Static pages aren't required to view your posts. They are really only useful if you're getting TONS of traffic and want to give your server a break because all you get is a snapshot of the blog's first page. Your new post will show up on top of whichever blog you created the post in, so after posting click the "exit to blog" link on the top right in the admin area then visit the blog you posted in and you'll see your newest entry.

Thanks for you response Edb .

Is this forum monitored by the guy who wrote the software? or someone from the sofware supplier because the manual does not appear to have full information about seting up the software in regard to setting file permissions.

Its obviouse from the number of posts here (unanswered) that many people have the same problem. I have tried to change permission every which way and now am getting errors that say that the permission to read the template are wrong. So I am nowhere with this install.

Even in the admin section on templates (which specifies a different file permission setting than the manual) I get this error:- "
-----
Warning: is_dir(): Stat failed for /usr/local/4admin/apache/vhosts/healtheestuff.com/httpdocs/b2evo/blogs/skins/custom (errno=13 - Permission denied) in /usr/local/4admin/apache/vhosts/healtheestuff.com/httpdocs/b2evo/blogs/admin/b2template.php on line 112

Directory /usr/local/4admin/apache/vhosts/healtheestuff.com/httpdocs/b2evo/blogs/skins/custom not found.
----------

Wouldnt it be nice if someone with some knowledge could do what the person who wrote the manual failed to do and spell out exactly and correctly what the file permissions should be to set the product up. AND if there are situations where it would be different , what they are.

Its been a week of frustration since I tried to set this software up and I am at a stage where I cant get it installed properly. I have never had so much trouble with softeware EVER, I would be happy to buy a properly designed blog sofytware package that can be be installed and run by a reasonable person. (Any suggestions on which that should be would be welome).

Surely the peolpe who offer this software by now realise that even free software when poorly presented is a bad advertisement.

If I have been too harsh here please slap me but please Mr B2evolution have a look in here and anwer some of the posts from time to time

Shane

There is no single person who writes and wrote this program, but Francois is the Head Guy and has been since b2 died and he decided to run with a continuation of it. An evolution of b2. Get it? He used to hit the forums, but not much anymore. Some of the other members of the dev team hit the forums from time to time. Mostly blueyed, but for the most part the dev team develops and the forum junkies forumize. Forumate? Do the forum thing - you know what I mean!

Permissions. I basically upload the stuff from the zip and it all works - I don't have to change permissions to get stuff to happen. Actually I use Fantastico to build me a database then delete all the files and upload the version I want and empty my database and pretend to do a fresh installation, but basically I don't change file perms until I need. You changed permissions here and there to get static pages to work and are now unhappy that the software doesn't work and you blame the software? Hmm... Yeah. Okay.

What version are you running? It helps a LOT to know stuff like that when someone asks questions. It's even better to see a link to a blog, but no worries: I'll assume a 0.9.* version. Every folder should be 755 and every file should be 644, or at least that works for me. Editing the custom skin via the 'templates' tab in the back office is something I've never done but just gave it a go. It told me I can't save my changes because I need my files to be 766, so I did that to the files in that one folder (installpath/skins/custom) and - like magic - it works. I've never done static files either, so I just did. It told me it couldn't edit "all.html" so I figured I better create one in my installations root directory, so I did. It then complained again about not being able to edit it, so I changed it's permissions to 766. Why 766? Because that worked for the files in the templates tab. I suppose something else might have worked but I don't know - just took a stab at 766. BANG - all your problems are solved ON MY SERVER CONFIGURATION! As far as I know different server setups might require different chmoding to get the same thing done. I'm not too hip to server-land so I just go with what works for me. Static files are also useless unless you get /.ed (or something like that). Otherwise they're mostly pointless.

WHICH manual did you not like, and would you like to try to write some stuff for (one of) the manual(s)? The page that you get linked to when you try to generate a static page is a page I never saw before, and I've written content for the manual! "The" manual at the time anyway... We're trying to move all sorts of manual-stuff to a wiki now, but it is purely a volunteer effort. Manuals are tough to write for complex code, and b2evolution is no slouch. How can you know where to start? For example did you read ALL the posts in your installation before you started trying to use the software? The software comes with about 20 sample posts that serve as (get ready...) a manual! The wiki is going to be cool, but we - the people who offered to help write it - have to have the time to do it AND try to make sure we're putting out good solid information. Plus we're also the people who play in the forums.

Sometimes stuff doesn't get answered here. Sometimes it's because no one knows the answer. Other times it's because the question is phrased so poorly that no one understands the question. Other times it's just a matter of the person who could answer it didn't see it. And speaking strictly for myself, other times it's because it's obvious the person asking didn't take even a minute to try to figure it out with a cursory glance through ANY of the information available online. Overall though the vast majority of questions get answered.

Want a piece of free advice? Delete your installation and your database and start over. Take a deep breath, relax, and figure on a bit of a learning curve. Learn what you can from various online sources and don't be too surprised if every answer isn't immediately available in the place you think it should be. Sooner or later answers happen. Most of the time ;)

Quick Guide:
create a file with the name of your static page in the main folder of your installation like: http://yourdomain/blog/static.html (look at the admin rights of blog) and give it the "write" permission for the webserver. Thats it.

Now it has happend EdB ;-)

Abd now, dear akcent, I think after your installation will be done, you'll writing a big manual for us, will you? lol

Well Blow me down. And now you should wack me. Thanks very much the response. You were right. Firstly I went to download again and re-install.
Here I discovered that the version I had (auto installed by my host company) was not the latest and already had patches.

Ok so I downloaded the last stable version and re-installed. I had the same problems with file permission errors, but this time the system gave me error messages in the admin panel with the offending directory/file. Since it started with the higher directories and went down it was easy to know where the problem was and fool with the relevant directory/file settings till it worked. Your detailed response will help a lot of people till you get the setup permissions information corrected. (Its clearly wrong and short of detail)

Anyway thanks to you, :D I have since set it up and even modified the template.
Check it out here => http://www.healtheestuff.com/b2evo/blogs/

akcent wrote:

Here I discovered that the version I had (auto installed by my host company) was not the latest and already had patches.

That happens a lot. The auto-installers don't seem to keep up with the software they're installing, and then it's up to the host to keep up with the auto-installers. Except for the really BIG packages like phpbb. I guess someone has to get after the auto-installer people to say "you're not offering the latest and greatest". Once upon a time there was a forum player who beat on one of the auto-install systems to get the latest b2evolution, but he's gone and b2evo's gone through quite a few revs since then. Such is life eh?

Hey the blog looks good. Blends in with your main page nicely. The blond nurse makes me want to get sick ;) Oh and it's really nice to see you give a linkback to b2evolution despite your problems getting it running. I hope it serves you well, but if you have problems or just want to tweak the hell out of it stop back in here and someone will probably try to hook you up.

So is the Static Page the stub file? Do static pages refer to static post pages? Or the blog itself?

If i create a blog post called "Edgar" I usually see it as:

mySite.com/blog/MainBlog/Edgar

Does static refer to creating a
mySite.com/blog/MainBlog/Edgar.html ?

Everytime I save a blog I see a line at the bottom that says "You May Want to Create Static Pages"

Thanks in advance.