Urgent - uploads stopped working (FIXED IN 2.02)

[devenh]

Pekka,

I was able to upload photos on Friday, but today (Sunday) when I try to upload all I get is a blank page and I have to press the IE6 stop button. Same result when testing with Firefox.

The only change I made to EE was to add three lenses. I deleted them but that didn't solve the problem.

I tested my FTP settings (because they can cause problems that result in a blank page), and they tested okay.

My my ISP tells me they have not made any changes made to the PHP environment in the last few days.

I have photos from three basketball and two soccer games to post, so I am a bit anxious!! Hopefully it is not something I have messed up. Pekka, feel free to test.

Deven

[Pekka]

I managed to get this error out:

msg 4324 | internal ftp: PASV: 227 Entering Passive Mode (127,0,0,1,130,16)
msg 4325 | internal ftp: Parsed data connection address is 127.0.0.1:33296
msg 4326 | internal ftp: OPENING NEW DATA SOCKET 127.0.0.1:33296
msg 4327 | internal ftp: Can not build passive data socket. Error 104: Connection reset by peer

This means that the problem is something with passive file transfer port handshake.

What you need to know is that you can work around this by changing ftp engine to "PHP ftp Module" and ticking OFF passive for all servers (+ save all servers).

I did some debugging there and I do not have a clue why the upload page passive fails while test page succeeds. They use identical code and functions, and as you said it worked until yesterday. PHP module with passive transfers on fails totally on both test and upload, which says to me: firewall! They must have changed something in firewall, it could be small like handshake timeout value or something like that. Ask them.

But meanwhile: "passive off with PHP FTP module" and it works.

After you have done the uploads let me know if there is a day or few hours when you do not need to access the admin and I'll do some more work in solving this odd thing why the test code worked.

[devenh]

THANKS Pekka for the great support!!!

I was able to upload all my photos and meet my deadlines. Anything you can do to make the upload form go a bit faster would be appreciated.

I'll let you know when it is okay to test my system. I still have a few minor things to do.

Thanks again,

Deven

[devenh]

Pekka,

The uploads have mysteriously stopped working again. I press 'Upload' and get a blank screen. You may login to my galleries. Try uploading the 14 images in my upload directory to gallery #207. The path to use is '.../portfolio/medium'.

To make sure all my settings were right, I tried uploading one of the files to a gallery that worked last Sunday. Same result, just a blank screen.

Deven

[Pekka]

(your EE login sent in PM does not work)

I think you should have a serious chat with your server support. If they change firewall or ftp settings weekly you will be in constant trouble. I can of course get on your server and check it out, but I think it would be most valuable to put a serious mail to server admin first.

Often they do not
a) know that someone else changed something.
b) know the implications of config changes in server.
b) tell the truth when you ask unless you ask again and again.

[devenh]

I will be happy to ask. Their tech support is very, very good. Usually get a response in 10 minutes.

Is there anything more specific I should ask other than if they changed their firewall and/or ftp settings?

Since the files I am uploading to EE are already on the server in the upload directory, it is not clear to me how the firewall or ftp setting would affect EE as all its work would be done on the server.

I do appreciate your help on this.

Deven

[Pekka]

I went to your EE and first thing I saw that ftp test with "PHP module, passive off" failed (partially). Test with "PHP module, passive on" failed (partially). But "EE Internal FTP library" works just fine, passive on. Upload works ok, too.

So it means that they have restored ftp server settings to stage before the problem we had to fix last (passive off).

If the ftp fails again in few days, let them know about it and request that settings that you have there now are restored. You can not accept a server which has configuration changes every week.

[wkitty42]

Since the files I am uploading to EE are already on the server in the upload directory, it is not clear to me how the firewall or ftp setting would affect EE as all its work would be done on the server.
i had thought that this had been explained in numerous threads... i guess it is true that not all messages are read by everyone ;)

anyway, here's how it happens using a pure eE upload to server and then to exhibit scenerio...

photos are uploaded to server via http
photos are selected to be "uploaded" to an exhibit
each photo goes thru graphical processing for resize
each photo goes thru graphical processing for thumb
each photo goes thru graphical processing for microthumb
each photo (resize, thumb, and microthumb) is "uploaded" to the chosen exhibit directory via FTP
if there are more photos to process, loop to step 3
you run into a similar scenerio when you utilise the rethumb tool... FTP is used to retrieved the photos to a temp directory for processing and then
for sending the new ones back to the desired exhibit path...

additionally, copying, moving, and deleting may also involve FTP services... i know that complete removeal of a photo from eE and the server uses FTP to delete the files from the exhibit path... i'm not sure about copying and moving as i can see where they may be done without actually moving the file... if the file does have to be moved, then FTP would also come into play...

as you can see, FTP plays a very important role in eE processing... it is what copies the photos to the exhibit paths... without it, eE would have to do a lot more behind the scenes, low level, on disk work...

[Pekka]

i had thought that this had been explained in numerous threads... i guess it is true that not all messages are read by everyone ;)

anyway, here's how it happens using a pure eE upload to server and then to exhibit scenerio...

photos are uploaded to server via http
photos are selected to be "uploaded" to an exhibit
each photo goes thru graphical processing for resize
each photo goes thru graphical processing for thumb
each photo goes thru graphical processing for microthumb
each photo (resize, thumb, and microthumb) is "uploaded" to the chosen exhibit directory via FTP
if there are more photos to process, loop to step 3
you run into a similar scenerio when you utilise the rethumb tool... FTP is used to retrieved the photos to a temp directory for processing and then
for sending the new ones back to the desired exhibit path...

additionally, copying, moving, and deleting may also involve FTP services... i know that complete removeal of a photo from eE and the server uses FTP to delete the files from the exhibit path... i'm not sure about copying and moving as i can see where they may be done without actually moving the file... if the file does have to be moved, then FTP would also come into play...

as you can see, FTP plays a very important role in eE processing... it is what copies the photos to the exhibit paths... without it, eE would have to do a lot more behind the scenes, low level, on disk work...

Without ftp you would be restricted to having all photos in localhost under you gallery folder, forced in doing lots of manual chmodding, file deleting and folder creation. Not to mention that on many servers file handling by php is forbidden altogether.

I will add more cool ftp features to EE: move size paths from server a to server b, find and remove orphan photos from size paths, backup whole EE installation with db and photos to backup server...

[devenh]

My thinking was that if the files were on the server then instead of using FTP to copy a file that the PHP copy command would be used because built in functions like copy tend to be easy to use and reliable. Let me say that I am not a PHP expert and that I haven't looked at the EE code, so this was just speculation on my part.

[wkitty42]

not a problem, devenh... as noted by pekka, many hosted servers disable the internal php copy procedures... this is done as a security precaution...