suddenly new invitation registration form requires UserID + other things to submit

persistent

The working forum I am attempting to get moved to upgrades all of a sudden started this, I know of NO changes to this software or server (VPS, Linux, Apache 2.2.29, PHP 5.4.35) unless updates were applied I am not aware of. All has been working fine for 20 days (except for people can no longer copy/paste from other websites to quote in their discussion comments as they are full of ? marks and stops altogether following any special character--like legal pages--unicode hassle - db says all collation column is utf8_unicode_ci and bottom column label says latin1_swedish_ci). I'm not testing anything in the working forum, just my two installs testing to get it upgraded.
The forum has always been 2.0.18b4 and has never been set up/hacked to be different than the default invitation setup. It has always had the extra fields plugin that adds to their profile area, so nothing new there.

The email goes fine, click on the link that takes you to registration page with code filled in, fill out Username, Password twice, Gender, terms of service, remember me, then Submit Registration.
Upon clicking Submit, a big red box now appears at the top with:

UserID is required.
FirstName is required.
LastName is required.

ANY idea of where I start looking for this confusion? Some database posting issue? I've looked for where that occurs and haven't found it yet. Can't hardly require a UserID before you register. There are no boxes for First or Last Name. The form php looks fine to me.

Thank you so much.

Bleistivt

Disable the extra fields plugin first, "FirstName" and "LastName" are not standard user fields, so this could very well be the issue. The database charset could also be the issue.

You really need to upgrade though, 11 days and 2.0x will not be supported anymore.
You should not run 2.0.18b4 anyway, 2.0.18.14 is the most recent 2.0.x version, yours is missing a ton of security fixes.

On top of that, 2.1 comes with a new plugin for additional user info, so you might get rid of both problems.

persistent

Thank you Bleistivt. I just couldn't figure out why all of a sudden - so it must have been the character set changes. I had done your suggestions as well, so the change must be one-way and not reversible when server changes are made. These and more problems are occurring with my upgraded test forum and many members are opposed to the upgrade as we lose plugins they all want--but have been orphaned with the newest version. However, the utf-8 issues may force it if stuff stops working. ??Will the old database coming into the new install further "corrupt" the character set issues?

That's all we need -- a few more variables in different places.

THANK you for answering me on an old install.

peregrine

These and more problems are occurring with my upgraded test forum and many members are opposed to the upgrade as we lose plugins they all want--but have been orphaned with the newest version.

thats a big mistake to remain in 2.0.18.x after December 31, 2014

if there are more security fixes in the future, since they won't be backported.

persistent

I agree.... actually, the php guy I asked to read me stuff said that. :-)

With the UTF-8 issues (I've put the server areas to that) should make upgrade necessary. I believe that the "old" info database is not happy about it - but can't directly prove it.

Thank you for weighing in.

Is there any database commands I can run on the sql file that will magically fix all of the weird characters and bring back what should show correctly? If there is a competent tutorial or step by step out there, I will do it. All the normal, most common MySql stuff.

peregrine

I don't know what you want to change. but there are sql forums and there is a myql documentations site as well as mysql tutorials. You might want to investigate those.

persistent

My question above was about the registration form, but may move out to the language set.

I want to make what is in the discussions readable no matter where they copy it from. The copied material that does not work (stops or puts in ? marks everywhere) says it's all utf-8 in it's html headers. I want to run a "fix" on the tables/fields to be sure they are all talking the same language - utf-8, which is what the config file says vanilla is. I have put 3 changes onto php/apache to make it so, but since nothing changed, it must be the data that is already there is not being read correctly in the new system.

I need this for the upgrade, it appears, or it will never work. Vanilla is utf-8 as far a everything I see. I have (as you all do) over a week of unpaid hours learning and reading. It appears there's not much well-done documentation because it all changes faster than anyone in their right mind would want to try and keep track of.

But thank you.
(I would just scrap the old and on to the new, but the group is, of course, not really willing to do that. But the time a-wasting here is not worth it.)
EOT

peregrine

you are barking on the wrong forum. it is a sql issue not a vanilla issue and a result of previous admin.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5906585/change-database-collation

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1294117/how-to-change-collation-of-database-table-column

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/302405/The-Easy-way-of-changing-Collation-of-all-Database

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5906585/change-database-collation

persistent

Thank you. We'll bark up these forums again.

peregrine

why don't you export the table after you change collation and import it again and see if that helps.

or conversely don't change collation export it, change collation, and import it.

persistent

Thank you, @peregrine. Good idea. I'll try it both ways. It's been suggested that I upgrade the server to php 5.5 before any more trials. Since it's a mess now, things can only look up as we test each round.

persistent

A partial breakthrough... After a lot of work and no change, special graphic characters like the "section sign" still stop everything showing below its occurrance. BUT pasting in just the graphic (symbol) into the text box containing that particular comment directly in the database via phpMyadmin and saving it, it WORKED. The character showed just fine.

Now when I went back to the forum again, and edited that comment there, which shows the graphic symbol-only just fine now as pasted into the database comment text box, and then SAVE the edited comment - it's gone again.

So it is the editor that is zapping any graphic character such as copyright, ampersand, section sign, etc. and stopping all from saving at that point.

e.g., testing in this comment. I will use the html numbers and then paste graphic in and see if it works here.
If so, how do I deal with the comment submission html input box process???

It all worked just fine before the move to new server. No plugin or file changes were made. Pasting graphic symbols does not work in my new 2.1.6 install nor the 2.0.18.14 install either using same database inserted from backup file of original forum.

None of it showed past pasting in its character graphic only:

& s e c t ;

§

& # 1 6 7 ;

§

To get the symbol to show as below, I had to go to the database, paste the graphic into the text box of the comment and now it shows, and still shows in database until after re-saving the comment on the forum as I said.

Now I'll re-save this comment and see if it sticks here below .....

---> pasting section sign graphic between quote marks " § "

The district court determined, among other things, that the government's collection suit was not barred by the ten-year statute of limitations. See 26 U.S.C. --> § <--6502(a)(1).1 [End of paste and comment]

Addemdum after I Posted Comment - It WORKED here. The pasted graphic shows.

Any ideas now?
What in the installs would be preventing the input as normal html - graphic characters and all?

http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm

peregrine

if you are using cleditor you have to cut and paste while you are in source.

does it work properly with buttonbar plugin.

You should start a new discussion, specifically related to individual issues with an accurate title in the post matching the specifics in your post.

as well as version number and name of the specific editor plugin and the input formatter from your config, version number of vanilla, etc, etc.

with screenshots of table structure or comment table and discussion table.

persistent

Will do.
@peregrine‌

Give me a good Subject line please. What would people search on?

cleditor was not (never has been) enabled.

Buttonbar has always been enabled.

All input has always been utf-8 in all config areas I could find everywhere, all versions of vanilla.