Thanks!

So I am adding this info to aid new users......

Because yaga ranks is automatically enabled and there are several ranks that REVOKE permissions.

So you may have the correct permissions in the dashboard for a particular role or the timeout set for editing a discussion to a certain amount, yet it seems no matter what you do to the permissions in the dashboard users still cannot edit signatures or don't have permission to edit signatures or they cannot create tags or the editing window timeout is different than what you expect or non-existent.

Suddenly your users can't edit signatures
Suddenly your users can't create new tags
Suddenly your users can't edit discussions

these are a few of the problems a first time Yaga install can create.

To solve these permission revocation problems. You can do multiple things to correct.

• disable ranks in dashboard.

• or set

  $Configuration['Yaga']['Ranks']['Enabled'] = Disabled;

or

• go to the ranks screen and edit the ranks - look at the drop down boxes and change revoke to default for the ranks.

or

delete the ranks and create your own once you know how to use them.

or

prevent rank from being awarded

Feedback to hgtonight

no, I am not going to fork myself and no I am not writing any more documentation, and no I am not making changes in github, I am making a general suggestion to prevent harm to new users.

While Yaga application is good in most ways, the setup and documentation are problematical
A plugin or app should do "No Harm".
the default installation could be better and cause less problems to novice users by setting in Application-Yaga/settings/configuration.php

$Configuration['Yaga']['Reactions']['Enabled'] = false;
$Configuration['Yaga']['Badges']['Enabled'] = false;
$Configuration['Yaga']['Ranks']['Enabled'] = false;

let the user enable via the dashboard not the reverse.

By enabling via dashboard upon install you don't run into these problems.

• a flood of badges and notifications awarded even if you don't want badges. activity table flooded emails sent.
• insidious problem where a new user has no idea they have changed permission settings for many users and have not idea how to solve.
• perhaps reactions could be true but the others should be false in default setup.

other suggestions

• yes a users can add those three config statements to /conf/config.php before installing - but how will they know.
• Add some screenshots or animated gifs
• warn users which permissions will change and how to change them in a readme.
• add a bit more documentation to the downloaded plugin so users don't have to go to three sites to find information (at least some basic user documentation to prevent glitches.

You should at least add a warning to both the Description, a screen in settings and a readme, if the idea is to provide benefit and not harm.

One of the bigger reasons I am posting this is because some of the attempts at solving issue involve replacement of permissions table and other vodoo when it is actually revocation of permission due to yaga ranks.

I'm encountering a critical issue on my self-hosted Vanilla Forum when trying to send private messages to users. The following fatal error is raised:

Fatal Error in Firebase\JWT\JWT.sign();

key must be a string when using hmac

Details:

• Environment:
  • Vanilla Forum version: 2024.007
  • PHP version: 8

Error Trace:

The error occurred on or near: /var/www/html/vendor/firebase/php-jwt/src/JWT.php

229:         list($function, $algorithm) = static::$supported_algs[$alg];

230:         switch ($function) {

231:             case 'hash_hmac':

232:                 if (!\is_string($key)) {

233:                     throw new InvalidArgumentException('key must be a string when using hmac');

234:                 }

235:                 return \hash_hmac($algorithm, $msg, $key, true);

236:             case 'openssl':

237:                 $signature = '';

Backtrace:

[/var/www/html/vendor/firebase/php-jwt/src/JWT.php:203] Firebase\JWT\JWT::sign();

[/var/www/html/applications/dashboard/models/class.activitymodel.php:1401] Firebase\JWT\JWT::encode();

[/var/www/html/applications/dashboard/models/class.activitymodel.php:1261] ActivityModel->getUnsubscribeLink();

[/var/www/html/applications/dashboard/models/class.activitymodel.php:2113] ActivityModel->email();

[/var/www/html/applications/dashboard/models/class.activitymodel.php:2510] ActivityModel->save();

[/var/www/html/applications/conversations/models/class.conversationsmodel.php:196] ActivityModel->saveQueue();

[/var/www/html/applications/conversations/models/class.conversationmodel.php:787] ConversationsModel->notifyUsers();

[/var/www/html/library/core/class.form.php:3122] ConversationModel->save();

[/var/www/html/applications/conversations/controllers/class.messagescontroller.php:116] Gdn_Form->save();

[/var/www/html/library/core/class.dispatcher.php:1036] MessagesController->add();

[/var/www/html/library/core/class.dispatcher.php:397] Gdn_Dispatcher->dispatchController();

[/var/www/html/index.php:36] Gdn_Dispatcher->dispatch();

It seems that the key being used for HMAC signing is not a string. I have traced the issue to line 232 in JWT.php, where the sign method expects the key to be a string.

Can anyone provide guidance on ensuring the key is always a string in the appropriate parts of the Vanilla Forum codebase? Is there a more permanent fix that can be applied to the source?

Thank you for your assistance!

OS: Ubuntu 20, Ubuntu 22, or Debian 11 (these are OK for me)

I want to install vanilla forums and Have a problem
For webserver I wanna use Nginx, For Cert, I'll use python3-certbot-nginx
Help me please? I need full instllation tutorial cuz every tutorial I found is outdated or wrong, not enough.

I need step by step help.

Thanks you

The option to create a custom template is not working (possibly because I use embedding) and the Theme Editor is not available in this opensource version I guess.

I can't seem to find the responsible css file which I can use to change the colors of the default foundation theme that I am embedding on my website. Anyone ideas?

Please bare with me this is not my area of expertise

I have transferred my FAQ site installed on Namecheap to Ionos and the move has not gone well site wont work

the original site was setup using the cpanel softaculous apps installer on a domain faq.lilycomms.tech.

i Created a new domain faq.lilycomms.info moved the files across and imported the database without error i edited the config.php with the new domain details which loaded the main page but not allow me to sign in i changed the config and seemed to have made it worse and have the following issues can anyone advise many thanks.

Any ideas?

I'm hosting a Vanilla Forum (self-hosted) and would like to get notified, when a new security update is released. Does anyone know if there is a way to do that

Greetings

David

https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/tree/release/2024.004

To upgrate you have to desactivate reactions plugin.

I used to have the forum embedded in wordpress and was using the jsconnect sso solution to register and login users. Well, wordpress kinda went to hell and I unembedded the forum from wordpress and because the software is so old it uses recaptcha version one to do basic authentication. Well that isn't supported anymore so my forum is sort of dead in the water at the moment.

Wondering if there is anyway to upgrade from such an old version?

Any idea what the fix it? I've tried making changes to /roles/defaultroles/ and it doesnt seem to do anything.

The default role has not been configured.
## /home/idhell/public_html/applications/dashboard/models/class.usermodel.php(3066)
#0 /home/idhell/public_html/applications/dashboard/models/class.usermodel.php(1996): UserModel->insertForBasic(Array, true, Array)
#1 /home/idhell/public_html/applications/dashboard/controllers/class.entrycontroller.php(1567): UserModel->register(Array)
#2 /home/idhell/public_html/applications/dashboard/controllers/class.entrycontroller.php(1431): EntryController->registerBasic('')
#3 /home/idhell/public_html/library/core/class.dispatcher.php(862): EntryController->register('')
#4 /home/idhell/public_html/library/core/class.dispatcher.php(279): Gdn_Dispatcher->dispatchController(Object(Gdn_Request), Array)
#5 /home/idhell/public_html/index.php(29): Gdn_Dispatcher->dispatch()
#6 {main}

This was after a fresh install with version 2024.004.

I just tried downgrading to built-vanilla-2023.014 but that made no difference, still the same issue.

What can I try? Would appreciate your help!