Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

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#100 : How to create new entries in the news ?
In the administration page, the main tab, there's a link "Post news".
Then once the news topic is created, it can be edited or deleted directly from the home page (or the archives), with the "Edit" button, if your access level is high enough of course.
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#105 : How can i make a teaser in news ?
If you want to have a teaser for your news that will be displayed, followed by a "more..." which you can click to see the whole news, there is a special tag built-in. Just put the code "<more>" in your news and LDU will automatically break at this point, for example : "This is a hot teaser <more> and this is the text after clicking "more..."

Errors and troubleshooting

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#300 : I get errors "Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by..."
Check (and double-check) the config.php, you probably made a typo there, if you don't find what's wrong, start from a fresh config.php
Also be sure that there's NO space or empty lines after the ending ?> Any text
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#305 : I never receive the activation e-mail of the registration process ?
Well first, note that the first user to register is automatically raised to the higher level 59 (ServerOp), and activated. If you do not receive the account validation email, chance are high that your server isn't properlly set to send emails, or maybe your host disabled this feature. LDU is make use of the built-in PHP mail() functions, so if PHP cannot send emails, LDU won't either. You can manually activate your account by forcing the field "user_active" to "1" , in the MySQL table "ldu_users".
To fix this for the future registrations : Administration > Configuration panel > Users > Skip email check for new users = Yes.
This way, new members won't have to validate their accounts by email.
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#310 : My PFS is disabled, how do I to enable it ?
By default the PFS max size for a single file and the total max size of the PFS for users are set to 0. This means, that the PFS is disabled and you cant use it. Even when you allow the use of the PFS in the configuration of LDU.
To use the PFS you have to set the total allowed size and the single file size for each user level. For this you go to: Administration > Users, then click on the "Edit" button for the userlevel and change the "PFS max size for a single file" and "Max size of all PFS files together" to a value you want. Then "Update" at bottom.
To allow the PFS for each user level on your page, you have to setup each PFS step by step like writen above.
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#315 : The login shows only "Welcome back , you're now logged in", and I'm not logged-in !
If you have some problems with the login, like that your username will not be displayed on the Login screen ("Welcome back ..., you're now logged in.") or if you already logged in but LDU shows that you're not logged, try the following things:
1) First, clear your cookies and your history in your browser, close it and retry.
2) Then if you still can't logon to the site, go to your SQL administration tool (for example PHPmyadmin) and open the table "ldu_config". There you will find a row called "cookie_domain". If there is a value entered from you, just clear this field. 3) The last thing is to check your browser settings like security options and cookie options. Is the option "accept cookies" enabled ?
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#320 : I can't manage to get thumbnails working fine in the PFS ?
Try switching GD versions in Administration > Configuration > Personal File Space > Galleries > GD Version, set to "GD1". Then manually delete and rebuild all thumbnails in Administration > Configuration > Personal File Space > Thumbnails.

If that doesn't work, it would seem that you do not have GD installed on your server, so you may want to disable thumbnails : Administration > Configuration > Personal File Space > Galleries > GD Version = "Disabled".
If you can't delete thumbnails, try settting the 777 CHMOD properties for the folder /datas/users/.

About GIF images :
In most of case,the graphical library installed along PHP cannot handle GIF files, so no way to create thumbnails for GIFs.
Workaround : Do not upload GIFs in the PFS ;]
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#322 : I get an error message about an "undefined function" ?
It's usually because of a PHP version too old, or a PHP extension not installed on your host.
As sample, if you get "Call to undefined function: imagecreatefromjpeg()" or about "imagegif()"when using the PFS, it's because your server do not support the creation of thumbnails, in this case ask your host if they can install and enable the GD graphical library.
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#325 : My site won't load, and/or I get a message "Redirect limit..."
If nothing is displayed, or you get a blank page, it's because something wrong with the skin.
Check if the skin code is correct in the config.php, and that ALL the files for this skin are uploaded at the right place in /skins/..., and that none of the *.tpl files are corrupted.
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#330 : I installed a new skin, and still see the old one ?
By default LDU is set to force the default skin for all users, with the skin set in config.php
You can change this behaviour in : Administration > Configuration > Skins and languages > Force the default skin for all users = No
By doing this, guests (non-logged users) and new members will still see the old skin, and registered members will be able to switch to the new skin from their profile.
If you want to display the new skin for all users (guests and members), then set the new code skin in config.php, and let the force-mode "enabled".
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#335 : I get an error about the connection to the MySQL database ?
If you cannot access your database, make sure that the database was created, that all connection settings are correct in the config.php (host, user, password and database name) and that you have ran the proper .sql file in your /docs directory.

With MySQL the error messages are pretty simple :

"Access denied..." -> Wrong username and/or wrong password.
"Could not connect..." -> Wrong host name, or MySQL not installed, or Mysq is down or crashed (rare).
"Could not select..." -> Wrong DB name and/or wrong access rights for this user to this database.

Very often the host name is "localhost", for the 3 other parameters, ask your host !!!
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#340 : I get a message "MySQL error : Can't open file:... (errno:145)
This is an hosting issue, there's no way LDU can corrupt the MySQL database by itself.
Open the MySQL database with phpMyAdmin, then select the faulty table, and in the dropdown menu, choose "Repair".
More details on this page : http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Corrupted_MyISAM_tables.html.
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#345 : I get a message "Warning: mysql_connect(): Too many connections ...
This is an hosting issue, this means that that all available MySQL connections already are used by other clients on the same server. Usually this means that your web host installed too many websites on the server, and it cannot handle the load. As most of the PHP scripts, LDU open a single connection for each and every page displayed per user, not more, not less. There's no workaround, apart finding a better hosting company.
More details on this page : http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Too_many_connections.html.

Skins

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#800 : How can I put PHP code in the TPLs skin files ?
You can't.
PHP code won't work in skin files (/skins/*/*.tpl), on purpose, it's to keep the code and the layout separated.
To extend LDU abilities, you'll have to put your PHP code in plugins.
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#805 : How to get a login form in any skin file ?
Usually users are authing in and out with the auth.php page.
You can get a login form wherever your want with simply inserting this code in a skin file (Most usual locations are index.tpl or header.tpl.) :


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#810 : How can I break out of a frame ?
If your website is captured inside of a frame on another site, this plugin will break the browser out of the frameset and make your page the top page. Create a new global plugin : plugins/extended/wrapper/global.autorun/break_out_of_frames.php :


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#815 : How to get a scrollbar in forum posts when the content is too wide ?
In skins/*/forums.posts.tpl, change the body of the posts from :

To :

And adjust the width of 600 to your layout.
Sadly this work only with MS Internet Explorer...