http:BL Database Error

Database Error

Table 'ann_smf.dreaming_log_httpBL' doesn't exist
File: /home/ann/public_html/dreaming/Packages/temp/install_2.php
Line: 69

I was attempting to install the package into a MariaDB ( fork of MySQL), database named ann_smf. The table prefix I specified during the installation of the SMF software was

dreaming_

. You can find those values in Settings.php in the forum software directory. E.g.:


########## Database Info ##########

$db_type = 'mysql';

$db_server = 'localhost';

$db_name = 'ann_smf';

$db_user = 'ann';

$db_passwd = 'Some-Password';

$ssi_db_user = '';

$ssi_db_passwd = '';

$db_prefix = 'dreaming_';

$db_persist = 0;

$db_error_send = 1;

You can also view them within the forum by choosing Admin then Configuration then Server Settings and looking under Database and Paths.

I logged into the MariaDB database software with mysql -p and looked for the referenced table, ann_smf.dreaming_log_httpBL; it didn't exist as the error message indicated. You can also use phpMyAdmin to examine the tables in a database.

Since the error message was coming from Packages/temp/install_2.php, I examined that file. When you attempt to install a mod, the files within the zip file for the mod are extracted into the Packages/temp directory. Inside that file, I saw the following PHP code:

if ($db_type == "mysql")
{
        $query_old_table = $smcFunc['db_query']('', '
                SHOW TABLES FROM `'.$db_name.'` LIKE {string:table_name}',
                array(
                        'table_name' => '%log_httpBL',
                )
        );
        $old_table_exists = $smcFunc['db_num_rows']($query_old_table);
        $smcFunc['db_free_result']($query_old_table);

        if ($old_table_exists)
        {
                $result = $smcFunc['db_query']('', '
                        DESCRIBE {db_prefix}log_httpBL errorNumber',
                        array(
                        )
                );

                $updating = $smcFunc['db_num_rows']($result) == 0;
                $smcFunc['db_free_result']($result);
        }
}

You can find information on smcFunc at the Simple Machines Forum wiki at $smcFunc, but it appeared the following check was causing the issue:

SHOW TABLES FROM `'.$db_name.'` LIKE {string:table_name}', 
                array( 
                        'table_name' => '%log_httpBL', 
                )

The PHP code was resulting in a MySQL query

SHOW TABLES FROM ann_smf
LIKE '%log_httpBL'

to be issued, since the variable

$db_name

equated to ann_smf. That would not have been a problem, except there were two other SMF forums within the same database each with its own database prefix. Since there were separate database prefixes, SMF knows which tables belong to which forum, but the PHP code for httpBL in install_2.php, which is the install.php file used if you have a SMF 2.x forum, was assuming that a forum's tables are in a database in which no other forum's tables exist. If I issued the command manually, I could see the cause of the problem:

MariaDB [ann_smf]> SHOW TABLES FROM ann_smf LIKE '%log_httpBL';
+---------------------------------+
| Tables_in_ann_smf (%log_httpBL)|
+---------------------------------+
| alot_log_httpBL                |
| backup_alot_log_httpBL         |
| backup_ourclub_log_httpBL      |
| ourclub_log_httpBL             |
+---------------------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [ann_smf]>

There were two other sites that had tables with names ending in log_httpBL, so $old_table_exists was getting a value that made the "if" test for $old_table_exists true and resulting in DESCRIBE {db_prefix}log_httpBL errorNumber being executed. Since I knew there was not actually an old version of the log_httpBL table for this forum, I changed the line below in install_2.php in the original zip file.

The zero would make the "if" test false and result in the install process proceeding as if it did not find any other tables ending with

log_httpBL

I had to change the install_2.php file in the original zip file; changing the install_2.php file in the

temp

directory at that point won't fix the problem. When I hit Back on the SMF web page where the error occurred and then clicked on the Install Now button again, I saw the error message below:

An Error Has Occurred

You already submitted this post! You might have accidentally double clicked or tried to refresh the page.

So I went to the Packages page and started the installation process from the beginning again. I clicked on Install Mod for httpBL. I chose to install the mod for all themes again. Again I received the error message "Table 'ann_smf.dreaming_log_httpBL' doesn't exist" referencing Packages/temp/install_2.php. And when I checked

install_2.php

I found it was back to what it had been previously, i.e., my change wasn't there, so then I unziped the original httpBL_v2_5_1.zip file.

$ unzip httpBL_v2_5_1.zip
Archive:  httpBL_v2_5_1.zip
  inflating: SMF Mod TOS Draft.doc
  inflating: httpBL.template.php
  inflating: httpBL_2_Config.php
  inflating: httpBL_Config.php
  inflating: httpBL_Subs.php
  inflating: httpBL_css.css
  inflating: install_1.php
  inflating: install_1.xml
  inflating: install_2.php
  inflating: install_2.xml
  inflating: languages.xml
  inflating: languages_utf8.xml
  inflating: package-info.xml
  inflating: readme.txt
  inflating: warning.php
  inflating: warning_css.css

I then modified the line in install_2.php and zipped the files into a zip file again. That led to other errors as noted in Package Manager - An Error Has Occurred!. I finally discovered that there was apparently some problem with the zip file I created on the Linux server where the forum resides. When I made the same modification to install_2.php on a Microsoft Windows system and created a new zip file there, which I uploaded with the Package Manager for the forum, I was able to successfully install the httpBL mod.