Disappearance of all content pages

[burlington]

Running CMSMS 1.9.4.2. Yes, I know this is of a certain age but it is not my site!

Suddenly, date unspecified, all the content pages have gone. They don't seem to be on the 'Current Pages' list, which is empty, and there is nothing in the Admin log to indicate that any deletion action took place.

When accessing the site on the web, the message on the page is:

Fatal error: Call to a member function getContent() on a non-object in /home/rich4229/public_html/plugins/function.cms_selflink.php on line 283

So far as I can read the line this calls the pages. No pages!

I have had a look at the database and the table cms_content certainly shows the pages as I would have expected them to be.

I can't believe that the site owner would have organised this, so either the site has been cleverly hacked OR these is a problem with the CMSMS program, which I doubt.

Indeas anyone?

Thanks

Martin

Edit:
AH!! Running PHP 5.2.9. No idea when this was installed. Could this be the problem? Site creation dates from late 2011 early 2012.

[staartmees]

version 1.9.4.2 is way too old and no longer supported. So upgrade your cms to 1.11.9
http://docs.cmsmadesimple.org/upgrading ... nformation

[burlington]

version 1.9.4.2 is way too old and no longer supported. So upgrade your cms to 1.11.9
http://docs.cmsmadesimple.org/upgrading ... nformation

Thank you. I don't disagree but it is not my site and the owner would have to agree. His problem of course.
However, is it your view that the version of PHP running on this server, 5.2.9 would have degraded the site to the extent that the pages have disappeared?
I am just trying to help him plot a way forward.

[burlington]

I think that the question of the PHP version and the need for a program update can be put to bed by an example of an old site I worked on a few years ago still running CMSMS 1.7 but the server now has PHP 5.2.9.
Still works fine so far as I can see.

I think I am back to my original question. Why has the content disappeared?

[Jo Morg]

However, is it your view that the version of PHP running on this server, 5.2.9 would have degraded the site to the extent that the pages have disappeared?

Not unless there has been some change on the site such as an update to modules, to the core itself or, on the other hand to the server environment (a change in PHP versions, a change in servers, etc...).

I can't believe that the site owner would have organised this, so either the site has been cleverly hacked OR these is a problem with the CMSMS program, which I doubt.

A hack is possible although not likely given the error message. Either there was already a bug that eventually came into effect at some point in time (likely to have been solved in a more recent CMSMS version) or then as I said earlier, some kind of change change.
The very least: backup all; try to restore to a recent backup (if at all possible) and/or upgrade to CMSMS 1.9.4.3, the latest of the 1.9 series IIRC. But the better route is to upgrade to the latest.

[burlington]

Thanks Jo

I suspect that the original PHP version was 4 back almost 2 years ago though I am not overly familiar with PHP version upgrades.

I quite agree that an upgrade is the best way forward once the site has been restored to health. No point in upgrading if that which has been upgraded has no content.

Martin

[Jo Morg]

I quite agree that an upgrade is the best way forward once the site has been restored to health. No point in upgrading if that which has been upgraded has no content.

I have had a look at the database and the table cms_content certainly shows the pages as I would have expected them to be.

If they are in the database then there is content. The error (I suspect) is in the files or/and configuration. This small upgrade should, if memory serves, only replace files.

[JohnnyB]

What I generally do in these situations is to find out if any of the following has occurred:

1) was a module upgraded via module manager?
2) was a plugin upgraded?
3) were any new modules or plugins installed?
4) was server software upgraded?
5) were any server configuration files modified(httpd, php.ini)?
6) were any of the templates modified recently?

If for example, the php configurations changed, the error_reporting could have changed.

A misplaced ' or " or another character inside of a template tag could also cause a fatal error.

Most of the time, for me, it is a typo or a tag that needs something done a specific way that triggers a fatal error. Especially if #1, #2, and #3 didn't occur.