PeopleAggregator FAQ
From PeopleAggregator
[edit] Welcome to the PeopleAggregator Wiki FAQ!
Note that there is another FAQ, which is more like a user guide - it tells you how to do lots and lots of things inside PA. This is the wiki FAQ, where you get to ask your own questions.
If you have questions, edit this page and add them at the bottom, and for the peepagg faq drop us a line so we know to come back and answer them!
Time for the questions...
Q: I am have just installed PA and have made it to the home page. I do not get any response from any of the links. I am trying to register my first user and the page seems to contain no data. This is my first PA installation, so anything to point me in the right direction would be helpful. Thanks
A: To answer my question, in order to successfully install PA on GoDaddy servers:
- For now, the easiest way to get it to install is to go into phpMyAdmin (I think GoDaddy calls it the 'database manager') and change the character set of your database to latin1 (it'll be UTF-8 currently). Then go back and try the install process again. If you get an error about there already being data in the DB, go back into phpMyAdmin and drop all the tables, then try again.*
Q: I'm running RH Linux AS 9 along with XAMPP (an automated installer of PHP, MYSQL, and other software). When I started PA up the first time, it started up without issue. I proceeded to add a user, added a small photo (200 x 280 pixels) and received the following error: Fatal error: Cannot use object of type User as array in /opt/lampp/htdocs/pa/web/includes/application_top.php on line 11. From then on, if I tried to open the main page, I received the same error.
Any ideas?
Q: I'm on a shared server, I've got wildcard DNS set up, and the config program worked fine to set up a multi-network install. However, network pages don't seem to work (no CSS, and all the links go back to the main network rather than the one I'm viewing) - looking at the source of the page I see URLs like http://.example.com/web/homepage.php where it should be http://networkname.example.com/web/homepage.php.
A: Some shared servers don't set the $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] variable, so PA can't figure out what network you're viewing. Create a small file with the following code, and upload it as phpinfo.php:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Then go to http://networkname.example.com/phpinfo.php (or wherever you uploaded the file) and see if you can see if networkname.example.com appears in a server variable somewhere. It might be $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] (this is what it was for tinfinger.com). Once you've found it, put a line in local_config.php like this:
$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] = <whatever server variable contains the server name>;
e.g.
$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
This should make things work normally. (Please send us a note if you have to do this, and let us know where you found your server name in the end -- as hopefully we'll be able to make this automatic someday!)
Q:Are there plans for embeded video clips feature for ie Youtube,Music video ets
Q: When ever anyone uploads a large picture to their profile ie; 1600x1600 pixels the system crashes. Is there something that I have missed ? Shouldn't the program automatically resize the picture that are to big??
Q: I'd like to create a new community that you host on your servers. How do I get started?
A: Create an account on http://peopleaggregator.net/ , then hit the create a network link right up the top of the screen. This will let you create a subdomain (http://yournetwork.peopleaggregator.net/) which is like a fresh copy of PeopleAggregator, just for you.
Q: When I installed PeepAgg, I didn't have wildcard domains configured, so network spawning was turned off. I've set everything up now; how do I turn it on?
A: Edit your local_config.php file. Change the lines that look like this:
$base_url = "http://www.example.com/path/to/peepagg"; $domain_suffix = FALSE;
to look like this:
$base_url = "http://%network_name%.example.com/path/to/peepagg"; $domain_suffix = "example.com";
(replacing example.com/path/to/peepagg with your domain and install path).
Q: I'd like to install this system on my own servers. Where do I go to download the software and get started?
A: Get the code from http://update.peopleaggregator.org/ , and install instructions are on this wiki: Installation guide
Q: I created a network quickly -- without uploading an image or providing a robust description of the network. Now I want to upload an image and revise the description. How do I do this?
A: On the networks tab, we list all the networks that you are a member of. If you are the owner of a network, then a pencil icon appears besides the network name. Click on the icon to edit network settings.
Q: Are the APIs just largely undocumented, or still under development?
A: Both... PA is under continuous development! Note that all the methods mentioned at WSAPI, while undocumented *on the wiki*, are functional.
The best documentation at the moment is the very detailed autogenerated documentation, that describes how to call each method and what all the parameters mean.
Q: What is the licence of the PeopleAggregator code?
A: Proprietary, source available. Anyone can download and use the code for noncommercial purposes. Contact Broadband Mechanics for a commercial license.
Modification of the code (and distribution of modified versions) is allowed, under the same terms (i.e. you can make your own PeepAgg distribution, which noncommercial users can use for free, and commercial users can use if they have a license from BBM).
Q: I tried to install people aggregator, and when I run the install, I dont get anything under "detecting URLs" and I cant do anything else, what did I do wrong?
Q: I have installed Apache, PHP, PHP-DB, PHP-GD, Pear, and MySql however I am still getting the error message "FATAL: PEAR::DB (PHP DB interface) is not installed". When I execute the command "pear list", it shows "DB 1.7.6 stable". What else needs to be setup or installed? (Multiple people have this issue.)
A: If you get that error, it means that the PA installer can't include DB.php. Make sure that DB.php is in your path; try running this script inside the PA directory and make sure that it works:
<?php error_reporting(E_ALL); require "DB.php"; ?>
If that succeeds but the PA installer fails, something is screwed up and please contact us. If it fails, see if you can get the path to include DB.php. An alternate way is to go to http://pear.php.net/package/DB and download the latest package, then copy DB.php and the DB directory into the 'ext' directory in your PA install root.
You may also have a look at the ./web/config/index.php. You will find the line
ini_set("include_path", ini_get("include_path") . ":../../ext");
Alter that to
ini_set("include_path", ini_get("include_path") . ";../../ext;");
// (Changing the ":" to a semicolon ";" and close the line eventually by another semicolon)
Do the same to ./config.inc etc.
Q: What are you supporting in the way of federated identity?
A: Right now you can log in using SXIP, OpenID or Flickr. We'll support Yahoo! BBAuth at some point.
Q: Is it possible to integrate a wiki or another blogging system (Wordpress) to PeepAgg?
A: PeepAgg supports the metaWeblog API, so any blogging client should support it. If you want to cross-post from Wordpress or Movable Type to PA, try installing the Structured Blogging plugin, which lets you use OutputThis to post to remote locations.
For peopleaggregator.net, the XMLRPC URL is: http://peopleaggregator.net/api/xmlrpc
We also support RSD, so you should be able to give your blog URL (e.g. http://www.peopleaggregator.net/user.php?uid=159) to most blogging clients and have your settings autodetected.
If you want to publish in the other direction (from PeepAgg TO your blog), you can use outputthis directly from PeepAgg. Create an account on outputthis.org, then enter your outputthis login and password into your PeepAgg profile, and from then on you will see your outputthis target blogs appearing in the create content screen.
Add your questions here ...
Q: I am getting an error "Invalid media file" when uploading audio and video. I am running (peopleaggregator-1.2pre3-release-40) on a fresh install. What files do I need to edit and what will I need to edit to successfully upload all types of audio and video? Is there an update I need? Thanks in advance...
Q: I tried to install people aggregator, and when I run the install, I dont get anything under "detecting URLs" and I cant do anything else, what did I do wrong? i see that this question was also posted above with no answer. please advise.
Q: Any way to automate the creation of accounts (for authenticated, real partners, not spam)?
Q: Where can I change the path to PEAR?
Q: How can one add friends in 1.1? There is no "make a connection" button as per the instructions elsewhere on this Wiki.
Q: Is it possible to publish wikis as content?
Q: I have installed PeopleAggregator as outlined in the Installation Guide, but all I get when I browse to that location is a blank page. What am I doing wrong?
Q: If I can't scrape from a Myspace type SNS, I want users of my network to be able to link to their established SNS profiles in a meaningful way - as a Widget, for instance, integrating into the existing site's functions. How can I learn more about doing this?
Q: The local_config.php file is not being created.
Q: After installing and browsing the system as a network operator I found no tools to combat spam. Like in every open system sooner or later spambots and spammers will come in and render the network useless by flooding it with useless and offensive rubbish. The only remark I found in the faq was the item on "someone is bugging me" but that referred to the network operator. Maybe I have overlooked something very obvious, but can you tell me how the network operator can deal with spam and unwanted contributions / network creations in general?
Q: When I run the PA install, I am getting error message under "detecting URLs". The error message is "Trying to download http://xyz.com/peopleaggregator.txt ... bad status: 404 FATAL: Unable to guess base URL - I think it should be http://xyz.com/ but that URL does not seem to work." However, when I open http://xyz.com/peopleaggregator.txt from browser, I can open the peopleaggregator.txt file. Please help.
Q: Are you guys developing a wiki plugin for this (instead of just blogs), or should I do it? If I do, I don't want to duplicate your efforts...
A: Not at this point - feel free to develop one!
Q: I have installed PA and all goes well until I login to admin and get this error Notice: Undefined variable: content_id in /home/.noe/fuss/n3rdism.com/people/api/Content/Content.php on line 900. I am currently runing PA in the test folder to see if will mmet my needs. Any help greatly appreciated.
Q: How about other languages support? When I write on Russian, PA don`t show anything - all is filtered. Where can I see?
A: This will be fixed in v1.2. v1.1's input sanitization unfortunately munged everything to ISO-8859-1, so any non-English characters were destroyed. Check out http://peepagg.net/ to see the current capabilities. We are starting to mark up strings so that it will be possible to translate PA into other languages. The test language is Japanese, which should work out any UTF-8 issues!
Q: Is it possible to use PA by mobile phone?
Q: Was able to install PA, but now when I create a new user or try to login, it gives the following error: Cannot use object of type User as array in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\pa\web\includes\page.php on line 72 Any ideas?
Q. I have the same problem as a couple of other people above: "When I run the PA install, I am getting error message under "detecting URLs". The error message is "Trying to download http://xyz.com/peopleaggregator.txt ... bad status: 404 FATAL: Unable to guess base URL - I think it should be http://xyz.com/ but that URL does not seem to work." I'm self hosting on a non-standard port (8001) - is that the problem ? I can access the peopleaggregator.txt file directly if I enter its URL in the browser but the installation file isn't returning the port no. as part of the URL so it fails.
A. This is fixed in the development code (as of 30 Apr 2006) and will be in the next release (1.2pre4, going out fairly soon). To fix it, change SERVER_NAME to HTTP_HOST in the web/config/common.php and try again.
Q: I get this error when trying to reach the Administration page:
Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'PAException' with message 'The $login_required variable must be set before include()ing page.php!' in /home/.porridge/raheim/example.com/people/web/includes/page.php:27 Stack trace: #0 /home/.porridge/raheim/example.com/people/web/uihelper.php(8): require_once() #1 /home/.porridge/raheim/example.com/people/web/Administration/Includes/contentHome.php(5): require_once('/home/.porridge...') #2 X
Q: What administrative capabilities (if any) are available in PA right now? I installed 1.2pre3, but couldn't find any admin capabilities. pa/web/Administrator page only shows a table of text captions coming from _configurable_text_ table. Nothing shows up under the 'All Content' tab. Any insight would be appreciated.
A: Sorry, the Administrator directory is a red herring! The real administration pages are available at the end of the 'Configure' link at the top of the screen (in the orange bar). If you don't see that link, you're not the administrator - you have to be logged in as the first user created after installing the system.
Q: Is there an issue tracker somewhere for PA? --Stephen Polyak 17:15, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
