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About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:16 pm
by RedBaron
Trying to edit my personal configuration settings and keeps telling me I didnt enter the old password correctly, not authorised to change to the new p/w.
I wasn't trying to change the password!
OK, so I didnt enter any new p/w - still says the same.

Went and checked my local config file - and sure enough the p/w was the one I was entering ...

All I wanted to do was activate the WYSYWIG editor ...

If I dont get this fixed soon, I'm out of here. (and see if I can find a more user friendly html editor) Any recommendations? LOL

Could this be my first and last post?

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:58 pm
by judebert
If you're using FireFox 3, it's likely that the browser misinterpreted the password field and automatically entered a previously-saved password for you. That changed your password, and now you don't know what it is.

I assume you're doing this in "Manage Users", not "Configuration", yes?

I'm confused because the passwords for the users aren't included in the local config files. They're stored in the database. The local config file has the password for the database user, so Serendipity can make its database connection. (Therefore that file needs to be well-protected!)

A little more information might help us to guide you.

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:01 pm
by garvinhicking
Could this be my first and last post?
That all depends on your patience. We can only help those people who want to be helped. :-)

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:06 pm
by RedBaron
Ok to clear up the browser thing - I'm using Google Chrome - and yes, now you mention it, the fields were "yellow" which suggests something "saved" in the browser config may have crept in.

The config file I can "see" the password in is: config_local.inc.php (maybe this isnt the right file, as you pointed out). So without access to the database, I can't recover the p/w?

Quite frustrating - the secondary question after this is sorted would be will the WYSYWIG editor work in Google Chrome? I really dont have time to pile through pages and pages of code - I need a good GUI to get the job done quickly!

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:08 pm
by RedBaron
garvinhicking wrote:
Could this be my first and last post?
That all depends on your patience. We can only help those people who want to be helped. :-)
I actually have a life and patience this week may be in short supply!

However "perseverance" might be more appropriate in this instance...

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:12 pm
by RedBaron
Oh, while I'm here - anyone got any good place I can find a webpage template - the blog ones here just have a single side bar - I need more space to publish than that - may be a few "newsy" entries, but theres an awful lot of wasted space in the bloggy ones.
OK - I know, I know. Lots of questions. But if I'm going to get a hard-on for Serendipity, I need it to work!

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:27 pm
by judebert
Well, if you have write access to the server (and we know you have read access, since you can read config_local.inc.php), we can make a PHP file that resets your password when you visit it with your browser. In fact, I think Garvin posted something like that on these forums within the past 48 hours.

Ah, here it is: http://board.s9y.org/viewtopic.php?f=3& ... 349#p85349

Unfortunately, that just makes a user an admin. Here's code to change the password to something known:

Code: Select all

<?php
include 'serendipity_config.inc.php';
$username = 'RedBaron';
$password = md5('RedBaronPassword');
serendipity_db_query("UPDATE {$serendipity['dbPrefix']}authors SET password = '$password' WHERE username = '$username'");
Make sure you change your 'RedBaron' and 'RedBaronPassword' to your Serendipity user name and the password you want, respectively. Also make sure to remove that file as soon as you're done with it!

Finally, this will only work if you're having trouble with your Serendipity user password. Otherwise, it's no help at all.

As for templates: try BulletProof. It's got more options than you can shake a stick at. Including multiple sidebars and color sets.

If that's not enough, go to http://spartacus.s9y.org/ and check out all the themes there. These can be downloaded and installed by hand, or installed with a single click from the SPARTACUS plugin included with your blog (if your server is properly set up).

If you want to go professional, go look at Kinetic, a professional news template for Serendipity. Don does outstanding support, and the template is fantastic for magazine or news organizations.

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:33 pm
by garvinhicking
Hi!

:-)

Actually, if you are still able to log on to serendipity, then your proper password is not changed at all. In your case, try to simply set your password box in the personal preferences to an EMPTY string (delete all content). s9y only matches/compares the password if you want to change that; you can change the WYSIWYG option WITHOUT entering the password at all. So just make sure that chrome doesn't auto-fill in a non-matching password.

(Oh, I see Judebert replied in another helpful variant...)

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:43 pm
by RedBaron
Thx for the info chaps.

Actually its getting slightly worse now - my frontend template (weblog link) had a "login to admin" button which now doesn't work ... and half the images are missing from the frontend.
I can access file manager and the directory httpdocs/serendipity appears to be intact. (and all the files seem to be there)
I would be willing to give domain access to anyone who can clear this one up - I Do trust ya :)
Trevor

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:11 pm
by RedBaron
Seems my Serendipityindex.php file is missing ...

Now where on earth did that go - I haven't deleted any files ... maybe its time to cut my losses and move on.

I've trawled through pages and pages of documentation now. I tried Serendipity for the PHP functionality I couldnt get on Blogger and just found a world of pain ...

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:28 pm
by judebert
The Serendipity index.php is not removed or modified by any of s9y's own functionality. Something more insidious is affecting your installation.

We wish you luck with your other solution attempts. If you ever need this kind of support again, we'll be here.

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:33 pm
by Don Chambers
Trevor - can you provide a URL to your site? Maybe people here can provide a bit more guidance if they can see your actual site.

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:39 pm
by RedBaron
Sorry guys - I've uninstalled the Serendipity application from my Domain.

I need a WYSYWIG interface or GUI, customisable web templates, PHP functionality.

Check this:
ALL I wanted to do was to add simple "now playing" functionality to my Blog using PHP. Its the ONLY reason I left Blogger ...

Dropping html code into Blogger was PERFECT ... why oh why cant you do that in Serendipity? Everything I added ended up in the goddamn sidebar ... couldnt do anything with it, tried dragging in the JS interface .. went up and down .. thats it ..
spent ALL DAY on this ... by the time I got here (the forum) I had waded through pages and pages of help text / documents ... you were my last hope!

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:54 pm
by RedBaron
I will re-install Serendipity, and persevere if someone can show me This script working on a webpage.

Using the following shoutcast variables info:
$sc_ip = '66.232.117.225'
$sc_port = '8052'
$station_name = 'Fuzzy FM'

using text not images

output should be either "online" or "offline"

Simples

I'm not illiterate on the PC, but I'm not a geek either ... just very interested in getting functionality into my webpages.

Can I just say - I've had a bad day on this ... but any help offered is VERY much appreciated.

Trevor

Re: About to uninstall Serendipity

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:12 pm
by RedBaron
I'm deep in code now ..

Whats the difference between the following:

require( dirname(__FILE__).'/function.php' )

and

include('./function.php')

The "." is in a different place in each (before ' in the first example and after ' in the second)

both of which seem to invoke the PHP code (but I cant get either to work)

I have seen an "_" in front of the function as in _function.php

still persevering, not giving up yet.

Trevor