Common jNews Installation Errors

Error adding bot directory

Error message

jNews Plugin (Bot) :
Error adding bot directory.
Error copying bot file jnewsbot.php to bot directory.
Error copying bot file jnewsbot.xml to bot directory.
Error copying bot file index.html to bot directory...

Solution

jNews didn't have enough permissions to install the jNews Plugin. In this case, the jNews component is probably already installed so the easiest way to complete the installation is to download the jNews Plugin and install it separately using the Joomla installer.

jNews Module : Error creating folder

Error message

jNews Module : Error creating folder : /xxx/xxx/xxx/modules/mod_jnews/
Error copying module file mod_jnews.php to module directory ...

Solution

jNews didn't have enough permissions to install the jNews Module. In this case, the jNews component is probably already installed so the easiest way to complete the installation is to download the jNews Module and install it separately using the Joomla installer.
Sometimes, access rights between the FTP user account and the apache user account can be mess up and cause this type of issue. And even a manual install of the module/plugin won't work. You can first try to change the folders permissions to 777 via FTP and set them back to what they were after install succeeds.
However, you might not be able to do that if the folders were created via php. What you can do is try to activate or desactivate the FTP layer in the joomla configuration and retry an install and then set back the settings to what they were.

ERROR : Could not find an XML setup file in the package

Error message

Upload component - Upload Failed
ERROR: Could not find an XML setup file in the package.
Upload component - Failed
Installation file not found: ...

Solution

This error can appear if your folders don't have the right permissions and don't allow jNews to add files.
Set the correct permissions on the folders written in the jNews install requirement article and try to install the package again.

If you still have the same error message, turn OFF the safe_mode on your server : open your php.ini file and seach for the string safe_mode.
You should find the line : safe_mode = On
Replace it by : safe_mode = Off
Restart your server, make sure you deleted all files created by jNews and try to install it again. After that, you can change back your php.ini file.

Blank screen/page

Error message

The installation stopped but you do not see anything on the page (a total blank screen).

Solution

You should turn ON the Debug mode in Joomla (you can find this option on the Joomla configuration page), uninstall the jNews component with the Joomla installer, delete all the files and folders created by jNews and try again to install the package. You should see an error this time.

If you still don't see any error message and get a blank screen again, please make sure your php.ini file allows you to see error. Search for the parameter display_errors and make sure this parameter is set to On. If not, modify it : display_errors = On, save your php.ini file, restart your server and try again to install jNews! You should definitely see errors this time.

Memory limit

Error message

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 77824 bytes) in ...

Solution

Your configuration on your server doesn't have enough memory. To fix that, you have to increase this limitation. Edit your file "php.ini" on your server and change the value of "memory_limit" from 8M to 64M. Make sure you edited the right "php.ini" file and restart your server (you can have two php.ini files on your server). Delete all the jNews folders created and try to re-install jNews.

If this first solution doesn't work and you still have the same error message, you can add the code ini_set('memory_limit','64M'); in the file "configuration.php" of your Joomla installation.

SQL Error : Illegal mix of collation

Error message

    "Illegal mix of collations (latin1_swedish_ci,IMPLICIT) and (latin1_general_ci,IMPLICIT) for operation..."

Solution

If you see this kind of error, that means there's two different collations in your database. When jNews synchronises the subscribers and the Joomla users, the program executes a query and compare fields (like e-mail, name...) so both tables "jos_users" and "jos_jnews_subscribers" must have the same collation. To solve it, you have to change the collation of jNews' tables.

To change this, you can use the following SQL queries (in our example, we change the collation to "latin1_general_ci" but you have to take the same value than the field "email" from the "jos_usersé table to make sure that will work) :

        ALTER TABLE `jos_jnews_subscribers` CHANGE `name` `name` VARCHAR( 64 ) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_general_ci NOT NULL;
        ALTER TABLE `jos_jnews_subscribers` CHANGE `email` `email` VARCHAR( 100 ) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_general_ci NOT NULL;

If you use PHPMyAdmin, go into your database.

• Click on the tab SQL.
• Copy and paste the SQL queries and click on the button Go.

Or you can also do that with the phpMyAdmin interface :

1. Check your default collation for Joomla tables : Select the table "jos_users" and you will see all the fields. You can see a columns called "Collation". Write somewhere the value of this column for the field "email", this is the collation used by Joomla.
2. Click on the table "jos_jnews_subscribers" and edit the fields "email" and "name" to change the collation to the same you previously wrote.

open_basedir restrictions

Error message

If you get this kind of message :

• JFolder::create: Infinite loop detected
• Warning! - Failed to move file
• Warning: file_exists() [function.file-exists]: open_basedir restriction in effect
• Unable to find install package

Solution

There's a problem with the configuration of php.
If you've access to your php.ini, please comment the line open_basedir (Just add ; at the beginning of the line) and restart your Apache server.

Otherwise, open the configuration.php and add this line at the beginning :
    ini_set('open_basedir', NULL);

Verify that the required directories are writable. You can see it by going to the menu :

   With Joomla 1.5.x : Help > System Info; Click on the tab Directory Permissions

JFolder::create: Could not create directory

Error message

JFolder::create: Could not create directory
Warning! Failed to move file

Solution

You should check the permissions of the jNews folders and of the temporary Joomla folder.

Joomla / Administrator / Components /
Joomla / Components /
Joomla / Modules /
Joomla / Plugins /
Joomla / Tmp /

Error Building Admin Menus

Another menu item with the same parent has this alias
Error building Admin Menus

jNews is installed properly but you can't access it via the components menu on your Joomla backend.
To fix the problem, you should uninstall jNews via Joomla Extensions manager.

• After uninstalling, go to your phpMyAdmin and execute the query below. Don't not forget to replace your prefix_ by your own table prefix.

DELETE FROM `jos_menu` WHERE link LIKE '%com_jnews%';

• Then install again jNews.

Component Install: DB function reports no errors

Component Install: DB function reports no errors
JFTP: :delete: Bad response
JFTP: :delete: Bad response

Error installing component

This error is due to the fact that jNews could not be installed properly and there are still jNews on your extension manager or menu.

• Please go to your extensions Manager (click the menu Manage) and select jNews (component) and uninstall.
• After uninstalling, please go to your phpMyAdmin and execute the query below. Don't forget to replace the prefix_ by your own table prefix.

DELETE FROM `jos_menu` WHERE link LIKE '%com_jnews%';

• Then install again jNews.