Forum Down - Cannot ACCESS It At All - PLEASE HELP :-(

[ThePosterForum]

Hi guys,

Myself and a couple of others are creating a new forum: I am the owner.

One of them today added an Advertising mod:
Ad Management Mod

He was messing around with it and it was working fine by all accounts.

But then he decided to install this advertising mod as well without asking me:
SimpleAds

Since he did this, I have tried to restore the backup that they had.
But the website is not working at all.

This is what we are now seeing:

Warning: require_once(/home/theposte/public_html/Sources/Subs.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/theposte/public_html/index.php on line 51

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/theposte/public_html/Sources/Subs.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/theposte/public_html/index.php on line 51


I am REALLY not happy with him. We do this for free as volunteers and so don't get paid. Needless to say, it was the first and last time that has happened.

We had quite a bit of web copy already completed and only a few more things to complete before launching. Now, it is useless and I am ready to give up as I am so deflated.

I will be willing to pay a reasonable price for anyone who can restore the forum to the state it was in before the second or even first advertising mod was uploaded. I know you guys can do this easily, but I cannot, so help...

...PLEASE HELP ME.

Thank you,
RM

[Illori]

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/A_mod_broke_my_forum

[Bob Perry of Web Presence Consulting]

Don't panic... do you have FTP admin access to your source files?

[ThePosterForum]

@Illori - Thanks.

@Bob -

I am devastated more than panicking as I didn't have a launch date planned, only a guide for the end of April. I spent a lot of time with the other guys getting a lot of web copy right and adding it in etc.

I can sort out FTP access, but I'm not a whizz with this sort of thing - amateur at best.

I cannot believe this has happened.
Can I give you the details and pay you to do it?

Thanks,
RM

[Sir Osis of Liver]

It's easy, just follow instructions in Illori's link. 

Here's the simple version:

- FTP to /Packages/backups/
- Download the backup file prior to mod installation.
- Extract the files.
- Upload them to your forum root.

[ThePosterForum]

Hi Krash.,

My head is all over the place.
I think I am panicking actually.
Erm, OK, I extracted the file. Where do I upload it?
What is classed as the forum root? Sorry about this - my head is going overtime as this is something that should not have happened in the first place.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Upload the files and folders to where you see the same files/folders.

[Bob Perry of Web Presence Consulting]

@Illori - Thanks.

@Bob -

I am devastated more than panicking as I didn't have a launch date planned, only a guide for the end of April. I spent a lot of time with the other guys getting a lot of web copy right and adding it in etc.

I can sort out FTP access, but I'm not a whizz with this sort of thing - amateur at best.

I cannot believe this has happened.
Can I give you the details and pay you to do it?

Thanks,
RM

Trust me, you will find that it won't be the first time you will want to pull your hair out with building websites!! No matter which platform you choose to work with, you'll run into challenges like this, get use to it and just learn to NOT take it out on the computer or technology you need to complete your work

Prepare yourself to spend a great deal of time scouring through documentation and information found here on the support site... I've been working with SMF many moons and am still just barely scratching the surface of unstanding everything that is possible with this platform...

Attach your copy of index.php found in the main (root) folder of your source files, let us take a looksee at line 51...

[Illori]

Attach your copy of index.php found in the main (root) folder of your source files, let us take a looksee at line 51...

given the quote of the error... it is looking for Subs.php which seems to be missing in the Sources folder.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Yes, and the package backup includes all the /Sources/ files, so that should fix it, if OP can figure out how to do it.

[ThePosterForum]

Yes, you are correct Bob.

And yes, the Subs.php file is missing -  I have just looked.
How the hell this is missing I do not know - surely the mod shouldn't have deleted it?
My guy insists he never deleted anything, but I have my doubts.

At the moment I don't have the time to learn a lot hence why I was looking for ease of use during the build which one of the guys ruined by messing too much.

I tried the ftp thing.
Cannot get the forum back online.
Not sure what I am doing wrong.

I WILL HONESTLY HAVE PAY TO HAVE THIS FIXED FOR ME.
I suppose it is easy money for such a quick job for one of you, but I need it done.

Thank you for the help so far.

Index.php file attached as requested.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

If you can pm ftp credentials (servername, username, password), I'll fix it for you now, but it's a basic thing you need to learn to do yourself.

Also, link to your forum.

[ThePosterForum]

OK.

Don't worry - after this I will have to set aside time to learn this stuff as I cannot have this carry on again. And I can't trust the other guys to do it. If I cannot do something I will just have to pay someone.

Thanks for the help - will send the details now.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Ok, you're back up.  Both mods are removed, took you out of maintenance mode.  Someone had deleted Subs.php.

Three suggestions:
- Be selective about whom you give admin privileges.
- Only use mods you absolutely need.  They can cause all kinds of problems.
- Change your ftp password.

Good luck with your forum.

[Bob Perry of Web Presence Consulting]

OK.

Don't worry - after this I will have to set aside time to learn this stuff as I cannot have this carry on again. And I can't trust the other guys to do it. If I cannot do something I will just have to pay someone.

Thanks for the help - will send the details now.

Be very wary about giving admin rights out to your co-authors, and change the passwords after you allow outsiders access and they complete the tasks you do happen to want completed by outsiders... your time spent researching the tasks or challenges will be a great investment or your time

[ThePosterForum]

THANK YOU ... THANK YOU ... THANK YOU ...

... DID I FORGET TO SAY ... THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Don't you guys worry - I have learnt my lesson.
No modifications now unless I do it myself OR I pay one of you guys to do it.

PHEW!

Thank you for your time and patience - without which I would probably be a quivering wreck having spent all that time working on it.

And thanks for the support!

[kat]

Nice work, there, Krash!

[ThePosterForum]

I agree!

[ThePosterForum]

Hello guys,

Got a new problem related to this hence why I have not created a new topic.

I went into the PACKAGE MANAGER section to see what was there.
I noticed the SimpleAds mod is still there, but when I try to delete it from the PACKAGE MANAGER it doesn't delete. There is also a problem with the Ad Management mod too. I would like to delete these two as I am going to install the pro version of the ad management mod if it can do what I want.

Please see attached images.

[kat]

That "Unable to find package file" message, intimates that the package, in it's archived form, isn't in your "Packages" directory. Consequentially, the installer can't find the files, that it needs, to uninstall it.

You deleted it, rather than uninstalled it, one would assume. (they're not the same thing by a LONG chalk).

Try using FTP, to upload the package/archive into your Packages directory and see if you can uninstall it, then.

[ThePosterForum]

Thanks for the reply.

I didn't delete it - the member "Krash." did it for me as my forum stopped working.
I didn't want to PM them as I don't wish to annoy anyone.

[kat]

Righty-ho...

Try using FTP, to upload the package/archive into your Packages directory and see if you can uninstall it, then.

I'd qualify that, though, by adding "Backup everything first!"

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Believe I left the mods in /Packages/, but restoring the backup removed them from templates and source files, so they're effectively uninstalled.  Just delete them from /Packages/ if they're still there, download and install current versions.

[Kindred]

remember --   2.0.x uses the DATABASE to determine what is installed....   so, if you did not set the database value to uninstalled, then the system still thinks the mods are installed, even if the edits are undone and the files are deleted

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Can't you just reinstall over it?

[Kindred]

not sure what the system will do if it thinks that you already have a version installed

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Then you'd have to go into smf_log_packages and change install_state to '0', or delete the row.

[Illori]

or use http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Manually_setting_a_package_installed_or_uninstalled