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Help getting my website to work again

origamimark
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎01-02-2014

Help getting my website to work again

Hi,
Since PlusNet changed the way they support CGI websites, mine has not worked, and I do not know what to do to get it working again.
I have tried raising a ticket with Support, and got some useful info from Curtis Arnold,
You'll also more than likely want to update your domains DNS records which can be set to the below (don't forget the trailing full stops where they've been set) through the Domain Names section of the member centre:
Left field              Type        Pri        Right field
Your Domain.      A                          91.136.8.9
www                    CNAME              Your Domain.
I have checked your domain records and they currently look as if they have been setup incorrectly, you may wish to alter these to the above.

but then  Matthew Wright closed the ticket stating that they do not support internal domain issues.
I think I can classify myself as reasonably technical and competent, but I have found the documentation provided confusing and contradictory. I am sure a step-by-step guide is all I require to solve my difficulty
My need is very simple:
1) Set up my domain 'origamimark.co.uk' to be hosted by PlusNet. Used to work. Now not working at all. Sad
2) configure 'www.origamimark.co.uk' to run 'index.php'. Used ro work ... Sad
3) 'index.php' to connect to my instance on the backend MySQL database. Used to work fine until you changed things at the start of the year ... Sad
What do I need to do to make this happen.
I am serioyusly considering taking my hosting requirement elsewhere.
12 REPLIES 12
TORPC
Grafter
Posts: 5,163
Registered: ‎08-12-2013

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Extra info for DCT
It is throwing up a 500 Internal Server Error
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
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Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Taking a look now...

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

bobpullen
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Your domain is currently pointing to the Homepages servers (ftp.free-online.net). Looking at the content, you've a load of dynamic stuff - like PHP files - uploaded there, none of which will work in that environment. The Homepages servers are for static content only. This is what's causing the HTTP 500 errors.
~$ host www.origamimark.co.uk
www.origamimark.co.uk is an alias for origamimark.co.uk.
origamimark.co.uk has address 212.159.9.91
origamimark.co.uk has address 212.159.8.91

Having said that, it looks like you've recently updated your records. The new ones look fine so leave them as they are. As soon as DNS has had time to propagate you should find that the domain points to the CGI servers instead of the Homepages servers.
So, onto your CGI space...
All the necessary content appears to be there, however you seem to be using a meta refresh in an html file to point all requests to your .co.uk domain name. This is not necessary so I've renamed the file. The index.php file is now served, however your browser returns:
Connection to origamimark_fol_cgi_origamimark_free-online_co_uk successful
Connected to database origamimark_fol_cgi_origamimark_free-online_co_uk
Could not execute query 'SELECT seqno, NAME, URL, FRAME, DESCRIPTION FROM menutable ORDER BY seqno'

Now this has me a little stumped because I can connect to your database and run that SQL query directly and it returns 13 rows of data. I've created a new database and pointed your site at that but that hasn't done the trick either.
Am I correct in assuming that the site in it's present form used to work on the old platform?

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

origamimark
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎01-02-2014

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Hi Bob,
Thank you very much for your help so far ... This has been a right little teaser, and no mistake !
Yes, the code as it stands used to, and should still, work. You will know when it does, as the Index.php code will produce a page comprising an inline frame, with a set of tabs across the top.
Some of the those tabs should work fine, as they refer to static HTML.
I expect the others (the first one for example, called 'Origami') will break as they refer to further PHP pages which are probably no longer in the right place. I will need to manually fix some of these directly in the database. Where they are got from is held in the 'url' column of the 'menu' table in the database, if memory serves.  I have written some general purpose PHP that allows me to maintain any table in the database from anywhere, whilst retaining the look and feel of my website. This allows me to dynamically reconfigure the site without needing access to code. It will allow any CRUD activity against my tables. Password secured, of course ! Imagine the fun I had designing and coding this beast, and why I am a bit loathe to lose it !
HTH, and thanks agian. I just knew there must be someone who could figure this out.
Once we get it working, can I propose a step-by-step guide be produced ? All the diocumentation seems to be in place, but it is very dispersed, and some of it is inconsistent or out of date WRT the current deployment of CGI capability. For example, it could be made clearer that changes to DNS settings can take a while to be socialised with the rest of the internet - obvious, really, but when you are in the middle of setting something up, this can throw you.
I appreciate that you provide hosting as a free service, but your Support Desk should not just turn their back on people like me, as I am a good (if a little demanding, sometimes) customer and your Support Desk response is just telling me to leave. I do not want to do this, obviously.
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Quote from: origamimark
Yes, the code as it stands used to, and should still, work.

OK, that's good to know. It means I should be able to enlist a little help from our hosting partner Wink
Quote from: origamimark
I expect the others (the first one for example, called 'Origami') will break as they refer to further PHP pages which are probably no longer in the right place. I will need to manually fix some of these directly in the database. Where they are got from is held in the 'url' column of the 'menu' table in the database, if memory serves.

Those URLs look fine and they all refer to content that is present on the server:

Quote from: origamimark
Once we get it working, can I propose a step-by-step guide be produced ?

I'm working on some better documentation that I plan on posting as a sticky in this forum.
Quote from: origamimark
I appreciate that you provide hosting as a free service, but your Support Desk should not just turn their back on people like me...

As we broke your site as part of the migration, you shouldn't have been turned away.
Leave it with me.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

origamimark
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎01-02-2014

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Hi Bob,
I can confirm the static pages work now. Try aboutme.html (where you will see what a handsome chap I am), feedback.html, and my particular favourite desiderata.html - very calming after a hard day debugging.
myorigami.php does something very inexpected ...
My initial reaction when I read your post today, and tried it myself, was that it might be a feature of the new version of PHP, but I can also confirm that I have seen index.php work a few weeks ago, before my local webmaster committed hari kari.
HTH
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
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Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
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Re: Help getting my website to work again

Quote from: origamimark
My initial reaction when I read your post today, and tried it myself, was that it might be a feature of the new version of PHP, but I can also confirm that I have seen index.php work a few weeks ago, before my local webmaster committed hari kari.

It will probably have been working up until this. My suspicion at the moment is some PHP4 > PHP5 compatibility issue but we'll see what our hosting partner makes of it...

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

origamimark
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎01-02-2014

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Thanks Bob. Loioks like a good candidate.
Have a great weekend !
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Right, a bit of debugging and it looks like the problem's not with the SELECT statement, it's because the database hasn't been selected for use:
Error: (1046) No database selected

So I checked your include file and found the following line commented out:
$database              = mysql_select_db($g_databasename,$con);

Uncommented the line and your site has sprung back into life. Some of the pages seem to be a tad broken so you might have a bit of work to do to get things fully working again. Hopefully you have a good starting point though?

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

origamimark
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎01-02-2014

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Hi Bob,
Oops ! I was previously doing a bit of debugging myself and forgot about that - well spotted !
I'll have a look over the weekend at the rest of the code, but it  looks like we are nearly there.
Thanks very much for your help. I look forward to the definitive guide !
Have a good weekend !
Mark
origamimark
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎01-02-2014

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Smiley Just wanted to close this off to say my site is now working. There may be odds and ends like hard-coded URLs that are pointing to the wrong place, etc, which I will fix as I encounter them.
I am extremely grateful to Bob Pullen for his help. Thanks, Bob. What a star ! Saved me having to switch Hosting companies.
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Help getting my website to work again

Glad to hear everything's back to normal Smiley

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵