Are you using the newest version of that skin? It's available [url=http://skins.b2evolution.net/index.php/2006/10/03/nifty_blue_1]here[/url].

Yes, I downloaded the newest version just today from this page of b2evolution.

http://skins.b2evolution.net/?blog=6&page=1&paged=3

Since it is on one of the main pages of their site, I can only assume it is the latest version. JIC, could you please send me your link again? It does not work.

Any ideas why the categories do not display?

Can you give a link to your blog so I can take a look? I don't know why the categories wouldn't display. They're showing just fine on the Preview page for that skin. Do you see the categories when you use another skin on your blog?

Thank you for your help. Here is a link to our blog:

http://www.morningblog.com/

Having the same problem, regardless of what skin I use:

www.gherkin-street.com

I tried another skin and my categories still do not display. I have no idea why. I have another blog that has the categories listed and I have done nothing different.

Anyone have an idea how to force the categories to display?

Go to App Settings > Plugins and make sure the categories plugin is installed and enabled. wsshost, you're using 1.8-beta. I recommend that you upgrade to 1.8.2 stable.

Im on 1.8.2 and the plugin is installed and enabled.

blogmaster,
Maybe you have something wrong with your /plugins/_categories.plugin.php file.

Can you redownload b2evolution, unzip and copy that one file up to your webspace, overwriting the old one?

Cheers, Ive done that, unistalled and delted the old file, copied the new one and there is still nothing showing other than the title. Appreciate your help by the way.

Thank you for your help. I will upgrade to the newer version and let you know if this corrects the issue.

Update - I upgraded to the newer version and now the categories display correctly!

Thank you for all your help.

any idea where that leaves me?

Did you try re-copying some of the files from a freshly downloaded zip file? Especially try that with your category plugin php file, but if that doesn't work, do the whole plugins and inc directories. The problem almost has to be in one of those two directories.

Ok, Ive re-copied the entire plugins and inc directories (and contents), re-installed the plugins, then recopied the skins and skins-admin folders .... and the categroies contents still does not display.

Everything else seems to be working just fine. I can post to categories but they just do not display on the blog.

Any other ideas? Is there something simple Im missing (a check box for example)?

Well, this is a mystery. Can you tell us a bit about your server? What is the operating system, server (apache or iis), php version and mysql version? Do you have error reporting turned on? If not, turn it on and maybe a php error will show up where the categories should be.

You are getting a bit technical for me but I'll do my best ..

The server is linux-10 via cPanel version 10.9.0-RELEASE-34

php version is 4.4.2

mysql version is 4.1.21-standard

error reporting is turned on, the only messages are for "file does not exist" in the root directory for these files:

404.shtml
charts.txt
favicon.ico
robots.txt

Cheers for your persistence with me!

Just to make sure that php errors are turned on, create a text file called .htaccess, put it in your blog directory (same level as your index.php) and put this in it:

php_flag display_errors on

Then see if any errors show up where the category should be.

If that doesn't turn anything up, the next thing I would try is to turn on debugging. Edit /conf/_advanced.php and change $debug = 0 to 1 and save. This will print out a bunch of information at the bottom of your page. Once you've done that, paste in a url here and I'll take a look at it.

Hopefully it doesn't come to this, but another option is to go through your category plugin and place

echo "test";

at various parts to see which code is getting executed and where things are going wrong.

You could also create a new directory, download a different version (1.8.1), create a new database and do a fresh install in that test directory to see if you get the same problem. That might tell us whether it's your server or your files.

Ok, I had a .htaccess file there which had nothing in it so I added the code and the website crashed. It just came up with an "internal server error message"

I then put it back the way it was and the website was back unchanged. Presumably I did something wrong?

Ive done the debug thing as suggested and there is a bunch of text at the bootom of my site www.gherkin-street.com

Is that all you need?

Well, I don't see anything in there that would tell me why it's not working:

# get_by_ID(): Instantiate Plugin (ID 9).
# register(): categories_plugin, ID: 9, priority: 100, classfile_path: [/home/gherkin/public_html/gherkin-street-com/plugins/_categories.plugin.php]
# Loading plugin class file: categories_plugin
# Calling categories_plugin(#9)->GetDefaultSettings( array ( ) )
# Calling categories_plugin(#9)->GetDefaultUserSettings( array ( ) )
# Calling categories_plugin(#9)->SkinTag( array ( ) )

So, I guess you can turn debugging back off. If the .htaccess file didn't work, you can ask your web host how you should turn php errors on. You may be able to do it through a php.ini file. Or maybe your host admin will have to do it.

Cheers, I have my web host on the case. Is it possible that the problem is in the database itself?

At this point, I wouldn't rule that out. One good way to test that hypothesis would be to do a fresh install in a test directory. Use a new downloaded zip, a new database, etc.

Well, it just gets muddier, my host did a fresh install and you guessed it, the categories do not display. There is one other difference being the archives tab which is now displaying all archived months rather than just the earlier two.

Any ideas?

Did you ever talk to your host about making sure that php errors were on?

My host has done this:

"created a php.ini file which I have placed in the gherkin-street-com folder.

This has the following code in it:

#Log PHP Errors
log_errors = On
error_log = /home/gherkin/public_html/gherkin-street-com/php-log/phperrors.log
#
#Display Errors in Browser (should be off for production web site)
#may be turned on for troubleshooting)
display_errors = off
display_startup_errors = off
#

You can edit the file to turn display_errors = on if you like. It should be turned off again when you are finished troubleshooting however.

You will find the error log file at public_html/gherkin-street-com/php-log/phperrors.log

I have set the permissions of this to 766 (this should be right, but check with the B2 guys).

Set display_errors to on, then see if any errors show up where the categories should be.

Have set both errors to on, nothing shows up and nothing in the error log ...

I'm really puzzled. If you want to set up a test installation, I can log into your web space and see if I can find out what's going wrong. If you're interested, email or PM me.

Have sent a Pm ...

blogmaster,
I logged in and started tinkering with the category plugin file, trying to find out where it was going wrong. And I noticed two things. First, you're using blog 1, which is the special blog that contains posts from all blogs. If you ever add a second blog, its posts will show up in 1, too. This is not the best way to do it. You could move those posts to another blog and set it to be your default blog in App Settings. Then you can keep blog 1 as it is meant to be: as a special aggregator to see all posts. Again, this is only relevant when you have multiple blogs.

When displaying blog 1, the categories are done a little different. Since you're seeing posts from all blogs, it shows categories from all blogs. But, and this is something I didn't know before today, it leaves out the categories for any blogs that are set to not show up in the blog list. You can change that setting in Blog Settings > General.

You have two choices on how to fix this.

1. Move your posts to another blog and set it as your default. Then the categories will display normally, or

2. Go to Blog Settings > General and check the box next to "Include in blog list."

I recommend #1, but #2 is quicker and easier.

Unbelievable! In the early days I did check and uncheck every box imaginable but that was before the fresh reinstall.

Thank you so much for your help, just fantastic as this blog is an important part of my work (its a long story, but the message is a huge thank you).

I only ever intended to have one blog but it might be smart to move them just in case. Is there an easy way to do this or do I have to cut and paste all 150 articles?

You're welcome. I'm really glad to see this working. I was really puzzled.

Yes, there is a better way to move your posts. I wrote up the instructions and put them in the manual here: [url=http://manual.b2evolution.net/Move_a_category]Move a category[/url].

Super, I'll give that a shot. Thanks again.