Unresolvable Perl issues …

[Sadcase]

I have set up a site using version 7.0.4 FEVA (I can't remember the full version number as I'm posting this from home) and I've got major problems with Perl scripts.

Starting from the beginning:
When 7.0.5 was released, I attempted an upgrade. This was done according to the recommendations in the version 7 FAQs in the Knowledge Base, and was completed successfully; except when I tried to update the site or download any orders, when I got the error message with the following in it: "Server version xxxxx client version xxxxx (eg. 6 CLCB client version 6 CNNA)". I couldn't find any way to upgrade the perl scripts to the latest version (the server was complaining that I only have v7.0.4 FEVA), so rather than trying to resolve the issue, I simply reinstalled the previous version which proceeded without a hitch. I was content to use version 7.0.4, as it worked and I didn't really have time to faff around.

Over six months later, it was still working fine; until today.

I was performing a typical upload of data following the processing of the downloaded orders, except the computer crashed when it was at the stage where it was "merging incremental updates at the website". I restarted the computer, restarted Actinic, and reperformed the update, which appeared to go without a hitch.

However, come this afternoon, when I was checking for further orders, I discovered that it wouldn't download; instead getting the following error message:

"The Server scripts are incompatible with this version of Actinic Ecommerce. Refresh the web site. If this error persists copy the Perl scripts from the Original subdirectory and try again. Server Version 7 Client Version 7 FEVA"

So I refreshed the website, as directed by the message.

It failed the next time around, so I copied the Perl scripts as advised, and tried again. Once more, it failed. So I searched all the way through the knowledge base FAQs to try and find another fix. I found one (Ref: KB400) which talked about receiving an error with the "Server version xxxxx client version xxxxx (eg. 6 CLCB client version 6 CNNA) " in it, so attempted to try and find how to do what it suggested (I couldn't find any reference that told me how to do this).

So I trawled through all 23 pages of the version 7 forum, trying to find anything that would give me a clue. In the end, I discovered a post that said for a successful refresh of the website, you needed to go into the /acatalog/ directory on the server and delete all the .pl and .pm files manually. But there was also a post which directed me to the troubleshooting section of Actinic, and showed me how to use the "Purge and refresh …" button, which I did.

First of all, I just purged the Perl scripts. It refreshed the site, and made no difference. then I repurged it, selecting the .fil files checkbox as well. Again, it made no difference.

This is why I'm beginning to thing that this is unresolvable; because I'm running out of steps to try and resurrect the site! Before I left tonight, I managed to disable online ordering, so at least no-one can leave an order which I'm not able to download!

But there are a few things about this which don't seem right:

Firstly, when I got the error message, it said I'd got v 7 on the server; yet when I tried to upgrade the site 6 months ago, it was insisting I'd got v 7.0.4 FEVA on there. I've not changed anything (as far as I know) on the server (particularly as I don't know how!).

Secondly, after attempting to download any orders, after I got the error message, Actinic then locks up, and I'm unable to proceed without force quitting it.

Thirdly, when I was uploading the site after doing a "Purge and refresh …", it came up with the same server error message twice, when it had completed sending the base files, and was in the process of purging files. This message also appeared when I was uploading the final changes which disabled the online shopping.

So, having completed all these things, I'm still no further forward. I'm still getting the error messages, and I'm still unable to download any orders. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but I'm not sure what it is!

Can anyone out there give me any pointers and help me to get the site up and running again?

Thanks in advance …
Mark

[NormanRouxel]

It would help if you post the URL of the problem site so we can see what script level is installed.

Anyway, here's what I'd try. First run Actinic and do Help / About to get the version of the executable you are running.

Then find a spare PC (not the problem one) and install that version of Actinic on it. This way you can trust the Original folder to be accurate.

Now back up your entire Actinic v7 folder structure just in case.

Then delete the Original folder on the bad sysytem and replace it with the one from the clean install. Now copy the Perl (all .pl and .pm) files from the trustworthy Original into your Site folder. Also copy the file ShippingTemplate.pl from the Original/ShipControl folder into your Site's ShipControl folder.

Now do a Refresh.

[Sadcase]

Thanks, Norman.

Will try it out tomorrow at work.

The url is http://www.thechristadelphian.com/acatalog/

[NormanRouxel]

I'd also take a Snapshot as well. And also copy all the info in Housekeeping / Security to a textfile that you keep in the Site folder so it gets backed up too.

PS Your live site identifies itself as 7.0.4.0.0.0 FEVA

[Sadcase]

I tried it exactly as you suggested, but it didn't work. It's still coming up with the same error.

I was also updating our firewall settings yesterday - could this be causing the problem? It's a hardware firewall, and the ftp is set to pass-through.

Any ideas?

[Sadcase]

I'm now trying to upload the site from another machine. I imported the snapshot from the old machine and am uploading it now.

I guess if it works, it means that the old computer is the problem; and if it doesn't, it means there's something wrong with the site itself, or the firewall. Is that a reasonable assumption?

Would it be worth deleting the complete site and reconstructing it from the Sage data afresh in Actinic?

[Bruce]

Mark,

Try switching the firewall for the period of the upload to see if it happens, will help narrow down the issue. Firewalls require that Actinic specifically be enabled or allowed in their allowed list. Depending on the firewall, do a search on the forum and you should see several posts with relevent information.

Kind regards,

[Sadcase]

Thanks Bruce,

If this current upload on a different machine doesn't resolve it, I'll try that next.

[Sadcase]

The upload on an alternative machine didn't work.

I tried changing the firewall settings, but it didn't appear to make any difference.

I will try removing the firewall completely and see what happens.

I did a test from within the network settings, and it said that it passed all tests successfully. It also gave me this output, but I'm guessing that it only applies to the smtp server:

Actinic Mail Test completed successfully
server: passed
connection: passed
sockets: passed
communications: passed
authorisation: passed
message: -

[Sadcase]

I'm currently trying the 'Configure web site details' wizard, using the current settings as a basis for testing. I completed the first 6 tasks without any issues; however, it seemed to get stuck on 'Perl installation', when it was 'Checking Perl version'. Then it popped up another progress bar which gives further details. In the main progress bar, it says 'Trying Perl guesses' and on the new bar it repeatedly says: 'Contacting host', 'Checking the Perl installation location' and then 'Checking the Perl version'. This repeats over and over; the main progress bar is moving, but it's so s l o w...

EDIT:Then it popped up a window asking for the location of Perl on the server, and the extension of the files, in order to be able to execute. The default location was /usr/bin/perl/ and the extension was .pl

I wasn't sure of the location so I just pressed OK ... and then it crashed!

[Sadcase]

I guess this information might be useful at this point in time:

Perl Environment
Perl Version 5.008006
Digest::MD5 Installed
ActinicEncrypt1024 Not installed
Real CGI User
Real CGI Group
Effective CGI User IUSR_IMPULSE
Effective CGI Group
Script name D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\thechristadelphian.com\www\cgi-bin\se000001.pl
FTP User
FTP Group 0

Server Environment
ALLUSERSPROFILE C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
COMMONPROGRAMFILES C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME IMPULSE
COMSPEC C:\WINNT\system32\cmd.exe
CONTENT_LENGTH 0
GATEWAY_INTERFACE CGI/1.1
HTTPS off
HTTP_ACCEPT text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING ____,_______
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE en-us,en;q=0.5
HTTP_CONNECTION keep-alive
HTTP_COOKIE ACTINIC_CONTACT="LOCATION%0aINVOICERESIDENTIAL%3d%0aDELIVERY_COUNTRY_CODE%3dUK%0aINVOICEPOSTALCODE%3d%0aINVOICE_REGION_CODE%3dUndefinedRegion%0aDELIVERY_REGION_CODE%3dUndefinedRegion%0aDELIVERRESIDENTIAL%3d%0aINVOICE_COUNTRY_CODE%3dUK%0aSEPARATESHIP%3d%0a%0aPAYMENT%0aORDERDATE%3d2006%252f02%252f08%252012%253a21%0aAUTHORIZERESULT%3d%0aUSERDEFINED%3d%0aBUYERHASH%3d%0aBASEFILE%3d%0aMETHOD%3d10002%0aBUYERNAME%3d%0a%0aTAX%0aEXEMPT2%3d0%0aDONE%3d1%0aEXEMPT1%3d0%0aUSERDEFINED%3d%0a%0aDELIVERY%0aCOUNTRY%3dUnited%2520Kingdom%0aSALUTATION%3dMr%0aPRIVACY%3d0%0aADDRESS3%3dBirmingham%0aJOBTITLE%3d%0aCOMPANY%3d%0aREGION%3d%0aNAME%3dMark%0aFAX%3d%0aUSERDEFINED%3d%0aADDRESS4%3d%0aEMAIL%3dmark%2540thechristadelphian%252ecom%0aADDRESS2%3d%0aPOSTALCODE%3dB28%25208SZ%0aADDRESS1%3dNorris%0aPHONE%3d01217776328%0a%0aINVOICE%0aCOUNTRY%3dUnited%2520Kingdom%0aSALUTATION%3dMr%0aPRIVACY%3d0%0aADDRESS3%3dBirmingham%0aJOBTITLE%3d%0aCOMPANY%3d%0aREMEMBERME%3d1%0aREGION%3d%0aNAME%3dMark%0aFAX%3d%0aUSERDEFINED%3d%0aADDRESS4%3d%0aEMAIL%3dmark%2540thechristadelphian%252ecom%0aSEPARATE%3d%0aMOVING%3d0%0aADDRESS2%3d%0aADDRESS1%3dNorris%0aPOSTALCODE%3dB28%25208SZ%0aPHONE%3d01217776328%0a%0aSHIPPING%0aSSP%3d%0aUSERDEFINED%3d%0a%0aGENERAL%0aHOWFOUND%3d%0aWHYBUY%3d%0aUSERDEFINED%3d%0a%0a"; ACTINIC_CART=195Z206Z165Z157A1133258678B2580
HTTP_HOST www.thechristadelphian.com
HTTP_KEEP_ALIVE 300
HTTP_USER_AGENT Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
INSTANCE_ID 38
LOCAL_ADDR 209.133.233.34
MXBIN C:\Program Files\FireDaemon v0.09c
MXHOME C:\Program Files\FireDaemon v0.09c
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS 1
OS Windows_NT
OS2LIBPATH C:\WINNT\system32\os2\dll;
PATH C:\Perl\bin\;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\WINNT\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Symantec\pcAnywhere\
PATHEXT .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH
PATH_INFO /cgi-bin/se000001.pl
PATH_TRANSLATED D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\thechristadelphian.com\www\cgi-bin\se000001.pl
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE x86
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 10, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL 6
PROCESSOR_REVISION 080a
PROGRAMFILES C:\Program Files
QUERY_STRING USER=Vm3FkEI9yYXg&PASS=rT9vKupZpNPe
REMOTE_ADDR 195.206.165.157
REMOTE_HOST 195.206.165.157
REQUEST_METHOD GET
SCRIPT_NAME /cgi-bin/se000001.pl
SERVER_NAME www.thechristadelphian.com
SERVER_PORT 80
SERVER_PORT_SECURE 0
SERVER_PROTOCOL HTTP/1.1
SERVER_SOFTWARE Microsoft-IIS/5.0
SYSTEMDRIVE C:
SYSTEMROOT C:\WINNT
TEMP C:\WINNT\TEMP
TMP C:\WINNT\TEMP
USERPROFILE C:\Documents and Settings\Default User
WINDIR C:\WINNT

[Bruce]

What is the path to perl that was given to you by the hosting company? Try using

/usr/bin/perl

Instead of

/usr/bin/perl/

Kind regards,

[Sadcase]

I tried removing the firewall completely from the loop, and it downloaded orders fine, and there was no problem doing an upload, or a website refresh. I'm guessing that the firewall is the issue, so I'm going to try and concentrate the effort there.

Thanks for all your help; I'll keep you posted!

[Sadcase]

Yep, it's confirmed. The firewall was causing the problem. I've created a new rule which allows TCP through from the specific port and IP address of the server to the client computer; it now works fine. Finally!

The big question I have now is:

I'd like to update Actinic to the latest version, but I know that I'm going to get issues with Perl incompatabilities when uploading, in the same way I did the last time I tried to update it.

Does the method described in posts elsewhere (i.e. copying the scripts from the 'Original' folder into the relevant site folder, and then performing a refresh) resolve this problem too? I'm guessing that it does ...?

[NormanRouxel]

I think that the Perl scripts not getting updated was a 7.0.5 problem. The current version is 7.0.6 and I'd hope it's fixed there. Check the 7.0.6 change log to see.