By Frank J. Kelly on Friday, 06 June 2014
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Hello Guys,

I've bumped around the Joomla platform since the days of Mambo. Over those years, I have worked with a lot of applications from a number of developers, and deployed dozens of sites.

In that time I've come to a point where I strive to only work with what I call the "best in class" Joomla applications and developers. Now, just this week I've opted to switch from JomSocial to EasySocial. I took my time to investigate and compare the two products, and to a great extent because of my good luck with EasyBlog I thought it was the correct choice.

So imagine my dismay with my experience to date with EasySocial ...

Like many others, I am unable to install EasySocial because of the MD5 hash issue, and am being directed by the installer to "Contact Support". For the record, one of the first red flags for me with an application is the inability for it to install properly ... particularly when it is clear that the server environment is dead on correct.

That aside, I know from experience that even the "Best In Class" developers and applications sometimes have their issues! So before hitting the panic button, I always head for the public forums maintained by the applications developers. 80% to 90% of the time I find a detailed, or at least a clear enough to duplicate solution in the forums, fix the issue myself and move on.

If I can't find an answer in the forums, then I will post my problem preferably as a public question in the forum so that any solution I get can help others facing the same problem. Usually, by utilizing the developers forum, I never have to bother the developer, and better still, I never have to hear those dreaded words,

"Let me have your admin credentials and I'll fix it for you."

Only as a last resort I will go to the ticket system.

And this brings me back to the reason for this post. While I appreciate the offer to "fix" the issue for me, that is not really a solution to the problem. When I encounter an issue with a developers application I'm looking for a repeatable solution that I can implement any time in the future it might be required (upgrades, re-installs, etc) OR better yet I want the developer to squash what ever bug is causing the problem.

The way problems, bugs and issues are handled has become one of the more important criteria for me when choosing software tools to work with ...

So guys, I'm posting this here in hopes that you can provide a detailed, or at least clear solution in public to the issue I and others are encountering when attempting to install EasySocial. I of course hope in the very near future you correct the issue completely, but for now a solution I can implement for myself is sufficient.

Isn't it possible to provide the install package with a standard Joomla install procedure so that EasySocial can be installed through the standard Joomla installer like the majority of other applications???

Frank J Kelly

P.S. One thing I will point out is that when trying to do a "Network Install" the file returned to my server is not a valid zip file and probably explains the problem there. It does not explain though the issue trying to do an install from my server as per the alternate install method.
Hello Frank,

I am really sorry for the delay of this reply as it is a weekend for us here. The reason that we do not have a single installation package that is installed via Joomla is simply because most hosting provider will never allow an upload_max_filesize that is larger than 8mb. In fact, most of the time, these hosting companies has it set to 2mb We experienced lots of issues with installation especially with EasyBlog and we decided to take a different approach to avoid less installation issues.

To be honest with you, EasySocial's installer has greater success than EasyBlog, EasyDiscuss and Komento put together. The error rate with installation is < 1% as compared to all our other extensions which utilizes Joomla's installer. Of course, it would be solved by requesting the hosting company to increase their upload_max_filesize value but you will be surprised to find out that there's a lot of hosting providers these days that are extremely shallow and are reluctant to increase these values.

As for your installation woes, could you please write to us at https://crm.stackideas.com and provide us with the login credentials so that I can see what issues are you having there?
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Saturday, 07 June 2014 15:17
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Hello Frank,

I am really sorry for the delay of this reply as it is a weekend for us here. If you are doing a network install and if you hit this error, it's most likely because the server that you are on currently cannot download the files from our server or it downloaded an empty file (I cannot be 100% certain unless I debug the site)

You can download the full package from our site without relying on the network install actually and you can download from the dashboard page at http://stackideas.com/dashboard . You just need to click on the "Other packages" as shown here, http://screencast.com/t/qHMP2yRva1F . Then, follow the full installer installation guide here, http://docs.stackideas.com/administrators/setup/directory_installation

Nevertheless, I would really love to take a look at the issues on your site with the network installation that you are having because with our network installation package, we have close to < 20 errors with installation (and most of the time it's due to some folder permissions on their site)
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Saturday, 07 June 2014 00:48
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Hi mark

I have actually already downloaded the FULL packages and tried the alternative installation, and included an image of my results in the initial post. This again ended in a failed install and I included the fail message as one of the four images upload to the original post.

Also note that in the images attached I included the results from both steps of the installer pre-install checks and all the requirements are met by my server ... the appropriate software components are all above the stated minimums ... all of the directories are shown are writable. The fact that all of the requirements are met by the server environment (see images) makes me inclined to believe that it is not a question of the server environment but of the installation process itself.

As I posed in the initial post, why wouldn't it be easier to provide an alternative installation utilization a package that allows a complete install utilizing Joomla's already fairly bullet-proof installer for instances where a network install is impossible???

Frank J Kelly
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Saturday, 07 June 2014 03:15
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Hello Mark

As I think about it, you are right in pointing out that many hosts do limit uploads to a point where some installs would be impossible. I guess I've been running in a dedicated server environment so long I've forgotten how restrictive shared hosting can be.

After a lot of trial and error, I have been able to do two successful installs utilizing the alternative server install method. It still remains a bit hit and miss (the install sputters and stops at times), but with a bit of patience, I've gotten it to work. In time I think I can get to a point where I can get a successful install most times.

I'll be working with ES for the coming days to familiarize myself, and hopefully the transition from JomSocial will be a smooth one (relatively that is) after all.

Frank J
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Monday, 09 June 2014 00:46
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Thanks for updating Frank and I do apologize for the inconveniences caused. I guess the only way that we can satisfy all types of hosting is to create multiple packages but it's going to be a real pain maintaining them :x
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Monday, 09 June 2014 01:15
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