Images directory mystery...

[cherubrock74]

I just installed a fresh copy of osCMax v2.0.25 and like many others I have the problem with the images directory in my admin panel.
I have tried everything I found on the forum and everything else I was able to find online but no luck...
I know that the issue is connected with the configure.php files but I cannot seem to get the right path for mine...I guess...
would like to start using oscmax but without images directory I cant...
can someone help?
I already tried to set the permission to 777

here is my admin/include/configure.php file...

 <?php
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.mydomainname.com/oscmax'); // your domain name
define('HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER', 'http://www.mydomainname.com.com/oscmax'); // your domain name
define('HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER', 'http://www.mydomainname.com/oscmax'); // your domain name
define('ENABLE_SSL_CATALOG', 'false');
define('DIR_FS_DOCUMENT_ROOT', '/homepages/5/123456789/htdocs'); // your local path. (eg, /usr/local/apache/htdocs) - where your catalog folder is located on the server - very important: path shouldnt end with /
define('DIR_WS_ADMIN', '/admin/');
define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', DIR_FS_DOCUMENT_ROOT . DIR_WS_ADMIN);
define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/homepages/5/123456789/htdocs/oscmax/');
define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', DIR_FS_DOCUMENT_ROOT . DIR_WS_CATALOG);
define('DIR_WS_IMAGES', 'images/');
define('DIR_WS_ICONS', DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'icons/');
define('DIR_WS_CATALOG_IMAGES', DIR_WS_CATALOG . 'images/');
define('DIR_WS_INCLUDES', 'includes/');
define('DIR_WS_BOXES', DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'boxes/');
define('DIR_WS_FUNCTIONS', DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'functions/');
define('DIR_WS_CLASSES', DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'classes/');
define('DIR_WS_MODULES', DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'modules/');
define('DIR_WS_LANGUAGES', DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'languages/');
define('DIR_WS_CATALOG_LANGUAGES', DIR_WS_CATALOG . 'includes/languages/');
define('DIR_FS_CATALOG_LANGUAGES', DIR_FS_CATALOG . 'includes/languages/');
define('DIR_FS_CATALOG_IMAGES', DIR_FS_CATALOG . 'images/');
define('DIR_FS_CATALOG_MODULES', DIR_FS_CATALOG . 'includes/modules/');
define('DIR_FS_BACKUP', DIR_FS_ADMIN . 'backups/');
define('DIR_FS_CACHE', 'tmp/'); // its better to create if not exist
define('DIR_FS_DOWNLOAD', DIR_FS_CATALOG . 'download/');
define('DIR_FS_DOWNLOAD_PUBLIC', DIR_FS_CATALOG . 'pub/');
define('DB_SERVER', 'myweb.server.net');
define('DB_SERVER_USERNAME', '1234abcd'); // your database username
define('DB_SERVER_PASSWORD', '*******'); // your database password
define('DB_DATABASE', '12345678'); // your database name
define('USE_PCONNECT', 'false');
define('STORE_SESSIONS', 'mysql');
?>  

[pgmarshall]

What are your current settings for Dynamic Mopics?

Thumbnails --> thumbs/
Large Images --> images_big/

What exactly is the problem? You are looking in the admin panel and which images are missing?

The installer should set all of the configure file for you ... then you need to control the images through the admin panel using Dynamic Mopics menu.

Regards,

[cherubrock74]

Mopics paths are images/images_big and images/thumbs
No images are missing but when I was in the admin panel and I clicked on catalog I got this error message:
Error: Catalog images directory does not exist: /homepages/5/123456789/htdocs/homepages/5/123456789/htdocs/oscmax/images/
Just figured out something was wrong in the path for the DIR_WS_CATALOG in my configure.php file.
I just changed from /homepages/5/123456789/htdocs/oscmax to /oscmax/ (my store catalog folder directory) and the error disappeared.
I am posting it so anyone else having same kind of issue can try to solve it. I have seen a lot of posts about the same type of error, but there are many different hints and suggestions. I think it is mostly a matter of making sure the configure.php file in the admin/include directory has the right absolute path for everything.
Thank you for you reply pgmarshall.

[JRR]

The error message "Error: Catalog images directory is not writeable" is not specific enough. It actually refers to sub-directories of /images - it just doesn't tell you WHICH sub-directories - someone may want to edit this error message someday...

For example, in Dynamic Mopics you need to chmod 777 only /images/images_big and /images/thumbs directories, you do not chmod the /images directory, as that won't solve the problem!

This seems to be a bug (or a not easily understood feature), in that I would expect that the 'user' (admin) should be enough of a clearance to change the images as you work on them from the admin directory. Some sort of script is needed to change the directory permissions during access to 777, then return them to 755 afterwards...

[michael_s]

Permissions are recursive, so that error message is sufficient. Just chmod -R the images directory. Problem solved. A few seconds of reading and perhaps checking the image path in the browser will lead even the most uninformed to the correct solution in a few minutes.

The whole permissions thing is being worked on for osCmax v2.1 to make it more easy for those that are ignorant regarding permissions.

Unfortunately it is not as easy as you seem to assume. Webservers can be configured many ways, and a server that requires 777 permissions to write/upload is a security risk. Servers configured with more attention to security do not have this requirement and actually do not allow 777 permissions on any directory. Coding in something to change permissions to match a single server configuration is shortsighted and insecure. We are working on the documentation to give more examples, but it really depends on the server configuration as to what the correct permissions are.

For instance all the servers that I manage osCmax sites on are configured with suphp which allows a maximum directory permission of 755, and allows for proper writing of image. 777 is not allowed on these servers due to the obvious security hole it creates and will cause a 500 Internal Server Error if a dir is set to 777.

I would expect that the 'user' (admin) should be enough of a clearance to change the images as you work on them from the admin directory

Again an unrealistic expectation. It fully depends on the server configuration. osCmax's default permissions are set for security, not convenience. If you install osCmax on a server running mod_php you will manually have to change permissions to be insecure. If you are running suphp or php_cgi, no permissions settings are needed, and osCmax's default permissions will be fine for all reading and writing of files.

[ridexbuilder]

Hear, hear, Boss
If the server environment is setup correctly in the first place, then there is no need to change the defaults presented to you during installation (referring specifically to the configure paths).
[Crawls back under a stone]

[JRR]

If you install osCmax on a server running mod_php you will manually have to change permissions to be insecure. If you are running suphp or php_cgi, no permissions settings are needed, and osCmax's default permissions will be fine for all reading and writing of files.

This was what I had been looking for, what the server settings need to be, thanks very much Michael, when I sent the bit above to my host (Pair.net) they promptly popped back with:

-----------(quote)-------------
You can run PHP as a CGI by copying the CGI version of PHP to your own
cgi-bin directory. To do so run this command from your home directory:

cp /usr/www/cgi-bin/php5.cgi ~/public_html/cgi-bin

Then you must create a .htaccess file in the directory where your PHP files
reside, and add these lines:

Action application/x-pair-sphp /cgi-bin/php5.cgi
AddType application/x-pair-sphp .php
------------(end quote)---------

I did that and now everything works as it should...

John :-#)#