Ultra Noob Can't Even Open the tarfile.

[rsp]

It's embarrassing. I know my computer can open these things because I have opened a gadzillion of them recently while searching for the right application. (I use stuffit.) I have high hopes for Dataface. I tried opening it four times last night and it always hangs on alpha.html and my computer says it does not have enough resources. I've rebooted, tried again, still no. I re-downloaded the tar.gz, still no.

May I please have some pointers? Is my computer just too lame?

[shannah]

Not sure why your computer would be hanging. One thing is to try to untar it from the command line:
gunzip dataface*gz
tar xvf dataface*tar

-Steve

[rsp]

Hello,
When you say command line, you mean some sort of interface I have with my website, I think. But, I have economy hosting at godaddy. You can't unzip a file on the server if you have that kind of host. (already asked them.)
I will try again tonight to unzip the tar.

Thank you.

[shannah]

By command line I'm referring to the unix shell. If you are using a Mac then you can access this in the Terminal application (located at /Applications/Terminal).

It has been a while since I've had to deal with "no shell access" accounts... but you may be in for a long process because there's a lot of files to upload if you have to do them individually.

I've heard good things about this phpshell script (http://mgeisler.net/php-shell/) that allows you to issue shell commands via HTTP so that you can just upload the whole tar file and extract it on the server.

This page (http://azbikelaw.org/computer/webhostphp.html) mentions godaddy specifically so I think that the script should work on godaddy hosting.

Best regards

Steve

[rsp]

I never have any trouble using my ftp with godaddy. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to upload things, but I think it's fast enough. I tried a different angle with Stuffit, and was able to make it work. I have it all untarred now and ready to upload. Before I do, I wonder if you are aware of any reason that your program won't run on an economy godaddy? I checked out the software for this forum, and it said no you can't run this on economy hosting, because it uses Python. Now that I have Dataface unpacked, I see some files called plone, and that made me wonder.

I'm not going to be able to run this if it requires Python or Java or anything cool. I get php and mysql and that is it.

Thank you for your patience.

rsp

[shannah]

1. All you need is PHP/MySQL to run Dataface.
2. It is possible that economy hosts will disable certain functions that Dataface uses. If that is the case, let me know and I can suggest some workarounds.
3. This website does indeed use Plone which requires Zope which requires Python. Although Dataface looks a lot like Plone, it is not related to Plone in any way. I used the Plone stylesheet for the default skin on Dataface because I think it looks nice and it's open source - other than that Dataface is pure PHP/MySQL.

Good luck

-Steve

[rsp]

It installed! I made my database in phpmyadmin, and I am trying to follow the instructions for creating my first application manually. I'm getting errors because I'm not sure how to word the index.php file. Mainly, I'm not sure where to put the file! I originally put the entire Dataface program into a file named for what I wanted to be in the url of my pages, but now I have changed that folder to a new name. Changing its name did not seem to adversely affect the installation, thank goodness. So now I need a folder to put my real pages in, i.e., the ones that will be seen by my visitors, and so I made it completely outside of the Dataface folder. When the index.php file gave me errors, I tried changing the info on lines 2 and 3 to accurately point to the right folder. That didn't work so now I've moved the folder inside the Dataface program folder.

Obviously I don't know what I am doing.

My index.php looks like this:
display();
?>

where df is the name of the folder where I have the whole Dataface loaded.

The errors I get:
Warning: main(/df/dataface-public-api.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/gobbledygook/html/df/NameOfTheFolderIMade/index.php on line 2

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required '/df/dataface-public-api.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/content/gobbledygook/html/df/NameOfTheFolderIMade/index.php on line 2

I just don't know where my new folder needs to be or how to tell the index to find dataface after that.

[rsp]

I guess you can't post code, or I should have removed the php stuff?

require_once '/df/dataface-public-api.php';
df_init(__FILE__, 'http://www.myrealsitename.com/df');
$app =& Dataface_Application::getInstance();
$app->display();

[shannah]

1. Put your new folder anywhere you like. The important thing is the value you put into the require_once call.
Generally I don't put it inside the dataface install folder, because I want to be able to upgrade dataface without affecting the application.

2. require_once should be able to locate the dataface app. Currently you have the wrong path in there. You can either put a relative path here or an absolute path.

e.g. Suppose your paths look like:
/path.to.www/
+------- dataface
+------- your_app
+-------- index.php

I.e. your application folder (named your_app) is in the same directory as your dataface folder. You could do:
require_once '../dataface/dataface-public-api.php';

or you could do
require_once '/home/content/gobbledygook/html/dataface/dataface-public-api.php';

-Steve

[rsp]

That fixed me up! I moved my app out of the dataface folder and used the "../" to get the place right. Everything is in place and I am working through the tutorial. I have many questions, but I wonder if you want me to start a new topic for each one or just keep putting them in this topic. I have so much reading to do before I begin to ask questions I may not be back for several days. Dataface is so powerful and adaptable. I REALLY appreciate it! Thank you, Steve!

rsp

[shannah]

Glad to hear you're liking it.
New questions should be placed in new topics to that it is easier for others to learn from your questions too.

Best regards

Steve