Actinic publishing issue

[RidgewayStudios]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to publish my first Actinic site to a web server at EUKHost. Before the weekend, I had everything set up and seemingly working - the web site published okay.

However, I came back to it yesterday morning, made some updates to site content and tried a republish and I'm now encountering two problems:

1. The publish process throws an error which states that there is a problem with permissions. Now, I've had the support team at EUKHost check the file permissions on cgi-bin, the catalog etc. to make sure they match the required settings.

Actinic still tells me that there is a problem executing files in cgi-bin. EUKHost tell me that the server error log is showing the following error:

perl -w cp000001.pl Use of uninitialized value in string eq at cp000001.pl line 21.

I can't find any information about what might be causing this on previous posts... any ideas?


2. The second problem is that, when the site was running in test mode on an Actinic trial server, I had my PSP (HSBC) integrated and accepting test orders without a problem. Now that I've moved to the EUKHost box, I'm getting a message from HSBC at the point of purchase stating that HSBC "cannot connect to the shop".

I don't yet have an SSL in place, so suspect that this might be why (I remember reading somewhere that HSBC requires a secure connection in order to work), but I'm wondering whether the two problems I've described here are related?

Finally, out of interest, despite the above problems with the publish and the error messages which are displayed and excluding the HSBC issue, the web site seems to work perfectly okay. I obviously just don't know how the Perl error will affect the site in the longer term.

Any help or advice welcome.

Thanks,
Simon

[pinbrook]

i'll address the SSL issue first - you do not need an SSL cert as the secure connection is provided by actinic - thus i'd check with actinic that the bounce to actinic is not failling at this point - it could be the bounce it still coded to go to the test site.

I'd upload the site without HSBC, ie use send CC payment separately as payment method, then see if the cp script error is still there. if it is ask actinic what this script does.

[RidgewayStudios]

Hi Jo,

Thanks for the advice. I'm in the process of installing an SSL at this point, however I suspect it's unlikely that the cgi problem will be causing the HSBC problem.

I've looked into the problematic Perl file and it's this line which appears to be causing an issue on upload:

if ( (defined($ENV{'SERVER_SOFTWARE'}) && $ENV{'SERVER_SOFTWARE'}=~/IIS/) ||

Not sure if that helps at all?

Simon

[RidgewayStudios]

The error Actinic gives me when testing the Network Settings is:

Actinic received a server error from the web server. The CGI scripts are not executing properly on the server. The error could be caused by several things. Check:
- the 'Path to the Perl shell'
- the 'CGI script extension'
- the 'Path to CGI-BIN'
- the 'CGI-BIN URL.
- the amount of web space left on your server
- if your server is configured to accept POSTs to CGI scripts
- the permissions on the server:

On Linux/Unix based servers the permissions should be:
cgi-bin (755) – drwxr-xr-x
Online Store Folder (777) – drwxrwxrwx
On Windows based servers (need to be checked with the hosting company):
IIS
cgi-bin = read/execute
Online Store Folder = read/write/execute
NTFS
cgi-bin = Catalog's FTP account needs 'Change' permissions on the directory
Online Store Folder = Catalog's FTP account needs 'Change' permissions on the directory AND the IUSR_<servername> account needs to have 'Change' permissions on the directory

However, as I say, I believe the settings are correct on each of these folders, I'm told by EUKHost that my paths are correct and that there isn't a problem with the amount of space left on the server.

So I'm at a bit of a loss.

[AndyBorrett]

Have you tried doing a network test in Actinic?

Edit: I see you have - didn't read your last post properly!

Web | Network Setup | Test

From memory if you have SSL set up there is a tab for that too in Advanced Network Setup

Other things to try are Refreshing the Website rather than just uploading and changing the CGI number fixes things you would never think possible.

[guccij]

Have you checked yourself that the permissions are correct? I mean, have you gone in via ftp? I'm not saying your host is giving you duff info, just that it's worth checking yourself as well.

[Goz]

This thread may be helpful

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...hlight=EUKHost

[pinbrook]

Windows or Linux at EUKHost?

[RidgewayStudios]

Have you checked yourself that the permissions are correct?

Yes, all is well.

acatalog is 777
cgi-bin is 755

I'm still getting the error message unfortunately

[RidgewayStudios]

Windows or Linux at EUKHost?

It's a Linux box

[RidgewayStudios]

This thread may be helpful

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...hlight=EUKHost

Thanks Goz. This was the article I used to create the base settings and I've double and triple checked it to make sure I've got everything correct.

To no avail unfortunately...

[pinbrook]

dont use SSL yet, post your network settings.

[RidgewayStudios]

dont use SSL yet, post your network settings.

Actually, I'm making some progress with Actinic support.

They tell me the line of code that the server is reporting an error on is...

"The code in question is to determine what server is being used, so that non parsed headers can be switched on when using IIS or modperl, and whether to use PerlIS.dll or not. It would appear that the server is not returning what web server it is running."

Which would indicate that it's not a problem on my side at all, but rather one with the web server. This would be consistent given that it seems everyone else using EUKHost for Actinic hosting isn't having these problems.

I'll update you if I hear anything further. Thanks for everyone's advice thus far.

Simon

[RidgewayStudios]

For anyone who is interested, this has now been confirmed as a problem with the way the EUKHost server is configured.

"For security reasons..." they say, the server signature is disabled by default on their servers. This means that it isn't possible to run a successful test on Network Settings, I'm led to believe.

However, I'm also assured by Actinic support that the script that is failing only runs when a Network Settings test is run. It doesn't run when a site publish takes place and will not therefore affect web site performance or appear when a client does a publish themselve. This would seem to be the case - I don't get errors upon publish, only on testing the settings.

To their credit though, the support teams at both Actinic & EUKHost have bent over backwards to give me answers on this, EUKHost especially.

I'm impressed all round - especially after spending three years fighting with my previous host (1&1) who can't even spell "support", let alone provide it.

S