[Solved] Strange, spurious characters in Content / Edit / Pa

[AndyMatterson]

Hello

I have just upgraded my (test) site from 1.6.6 to 1.11.1. It was a long trip. I have upgraded my real site from 1.6.6 to 1.10.3 and am holding back with the upgrade to 1.11.1 because on my test site I get:

In the admin interface, with the OneEleven theme, when I try to edit a page I get strange characters inserted between the Edit Content label and the 'Main', 'Options' and 'Preview' tabs. The characters are '��/�(P��W��' and so on. Please see the attached screen shot, otherwise it's a bit hard to explain.

The odd characters don't seem to do any harm but I'm sure they're trying to tell me something useful and I'd like to know what!

Nobody seems to have reported anything similar in the forum; however does anyone have an idea what this might be?

My site system info looks like:


----------------------------------------------
Cms Version: 1.11.1

Installed Modules:

CMSMailer: 5.2.1
FileManager: 1.4.0
MenuManager: 1.8.3
ModuleManager: 1.5.5
News: 2.12.8
Printing: 1.1.2
Search: 1.7.7
ThemeManager: 1.1.7
TinyMCE: 2.8.4
CGExtensions: 1.30
Calendar: 1.0
EventsListing: 1.5
VisitorStats: 0.1.3
jQuery: 1.2.0
FrontEndUsers: 1.6.2
Captcha: 0.3.2
Guestbook: 1.1.9
CGSimpleSmarty: 1.5.2
CGExtensions: 1.30
CGGoogleMaps: 2.3.1
CMSPrinting: 1.0.3
MicroTiny: 1.2.3
JQueryTools: 1.1


Config Information:

php_memory_limit:
process_whole_template:
output_compression: false
max_upload_size: 128000000
url_rewriting: none
page_extension:
query_var: page
image_manipulation_prog: GD
auto_alias_content: true
locale: de_DE.UTF8
default_encoding: utf-8
admin_encoding: utf-8
set_names: true


Php Information:

phpversion: 5.3.4
md5_function: On (True)
gd_version: 2
tempnam_function: On (True)
magic_quotes_runtime: Off (False)
E_STRICT: 0
E_DEPRECATED: 0
memory_limit: 96M
max_execution_time: 60
output_buffering: 4096
safe_mode: On (True)
file_uploads: On (True)
post_max_size: 128M
upload_max_filesize: 128M
session_save_path: /tmp (0)
session_use_cookies: On (True)
xml_function: On (True)
xmlreader_class: On (True)


Server Information:

Server Api: cgi-fcgi
Server Db Type: MySQL (mysql)
Server Db Version: 5.0.77
Server Db Grants: Found a "GRANT ALL" statement that appears to be suitable

----------------------------------------------


Thanks...

[applejack]

How did you update?

Did you run after each major revision install/upgrade.php

Seems like a character issue with MySQL settings.

This is from my server
character_set_client utf8
character_set_connection utf8
character_set_database latin1
character_set_filesystem binary
character_set_results utf8
character_set_server latin1
character_set_system utf8
character_sets_dir /usr/share/mysql/charsets/
collation_connection utf8_general_ci
collation_database latin1_swedish_ci
collation_server latin1_swedish_ci

[Jean le Chauve]

Remove the Guestbook, it is not yet compatible 1.11

[AndyMatterson]

I upgraded to each major release in turn, making a new backup of the database each time. The final few steps I had to repeat and ended up doing a clean install of CMSMS 1.10.3 and then restoring the saved database. Then an upgrade to 1.11.1.

As an aside, I found I could use neither Module Manager nor the xml method to install some of the modules. I had to upload the tar.gz packages (actually I used WinZip to pack them all together) and 'Extensions > Modules' to install them.

The strange thing is that GuestBook only appears in the System Info page. It does not appear in the 'Extensions > Modules' list. I have no FTP access just now, but I'll check whether the GuestBook directory is there and remove it as soon as I can. It shouldn't be there anyway, I just tried it out once and don't use it.

@applejack - how do you get the character set info?

My site is in german but I use english in the site admin pages because it's easier for me. So there could well be a char set problem. The production site is running 1.10.3 and does not have this problem though.

Thanks...

[AndyMatterson]

Thanks for the responses!

I updated major release to major release up to 1.10.3 making db backups as I went.

In fact I had some problems at various stages and finally had to do a clean install of 1.10.3 and restored a db backup on top of it.

I upgraded both my production and test sites to 1.10.3 this way and did not have this problem on either site. I then upgraded the test site to 1.11.1 where the problem now occurs (so for now I am leaving the production site on 1.10.3). Both sites use the same software (OS, PHP and MySql). Both use the same db settings.

My character settings for MySql look exactly the same as the ones applejack posted. My site's front end is in German but I use English for the admin system.

I some time ago installed Guestbook to try it out but don't really use it. It's files are not installed on my server, neither is it listed in Extensions > Modules so I can't de-install it this way.
Evidently the system info page picks it up from the database - there are many references to Guestbook and several Guestbook related tables in my db.

Should I try simply editing the Guestbook related entries out of the db dump and restoring it again? Sounds tricky and none too safe if there are foreign keys in there!
I could also revert the test site to 1.10.3 and install / de-install Guestbook. I guess that would remove the Guestbook tables etc.

I shall think about it and report back.

Btw.: my posts seem to take hours to appear in the forum.
In fact I made a post around 16:00 this afternoon which hasn't appeared at all 'til now. Since it's midnight here I guess it's disappeared altogether.
Is this usual?

Thanks again.

[AndyMatterson]

Aha. On the last submit I saw the message that says the post has to be approved by a moderator. Fair enough!

[applejack]

Is the odd characters just in the admin or also in the frontend page content. I had a similar issue when I moved server and reimported the database. If I remember it was something to do with the mysql.ini file and setnames. There is I think as setnames setting in the config file so check that.

[Jean le Chauve]

Perhaps EventsListing: 1.5 is in fault.

[AndyMatterson]

Hello again.

I have now re-installed CmsMS 1.10.3 on my test site. I also installed and de-installed Guestbook and Frontend User so that those db tables would be removed. I then upgraded to 1.11.1. It still had the same problem.

I did the whole procedure again, this time without restoring my db. I just left the default data in there before upgrading to 1.11.1.

And the problem code is still there. In fact the same spurious characters appear in the content also - see the attached screen shots.

So it's likely a problem with my server set up. I have not got around to checking the mysql.ini and the setnames stuff. (I'm not actually sure I can with my hoster...) I'll see.

If I inspect the html source I can see where the spurious code is, here's a snippet:

Code: Select all

</div>
</header><section class="cf"><div id="Edit_Content_Result"></div>��/�(P��W��,V
<div class="pagecontainer pageoverflow">
        <div id="page_tabs" style="width:100%;">

Can anyone shed any light on where these divs are generated? It might help in my search.

Thanks.

[AndyMatterson]

I have now installed a completely new CmsMS 1.11.1 in a newly created db. I left the default content and added no extra modules.

And I still have the spurious characters. So I reckon this is proof that my server installation is at fault. Just wish I knew where!

[Jo Morg]

... So I reckon this is proof that my server installation is at fault. Just wish I knew where!

I would venture a guess: collation_database. Unless I missed it, you didn't reveal how it was set.

When a MySQL database is created you should define a collation otherwise the default will be selected. The default may not be the right one for your language.

HTH

[AndyMatterson]

Hi

Here's a shot of those MySql settings relevant to charsets and collation.
The collation_database setting is latin1_swedish_ci. Whay that should be I have no idea. With my hosting service I don't seem to be able to set it. (Hoster uses Plesk and a VERY old version of phpMyAdmin. I have just installed a brand new phpMyAdmin myself and am trying that out.)

In the MySql doc in section 5.1.4 'Server System Variables' there is a footnote for collation_database which says:

Code: Select all

This option is dynamic, but only the server should set this information. You should not set the value of this variable manually.

So I am not sure about this.

I'm still searching. If it's raining tomorrow maybe I'll have some more time!

[AndyMatterson]

I could not find the root of the problem. And like everybody else I guess, I found I had no more time to spend, so I left my production site on version 1.10.3 until a few days ago.

I then upgraded my test site to 1.11.4 and it works fine, the problem is no longer there. Why? No idea but the problem has gone away!

The upgrade to my production site 1.10.3 to 1.11.4 worked first off, no problems whatsoever.

Thanks to everyone for the support and suggestions.