Installing phpList manually: manual chapter feedback and discussion

Hi Mark, when I look at your site address[quote=“marector, post:19, topic:212”]
http://best-equestrian-footing-fibers.net/pHp_list-newsletters/lists/
[/quote]

I see only a blank page. Can you please confirm for me that this is the correct address to see your phpList installation?
Must admit that to me personally, it is a weird you’re using, but that’s just me, sorry.

Worst case scenario, consider allowing me to view your webspace and I’ll see if there is anything that I can spot as to why you are having so muych trouble with this.

Thanks Dragonrider,

re: “Worst case scenario, consider allowing me to view your webspace and I’ll see if there is anything that I can spot as to why you are having so much trouble with this.”
Yes, I will give you ftp access to the GoDaddy hosting service (the first one, which I am still trying to run).
Is that all you need?
If ‘yes’ then give me an email so that I can send host/un/pw to you.
If “no, that’s not what I meant,” then what do you mean by “
 allowing me to view your webspace”
Remember, this is not a CMS site, this is a Static-HTML website. Okay?
re: “best-equestrian-footing-fibers.net/pHp_list-newsletters/lists/”
No, that is not my installation.
I deleted everything and installed it into the default location.

  1. Since the re-install, the /LISTS is now at » best-equestrian-footing-fibers.net/lists
  2. Since the re-install, the admin is located at » best-equestrian-footing-fibers.net/lists/admin/

I now get only the Linux/Apache 500 error:

(chrome) The best-equestrian-footing-fibers.net page isn’t working
best-equestrian-footing-fibers.net is currently unable to handle this request.
(MS Edge) HTTP 500 error
That’s odd
 Microsoft Edge can’t find this page
This page can’t be displayed, because this site’s server might be under maintenance or there could be a programming error.
(MS IE) The website cannot display the page | HTTP 500
This error (HTTP 500 Internal Server Error) means that the website you are visiting had a server problem which prevented the webpage from displaying.
(Firefox) Blank Page - no 500 error.

After weeks of trying, I went out and installed phplist on another server, in the default manner.
The host is Webmasters.com (using their own controlpanel.com, Linux/Apache servers).

LISTS location » bestfooting.net/lists/
Admin URL » bestfooting.net/lists/admin/
Same results.
Question:
Are there ANY other settings in the config.php file which need to be edited - other than these four (with the "# "changed to “/”)
/ what is your Mysql database server hostname
$database_host = ‘localhost’;
/ what is the name of the database we are using
$database_name = ‘’;
/ what user has access to this database
$database_user = ‘****************’;
/ and what is the password to login to control the database
$database_password = ‘**************’;
The odd thing: I installed & ran phplist 10 years ago, and there was no issue. I don’t think I got dumber during that time, but maybe I’m wrong.

Yes, that’s correct, but you can simply PM me these details and I’ll have a look later today if I can.

To PM someone, simply click on their username and click on Message.

Are you sure?
A new user can login, click on your username, and get the option to send you a message?
When I click on your username and it does not offer “messages” - just a list of your posts, badges, etc.
Tried it with Chrome & Firefox - no can do.

Why don’t you just send me an email?
It is in my profile, or you could go to MarkRector.com and click on the link: (Insert your comments here).

Okay, it’s working and I discovered the reason why it was not installing: W10 filepaths/filenames were either “Too long” or “A buffer was too small” in the FTP client.
I changed the filing system location on my LOCAL computer - to shorten the filepath/filenames - and suddenly the entire /lists folder fully uploaded without any missing files or folders.
I ran a test case at another URL, and my solution worked perfectly - first time out of the box within minutes I had it up and running.
If you are interested in the permanent fix to the Windows 10 Professional problem, when using an FTP Client application, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I also created a “fixed” zip file, which you may wish to offer other new users, it is a simple yet elegant solution to the US/UE issues which many of us wil encounter, going forward. I’ve already created the ZIP file which others may use, if the want: simply upload the ZIP file into your ROOT directory, unzip it and run the program. No moving files/folders or anything.
Let me know if you’re interested, DragonRider.
mit freundlichen grĂŒĂŸen/best regards,
mark

The installation manual page should specify what version(s) of PHP are supported - and what all the prerequisites for phpList are. Or at least a web page that’s kept up-to-date with this basic info that’s necessary for an install!

Is phpList compatible with PHP v7? We’ve been running 5.6, but our host is moving to 7.0 as a default, and 7.1 is available.

@tlhackque Thanks for the suggestion – the manual page has now been updated and the change should be visible shortly.

Regarding PHP7, yes, phpList 3 and 4 run and are automatically tested against PHP 7 and 7.1. You can see all PHP versions that phpList is tested against on Travis: https://travis-ci.org/phpList/phplist3

The System Requirements page (https://resources.phplist.com/system/start) says: “PHP 5.3.3 or later”.
I spent hours trying to install version 3.3.1, getting only a blank page without any error notice, until I noticed that in two files (connect.php e defaulconfig.php) is used the random_bytes() function, which exists only in PHP 7.
Please update the requirements page!

@Tomark That’s strange because PHP 5.3 and later are tested via Travis: https://travis-ci.org/phpList/phplist3
There are compatibility libraries included which are used when random_bytes() isn’t available, but I’m not sure if they are used in all instances (such as the ones you mentioned).
Notably, remote processing isn’t tested via Travis AFAIK.

@samtuke @Tomark Currently php 5.4 is needed but there is a pending change to be able to use php 5.3.3 see https://github.com/phpList/phplist3/pull/164

But that won’t be until the next release of phplist.

A post was split to a new topic: Guide to hardening phpList