Corrupted Dynamic Albums

Adrian0832 Member
edited March 14 in General support

This is (another) weird one
## Across two domains, three sites and two ZP versions (1.6.2. and 1.6.5) I've had a very occasional (but very annoying!) error. If it helps, all three sites use ZPBootstrap, but the error still occurs if I switch back to "Theme --> Basic"

## I say corrupted dynamic albums, but I have no proof either the file structure or the DB is corrupted. I can't re-create the problem but, just when you think "it's gone", it occurs again...

## The problem can occur with any Dynamic Album, but it's probably easier to describe as "not the first in a static album" and postulate what happens if it is...

Randomly, part of a static album, populated by dynamic albums, will "disappear". The public view shows some (but not all) of the dynamic albums (see above, "not all" can be zero). Admin / Albums shows "some but not all". The public page loses the footer (and the link to "admin" for those logged on) - checking "page source" shows it, literally, finishing one sub-album thumbnail and then... nothing. The Admin / Albums doesn't help, as it stops at the dynamic album before the trouble. So you can't edit, move, or whatever the one which appears to cause the trouble. Logs (both /zenphoto/error and the full Admin/logs/debug page) appear to show nothing

My workaround (so far) has been to FTP to the site, try and identify the album causing the issue - rename (for example) Adrian.alb to Adrian.bak, at which point, more dynamic albums appear. Repeat until we have as much restored as is reasonable. But I then need to tidy the Database...

My assumption is that one particular dynamic album has broken something - ZP tries to build the parent, hits an issue with the thumbnail and (WTH) dies on the spot - hence building a part complete page with no footer or Admin.

Comments

  • acrylian Administrator, Developer
    edited March 13

    The public page loses the footer

    That sounds like a PHP fatal error. If there is nothing in ZP's own log please consult your web host for the php server error_log. The error might be so early that ZP's log doesn't catch it anymore.

    A dynamic album itself is basiscally just a file with a "saved search query". Unless the physical items searched for are removed or the query does not match anymore, e.g. if tags searched are removed, it cannot really be "corrupted" I would think.

    Try to clear and/or disable the search cache on the search options. That is sometimes causing trouble.

    You also could encounter some file/folder permission issues: https://www.zenphoto.org/news/permissions-for-zenphoto-files-and-folders/

  • Cheer Sir - will have a look

  • Clearing the Search Cache (and restoring the renamed files) gets us back to all Dynamic Albums displayed correctly... But leaves me with little to work on to find what happened. Oh well, until next time!

    Thanks (as always) for your assistance.

  • acrylian Administrator, Developer

    We had looked but not really found yet why that happens. I personally tend to just have the search cache disabled (so on our own site).

  • We had looked but not really found yet why that happens. I personally tend to just have the search cache disabled (so on our own site).

    Thanks - I'll do that.

Sign In or Register to comment.