I’m trying to create a customized member list page by making use of the existing member information in the control panel.

Is there a tag I can use to list all the members, and only certain fields?

Answer:

You can do this by using the query module and this code:

If you get an error message after upgrading your version of EE, it is caused by the use of double quotes inside the query string. Fixed in example above.

Category:Members Category:Templates Category:Queries

Category:EE1

There seem to be two methods to create a standalone member registration form. The original method relies on duplicating the HTML markup of the registration form and the alternate method relies on calling the native ExpressionEngine module to build the registration form code.

Method One

This updates the EE1 Standalone Registration Form Wiki entry and describes how to create a registration form inside one of your templates (rather than pointing the user to the standard registration template).

There are two ways to retrieve the action ID of the member registration module. You may either place some PHP directly in your EE templates, or you can rely on a module such as VWM Get Action. Embeding PHP in a template requires that you put this code at the top of your template:

Remember to enable PHP in the template, and set processing to input.  We will use this id number in a hidden field in the registration form.

You can put the form itself anywhere in your template. The following code was taken from the registration form in the Default Member Profile Templates group (which you can find under Design->Themes->Member Profile Templates->Default), so you will see CSS classes that refer back to the Member Profile Templates stylesheet. You can, of course, copy these classes to your own stylesheet and change them to match your look.

Method Two

Using the the alternate method you would simply place the following code in your EE template:

Once you visit this page, however, you will notice that only some of the language text has been replaced. If you take a look at the registration_form method inside system\expressionengine\modules\member\mod.member_register.php you can see that only a handful of language lines are getting processed here.

However, you can still manually update all the markup and language text for this registration template. In the EE control panel go to Design > Themes > Member Profile Templates > Registration Form. Here you can edit all the markup for this form.

Method Three

Use AJAX Registration add-on. This plugin allows you to display member registration form and forgot password form in ExpressionEngine’s templates and submit them without reloading of the page.

Category:EE2

This guide will be updated as upgrade issues emerge.

IMPORTANT: Since it’s generally best practice and one of the first steps noted in the User Guide’s upgrade instructions, this guide assumes that you have a usable backup of your EE file system and database that was captured before any upgrade was attempted AND a backup of your config.php file from before the upgrade. If you do not, it may be extremely difficult to get your installation back in working order. That sort of thing will generally necessitate hiring a contractor to work privately with you to salvage your ExpressionEngine installation.

Table of Contents

• Server Requirements
• Retrying After a Failed Upgrade
• Error: “The update script failed without returning an error. Please contact tech-support.”
• MySQL Errors in the Upgrade Wizard
• MySQL Error: “Multiple primary key defined”
• MySQL Error: “Table ‘exp_********’ already exists”
• Customizations to the config.php file
• Large number of Banned IPs

Server Requirements

Does your server meet the minimum requirements to run ExpressionEngine? Even if your server successfully runs an older version of ExpressionEngine, requirements may have changed in more recent versions. It’s always a good idea to run the Server Wizard to ensure that your server is ready to run the current version of ExpressionEngine.

Retrying After a Failed Upgrade

ExpressionEngine’s Upgrade Wizard changes the structure of the database by adding and removing tables, columns, and keys. If an upgrade attempt fails, those database changes are still present in the database. After a failed upgrade, you may have restored your database and gotten ExpressionEngine working again at the version from which you were originally trying to upgrade, only to become doubly frustrated when a second attempt at an upgrade failed again with even more errors. Here’s what’s happening:

If you restore your database using a database dump (backup file) without first wiping your database clean, the elements that were removed during the failed upgrade will be restored by the backup. Those elements that were added by the failed upgrade, however, will still be part of the database. The version of ExpressionEngine that was your starting point before the upgrade will likely work without any errors because it’s completely blind to those new database elements. It just ignores them. A second attempt to upgrade ExpressionEngine, however, will result in failure when the Upgrade Wizard tries to add those new elements to the database again.

So before you attempt another upgrade, completely wipe your existing database clean. If it’s possible, delete the database itself and create a new, empty database. Then restore your database from backup, and try the upgrade again.

You will also want to be sure to restore you backup copy of the config.php file- this file tells the updater what version you are currently running, and only updates after that version will be applied.  If you roll your database back but use a config.php file from halfway through a multi-version upgrade, you can end up with upgrade steps being skipped and an incomplete upgrade.

Error: “The update script failed without returning an error. Please contact tech-support.”

If you receive this error, the Upgrade Wizard likely had problems contacting the server during an AJAX request. Try turning off JavaScript in your browser and performing the upgrade again. As always, please be aware of the steps you should take any time you retry after a failed upgrade.

MySQL Errors in the Upgrade Wizard

In general, MySQL errors in the Upgrade Wizard are thrown because the Upgrade Wizard is trying to add an element to the database that is already there or alter some element that isn’t there. This typically happens due to one of a few reasons:

1) Retrying the Upgrade. You’re trying to upgrade an installation again after a failed upgrade attempt. This typically leaves artifacts in the database that will cause further upgrade errors, so please take these steps before retrying after a failed upgrade attempt.
2) Third-Party Modifications. Either an in-house developer or a third-party add-on added the offending elements to your database. Those offending tables, columns, or keys will need to be manually removed from your database before trying your upgrade again.
3) Multiple Browser Requests. In some rare cases, we’ve seen Firefox send multiple AJAX request to the server while the Upgrade Wizard is running, causing the Upgrade Wizard to run portions of the upgrade script twice and presenting an error the second time it tries to add an element to the database. Try the upgrade again using either Safari or Chrome.

With the information you’ve learned about the reasons for database errors in general, try reading the specific error you’re receiving and determine its cause. Is it related to something not being there that should? Or something missing that should be present? Try to hunt down the problem itself. Some hints concerning MySQL errors are below…

MySQL Error: “Multiple primary key defined”

This error means that the Upgrade Wizard tried to add a primary key to the ExpressionEngine database, but that key was already defined. According to the EE database schema of the EE version from which you were upgrading, that primary key wasn’t supposed to be there. How could this be happening?

MySQL Error: “Table ‘exp_********’ already exists”

This error means that the Upgrade Wizard tried to add a table to the ExpressionEngine database, but that table was already present. According to the EE database schema of the EE version from which you were upgrading, that table wasn’t supposed to be there. How could this be happening?

Customizations to the config.php file

In some cases, we’ve seen problems arise during upgrades when the config.php file has some out-of-the-ordinary config variables included. For example, in one case, the following config variable caused some issues and had to be removed from the config.php file before the upgrade could be performed without error.

To troubleshoot this, check your config.php file, and temporarily remove any config variables that utilize any format other than the following:

Large number of Banned IPs

We’ve seen a few cases where a large number of banned IP addresses in the database can cause the Upgrade Wizard to choke. It’s not an elegant solution, but a stop-gap solution involves removing the banned IPs from the database temporarily, running the Upgrade Wizard, and restoring the banned IPs to the database.

Category:EE1
Category:EE2
Category:Upgrading
Category:MySQL Errors

In what order does EE parse a template?

Answer:

for EE 2.x see http://loweblog.com/downloads/ee-parse-order.pdf

(>= v 1.5.2)

» Return Static Template
» Replace deprecated “not_logged_in” variables (now logged_in / logged_out)
» URI Segment variables {segment_x}
» {embed:foo} variable tags (sub-templates only)
» path.php Global Variables
» Parse Date Formatting “Constants”
» Parse {current_time} variables
» Retrieve Cached Template
  → Retrieve Advanced Conditionals
  → Return completed template
» PHP (Input Stage)
» Conditionals (non-advanced)
  → URI Segment conditionals
  → Embedded variable conditionals
  → Global Conditionals
» Dynamically Assigned Global Variables {assign_variable:foo=“bar”}
» Main Parsing - Process all {exp:...} tags in order encountered.
» PHP (Output Stage)
» Write new cache file
» Uncacheable Forms
  → Comment Forms
  → Stand-Alone Entry Forms
  → Trackback Hashes
» Advanced Conditionals
» Process sub-templates {embed=template_group/template_name}
» Standard and User-Defined Global Variables (including path and stylesheet)
» Return completed template

Note: {redirect=} tags are “parsed” as part of main parsing, but the actual redirection doesn’t happen until the final step when the template is returned. So that means that all embedded templates and all conditionals get parsed before redirection actually happens.

Category:Templates

Category:EE1

I was upgrading EE and I accidentally overwrote the config.php file. How can I recover?

Answer:

You should always make sure you backup your config.php and path.php files before upgrading - as is clearly stated in the documentation. However, if you haven’t, here are some sample config.php files for various versions of EE to get you started.

Config.php for v1.5.1

You will need to customize the sample files so that they are applicable for your installation. In particular, make sure you update all the preferences that have “****” to reflect the correct values for your site. You’ll also probably want to go through the Control Panel and make sure the settings are the way you want.

In addition, there is now a configuration check utility that will check your existing config.php file against the current variables and return a list of missing settings as well as depreciated settings.  Simply download, unzip, upload config_check.php to your system folder- then open it in the browser (mysite.com/system/config_check.php), select a version to compare to, then edit your existing config.php to incorporate the changes.  Be certain to edit your version number if it needs updating.

File:config-check.zip

Note- some modules (such as the simple commerce module) may add additional variables not covered.  This version is current as of EE 1.5.1.  This is not an official EE product- use at your own risk.

Category:Troubleshooting Category:Upgrading

Category:EE1

The exp_relationships Table
The exp_relationships table holds the bulk of the data required to establish relationships between channels. In addition to an exp_relationships record, a relationship also requires that one field be set in the exp_channel_data record of the parent entry.

The structure of the exp_relationships table is as follows.

rel_id: a unique id for the relationship record (this is auto-generated by MySQL)
rel_parent_id: the entry_id for the parent record
rel_child_id: the entry_id for the related child record
rel_type: the type of relationship (i.e. “blog”)
rel_data: auto-generated cache data to speed up regular relationship page builds
reverse_rel_data: similar cache data for reverse relationship pages

Manually Creating a Relationship
To establish a channel or section relationship, only the first FOUR fields must be populated. EE generates the cached data as required.

In addition, the parent’s exp_channel_data record must be set to contain the rel_id value of the exp_relationships record. This value is set in the field_id_### field that corresponds to the parent channel’s relationship field.

Relationships Example
On a magazine site, two distinct channels hold articles and authors. A relationship field (“author”) is added to the article channel to point to the corresponding author record. This relationship field is field_id_23.

The article “The New iBlender” (articles channel, entry_id 332) was written by Ken Mac (authors channel, entry_id 75).

In this example, the final relationship is established by the following field data:

<u>exp_relationships</u>
rel_id: 783 (auto-generated)
rel_parent_id: 332 (article record entry_id)
rel_child_id: 75 (author record entry_id)
rel_type: “blog”

<u>exp_channel_data</u> (for parent entry_id 332, in the article channel’s “author” field)
field_id_23: 783 (rel_id value from exp_relationships)

Category:Database

Category:EE1

1. Utilize EE’s built-in spam protection features.

EE provides out-of-the-box support for Blacklists/Whitelists, CAPTCHAs, interval filtering, rank denial, denying duplicate data, and secure form submissions. You should make sure you are using these features to their full potential.

EE1 docs: Spam Protection
EE2 docs: Spam Protection

2. Disable member registration if you aren’t using it.

If you do not use member registration on your site, you should disable it altogether.

This is accomplished by disabling the Allow New Member Registrations? setting in the Membership Preferences.

EE1 docs: Membership Preferences
EE2 docs: Membership Preferences

3. Disable public access to profile pages.

You can stop your member and member list pages from being indexed by turning off the Guest Member Group’s ability to view Public Profiles.

This is accomplished by editing the Can view public profiles setting in the Member Account Privileges section of the member group settings.

EE1 docs: Member Groups - Create/Edit
EE2 docs: Member Groups - Create/Edit

4. Change the default member-page trigger word.

Changing the Member Profile Trigger Word can hinder spammers that are using automated tools to look for example.com/index.php/member/register.

This is accomplished by editing the Member Profile Trigger Word setting in the Membership Preferences.

Note: The effectiveness of changing the Member Profile Trigger Word is decreasing as spammers concoct more advanced methods for sniffing out specific CMS systems, and changing the URL for member functions may make the user experience less intuitive.

EE1 docs: Membership Preferences
EE2 docs: Membership Preferences

5. Remove the ExpressionEngine footprint from your profile themes.

Probably the most common way for spammers to find your site is to search for tell-tale footprints of the CMS. The default profile theme includes a copyright line in the footer that makes EE-powered sites easy to find:

(A simple Google search easily produces a list of pages with this code.)

You can make it harder for spammers to find your site by removing these lines from the theme pages.

The default member profile theme is located in the /themes/profile_themes/default directory. Copyright lines can be found in two files: copyright.html and html_footer.html

6. Replace EE’s CAPTCHA with something stronger.

A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. Common instantiations of CAPTCHAs are the colorful images with distorted text found at the bottom of Web registration forms. Websites use CAPTCHA tests to prevent abuse from “bots” (automated programs usually written to generate spam). No computer program can read distorted text as well as humans can, so bots cannot navigate sites protected by CAPTCHAs.

ExpressionEngine has built-in CAPTCHA test images, but because EE is so popular, the default CAPTCHA images are well-known and easy to break.

There are several popular options for replacing the default CAPTCHA with a strong variant:

reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA is a Google-powered CAPTCHA system that provides a nearly endless supply of unique CAPTCHA tests:

EE1 extension: Jaspaul Aggarwal’s JA-reCAPTCHA
EE2 extension: Brandon Jones’s reCAPTCHA

kCAPTCHA

kCAPTCHA is a script which outputs CAPTCHA images very usable for humans but hard to decipher for spambots. Images produced by kCAPTCHA are as strong as those produced by reCAPTCHA but can be much more easily understood by humans.

EE1/EE2 extension: AJAX Captcha is kCAPTCHA implementation capable using AJAX for refreshing and validation.

Custom question/answer pairs

In lieu of distorted words and graphics, you can replace the default CAPTCHA tests with simple question/answer pairs that you provide:

EE1/EE2 extension: Accessible Captcha, by Greg Salt (a.k.a. Purple Dogfish)

7. Validate registrations with registration/invitation codes.

If it is feasible to communicate a code or phrase to legitimate users, you can restrict registrations on your site to only users with valid registration/invitation codes:

EE2 extension: RogEE Registration Codes

Solspace User Module: Invitation Key Feature

8. Fight SPAM site-wide, not just for member registrations!

ExpressionEngine’s member registration hooks allow addons to utilize services such as Defensio and Akismet.

A plethora of anti-spam add-ons are available:

EE1/EE2 anti-spam addons: “Anti-spam” add-ons at Devot:ee

9. More resources and discussion

Member Profile AntiSpam is EE1.x extension which displays a panel containing list of suspected profile spammers in Control Panel’s home page and simplifies their banning.

Purple Dogfish’s Member Utilities is useful for fighting registration spam in EE1x.

This episode of the EE Podcast discusses registration spam.

This checklist was born as a forum discussion in response to Lisa’s blog post, “Fighting Registration Spam.”

...
Category:Spam
Category:Spam -> Registration spam
Category:Security
Category:EE1
Category:EE2

Note: You’ll need to put your own text or variable where I have put capital letters. I have added a couple things to the feed:
- atom:link (this makes it valid to W3C)
- status=”” within the rss tag at the top (many people reporting issues with RSS and this seems to help)
Category:EE2

By and large these will work by helping you get your information into MT format for importing.

Table of Contents

• Random
• Blogger
• Textpattern
• Wordpress
• Serendipity (s9y)
• SMF - SimpleMachines Forum
• LiveJournal
• PHPBB
• Postnuke

Random

* If you have your entries in RSS/ATOM feeds, CSV files or XML files check out DataGrab
* If you have your entries in RSS format, check out this RSS to MT Format thingo.

* If you have your entries in CSV format, check out Plugin: CSV Grab

MovableType is not included as it has an export feature built-in. Details on MT Import format.

Blogger

* Google Blog Converter has a python script that will convert Blogger XML to MovableType Import Format.

* Importing Blogger into Expression Engine (And see also MT steps)

Textpattern

* Export via template *This is a broken link
* txp to MT format (txp support forum thread <—broken link)

Wordpress

* Google Blog Converter has a python script that will convert WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) to MovableType Import Format. (Currently, you have to go through Blogger format.)

* MT Export theme Blogging Expertise has a theme package that displays Wordpress content in MT Export format. It may require some tweaking to work with newer versions, but it’s easier to tweak this than an export script.

* Wordpress to EE export process David Russell describes how he moved content from Wordpress to Expression Engine (from July 2008).

* WordPress To Movable Type Export Script 1.2 Note that this script was written for Wordpress 2.1 and may not be compatible with later versions.
* Wordpress Exporter This script was last updated in 2005 and should not be used unless you have a very old version of Wordpress.

Serendipity (s9y)

* Serendipity to Movable Type export - use this to export your blogposts, categories and comments to a MT textfile which EE can import. Forum user “bjornbjorn” used this successfully to convert his blog (s9y 1.1 to EE 1.6.0)

SMF - SimpleMachines Forum

* Converting from SMF to ExpressionEngine Forum

Note The SMF import utility leaves problems with the database.  The member tables are not updated properly and this could lead to unusual outcomes.

LiveJournal

* Google Blog Converter has a python script that will convert a LiveJournal export to MovableType Import Format. (Currently, you have to go through Blogger format.)

PHPBB

* PHPBB Import

Postnuke

* PostNuke Conversion

Category:Import

Category:EE1