information. The last admin I took over from backed away and wants nothing to do with it.

.htaccess has all the correct information in it.

I did create a topic in community phpBB category 3.3.11 support. I 'll just wait and see what pops up.

John

[Administrator]

Sorry, thats me totally out of ideas. you will have to hope that someone who has more database knowledge can come to your rescue

[John Robi]

Update yet an update

I decided to upgrade again. I took a backup of the 3.5.4 with its backup database and started from scratch. Besides disabling all extensions I deleted the data in ACP for Header Banner. Then, I deleted the folder in ext. After the upgrade with no errors I up loaded a new headerbanner_3_2_4. I unzipped it on my PC and used Filezilla to upload it.

In ACP tab Customize; Manage extensions the list of extensions shown does not include Header Banner. The list does include all the other extensions I had disabled.

Thoughts?

John

Added later: Forgot to mention after the upgrade the Board Settings button is not there. Also since I had uploaded headerbanner to the ext folder on the server I thought when in the Customize tab under Manage extensions I would see Header Banner information to install it. But, there is nothing, no mention of Header Banner at all. I thought the ACP would reach out and explore the folder for identity but I guess not.

I need input.

[Administrator]

I fully understand why you are unable to give anyone ACP and FTP access but without it I doubt anyone will find it easy to help. I suggest that you keep the discussion on phpBB.com giving as much information as possible, including the fact that a previous admin has hacked the core code instead of asking for help in getting the Header Banner working correctly.

The only solution I can think of is to make the existing board read only and create a new one which will be correctly installed. That way this (and any other un yet discovered) problems will be cleared up. You can always copy any important information from the old into the new board.