Problems Installing Newsbox

[jrj127]

Hi all,

I am running serendipity-1.1 and PHP-4.4.4, my site is on a remote hosting service so my sysadmin capabilities are limited I am trying to install the Newsbox-0.5 plugin (via Spartacus) and am seeing strange errors; I am able to install other plugins, my directories have permissions of 777. Please see below, any help would be appreciated!

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Error: serendipity_event_newsbox:5c9f1ccaee3d6fa85d71ec8d89302e6d (online_repository)
DEBUG: Plugin serendipity_event_newsbox:5c9f1ccaee3d6fa85d71ec8d89302e6d not an object: .
Input: Array ( [adminModule] => plugins [pluginPath] => online_repository [install_plugin] => serendipity_event_newsbox [spartacus_fetch] => [action] => [adminAction] => ) .

This error can happen if a plugin was not properly downloaded (check your plugins directory if the requested plugin was downloaded) or the inclusion of a file failed (permissions?)
Backtrace:
Installing plugin: Array ( [0] => serendipity_event_newsbox [1] => [2] => event [3] => 0 [4] => online_repository )
INSERT INTO serendipity_plugins (name, sort_order, placement, authorid, path) values ('serendipity_event_newsbox:5c9f1ccaee3d6fa85d71ec8d89302e6d', 37, 'event', '0', 'online_repository')
No valid path/filename found. Aborting.
Classname serendipity_event_newsbox still does not exist. Aborting.
Loading plugin failed painfully. File not found?
No valid path/filename found. Aborting.
Classname serendipity_event_newsbox still does not exist. Aborting.

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/jared/public_html/include/admin/plugins.inc.php on line 441

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Do you mean that you could download other plugins via the spartacus plugin? Or do the plugins that you CAN install maybe are the ones you already have downloaded/are bundled with s9y?

The error you get usually only comes if Spartacus fails because of content filtering on the server, so it should not happen that you can download one plugin via spartacus but not the other...?

Was a 'Serendipity_event_newsbox' directory created?

Regards,
Garvin

[jrj127]

Spartacus works for other plugins that are not bundled with s9y. The serendipity_event_newsbox directory was not created. It is a strange thing, indeed!

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Huh, that is really strange, I never saw only a single plugin fail

Which spartacus download mirror are you using? You might want to try Netmirror.org?

HTH,
Garvin

[jrj127]

I am using Spartacus-2.9, both settings are Netmirror.org, the rest of the fields are blank.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Hm, maybe a config change on your webhoster took place - can you try to install a different plugin via spartacus, please? One that you don'T already have downloaded (tell us the name if you tried)

Best regards,
Garvin

[jrj127]

Hi,

I just installed Geotag Google Map to my site, www.briarhood.com.

A data point for information is that I recently just upgraded to s9y-1.1. The fact that I can install plugins and not Newsbox is peculiar.

[judebert]

Yep, that's weird. Newsbox was my first plugin, so it's pretty straightforward: it doesn't do anything fancy, like trying to find other associated plugins, or creating directories, or importing outside libraries.

Since SPARTACUS uses HTTP for its connections, provider filtering settings can have effects like this. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything in the newsbox plugin that could be considered offensive or filterable. Maybe just "box" is a problem? Do you know if your provider filters web connections?

To get it installed quickly, you can (should be able to!) download the plugin from http://spartacus.s9y.org/cvs/additional ... ewsbox.zip, unzip it, and FTP it to your plugins/ directory. Then you should be able to install it directly from the "Configure Plugins" page.

Another idea just occurred to me: could the Newsbox plugin be too large to fit in the directory? If so, installing it by FTP should throw an error.

[jrj127]

Thanks for the help! I messed around a bit more and manually uploaded the plugin as you described. That made it work after removing some "junky error" plugin installs. I am up-and-running with Newsbox.

I notice Newsbox is very similar to Sticky Posts, which keeps any entry at the top of the page. I have a feature request which makes the Newsbox entries stripped-down for a few one-line "quick entries." What do you think?

1. Stripping-out each entry's title.
2. Stripping-out the footer for comments, etc.
3. "More News" button as optional.

Something like this (where News is the Newsbox title):

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News
  February 13, 2007  Text of entry 1
  February 14, 2007  Text of entry 2

First regular blog entry...

[judebert]

Actually, the newsbox should be templated, so you can do that pretty easily. Just find newsbox.tpl and remove the footer and title.

I'm not so sure about the "More News" button. I think it can be removed the same way, though.