Can anyone lead me to where I can customize Vanilla Forums?

flyally

Youtube, Github or wherever. Not a web developer, so need some extra assistance

Rangerine

What do you want to customize? Some of the functionality may already be there.

I suggest you click the link above that says 'Addons' and take a look around. Many plugins may be available that fit your customization needs.

flyally

actually, before I get to that. I'm having an issue. I use WPengine as a host and when I try to login to my Vanilla Forum panel this is the error I get:

Your configuration file does not have the correct permissions. PHP needs to be able to read and write to this file:

Do you know what could be causing the issue?

flyally

whu606

@flyally

Welcome to the community.

That message means that you (or your host) need to change the permissions on the file config.php in the folder conf to make it writeable.

Please look here: http://docs.vanillaforums.com/theming/quickstart/ and in the tutorials section here to get a sense of what you can do with Vanilla.

flyally

I just checked my config file and config.php doesn't exist just /config-defaults.php
I read that the conf/config.php file is formed upon installation but it didn't work for me

I downloaded the file you guys provide then I used FileZilla for the Vanilla-core-2.2.1 file and downloaded successfully. Then I went to my host, WPengine and he sent me the link to go to my Vanilla Forum panel and that's the error I got. I went to the files and the only config file that exists is /confit-defaults.php

So confused
Is there something I'm missing? Can I create the conf/config.php file manually? My host tried it but he said it didn't do anything.

flyally

flyally

@whu606 said:
@flyally

Welcome to the community.

That message means that you (or your host) need to change the permissions on the file config.php in the folder conf to make it writeable.

Please look here: http://docs.vanillaforums.com/theming/quickstart/ and in the tutorials section here to get a sense of what you can do with Vanilla.

Do you know why the above problem might exist?

whu606

It looks like Vanilla didn't install properly.

Did your host install Vanilla for you?

I'd suggest trying to do it yourself.

It really is very straightforward, and that way you'd be able to see, and report, if you ran into problems.

flyally

I just reinstalled it using FileZilla. Again, nothing. I even enabled hidden files. I turned off all caching programs. Still nothing. I downloaded the file right from your downloads section. I created a folder in File Zilla called Vanilla and downloaded all the files in it. Still the same error.
confi/config.php file is not forming

R_J

You have to change the permissions of the /conf folder. It must be writable so that the file config.php can be first created and afterwards be written to.

whu606

Are you following the installation procedure?

You won't get a config.php file until you do.

You need to create a blank mySQL database.

Then, in a browser window, navigate to the Vanilla folder, and you will get a dialogue screen:

flyally

My hosting provider said that I wouldn't be able to make a custom mySQL database.
Is there any way around that?

whu606

@flyally

That seems very, very strange.

Looks like your host specialises in WordPress hosting.

If their starter rate is really $29/mo that seems very high, to me, unless you have a massive blog coining in revenue.

Vanilla relies on writing all its information to a mySQL db, so if you can't create one, you can't run Vanilla.

flyally

Ok, he said I can't create a new mySQL but I can use the existing one for my WordPress. Would that work? If so, what necessary steps would I need to take to install it to a pre-existing mySQL?

flyally

Your configuration file does not have the correct permissions. PHP needs to be able to read and write to this file:

The same issue keeps popping up.

The confi/config.php file is nowhere to be found. Why is this happening?

flyally

This is what a senior tech from my hosting service said:

That said, as far as the issue is concerned, it looks like you're trying to implement the self-hosted version of the Vanilla Forum platform into our server here on WP Engine. In installing, it looks to be failing on a specific error page, due to the code being able to set 0777 permissions on the server due to our security protocols in place.

You mentioned in the chat that they mention setting 0775/0755 permissions, however when reviewing their code, I found the following files trying to make very insecure directories/configurations:

vanilla/applications/dashboard/controllers/class.setupcontroller.php
295: $PermissionHelp = '

chmod -R 777 '.implode("\nchmod -R 777 ", $ProblemDirectories).'

';

vanilla/applications/dashboard/controllers/class.importcontroller.php
175: mkdir($TargetFolder, 0777, true);

vanilla/applications/dashboard/views/statistics/disabled.php
32: echo "

".t("Garden.StatisticsReadonly.Resolve", "To solve this problem, assign file mode 777 to your conf/config.php file.")."

";

vanilla/applications/dashboard/models/class.updatemodel.php
582: mkdir($TmpPath, 0777, true);

vanilla/plugins/editor/class.editor.plugin.php
1382: && !mkdir($path, 0777, true)

vanilla/plugins/editor/generate_thumbnail.php
285: // most likely always be writable, due to 777, unless trying to write
289: && !mkdir($data['dst_directory'], 0777, true)

vanilla/library/core/functions.general.php
3615: function touchFolder($Path, $Perms = 0777) {

vanilla/library/core/class.uploadimage.php
174: mkdir(dirname($TargetPath), 0777, true);

vanilla/library/vendors/Minify/config.php
67: mkdir(dirname($min_cachePath_local), 0777, TRUE);

vanilla/library/vendors/pclzip/pclzip.lib.php
5026: if (!@mkdir($p_dir, 0777))

Later in the chat you mentioned that the forum integrated with WordPress, and that's true for the WordPress plugin here which we can totally get working: https://wordpress.org/plugins/vanilla-forums/ however the forum itself is completely separate from the WordPress platform, so its integration stops at the plugin level that's hosted on wordpress.org.

If there's a way for the Vanilla team to remove the 777 permission requirement that's present within their code, it's likely that this will work, but as of right now they have a specific flag within the PHP code that's looking for those 777 permissions, which is preventing the execution of the setup from completing.

Technically we could modify that file to require only 755, but I'm unsure to the extent the code requires additional modification to fully work and set it up correctly, as this looks to be more designed for regular hosting, and not a WordPress based environment like WP Engine.

vrijvlinder

You have not integrated or done anything yet because you have not installed the forum properly. You can't install Vanilla forum inside a Wordpress application or use the same directory. Both are separate software that can be integrated via plugins but after you have installed the software properly.

In order to get the installation to create the config.php that folder needs to be writeable. Wordpress also has a config file and that also requires that the folder is writeable . If you have uploads, those need to be writeable.

It makes no sense that they don't allow that. I would find another host asap. Free hosts suck and cheap ones too.

You should be able to create unlimited data bases and install anything you want.

flyally

@vrijvlinder said:
You have not integrated or done anything yet because you have not installed the forum properly. You can't install Vanilla forum inside a Wordpress application or use the same directory. Both are separate software that can be integrated via plugins but after you have installed the software properly.

In order to get the installation to create the config.php that folder needs to be writeable. Wordpress also has a config file and that also requires that the folder is writeable . If you have uploads, those need to be writeable.

It makes no sense that they don't allow that. I would find another host asap. Free hosts suck and cheap ones too.

You should be able to create unlimited data bases and install anything you want.

I actually figured it out. I had to host the forum elsewhere (I chose Bluehost) then I integrated the forum using the plugin.

Do you how I can make my forum look like this: http://www.callawaygolf.com/community/#/

I love their design. Is it a theme or did they custom code it?

K17

@flyally a dit :

@vrijvlinder said:
You have not integrated or done anything yet because you have not installed the forum properly. You can't install Vanilla forum inside a Wordpress application or use the same directory. Both are separate software that can be integrated via plugins but after you have installed the software properly.

In order to get the installation to create the config.php that folder needs to be writeable. Wordpress also has a config file and that also requires that the folder is writeable . If you have uploads, those need to be writeable.

It makes no sense that they don't allow that. I would find another host asap. Free hosts suck and cheap ones too.

You should be able to create unlimited data bases and install anything you want.

I actually figured it out. I had to host the forum elsewhere (I chose Bluehost) then I integrated the forum using the plugin.

Do you how I can make my forum look like this: http://www.callawaygolf.com/community/#/

I love their design. Is it a theme or did they custom code it?

It a custom theme, but see in "addons" section and check themes, some are similar (from far)

Bleistivt

@flyally https://vanillaforums.org/addon/bootstrap-theme