Can't change theme or Site name only page contents and site settings

mot

I have just installed Automad to my web server using the manual installation. However I can not cannot change the active theme, every time I change it and reload it goes back to the default one. Also editing the site title doesn't change it. The only thing that I can change are the contents of the pages and the site setting/configuration. What have I done wrong?

mad

mot Hi there! Is there any error message showing up? And what type of server do you use. Sounds like a permission issue.

mot

Hi thanks for your quick reply. I do receive some errors in the console.

This is what I am doing to receive the

POST http://website/dashboard?ajax=shared_data 404 libs.min.js?v=1.5.4:4 (Not Found)

mad

mot Ah, ok. Did you use FileZilla or similar to move the site to a hosting service? That program is famous for corrupting minified JS files when using the wrong transfer settings. It seems that this is the case here. At least the console states that the highlighted JS file is corrupted. I really recommend using a proper program to transfer a site. However, I case you use FileZilla, make sure you transfer all files in binary mode.

mot

Oh right, I used Transmit on a Mac. I'll try a different program and report back.

mot

I uploaded that JS file this time with Cyberduck however the issue persists. I seem to be able to access that URL in my browser but the console seems to see 404.

I found some Stackoverflow posts on this not sure if they are relevant:
One, two.

mad

mot Hey, Cyberduck is a very good choice. Did you clear the browser cache after the transfer? Those files can be really sticky.

And the second screenshot seems to be another issue, right? What kind of server do you use? Is URL rewriting working? It should be, since you can use the dashboard. 🤔

mot

I actually think its the same error. I believe the window resizing caused it to look different in the first screen shot. I used a completely different browser based on Chrome without any extensions installed another time and still had the same error. When the console tried to access
https://taheri.me/dashboard?ajax=shared_data
it sees the Automad 404 page but when I access it via any browser I see the JS.
I am on a linux machine with shared hosting. And I checked the htaccess file and it is the same one you have in the zip. I uploaded it more than once. Is it something about the xhr request and how that is redirected to the 404 page?
Stackoverflow seems to suggest there is a difference between browser requests and ones done in the console that lead to the different results

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33554810/c-sharp-httpclient-sendasync-always-returns-404-but-url-works-in-browser
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47120842/404-status-on-xmlhttp-with-vba-but-the-url-is-opening-in-browser

I've screen shot the headers from the request:

Thanks again for your help!

mad

mot Ok, I see. We had that issue already before. The Ajax request doesn‘t return anything useful. I'm pretty sure it is the corrupted JS file. Does the console still shows that JS error? Just to verify, in case you install it directly on your shared hosting server — if that‘s possible — the error should disappear. Or could you try to upload as a zip file and unzip it there?

However, before all those other things, please try to change the transfer mode in Transmit to binary for all file types and upload it again. That will probably fix it!

mot

I tried uploading everything again in binary mode (Transmit was already set to binary btw). I have also tried unzipping it directly in CPanel. Neither fixed the 404 error. I think the JS is receiving the 404 html page as a response instead of a JSON formatted file and that is why it is receiving the error. For some reason the URL request receives a JSON response in a browser but when using POST inside the console it is redirected to the Automad 404 html page:

This is the line the JS error happens on

This is the network response, the 404 from the POST

This is what the browser sees (from the same URL that causes a 404 on POST) when I am logged in

Would it be easier if you just logged in?
I created a user account for you with the same user name as you have here and the password is:
password123

Thanks so much for your help, looking forward to finally using Automad it looks great!

mad

mot Hey, thanks for digging into this! Really appreciated! I will take a closer look at it and try to reproduce it later.

mot

Thank you I hope we can figure this out!

mad

mot Me too!

mot

Not sure if this post is relevant but i'll include it here just in case:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18365315/jquerys-jquery-1-10-2-min-map-is-triggering-a-404-not-found

mot

Hi Marc were you able to login to my site to try it out? 🙂

mad

mot Hi there, yes I was just taking a look at it. I can confirm your observation and you‘re right that the file isn‘t corrupted. However I still try to reproduce it in another environment without success so far. I will try to find a fix in the next days. I hope that‘s ok for you!

mot

Thats great thanks! I'm not sure what is going on here. I've tried two different domains, on the same virtual host, one in a sub domain and one in a root. Same outcome. So I know it's not specific to this installation but could be related to my virtual host. I have to say I have been with them over 10 years and I haven't had any odd issues like this before.
From the error I feel like it's something to do with how the POST XHR request is being handled; for some reason its being redirected to the internal 404 page. Now this only happens on the POST request not a normal http request. So it must be either how the POST request is being handled by the CMS code or maybe it's being manipulated by the .htaccess file. I wonder if it could due with the version of PHP I am on (7.3)? I have tried different browsers so I know its not browser related. I don't understand why its only happening in my case though, and why you can not recreate it. One thing I can recreate, is the 404 page as you can see in my screenshot, every time I reinitiate the POST request I hit the internal 404 page. Thanks again for your help! btw the way I am installing using the manual method not using Composure. Thanks so much for your help!

mad

mot I just noticed that your server uses the mod_bwlimited module. As far as I know that‘s only used by cPanel. I can imagine that there is some kind of response limit and therefore the request returns a 404. That would also explain why I can‘t reproduce it anywhere else.

mot

mad thanks for having a look. Having a quick search shows that mod_bwlimited module is for denying requests after the bandwidth has been exceeded. But I have unlimited bandwidth on my package. And other pages on the website load regardless, so bandwidth is being served still. I think this 404 may be a redirection of some kind, or how the request is handled?
This page talks about mod_bwlimited:
https://forums.cpanel.net/threads/mod_bwlimited.5258/

mad

mot Just found out that it is a JSON encoding issue. I removed the SVG logo for the brand variable and now it woks fine. Apparently any kind of HTML markup on your site breaks the UI. I will take a closer look at it later but for now it works at least.