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Addons conversations and vanilla not found after 2.6 installation

I have been trying to install Vanilla 2.6 onto a clean Windows Server 2012 R2 machine with IIS 6.2. I installed php 7.1.14 and MySQL 8.0.11. On MySQL, I turned off Strict Mode. I created a database. I changed the default authentication plugin to mysql_native_password, and created a user, making sure it used that authentication. I unzipped the vanilla 2.6 distro downloaded from this site and created a website in IIS pointing to the unzipped folder. I commented out references to .htaccess in the code because IIS doesn't use it (I was very careful; I can list them all). I setup the redirects via web.config (again, I can add detail if needed). I gave IIS users read/write/execute permissions to cache, conf, and uploads folders. I have also set debug on in my conf.php.

I started the installation by navigating to my vanilla website on a browser. I filled out the form and continued.

After a SQL error (see details here: MySQL error during install of Vanilla 2.6), which I was able to overcome by commenting out more code, I started getting a 404 error page with debug traces for conversations addon not found, and vanilla addon not found.

The addon with key /applications/conversations could not be found and will not be started.

#0 [internal function]: gdn_ErrorHandler(1024, 'The addon with ...', 'C:\\vanilla-core...', 1104, Array)
#1 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\library\Vanilla\AddonManager.php(1104): trigger_error('The addon with ...')
#2 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\bootstrap.php(264): Vanilla\AddonManager->startAddonsByKey(Array, 'addon')
#3 [internal function]: {closure}(Object(Garden\Container\Container), Object(Gdn_Configuration), Object(Vanilla\AddonManager), Object(Garden\EventManager), Object(Gdn_Request))
#4 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\vendor\vanilla\garden-container\src\Container.php(723): call_user_func_array(Object(Closure), Array)
#5 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\bootstrap.php(324): Garden\Container\Container->call(Object(Closure))
#6 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\index.php(22): require_once('C:\\vanilla-core...')
#7 {main}

The addon with key /applications/vanilla could not be found and will not be started.

#0 [internal function]: gdn_ErrorHandler(1024, 'The addon with ...', 'C:\\vanilla-core...', 1104, Array)
#1 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\library\Vanilla\AddonManager.php(1104): trigger_error('The addon with ...')
#2 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\bootstrap.php(264): Vanilla\AddonManager->startAddonsByKey(Array, 'addon')
#3 [internal function]: {closure}(Object(Garden\Container\Container), Object(Gdn_Configuration), Object(Vanilla\AddonManager), Object(Garden\EventManager), Object(Gdn_Request))
#4 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\vendor\vanilla\garden-container\src\Container.php(723): call_user_func_array(Object(Closure), Array)
#5 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\bootstrap.php(324): Garden\Container\Container->call(Object(Closure))
#6 C:\vanilla-core-2-6\index.php(22): require_once('C:\\vanilla-core...')
#7 {main}

My config.php has $Configuration['Vanilla']['Version'] = '2.4.201'; near the bottom; I don't know if this is relevant.

Based on other posts here and on Github, I have tried the following:

  1. Click on Activity. There's no link to the dashboard on that page.
  2. Navigate to /dashboard/settings.
  3. Click on Settings - Configuration & Addons.
  4. Under Addons, click on Applications. Here I can click to enable Conversations. I get a popup that says 'Conversations Enabled' but navigating back to the page shows it disabled.
  5. Under Addons, click on Plugins. Enable a random one (I enabled Discussion Photos). I got two confirmation popups, one for Discussion Photos and one for Vanilla, being required.

After enabling the other plugin, the 404 went away. Still, the debug trace at the bottom of each page complains about Conversations and Vanilla not being found.

Both applications, and the dashboard, are enabled in conf.php. This was true even before the 404 went away:

// EnabledApplications
$Configuration['EnabledApplications']['Dashboard'] = 'dashboard';
$Configuration['EnabledApplications']['Conversations'] = '/applications/conversations';
$Configuration['EnabledApplications']['Vanilla'] = '/applications/vanilla';

I understand there is an open issue on Github for enabling applications, but I get the feeling my issue goes a little deeper because enabling another addon doesn't fix it. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Comments

  • Any news on the ability to enable Vanilla and Conversations add-ons? I still can't use my forum.

  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    @mschiff said:
    After a SQL error (see details here: MySQL error during install of Vanilla 2.6), which I was able to overcome by commenting out more code

    I do not know if it is called a requirment, but most people use a linux server and either Apache or nginx. If you face errors it can be

    • Some Vanilla code
    • The fact that you have deleted some lines of code
    • Windows OS
    • IIS

    Therefore it is not easy to support.

    When you do a clean installation (with MariaDB for the reasons you have given in the other discussion), which lines have you commented out?

  • rgprgp London New
    edited July 2018

    I've just had exactly the same problem ("The addon with key /applications/vanilla could not be found and will not be started.") running a clean install on Windows (but with Apache rather than IIS).

    I noticed that the key in addon.json is 'vanilla', not '/applications/vanilla', so I changed config.php to use the former for both 'vanilla' (and similarly for 'conversations') and all now seems to be working.

    I haven't yet done any more digging to see why this should be a Windows-specific problem, though ...

  • @rgp said:
    I've just had exactly the same problem ("The addon with key /applications/vanilla could not be found and will not be started.") running a clean install on Windows (but with Apache rather than IIS).

    I noticed that the key in addon.json is 'vanilla', not '/applications/vanilla', so I changed config.php to use the former for both 'vanilla' (and similarly for 'conversations') and all now seems to be working.

    I haven't yet done any more digging to see why this should be a Windows-specific problem, though ...

    Thank you for this. We were also having this problem with the debug message reporting that the 'vanilla' and conversations' applications could not be found. Modifying the paths in the config.php file (removing the /applications part) immediately fixed it.

    We are running Windows and the problem occurred on both IIS and the Windows build of Apache. It's disappointing coming here for help and seeing how many commenters will dismiss your problem just because you're running Windows.

  • whu606whu606 I'm not a SuperHero; I just like wearing tights... MVP

    @danbanks

    I see most comments on most threads, and I don't see that Windows users get dismissed.

    Vanilla has never directly supported installation on IIS, and since most of the volunteers on here will be using a Linux server, they are unlikely to have experience of issues with Windows, and so ability to help will be limited.

  • rgprgp London New

    Hi @danbanks. I'm glad my post was of help, but I think you're being a little unfair about this forum. The original poster of this thread seems to have had multiple issues with databases, commented out core code, etc, so it may or may not have been the choice of OS that was the problem.

    I'm just getting to the end of fully integrating a forum into a larger website, which, apart from the CSS, has involved themehooks, plugins, etc, and I've found the answer to every query I've had along the way in this forum -- I haven't even needed to ask a question, searching existing posts has answered everything. The level of support here really is good.

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