01 November 2013, 7:34

The skins are not available even though in config.php I set $cfg->skins = true; There is no 'Skins' menu item under 'Portfolio'

There is however a 'Skins' menu item in http://schoolportfolios.ca/admin/site/skins.php . Clicking 'Create skin' produces the following error. What could be the problem?

Thanks

Apache error log:

[Thu Oct 31 12:27:15 2013] [error] [client xx.xx.xxx.xx] [WAR] e5 (skin/design.php:24) , referer: http://schoolportfolios.ca/admin/site/skins.php
[Thu Oct 31 12:27:15 2013] [error] [client xx.xx.xxx.xx] Call stack (most recent first):, referer: http://schoolportfolios.ca/admin/site/skins.php
[Thu Oct 31 12:27:15 2013] [error] [client xx.xx.xxx.xx]   * log_message("", 8, true, true, "/var/www/schoolportfolios/skin/design.php", 24, array(size 0)) at /var/www/schoolportfolios/lib/errors.php:531, referer: http://schoolportf                                   olios.ca/admin/site/skins.php
[Thu Oct 31 12:27:15 2013] [error] [client xx.xx.xxx.xx]   * MaharaException->handle_exception() at /var/www/schoolportfolios/lib/errors.php:456, referer: http://schoolportfolios.ca/admin/site/skins.php
[Thu Oct 31 12:27:15 2013] [error] [client xx.xx.xxx.xx]   * exception(object(FeatureNotEnabledException)) at Unknown:0, referer: http://schoolportfolios.ca/admin/site/skins.php
[Thu Oct 31 12:27:15 2013] [error] [client xx.xx.xxx.xx] , referer: http://schoolportfolios.ca/admin/site/skins.php

06 November 2013, 9:36

I got exactly the same error.... if someone could find a solution I would be very grateful...

06 November 2013, 16:55

I did a bit of investigating with the following results:

When running the installer against a fresh database using the same code, skins are available and work as expected.

The fresh database has 145 tables and the database with which skins do not work has 144 tables. The extra table is called 'search_elasticsearch_queue'.  Eleastic search is not turned on in any and I am using mysql. I then added the extra table but no remedy. I also clearded dataroot/dwoo/cache with no effects.

I did notice that at least once I was able to create a skin in /admin/site/skins.php but now I can't add more nor can I delete the skin I made. Skins are still not available under /skin/index.php

11 November 2013, 14:52

Hi Dirk,

The elasticsearch table is a red herring. It's missing from the upgraded installation, because when you upgrade you have to specifically go to the extensions page and click "install" for each new plugin, and since you're not using elasticsearch you haven't done that. But, elasticsearch doesn't have anything to do with skins.

Are all your users in "No Institution"? If so, then you're probably encountering this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1249123

Currently the workaround to this is to run this SQL query:

UPDATE institution SET skins=1 WHERE name='mahara';

If your users aren't in "No Institution", check that skins are enabled for each of your institutions. They should be enabled by default at the institution level, but something may have gone wrong with that.

Cheers,

Aaron

12 November 2013, 5:16

Thanks Aaron,
Ah, I now see the 'Skins' field in the 'Institution' table. I was looking for this in 'skin', 'skin_favorites' and "skin_fonts'. All institutions other then 'mahara' had it enabled by default which I never checked. It's a bit strange that in other instances I did not have to run UPDATE institution SET skins=1 WHERE name='mahara'; This was an upgrade for 1.7 Maybe this will take care of Sigi's issue?

On a lighter note: I was visiting my old stomping grounds Edmonton, Canada and while driving down Stoney Plain Road, my phone alerted me to your  forum update. As I was stopped at a red light, I quickly took a peak at  the message, still paying attention to my surroundings. I looked out the window and saw this store. True story.

12 November 2013, 15:01

So that's where I left my computers and appliances.

12 November 2013, 15:04

Hm, you know, I think there may be another wrinkle to this bug. In the 1.8.0 upgrade, when we added the institution.skins column, we set it to default to "1". So "No Institution" would start out with skins enabled.

But then, since the skins checkbox is not present on the "No Institution" configuration page, the first time you save a configuration change for "No Institution", it probably interprets the absence of a value as a logical "false" and updates it to 0.

That would no doubt be the reason I didn't notice this during testing. It doesn't show up until you try to edit the "No Institution" config.

Yeah, we'll definitely need to get the fix for this into 1.8.1.

Cheers,

Aaron