Category Ordering problem

[ScrumpyJack]

Hi all,

I'm afraid I have a category ordering problem.

I didn't come across this until I added a new section to the board (it's only 3 days old) and for some reason the categories are in the incorrect order.

They are fine in the Manage Boards and Categories area, but as soon as I go to the category index they are in completely the wrong order.

I have tried moving, modify, renaming Categories and cleared out the cache etc.....but nothing has worked so far.

I'm wondering if it's worth removing the main category (only test data in there so far) and starting again with no categories to see whether something happened during a modification package installation which might have affected the original board.

Could that be the possible cause?

I did a search here on the board and saw a couple of posts from a few years back with a similar issue, but wasn't sure if there was now a know cause/fix for this problem.

***ADDITIONAL INFO*** If I try to put a new category before my initial category, the new one disappears and doesn't show at all.

Please help!

Thanks

Lee

[Arantor]

So you're using SMF 2.0.x... using MyISAM or InnoDB tables? (You might have to ask your host which.)

[ScrumpyJack]

So you're using SMF 2.0.x... using MyISAM or InnoDB tables? (You might have to ask your host which.)

Hi Arantor,

Apologies, whilst you were replying I was editing my original post. It's the Categories that are messed up, not the boards..sorry!

This is a server-side installation so effectively my company are the direct host. My friend and I did the installation on a WAMP stack which hopefully gives you a bit more info on the configuration type.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Lee

[Arantor]

That doesn't give me any clues whatsoever. I already knew you were using the MP part of a *AMP stack, and the first two letters are irrelevant here

[ScrumpyJack]

Hmmm.....it does seem a bit strange I must say.

I can move the boards up and down within the categories ok.

Do you think it is worth deleting the initial category and test posts and starting new categories to see what happens?

Something weird is definitely going on...I created three new categories and 2 of them followed the correct order. When creating the fourth one, it decided to go to the top, despite me telling it to be after category three?!

[Arantor]

I personally think it would be better to find out the answer to the question I asked rather than running off down probably unrelated rabbit holes, as ripping it down and starting over probably won't fix whatever situation caused it to go wrong in the first place.

Not being funny but if I thought starting over would be best, that's what I would have suggested from the off. It's almost never best to rebuild anything from scratch.

[ScrumpyJack]

How would I know whether we are using MyISAM or InnoDB tables?

We got the new server, installed the stack, set up the Apache files and installed SMF as a completely new installation with no previous data whatsoever.

I'm not sure what you are asking me to be honest.

Sorry

[Arantor]

This is why I said you needed to ask your host, because this is a fairly complex bit of server configuration in the bowels of MySQL. In a normal hosting environment, you'd have a company that runs the server that would be able to sort this out for you.

In your situation, we need to look at some of the innards of the database, which means installing some tools for doing so. MySQL includes a basic tool for doing this (through inputting text commands), but phpMyAdmin would be a better tool for this sort of thing. You'll need to install that first before we can look at the guts of the database to figure out what's going on.

[ScrumpyJack]

Ah ok!

I'll have a word with one of the guys from my server team at work tomorrow and get them to clarify.

I have managed to get the categories into the correct order for the time being at least.

Thanks for your help so far, it's greatly appreciated...you guys do excellent work here!