[rossagrant]

Hi guys,

Bit of a random one. I just went to change my password in Cpanel for my FTP, MYSQL etc.

All went well but I couldn’t access my site at all. Realised I hadn’t changed the password in wp-config.php and then it appeared to work fine again.

Only thing is I no longer have a footer?

I’ve just changed the password back to the old one and the footer has returned.

How can the passwords affect my footer?

Thanks!

[Pisanojm]

That is insane!!! Is your footer only showing for certain user roles? Maybe it’s a cache clearing issue? I really have no clue on this… It will be interesting to see what the answer to this mystery is…

[rossagrant]

The footer shouldn’t only be showing for certain user roles no. It’s really odd. I have no idea why my footer won’t display if I change my password in Cpanel.

Never seen anything like it before. bizarre.

[modemlooper]

Did you feed your Mogwai after midnight?

[rossagrant]

@modernlooper, god knows mate! It’s weird though. Something in my footer must need access to the database to show or something and changing the password to the new password in config.php doesn’t cut it. The rest of the site displays but the footer disappears!

Very very weird indeed!

[Paul Wong-Gibbs]

So, uh, what’s in your footer then that’s making its own database connection? I’d get rid of it, because it’s Doing It Wrong(tm).

Anything in your webserver’s PHP log?

[Jean-Pierre Michaud]

i would say a plugin that requires hardcoded access, or a latent script that is set to the old setup…

[rossagrant]

@DJPaul @nexia Thanks for the replies guys.

The only thing in my footer is a tag cloud widget which is the generic one built into wordpress?

I have deactivated all plugins when the new password is set and that doesn’t help and this occurs in EVERY theme so it’s not my theme.

It’s really bizarre. I’m going to get Boris to take a look over FTP but if we can’t find anything would you guys be prepared to take a look?

One thing I have noticed is that with the MYSQL DB for this site, there are no users attached to it, so it is just one DB and one password for it. On my other sites the install seems to have created a user for the DB which is set the same in wp-config so that even when you change your main passwords the user password is unchanged and therefore you don’t have to edit wp-config.

Saying this I’ve tried setting up a user and changed the details in wp-config to match and the problem still persists. The entire site works except for the footer not showing.

Bloody odd.

You can see the site and footer showing at the mo at http://www.actonthis.co

[Jean-Pierre Michaud]

ok, so you tell us that you’re using the Auto-Install-Wordpress from your host? … like hostgator offers…

forget that, you have two choices then: keep everything like generated by the installer, or drop everything and install WP on your own, entirely… you can’t do a thing else than that. no need to explain.

[rossagrant]

@nexia Yeah this one in question was a one click install through Fantastico offered in cpanel with my host.

The installs where the user is created for the database is installed through Softcalculous.

I can change the passwords for the Softcalculous installs no problem.

I’m actually about to move hosts. Would it be possible to create a new install and port my DB across to eliminate this issue?

[Jean-Pierre Michaud]

to eliminate this issue, yes, this will.

but do a new install on your own, never use the automatic installer of any company if you plan on changing details in the configurations.

right now, the main problem is not the system itself, but the extensions that are loaded in the background… they are hardcoded and you have no control over them.

[@mercime]

@rossagrant shucks, before you mentioned that changing usernames/passwords affected all other themes, I was going to write that you should get theme support from @Bowromir again

Seriously though, there’s a silver lining to discovering about the perils/shortcomings of Fantastico this early in your installation – knowing never to use it again for another developer installation as @nexia said. There are many who have posted their woes in WP.org forums. Shaving off a few minutes of uploading WP manually, creating a database and installing WP is not worth the hours wasted on a shaky foundation set up via Fantastico.

At this stage, it’s a blessing you only have 4 members a few groups etc which you can recreate later on. So it would come as no surprise that I would recommend starting your installation from scratch – clean and solid – after making DB and server files backup (just in case). Contact your webhost tech support on how to delete WP and Fantastico files properly. There’s one topic in WP.org forums which gives a clue but no actual solution https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fantastico-problem?replies=1 so you need your webhost tech support on this one.

[rossagrant]

Right, the site hasn’t launched yet and I actually need to transfer the site over to a different domain name so I can easily setup a manual install over at the other domain and copy most things across.

The posts, groups etc are all very easy to do but the only thing that would be a pain in the bum is that I have 40 entires as custom post types in a custom directory lists.

Is there anyway to copy those entries into a new database or is that wishful thinking!

I had no idea Fantastico was so bad, are lots of people finding holes in it?

Cheers

[@mercime]

== I have 40 entires as custom post types in a custom directory lists. ==

Supposed to be that Custom Post Types could be exported in Tools > Export from old site and then use Tools > Import WP WXR in new site. I haven’t had the occasion to test it yet, but per this WP trac, it’s supposed to have been fixed already https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/14306. The best bet would be to check it yourself in a test install or in your new one at the other domain.

== I had no idea Fantastico was so bad, are lots of people finding holes in it? ==

It should be outlawed