Error Message - No Detail, ...on attempting to add a banner ad Options

[redherring]

Hi there -

I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to assist in actually debugging the error I'm receiving when simply trying to add a banner ad to a campaign that currently has no ads, but, the error i get is just that... "Error". No detail.

Is there a log file somewhere or something that might help point me in the right direction? The "debug.log" has no recent entries.

Thanks.

[Arlen Coupland]

Are you able to add a banner fine to a campaign which already has banners?
As I remember you imported inventory manually - I wonder if this has some sort of cause :/

Try going to Settings -> General Settings and change 'production server' from Yes to No -- this might help give more information to your screen. You should set this back to Yes afterwards. Alternatively, you can check your Apache error log for any additional information

Most likely it is a MySQL query which has an error in it but the error isn't being reported. If you have the ability of monitoring MySQL Queries on your server, this could help

[redherring]

Hi Arlen -

Thanks for your reply. I have since managed to successfully create banners thru the GUI interface. The issue may indeed be with campaigns that currently have no banners, but I'm not yet quite sure. I will try your suggestion of changing the "production server" setting to "no", as well as checking our IIS logs / monitoring MySQL queries.

Thanks again.

[redherring]

While we're not yet at the "production" stage, we've made great strides in our OpenX setup.

However, I do find myself faced with this same problem again that mysteriously just "went away" before.

I am using the OpenX GUI interface as it was intended to simply try to add a banner to an existing campaign, and upon hitting "save changes" I am being presented with an "Error" message in red with a red X image. No other detail, just "Error", as per the following screenshot:

[img]http://www.hopemountainart.com/images/error.gif[/img]

To make matters worse, I can either keep trying repeatedly or come back "later" and magically be able to successfully add my banner without having done "anything" to try to rectify the situation.

I would love to be able to get more specific information when the system throws such an error, with bonus marks awarded for anyone that can chime in on what exactly might be causing this particular error.

Thanks.

[Arlen Coupland]

Hi,

I assume you are using Local Webserver not Local SQL banners. Also - does it make a difference if you are uploading a Flash SWF banner on an IMG banner?

Looking at the code, what seems to be happening is:

It attempts to use the PHP function 'is_uploaded_file' to upload the file, if that function exists. I assume it does for you, because its been in PHP since 4.0.3.

If this function returns false, it will report "Detected a possible security problem, upload halted!" -- but you are not seeing this message.

It now looks for the file on the server, which is seems to see, otherwise it would tell you "Could not access uploaded file, due to an unknown reason. Please check your PHP configuration"

It now tries to Open the file, which seems to fail for you. It then tries to move the file to openx/var/cache (which, as required by openx, be fully read+writable) and then tries to open the file again. This seems to also fail for you.

There is no error message if this part fails - it is the only possible part of the function which could fail without giving an error message.
Could you check openx/var/cache for any files that do not start with 'cache_' or 'deliverycache_'. Check the chmod of these files, as well as the owner

Also check your php settings for the upload_tmp_dir setting and make sure that folder is writable by the server

[redherring]

Hello Arlen -

Thanks, as always, for the reply.

Yes, we are using local server and the problem does not seem to be specific to SWF's or GIF's / JPG's.

All appropriate directories appear to be writable as they should.

But here is a "workaround" that we have been using that has been 100% effective and reproducable. I have to imagine that it would mean something to someone... hopefully.

Each and every time we go to add a banner, hitting "save changes" produces the generic "Error" message. If we then reload a web page on our site that is pulling ads via OpenX, going back and hitting "save changes" for our new banner, (or just reloading the error page), successfully ads the banner. It has worked every time.

Here's hoping that this is a juicy clue.

Thanks again.

[Arlen Coupland]

I've created a ticket to fix the fact that the error message is not properly displayed.
However, to further find why you are getting an error message, we need to know where and why the error is happening. I was wrong above - the issue wasn't a specific part of the function, all areas of the function do have some sort of error message. It is just that the Language translation of the error message wasn't being properly loaded.
To fix this, let me know what version you are using. I can edit the file of that version for you and let you test with the edited file.
Or, you can edit it yourself. The file is :: openx/www/admin/banner-edit.php

Search for the following strings and replace them with the edited version. There are only a few occurances.

$strErrorUploadSecurity should be $GLOBALS['strErrorUploadSecurity']
$strErrorUploadBasedir should be $GLOBALS['strErrorUploadBasedir']
$strErrorUploadUnknown should be $GLOBALS['strErrorUploadUnknown']

After editing these, you should receive an actual error message, which will help me know where the problem is occuring.

What are your PHP settings for upload_tmp_dir, open_basedir, and safe_mode ? Make sure that the folder used in 'upload_tmp_dir' is writable by the web server, and if you have open_basedir enabled, make sure the upload_tmp_dir folder is listed in the open_basedir 'allowed folders'. Safe_mode should be off.

What happens if you refresh the page without delivering a banner first ?

[halldorr]

I've created a ticket to fix the fact that the error message is not properly displayed.
However, to further find why you are getting an error message, we need to know where and why the error is happening. I was wrong above - the issue wasn't a specific part of the function, all areas of the function do have some sort of error message. It is just that the Language translation of the error message wasn't being properly loaded.
To fix this, let me know what version you are using. I can edit the file of that version for you and let you test with the edited file.
Or, you can edit it yourself. The file is :: openx/www/admin/banner-edit.php

Search for the following strings and replace them with the edited version. There are only a few occurances.

$strErrorUploadSecurity should be $GLOBALS['strErrorUploadSecurity']
$strErrorUploadBasedir should be $GLOBALS['strErrorUploadBasedir']
$strErrorUploadUnknown should be $GLOBALS['strErrorUploadUnknown']

After editing these, you should receive an actual error message, which will help me know where the problem is occuring.

What are your PHP settings for upload_tmp_dir, open_basedir, and safe_mode ? Make sure that the folder used in 'upload_tmp_dir' is writable by the web server, and if you have open_basedir enabled, make sure the upload_tmp_dir folder is listed in the open_basedir 'allowed folders'. Safe_mode should be off.

What happens if you refresh the page without delivering a banner first ?

I'm not sure if this issue has been resolved elsewhere - I've tried locating one in the forums but can only find several threads mentioning the problem. I made the replacements mentioned in the code here and the error I get is:

Could not access uploaded file, due to an unknown reason. Please check your PHP configuration