Modx really starting to grind my gears

I've used modx since early days of EVO without ever having any issues. However, I've had some weird issues recently that really held me up, nothing seemed to be working so I said "Screw it" and did a fresh install and spent all yesterday manually adding TV's resources, chunks, snippets, templates, etc.

When finished, I was happy that there were no errors or anything.

Day 2. I add the login addon and start testing it. Crap starts hitting the fan and i'm getting hit with syntax errors inside the manager and just really whacky behavior.

I then uninstall login addon.

Still getting crazy errors.

What sucks even more is that these errors don't happen all the time. Occasionally a few resources, chuncks, etc will load fine and be able to be updated, but then out of the blue the error will pop up.

I am also monitoring firebug and there is this: http://www.fighthookup.com/connectors/elements/index.php. Forbidden 403 yada yada yada...

Tried editing .htaccess to change some modx security stuff as advised in http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/What_is_mod_security_and_how_does_it_affect_me

but everything i type in leads to a 500 internal server error, which leads me to believe you can't change those things in .htaccess anymore. Mod_security2 perhaps?



Anyway, I'm about to abandon ship with MODX and find something a little more stable. Unless I've completely dropped the ball on something ;(

Many hosts are pretty picky about what can go in .htaccess and anything they don't like will throw a 500 error.

It's unlikely that modx_security would cause a syntax error anyway. Post some of your error messages. They may provide clues to what's wrong.

MODX is usually extremely stable once you solve any configuration problems.

BTW, that secondary error message on the 500 error suggests that you need the hosts error files in the MODX root. They usually look like this: 503.shtml, 404.shtml, etc.. Look for them in the public_html directory and copy them to the MODX root. That will prevent certain kinds of weirdness (though not PHP syntax errors).



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PLEASE, PLEASE specify the version of MODX you are using.
MODX info for everyone: http://bobsguides.com/modx.html

Did you see the screen shot that I uploaded?

Sorry, my bad. That's not really a syntax error (though it claims to be). It's telling you that there is a problem with the permissions or (I think more likely) ownership of the MODX directories.

I would check the permissions and ownership of the MODX stuff. Compare it with the settings on the MODX archive you uploaded to the server, since we know you can access that. Consulting your host would probably also be a good idea, since the proper settings depend on the server configuration.




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PLEASE, PLEASE specify the version of MODX you are using.
MODX info for everyone: http://bobsguides.com/modx.html

Hey BobRay,

Thanks for all the help. However, I'm not sure what you mean by checking the permissions and ownership, how I would go about doing that, nor how I would compare it with the MODX archive. I also am not familiar with the MODX archive or where it would possibly be located.

Furthermore, I can talk with the host, but what appropriate questions would I ask?

Sorry for the ignorance but everything you said just went straight over my head.

In that case, I would just copy the text of the error message in a note to the host and see if they can help.

BTW, if you used FTP to transfer the files, you may just have a missing or corrupted file in the install. See this page for another method: http://bobsguides.com/modx-upgrade-faq.html


(It's about upgrades, but see the section on installing the MODX files.)

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PLEASE, PLEASE specify the version of MODX you are using.
MODX info for everyone: http://bobsguides.com/modx.html

Well I went to my host and they said that they aren't sure why it says forbidden, and that permissions are fine and mod_security isn't blocking anything. They scanned logs and didn't see anything out the ordinary.

So, I fresh installed 2.2.4 and everything was working like a dream had all my pages redone and chunks and snippets manually added so that I didn't screw anything up by importing the previous database. Everything was good.

UNTIL, I went to package management and installed Login. From that point forward I was getting the errors. Pretty much every where I navigated to that needed something from connectors/ was throwing errors.

So, I fresh installed again, and the first thing I did was navigate around the back-end, and there were no problems. Then instead of copying all my content, I just went ahead and installed login and voila the errors came back.

Now let me say that as far as front end users were concerned, the login addon worked perfectly. It just screws up the back end manager something fierce.

Any ideas?

Hmm . . . if you take a look at the image you posted, you'll see that the error message is coming from your Server, not MODX.

Ask the host to double-check the permissions and ownership of this folder in the MODX install:

connectors/system/registry

and the register.php file in that directory.


That said, your symptoms are extremely weird. Login doesn't create or set any System Settings (the Package doesn't even have a script resolver). or menus, and it creates no plugins, so having it installed shouldn't have any effect at all in the Manager.

Login just installs a bunch of chunks and snippets, which are completely inactive in the Manager unless one of the snippets is called on a Manager page (and none are).

Have you implemented the Register snippet? My only thought (other than the file permissions and ownership) is that there's something wrong with the way you're using Register in the front end.

If you're not using Register, it's even weirder, because AFAIK, nothing else accesses that file.


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PLEASE, PLEASE specify the version of MODX you are using.
MODX info for everyone: http://bobsguides.com/modx.html

I'll agree with Bob, it sounds like there is something off with your hosting environment. Can you provide us any details regarding your host? What kind of server is this (Linux/Windows), what version of PHP is in use, does the host use suPHP?