It took longer than expected to get Matrix up and running on my local servers. However with the help of this forum I finally got there.
Now I am trying to install the system (purely for test purposes) on a shared server at my local ISP. Everything seems to be ok (PHP, Apache and SQL version all up to date),
except two pear modules were missing. Anyway after installing them I got the problem with the include path, the install module didnt find the inc file and so on …
As I already have invested a substantial amount of time I dont like giving up. Question: Is there a shortcut ? Can I copy a local working installation just over to my ISP and change a few config files (like main.inc) ?
Putting the system on a root server is no alternative ! They are fully loaded, wonderfully configured for Zope and I dont want to mess them around.
From what I can see so far, Matrix could be a nice alternative to Plone for some of my customers especially for those who have objections towards Python and or Java. Anyway with the current "user friendly" install I doubt it. Large amounts of people even bigger organisation go rather for a mickey mouse system like Mambo. They promote the system with "Power through simplicity". I wonder whether their marketing people have seen the Matrix install procedure to come up with such a message.
Michael
You can copy a working version of Matrix over and change a few settings, though I can't guarantee it'll work. Here's the process:
- Backup the database
- Tar up the entire file structure
- Restore the database and file structure on your new server – make sure the Apache user has complete access to the entire structure and write access to the [font=“courier”]cache/[/font] and [font=“courier”]data/[/font] directory trees.
- Edit [font=“courier”]mysource_matrix/data/private/conf/main.inc[/font] file to reflect your new settings. Particularly the following settings:
SQ_CONF_DB_DSN
SQ_CONF_DB2_DSN
SQ_CONF_PEAR_PATH
SQ_CONF_SYSTEM_ROOT_URLS- Run [font=“courier”]mysource_matrix/scripts/system_move_update.php[/font] to reset the file versioning system to the new location. You’ll need to specify the new system root as a parameter and it’ll ask you for the old system root (i.e. the location Matrix was installed on the source server).
At this point, you should be able to login. If you get errors when you try and login, make sure all the file permissions are correct. The Apache user needs to be able to write to the data/ directory tree.
- Change any URLs of any existing site assets to reflect the new URL.
That should do it.
If you have any problems, post here. Also, if you could post more detailed error messages from the failed installer, that’ll help us make Matrix more shared-hosting friendly. Alternatively, have you tried using the CLI-based installation method instead?
Instead of doing 1 and 2 above, there's a backup.sh script that you can run which will do both at once
Having installed Pear manually I got the following error message during the install:
Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required '/fudge/general/www.inc' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /homepages/32/d90608136/htdocs/cms/install/steps/systemdetails.inc on line 29
I believe that for some unknown reason the session variable $_SESSION['sys_root'] keeps the include path. Am I wrong ?
If that is the case is there a config variable that I could change, with something like:
ini_set("include_path", '/homepages/32/d90608136/htdocs/cms/matrix/php_includes/pear/' . PATH_SEPARATOR . ini_get("include_path"));
The first part of the string is as one can guess the pear location.
Any help would be really appreciated.
Michael
[quote]Having installed Pear manually I got the following error message during the install:
Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required ‘/fudge/general/www.inc’ (include_path=’.:/usr/local/lib/php’) in /homepages/32/d90608136/htdocs/cms/install/steps/systemdetails.inc on line 29[/quote]
That’s not a PEAR module, that’s part of Matrix’s fudge system. It won’t be found in the PEAR include location anyway. It should be found at [font=“courier”]mysource_matrix/fudge/general/www.inc[/font]. Could you ensure that this file exists and that the Apache user has the permission to read it?
Sure that is not the issue. Line 29 of "systemdetails.inc" reads:
require_once $_SESSION['sys_root'].'/fudge/general/www.inc';
I strongly believe $_SESSION['sys_root'] is empty. That is causing the problem.
Do you agree ?
I'll have to wait until Marcus comes back online – he wrote the installer and obviously knows it far better than I do.
yes, the session was obviously still active and therefore the session variable contained some nonsense.
The installation has been done. But the nightmare is not over yet. The asset map wont load.
Funnily enough I have downgraded to JVM 1.42_03 and it works with local installed Matrix. With the same workstation it does not load the asset map on the remote matrix installation at my ISP.
Matrix is locally installed on W2K Pro, the installation at the ISP is under Suse 9.1.
From a workstation perspective, the local matrix works from either Win2k Pro, XP Pro as well as Suse 9.0
The matrix installation at my ISP does not load the asset map regardless from which workstation I access the site (2k, xp pro, Linux).
any idea ?
Michael
What error message do you get? Is the asset map missing or does it notinet (i.e. big red cross). If the latter, can you check the java console for error messages too.
Make sure the system root URLs are set correctly (check the System configuration from the top right menu).
The root URL is pointing to http://24ix.de. There is no www. Could that be the reason for the assetmap problem.
Java console output shows the following:
Java™ Plug-in: Version 1.4.2_03
Verwendung der JRE-Version 1.4.2_03 Java HotSpot™ Client VM
Home-Verzeichnis des Benutzers = C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\Michael Hoffmann
Proxy-Konfiguration:Kein Proxy
http://24ix.de
java.lang.NullPointerException
at net.squiz.matrix.assetmap.AssetManager.doAssetRequest(AssetManager.java:1077)
at net.squiz.matrix.assetmap.AssetManager.initialise(AssetManager.java:161)
at net.squiz.matrix.assetmap.AssetMap.init(AssetMap.java:157)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Looks like a proxy fault in the JVM – its downloading the Asset Map, its just not able to make a return connection to get the list of assets. If you open up the Java Control Panel applet, make sure all your proxy settings are correct. If its set to use the browser's proxy settings, try setting them manually to see if that helps.
I dont use any proxy. However now I have figured out how to get it somehow working. (1) First, I connect to the site (without _admin) and get the default error message, then (2) connect using _admin and all of a sudden it works.
Unfortunally I have no explanation for that strange behaviour. Some things still dont work, ie. cannot access the inbox.
I really do like the concepts of Matrix as well as the look and feel. However, I still believe that I am using alpha software. At the current stage of the software package I cannot afford to go to a customer and promote Matrix. Just imagine I had to check tons of workstations whether the Java applet loads correctly.
Matrix is still in pre-release development, but I would say its far beyond Alpha code. If you're interested, I'll set you up with a login to one of my development Matrix installations to see if the same thing happens with an installation that I use every day. Obviously, we'd like to resolve as many client-related Java issues as possible.
Yes, I would love to. Many thanks.
You can email the details to michael@24ix.com
Again, many thanks
Michael
Hi Michael, do you get any PHP errors in your error log (found at [Matrix Root]/data/private/logs/error.log) as you try to open the asset map? Check it just after the Java bombs out.
From the odd occasion when I've had to troubleshoot the Java, when a Null Pointer problem occurs in that spot I find that it's usually spat out a PHP error, and the asset map was therefore getting nothing back.