URL error in Dashboard Plugin

[danst0]

Hi,
I get the following error message (screenshot) about once a day in my admin dashboard. It seems to pop up when I log in for the first time to my dash board. As soon as I click reload it vanishes.

The mentioned line in the php is

Code: Select all

$updateURL = 'http://svn.berlios.de/viewvc/serendipity/trunk/docs/RELEASE';
$file = fopen($updateURL, 'r');

Let me know if I can do anything to remove this error message?

Daniel

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Your server has fopen() support disabled, so the mentioned file cannot be loaded. You can only ask your server provider to enable the file open support, or disable update checking in the dashboard plugin.

Regards,
Garvin

[Timbalu]

well, reading is required!
http://www.php.net/manual/de/filesystem ... -url-fopen

or just disable the warning via @fopen(blah)

Ian

[danst0]

Thanks for the fast reply!
Sorry, I am pretty new to php. Found the option (allow_url_fopen) in my hosters php options. Seems to work now.

Wouldn't it be good to add a short note either to the error message or better still to the option in the plugin. As I understand it this is a critical preference in php so probably not everybody has it switched on by default... And they too will get the error message.

Daniel

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

But...the error notice already tells you about the option...so I think everything is covered?!?

Regards,
Garvin

[danst0]

In hindsight yes, but is it really userfriendly if you receive this error message, then have to access the php file in which function the fopen command is used, then make an educated guess (if you did not want to go through all the code) that it should be related to the update function and then switch that of in the plugin properties.

Even though without php knowledge I am still not able to enable that feature unless I read up on fopen and the special behavior with URLs...
And you cannot argue that this "obscurity" might be a security feature, since I just enabled the fopen url without pondering about other implications.

So basically the only reason why it should be sufficient as it is: if you say that _at least basic_ knowledge of php is necessary for administering s9y (which is ok for _me_, but not what I expected looking at the easy setup,... etc which supports the)

Daniel

ps. I just realized that this is even the default for this plugin. So you don't even have to activate the update code by yourself. And even if I check the configuration, since there are no hints, I assume that it should be working out of the box on 99% of the installations (I am on hetzner where it is deactivated by default).

pps. I suggest the patches enclosed. The wording is probably not correct, since I am not a php programmer.