Joomla Access Control not saving

[tso2085]

I have a fairly new install - Joomla 3.1.1 and CiviCRM 4.3.5  and everything seems to be working fine.  Except now when updating the Joomla Access Control in CivCRM, it does not save the changes, and brings me back to the Joomla Global Configuration page  "administrator/index.php?option=com_config".

Anyone seen this behavior before, or have an idea how to get past it and have the Joomla Access Control updates save?

Thanks,
Craig

[lcdweb]

Civi 4.3 was only *barely* compatible with Joomla 3.0.x -- meaning, several of us in the community made an effort over the first few minor version releases within the 4.3.x version to work out the issues and make it compatible. But it didn't get what I would consider a full regiment of testing.

While Joomla 3.1.x only had incremental changes to the 3.x cycle, it's quite possible some of those introduced some problems.

In other words -- Civi 4.3.x is not fully compatible with Joomla 3.1.x. Or at least -- we haven't done the necessary work yet to determine it's compatibility.

If this is important to you, you might consider sponsoring some development work to work out the kinks.

[dwfriederichs]

I'm having this same problem with Joomla 2.5.11 and Civi 4.3.5.  I've posted another thread but haven't seen any responses to it. 

I don't remember this being a problem with the current Civi release from last winter. 

Does anyone have any ideas?

[lcdweb]

if you're using Joomla 3.1, try going to:
System > Global Configuration
Click CiviCRM in the sidebar, and try setting the perms there.

[tso2085]

I have tried using the Joomla Global Configuration, with the same results.  In hopes of providing some clue of what is happening, I will detail as much as possible here.
When I go into the Global Configuration option, I see the first attachment, where CiviCRM is listed as "com_civicrm".
When I click on "com_civicrm", the screen blinks, and "com_civicrm" changes to "CiviCRM" (second attachment).
After about 15 seconds, the default permissions for CiviCRM display.   (All other component config options display almost immediately)
I make a change to one permission, from "inherited" to "allowed", it could be any change, doesn't matter.  See attachment three.
I click on "Save" or "Save and Close".  Whether I click one or the other, after a few seconds, the screen returns to the main Global Configuration screen.  See attachment four.
If I go back into the CiviCRM permissions, nothing changed.
I checked the Joomla "assets" table, where all other component configration info is kept, and there is no entry at all for CiviCRM.  Not sure where the default permissions are being pulled from, but they are not in the "assets" table.

lcdweb, thanks for continuing to work on this!  It is a show stopper.  If there is any further information or tasks I can do to assist, please let me know.

Craig

[lcdweb]

sounds like the asset table is definitely goofed up.

there is an extension for joomla that I've found useful for fixing these types of issues: http://www.aclmanager.net/

it doesn't solve every problem, but usually can identify and rectify asset table problems (in all extensions)

[tso2085]

Success!  Using ACL Manager and deleting some objects in the Joomla assets table fixed the issue with CiviCRM not saving ACL changes.  Basic issue was two objects having the same item id and causing a conflict with the assets table.

Thanks lcdweb for pointing me to ACL Manager, and all of your support with the CiviCRM / Joomla community.

[Donald Lobo]

great and good to hear

curious if the two objects with the same item id were civi related? (I.e. was this a civi triggered bug?)

lobo

[tso2085]

Hi Lobo,

I am not sure.  The two objects were "smart search" and "captcha" articles that were samples with the JoomlArt template I am using.  However, all other extension permission changes worked fine even when the civi permissions would not.  The com_civicrm Joomla id is not near or related to the other duplicate ones.
I had not changed any other extension's permissions or had any indication of the problem before installing civi, so I cannot say that civi caused the problem.

I will try to duplicate the install steps once I have a little time, and will report back.

Craig

[Conga3.com]

I'm having the similar issue to tso2085 had.

Joomla 2.5.14
CiviCRM 4.3.5 and 4.3.7

When I try to SAVE ACL permissions via the Joomla com_config interface, nothing is changed.  The com_config interface kicked me back to the default view.

I even tried ACL Manager diagnosis feature.  Ran the auto fixes in that program and cleared up the known issues, but none were found for com_civicrm.  Also, trying to make changes to com_civicrm through their interface wasn't working.

I dug around in jos_assets in the com_civicrm record and found that my JSON array is incomplete.

Mine looked like this :

{"civicrm.access_civimail_subscribe_unsubscribe_pages":{"1":1},"civicrm.access_all_custom_data":{"1":1},"civicrm.access_uploaded_files":{"1":1},"civicrm.make_online_contributions":{"1":1},"civicrm.profile_listings_and_forms":{"1":1},"civicrm.register_for_events":{"1":1},"civicrm.view_event_info":{"1":1},"civicrm.view_event_participants":{"1":1}}

That's it.  Only 8 items.  And if I go back and try to update one of these...IT WORKS.   

So, the ERROR was because the update script couldn't find the corresponding field in the array.

=====

Anyway, I figure I'll just install a fresh copy of Joomla/CiviCRM quick and copy/paste the JSON array from the new install.

Well... I just did that with the latest versions of J2.5 (2.5.14 ) and CiviCRM (4.3.5) and I find the JSON table is still INCOMPLETE.

{"civicrm.access_civimail_subscribe_unsubscribe_pages":{"1":1},"civicrm.access_all_custom_data":{"1":1},"civicrm.access_uploaded_files":{"1":1},"civicrm.make_online_contributions":{"1":1},"civicrm.profile_listings_and_forms":{"1":1},"civicrm.register_for_events":{"1":1},"civicrm.view_event_info":{"1":1},"civicrm.view_event_participants":{"1":1}}

That's all it is after a fresh install.


--------------

So I went looking for another older CiviCRM install on my server and found one with a complete JSON array that looks like this :

{"core.admin":[],"core.manage":{"6":1},"civicrm.add_contacts":{"6":1},"civicrm.view_all_contacts":{"6":1},"civicrm.edit_all_contacts":{"6":1},"civicrm.delete_contacts":[],"civicrm.access_deleted_contacts":[],"civicrm.import_contacts":[],"civicrm.edit_groups":[],"civicrm.administer_civicrm":[],"civicrm.access_uploaded_files":{"1":1,"2":1},"civicrm.profile_listings_and_forms":{"1":1,"2":1},"civicrm.profile_listings":[],"civicrm.profile_create":[],"civicrm.profile_edit":[],"civicrm.profile_view":[],"civicrm.access_all_custom_data":{"1":1,"2":1},"civicrm.view_all_activities":[],"civicrm.delete_activities":[],"civicrm.access_civicrm":{"6":1,"2":1},"civicrm.access_contact_dashboard":{"6":1},"civicrm.translate_civicrm":[],"civicrm.administer_reserved_groups":[],"civicrm.administer_tagsets":[],"civicrm.administer_reserved_tags":[],"civicrm.administer_dedupe_rules":[],"civicrm.merge_duplicate_contacts":[],"civicrm.view_debug_output":[],"civicrm.view_all_notes":[],"civicrm.access_ajax_api":[],"civicrm.access_contact_reference_fields":[],"civicrm.create_manual_batch":[],"civicrm.edit_own_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.edit_all_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.view_own_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.view_all_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.delete_own_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.delete_all_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.export_own_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.export_all_manual_batches":[],"civicrm.access_civicontribute":{"7":1},"civicrm.edit_contributions":{"7":1},"civicrm.make_online_contributions":{"1":1,"7":1,"2":1},"civicrm.delete_in_civicontribute":{"7":1},"civicrm.access_civimember":{"6":1},"civicrm.edit_memberships":{"6":1},"civicrm.delete_in_civimember":{"6":0},"civicrm.administer_civicampaign":[],"civicrm.manage_campaign":[],"civicrm.reserve_campaign_contacts":[],"civicrm.release_campaign_contacts":[],"civicrm.interview_campaign_contacts":[],"civicrm.gotv_campaign_contacts":[],"civicrm.sign_civicrm_petition":[],"civicrm.access_civipledge":[],"civicrm.edit_pledges":[],"civicrm.delete_in_civipledge":[],"civicrm.access_civimail":[],"civicrm.access_civimail_subscribe_unsubscribe_pages":{"1":1,"2":1},"civicrm.delete_in_civimail":[],"civicrm.view_public_civimail_content":[],"civicrm.access_civireport":[],"civicrm.access_report_criteria":[],"civicrm.administer_reserved_reports":[],"civicrm.administer_reports":[],"civicrm.access_civigrant":[],"civicrm.edit_grants":[],"civicrm.delete_in_civigrant":[],"civicrm.delete_in_civicase":[],"civicrm.administer_civicase":[],"civicrm.access_my_cases_and_activities":[],"civicrm.access_all_cases_and_activities":[],"civicrm.add_cases":[],"civicrm.access_civievent":[],"civicrm.edit_event_participants":[],"civicrm.edit_all_events":[],"civicrm.register_for_events":{"1":1,"2":1},"civicrm.view_event_info":{"1":1,"2":1},"civicrm.view_event_participants":{"1":1,"2":1},"civicrm.delete_in_civievent":[]}

I don't know if this is the default array or if I tinkered with it post-install...but I copy/pasted it and now everything works fine.

=======

I think we might have an INSTALL BUG

and maybe a good reason to have a REBUILD ACL ASSETS function?

Also, is there something that ACL Manager was looking for but couldn't find in order to know the com_civicrm assets were messed up?  I'm not sure how ACL Manager works...

[Donald Lobo]

hey conga3:

can you please investigate a bit more and see if you can identify and trace the bug in the install and/or upgrade functions. If you can help and add a rebuild acl assets function,that would be great. We can help you get started on irc.

We are not joomla experts But would be really good to have a couple more civi <-> joomla developers to help us with integration with joomla and identifying / fixing issues

thanx

lobo

[DamonKirkpatrick]

Another workaround was mentioned here: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,25743.msg127125.html#msg127125

I tried it this morning.  Reduced my Joomla groups from 14 to 10 and the problem "went away".  Not a solution but a workaround at least.

[benmoreassynt]

FYI I am copying the final comment from this thread:
http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,25743.msg127125.html#msg127125

Don't know if it counts as cross posting, but I found this article first when Googling.

Hi, I had the same situation here, so I'm registering what worked for me just in case someone got in trouble.
Taking a look at Apache log, I found that:

[Tue Dec 09 16:37:10.669746 2014] [:error] [pid 21787] [client xx.xx.xx.xx:xxxxx] PHP Warning:  Unknown: Input variables exceeded 1000. To increase the limit change max_input_vars in php.ini. in Unknown on line 0, referer: https://xpto.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_config&view=component&component=com_civicrm

So I found the line that deal with max_input_vars in php.ini, uncommented it and set the value do 2000. That seems to resolve the problem. I think this form is just too long, so PHP can't deal with that using its default.

So the root cause of the issue appears to be the number of CiviCRM permissions put into an HTML form causing problems with PHP installs with a fairly standard max_input_vars value (1000).

FYI - a workaround that will work for most people is to add

Code: [Select]

php_value max_input_vars 2000
to their Joomla .htaccess file. That means you don't have to change php.ini global values for every site on your server.

This seems like a legit bug, no? Worth fixing?