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ContentExpress renders blank pages after upgrade/move

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**unknown user**

Rank: Registered User

Registered: Mar 16, 2002

Last visit: Jan 15, 2007

Posts: 1
Posted: Jan 15, 2007 - 01:23 AM

Hi,
Not sure whether to post this here, but since ContentExpress is no longer being developed and their forum is also dead I'll try. I'm struggling to upgrade a website from 0.7.2.6 to 0.7.6.4, upgrading our 3rd party modules at the same time. To minimize downtime I copied the site and database over to a test environment, where MySQL, PHP, apache2.2 and Postnuke are all in the latest versions and ran the upgrade from upgrade.php there. Everything works fine on the test machine. I then copied database and site back to the webserver, where the original is running on apache 1.3 with PHP 4.3. MySQL is already upgraded. I have a fresh install of Apache 2.2 there compiled and working against php5.2. Everything seems to work okay except for the actual content (rendered from ContentExpress.

index.html is set to point to ContentExpress, which is unabe to load anything. Trying to view anything directly from the ContentExpress configuration page also shows just blank pages. I've tried relaxing all directory permissions, and double checked that the complete directory structure has been copied directly. the apache error log is giving me this (my asterix's over the URL):

PHP Catchable fatal error: Object of class ContentExpress could
not be converted to string in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/Portal_PN_764/includes/pnMod.php on line 825, referer: http://www.****.com/index.php?module=Admin&type=admin&func=adminpanel
[Mon Jan 15 10:49:00 2007] [error] [client ***.***.***.***] PHP Catchable fatal error: Object of class ContentExpress could
not be converted to string in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/Portal_PN_764/includes/pnMod.php on line 825, referer: http://www.****.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&type=admin
[Mon Jan 15 10:49:33 2007] [error] [client ***.***.***.***] PHP Catchable fatal error: Object of class ContentExpress could
not be converted to string in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/Portal_PN_764/includes/pnMod.php on line 825, referer: http://www.****.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&type=admin&func=editcontent&ceid=4

I did read somewhere that ContentExpress may be memory hungry, but the errors above don't seem to indicate that, and the webserver has plenty of free memory, and much more than the VM I used to do the conversion. I am wondering whether moving the site between machines, and changing the fs paths after doing the upgrade is causing the problem? The move of version 7.2.6 over to the test/upgrade machine didn't cause problems.

Can anyone help?

Cheers!

Marius
**unknown user**

Rank: Registered User

Registered: Mar 16, 2002

Last visit: Jul 19, 2007

Posts: 1
Posted: Jul 19, 2007 - 08:43 AM

To fix my copy I patched the
modules/ContentExpress/pnclass/ContentExpress.php file
and add the following function to the class:

function __toString() {
return "Need to define __toString() method to get some real content";
}

This solution was borrowed from http://www.zend.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&goto=11465&S=9d915fe555ddc9828a136bb3c85a0f6a#msg_11465
sakshale

Rank: Softmore

Registered: Aug 16, 2002

Last visit: Oct 21, 2009

Posts: 147
Posted: Mar 27, 2008 - 06:24 PM

Thank you for posting this solution. I was bitten by the exact same bug after a site move.
AdrianChapman

Rank: Softmore

Registered: Apr 05, 2004

Last visit: Apr 10, 2010

Posts: 132
Posted: Apr 10, 2010 - 07:21 AM

Just tripped across this, after users reported blank pages. Looks like the cause of the problem is with PHP5.2 - everything was working fine t'other day, then I manually upgraded PHP (Centos5 still contains 5.0, even in 2010).

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HalbrookTech

Rank: Developer

Registered: Dec 31, 1969

Posts: 6840
Posted: Apr 10, 2010 - 07:52 AM

Sites using CE should have shifted over to something better maintained along time ago, It's been a long time, but seems like pages, pagemaster & even content could handle it better now, it would require some work to move the data, since the module is no longer functional, but would be a better choice than trying to make an outdated, likely insecure module continue to function.

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craigh

Rank: Developer

Registered: Jun 16, 2003

Last visit: May 29, 2010

Posts: 1911
Posted: Apr 10, 2010 - 08:09 AM

Quote
since the module is no longer functional

actually I am still using CE with Zikula 1.2.2 on one site :D
HalbrookTech

Rank: Developer

Registered: Dec 31, 1969

Posts: 6840
Posted: Apr 10, 2010 - 08:49 AM

Cool, then we have a test bed to create an import. It's been a long time since I used CE (I did along time ago). It CAN be replaced by PS/PM/Pages with some work now, right?

edited by: HalbrookTech, datetimebrief

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craigh

Rank: Developer

Registered: Jun 16, 2003

Last visit: May 29, 2010

Posts: 1911
Posted: Apr 10, 2010 - 09:31 AM

Quote
It CAN be replaced by PS/PM/Pages with some work now, right?

Functionally, I expect it can. It is just that the migration isn't easy, hence, I have not attempted it. (it is manual)
HalbrookTech

Rank: Developer

Registered: Dec 31, 1969

Posts: 6840
Posted: Apr 10, 2010 - 09:56 AM

I may install it on my Virtualmachine next time I launch it and see what it would take.

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AdrianChapman

Rank: Softmore

Registered: Apr 05, 2004

Last visit: Apr 10, 2010

Posts: 132
Posted: Apr 10, 2010 - 08:23 PM

HalbrookTech
Sites using CE should have shifted over to something better maintained along time ago

I've spent quite a bit of time looking at moving from PN762 to Zik - and whilst many of the little hurdles are addressable, there's always been one or two which haven't. From memory FormExpress has been the major stumbling block for me.

However, I've spent the last few months looking at (fx: stage whisper) an alternative CMS and CE just remains in use whilst that migration gets finished... Sorry!

edited by: AdrianChapman, datetimebrief

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