Topic: Error! Need help immediately!!!

I am running a commercial website and just got this error:


An error was encountered
Error: Unable to fetch category/forum list.


I need help QUICK!

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

I cannot have the forums unavailable, I will get in trouble!

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

Enable debug mode and paste the full error.

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

Also if you changed the configuration, modified some files or else you'd better describe what you did.

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

The only changes I made were CHMOD'ing files to 755 like I was told to do.  I am not getting the error anymore.  Weird.  It appeared for 2 minutes as I kept refreshing then it finally went away

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

Remember that cache and img/avatars folders must be CHMOD 777, as for the error itself it must have been some temporary issue with your database. Make sure you backup it often.

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

An error was encountered
Error: Unable to fetch category/forum list.


It happened again, could it be the web host?

8 (edited by Strofanto 2007-01-20 09:17)

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

I think so, particularly it could be the database.

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

I repeat: Enable debug mode and paste the full error.

If you don't know how, see http://punbb.org/docs/faq.html#faq2_7

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

If I enable debug mode, does the error have to be occuring as I enable it?  The reason I ask is because the error randomly pops up and only lasts for a few minutes.  I am the forum admin and I do not have FTP access to the site, and the person with FTP access does not know very much about PHP.  So I would have to wait for the error to occur again and then I would not have enough time to get ahold of him and have him get on his computer and upload the debug file.

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

Yes: debug mode needs to be enabled before/while the error is happening

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

Ok so if I enable debug mode right now and wait for the error to occur, would the forums still be fully functional to the members and only be in debug mode for the admins?  I would like to know a little more about the mode before I do this in order to make sure it is done correctly.  Thank you for your time guys.

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

When DEBUG is enabled, PunBB will display

- more detailed error messages if/when something goes wrong.
- script generation time in the footer.
- no. of queries executed in the footer.

It will do this for everyone, not just admins

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

Ok last question, I promise!  Is there any risks for everybody having access to the error information during debug mode?

Also, I am pretty sure it might have something to do with the web host, I have been very skeptical about them.  What is a good database size for a forum that will have a large amount of members and posts?  For example, equivalent to the PunBB.org forums.

Current Database: Rows: 2895
Size: 350.93 KB

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

Ok last question, I promise!  Is there any risks for everybody having access to the error information during debug mode?

Well, there's a reason debug information is disabled by default. However, in this case I don't think it should pose much of an issue (since the only error you should be having is related to the one query).

What is a good database size for a forum that will have a large amount of members and posts?  For example, equivalent to the PunBB.org forums.

I'm not sure what you're asking: it depends on how many users/posts, the size of the posts, etc

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

About the database, I would like to know how much space I should have to support thousands of members and thousands of posts.  For example, these forums (PunBB.org) have thousands of users and tens of thousands of posts.  How much space to do you need to support that?  My current database is only 350 KB.  Is that too small?  What is a decent amount of space?

Re: Error! Need help immediately!!!

The 350kb value you're quoting is the amount of space your forum takes up CURRENTLY, not the maximum amount of space you can have.