mySqL Table Is Missing After PhpBB and OcPortal intigration

Good day community,
I am the primary system administrator for Firestar-Hosting.com,
and am trying to install Ocortal and PhpBB for a client of mine. When I install OcPortal 7.1.5 and PhpBB 3.1.10, a table does not get created in the MySqL database that PhpBB and OcPortal share.
At present, the server is running Php 5.3.9 and MySqL 5.1.16.
The error, after running the setup wizard and going to the AdminZone, is as folows:
Unfortunately a query has failed [SELECT tag_parameters,tag_replace,tag_tag,tag_dangerous_tag,tag_blo
ck_tag,tag_textual_tag FROM phpbb_custom_comcode WHERE (tag_enabled=1) ] [Table 'topdog_testinstall.phpbb_custom_comcode' doesn't exist] (version: 7.1.5, PHP version: 5.3.9, URL: /adminzone/index.php?page=start)
Performing a query from within MySqL as root of type:
show columns from phpbb_custom_comcode;
Returns error code 1146.
I've just now tried with SMF 2.0.2 and Ocportal 7.1.5, and the same error occurs after completion of the setup wizard and clicking on the AdminZone link
Unfortunately a query has failed [SELECT tag_parameters,tag_replace,tag_tag,tag_dangerous_tag,tag_blo
ck_tag,tag_textual_tag FROM smf_custom_comcode WHERE (tag_enabled=1) ] [Table 'topdog_testinstall.smf_custom_comcode' doesn't exist] (version: 7.1.5, PHP version: 5.3.9, URL: /adminzone/index.php?page=start)
The user has the needed privileges they need for table creation and deletion.

Chris, if you see this post you might want to consider testing your next release to insure it actually works. Apparently you must not test your releases, or not test them enough as this issue should have been a non-issue.
I was able to get the error resolved only by doing the following:
1. Exported the ocp_custom_comcode table.
2. Removed unneeded values such as facebook videos, etc.
3. I manually, through SSH and MySqL root, put the following in the DB:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `phpbb_custom_comcode` ( `tag_tag` varchar(80) NOT NULL, `tag_replace` longtext NOT NULL, `tag_parameters` varchar(255) NOT NULL, `tag_enabled` tinyint(1) NOT NULL, `tag_dangerous_tag` tinyint(1) NOT NULL, `tag_block_tag` tinyint(1) NOT NULL, `tag_textual_tag` tinyint(1) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`tag_tag`));

INSERT INTO phpbb_custom_comcode (`tag_tag`, `tag_replace`, `tag_parameters`, `tag_enabled`, `tag_dangerous_tag`, `tag_block_tag`,`tag_textual_tag`) VALUES('',1,0,0,0,'','');
There frankly is no excuse why I had to do that, all other tables get created so no reason exists why I had to go through that. If you're going to offer a product, make sure everything from intigration and daily use works.

Forgot to mention, the client whom I installed this for, because they're not using the regular OCF, they cannot use the CSV to import members. It complains they are not using the regular OcPortal forum system.

THE MESSAGE REALLY READS: You are not using the inbuilt forum system (OCF), so this module can not function. But you get the idea.

I'm very disappointed in OCPortal.  I should be able to do everything myself, without having to have my host provider do it for me.  Also, please, tell me why I can't import my members? I should be able to.  This is very upsetting to me, and I'm not sure if I'm going to use OcPortal in the future.

Thanks for your feedback. We take all feedback very seriously, and we will always try our best to fix bugs when we're alerted to them, but we do ask you remember that ocPortal is available for anyone to use, for free, and that we do our best to support it, also for free.

Our wages are paid from undertaking commercial projects and support for clients, and while we do our best to maintain the free version of ocPortal, sometimes we miss things. We're sorry about that, but there just aren't enough hours in the day for us to test every single feature of ocPortal's free release. That's why we rely on our community to test the software and report bugs, or alternatively, people can opt for our commercial support services.

We love our community, but our community works best when bugs are reported, suggestions are made, and importantly: that they do it respectfully and gratefully. Please bear this in mind when leaving us feedback.

You may also wish to examine this ticket in our feature-tracker: 0000337: Remove all forum drivers - ocPortal feature tracker

rayven said

 am trying to install Ocortal and PhpBB for a client of mine. When I install OcPortal 7.1.5 and PhpBB 3.1.10, a table does not get created in the MySqL database that PhpBB and OcPortal share.

It is not meant to install PhpBB for you. It is meant to integrate/work with an existing install.

wintergirl said

I'm very disappointed in OCPortal.  I should be able to do everything myself, without having to have my host provider do it for me.  Also, please, tell me why I can't import my members? I should be able to.  This is very upsetting to me, and I'm not sure if I'm going to use OcPortal in the future.

Seriously? You are disappointed in ocPortal because you can't understand how to make a third party system work with it? All the tools are freely available to you along with detailed tutorials, the code and a full explanation of it ( http://ocportal.com/site/support.htm )and you could come here and ask for help yourself (and get it) just as easy as your host can.

That is awfully nice of your host to go to such lengths to try and help you, not many will, it is not their responsibility.

The members and usergroups tables are part of the ocForum installation. There are no tables to import your CSV into if you have not set up ocForum. I would think that a "primary system administrator" might have figured that one out.

Bob

Robbie Goacher said

You may also wish to examine this ticket in our feature-tracker: 0000337: Remove all forum drivers - ocPortal feature tracker

I had been meaning to comment on that tracker item and this post finally got me to do so. I, for one, would love to see the forum drivers done away with as the better solution is to the integrated ocForums. People who need more can pay for it either with ocProducts or a third-party.

Frankly, if there is much demand, creating and maintaining forum drivers and forum importers would be a good business opportunity for someone with the right skills.

Bob

There's hardly any demand…that's why this bug wasn't found or reported before.

BobS said

The members and usergroups tables are part of the ocForum installation. There are no tables to import your CSV into if you have not set up ocForum. I would think that a "primary system administrator" might have figured that one out.

Bob

Glad you assume that. maybe that's true, maybe not. All the same, why can't the members CSV still be imported without using OcPortal Forums?
it's bad enough that OcPortal is quite large … overfilled with to many features that noone would hardly use, you have to learn comcode, etc. How do you expect end users to be able to use such a  product if it's to advanced?
You have to spend hours reading a crapload of documentation that is, in itself, confusing and quite large.

Robbie Goacher said

There's hardly any demand…that's why this bug wasn't found or reported before.

hardly no demand. In that case if there's not, why support intigration, especially if it won't work as intended?
And bug not reported before? It now is. Only reason it was not is because people I suppose find it difficult to intigrate with third-party forums.

can you please post where it says members must be imported with OCF? because in the documentation, I'm not finding it.  It might be that I'm over looking it, or just not able to find it because the docs are so big.

rayven said

BobS said

The members and usergroups tables are part of the ocForum installation. There are no tables to import your CSV into if you have not set up ocForum. I would think that a "primary system administrator" might have figured that one out.

Bob

Glad you assume that. maybe that's true, maybe not. All the same, why can't the members CSV still be imported without using OcPortal Forums?
it's bad enough that OcPortal is quite large … overfilled with to many features that noone would hardly use, you have to learn comcode, etc. How do you expect end users to be able to use such a  product if it's to advanced?
You have to spend hours reading a crapload of documentation that is, in itself, confusing and quite large.

[ From “mySqL Table Is Missing After PhpBB and OcPortal intigration” ]

When ocPortal is used with a third-party forum system, it connects to the members database of that forum. Therefore, I think it's fairly reasonable to assume that everything member-related would be controlled/configured via that forum.

Immediately after running ocPortal's installer, you're prompted to configure the website using the Setup Wizard. This wizard lets you immediately disable/uninstall any of the modules/addons that you don't want to use. So I think it's quite easy for people to deploy ocPortal with the features that they want, rather than one that is 'overfilled with too many features'.

rayven said

Robbie Goacher said

There's hardly any demand…that's why this bug wasn't found or reported before.

hardly no demand. In that case if there's not, why support intigration, especially if it won't work as intended?
And bug not reported before? It now is. Only reason it was not is because people I suppose find it difficult to intigrate with third-party forums.

[ From “mySqL Table Is Missing After PhpBB and OcPortal intigration” ]

Forum integration was supported from ocPortal's very first release, because we hadn't created our own forum at that point. It has been a little troublesome to support this feature over the years because, and especially in the case of paid forum software, it's not easy to get our hands on copies of the software, or a database dump of them. Plus it would be incredibly time-consuming to keep them up to date, which is why we rely on our community to give us constructive feedback.

wintergirl said

can you please post where it says members must be imported with OCF? because in the documentation, I'm not finding it.  It might be that I'm over looking it, or just not able to find it because the docs are so big.

[ From “mySqL Table Is Missing After PhpBB and OcPortal intigration” ]

I agree it could probably be a bit clearer, but on the Import member spreadsheet (CSV) screen, in the help/advice panel on the right, a link is provided directly to the ocPortal Tutorial: Advanced ocPortal member system tutorial, of which the very first line states the following:

This tutorial will cover some of the more advanced features of the OCF member system.

I'm not really sure how we could have made it much easier, but we'll certainly take your feedback onboard.

I'm closing this topic because there's a lot of misinformation in here, and it's turning into an unnecessary argument as a result.

I've been really ill the last 2-3 days so I didn't have a chance to correct this or consult with Robbie.

This actually is a known bug. The fix is in the list of confirmed bugs for the latest version:
Third-party forum integration - ocPortal

I fully taken on board that we should not have this bug, and should have had a patch release by now. Development has taken a diversion towards version 8 which had not been planned as it is being driven by an upsurge in feature-based work, so we're currently extremely under-resourced (and as Robbie mentioned, because ocPortal is free there is no real budget for ocPortal maintenance anyway, it's a free-time thing really - unfortunately a lack of free time can cause us difficulties). For this reason we maintain the bugs catalogue, but I appreciate it is not always as straight forward and clear as we'd like.

As forum drivers are an advertised feature of ocPortal it is fair to expect them to work. That said, it is also the case that there are a lot of features and we do need our users to be patient. ocPortal is best for complex projects, and therefore it is advisable to commit resources accordingly.

We may drop forum drivers in the future, or we may not, the tracker posted by me indicates it is under consideration. But right now it is a part of ocPortal.

I would never expect a web host to debug stuff for a customer. I would expect we'd get a bug report and be given a few days to respond to it.
I want ocPortal to continue to get easier to use, but please bear in mind that the work we do is very complex and takes a lot of resources, so we can't necessarily pour huge amounts of money into areas where we're not going to get that money back.

rayven said

BobS said

The members and usergroups tables are part of the ocForum installation. There are no tables to import your CSV into if you have not set up ocForum. I would think that a "primary system administrator" might have figured that one out.

Bob

Glad you assume that. maybe that's true, maybe not. All the same, why can't the members CSV still be imported without using OcPortal Forums?
it's bad enough that OcPortal is quite large … overfilled with to many features that noone would hardly use, you have to learn comcode, etc. How do you expect end users to be able to use such a  product if it's to advanced?
You have to spend hours reading a crapload of documentation that is, in itself, confusing and quite large.

This kind of thing is covered in detail:
What ocPortal is not - ocPortal

We don't recommend using ocPortal for every website.

If someone wants to open a new topic to discuss matters here that's cool, but please do so with a fresh start and forgetting all the factual inaccuracies in this topic.