Advice on several things please 🙏

[shredder66]

Hi to everyone,

My first time posting so please have patience with me.

I currently run a forum for customers who have similar interests to do with sports.

I have been running this ‘club’ for more than 10 years and throughout all that time I have had a friend assist me with any board errors, updates, extensions and any other issues. To be fair, there haven’t been many but when they come along, they can cause a headache or two. My friend has always managed to fulfil the support I need but just over a year ago he has been unable to continue and I am now at a point when I think I need to learn how to do these things myself.

Two current issues are firstly, that my board has needed to be updated to the latest version (currently 3.3.10) and secondly, I am now getting an error in relation to the automated database backup (the default time zone in your php .ini file is invalid). This latter one I only just spotted after I checked the maintenance tab in the ACP. It has clearly been happening for a while and is attempting to perform the back-up every minute, so that is a lot of logs and I haven’t yet worked when it started!

So my questions are two-fold I suppose, what is the best way to learn all the knowledge needed in order to be self-sufficient n maintaining my forum and any advice on he two issues mentioned above.

In terms of current knowledge and skills, I am not the most savvy at present but am very willing to learn. I have dreamweaver on my pc and I do some updates on web pages and image files, text files etc that are on my web pages but I have a less than perfect grasp of how my board is hosted and runs. Apologies.

I could probably do with starting at the beginning by having a local server and running a test board perhaps (I did see that suggested somewhere) but again,that is all new to me.

Thanks in advance to any replies and I will read them all and respond in due course. Have a long drive ahead of me today going to drop daughter off at airport!

Thanks,
Louis

[invenio]

Here are the instructions for updating and we typically recommend the Full Package instructions: https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... ide/minor/

Just back up your board in advance and really you have nothing to lose: https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... tructions/

I'm not really sure about the time zone error, I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable than I will comment on that.

[shredder66]

Thanks for the reply Invenio.

I will have a full read tomorrow and if I have any rookie questions, I hope it’s okay to post them.

Cheers,
Louis

[Mick]

A good place to start I often think is the Knowledge Base which has some very useful basic information also the search here is very good that will often point you in the right direction.

You mention dreamweaver which is a WYSIWYG editor of sorts, there are lots of topics on the subject here. Imo you should steer clear of it as it is/was well known to add nonsense to the code and also messed up tabbing. For anything related to phpBB and PHP itself you need a good plain text editor such as Notepad++ which is free and very good (NOT MS Notepad). The only drawback is you need to learn how to edit code but generally there should be no need for you to be editing files.

You mention an automated database backup issue. There is no automated database backup within vanilla phpBB so I can only assume it’s either something your host is doing or, most likely, it’s an extension that is out of date or incorrectly setup. If you can give us a list of the extensions you have installed we should be able to nail that one down. An easy way to do that is to go to the ACP> Customise tab, which should take you to the Extensions Manager, and there will be a list of any extensions you have installed. Take a screen capture of that page and post it back here. Posting a couple of the error messages you’re seeing will help too.

Also, if you’re having issues and come here for help it’s always a good idea to fill out the Support Request Template filling in as much information as possible and posting it back here to enable us to assist you better.

Good luck!

[shredder66]

Thanks for the advice Mick. Much appreciated.

I will try to begin my journey later today going through all the links after my duties have finished.

In the meantime, I have attached a couple images showing the extensions and the specific backup extension page.

extensions.png

extensions 2.png

Would it be best to disable the extension? If so, what would you recommend as a safe way to backup and how regularly?

Kind regards,
Louis

[Mick]

Yes, disable it for now as it’s out of date. It’s a third party extension and you should be able to get some help at Dev Space which is where the author now publishes his extensions. You’ll have to sign up.

Backup frequency is a matter of choice but I’d say it depends how much traffic you get. If you get dozens and dozens of posts daily then maybe backup everyday but if it’s only a trickle like four or five a week then maybe once a week. I’ve never had to do it on a regular basis as my host backs up anyway, that may be an option for you, you could ask your host.

[shredder66]

Thanks Mick. Now disabled it.

Louis

[shredder66]

Hi again,

In terms of upgrading the forum. I do have several extensions added and I have it integrated with PayPal in terms of subscribers gaining full access to the board.

Obviously I don't want to mess with the key extensions I already have installed. The member side of things is functioning fine and I don't want to do something catastrophic which becomes impossible for me to resolve. Certainly would be at present.

Do you think it would be easy enough to upgrade my current board, uploading perhaps just the 'changed files' without messing with the important stuff I already have in place. I did see that it is possible to update without the full package 3.3.13. Ideally I would like to just insert the key updated files so that the board registers as 3.3.13. and leave the main bulk in tact.

Is this feasible do you think, especially for a novice?

Thanks
Louis

[janus_zonstraal]

Is this feasible do you think, especially for a novice?

I can do it in less than 15min, but don't know your computer skills

You have to check on forehand if the extensions working in the latest version, but going from 3.3.10 to 3.3.13 can't be a problem for the extensions.

[shredder66]

Computer skills very average at this stage!

15 minutes sounds promising but these things never go smoothly for me

Thanks for the advice,
Louis

[janus_zonstraal]

I guess for you 3 hours

[shredder66]

And the rest