[Axel]

Hi Steven,

I use a Localhost MAMP installation to do the development on my WordPress site in combination with the addon Duplicator to make a backup and restore on my live site.

A while back I ran into a problem with Duplicator which gave error messages on missing Primary Keys. I went back to an older backup and did some tests to backup / restore and things went fine. Thinking it was a glitch I continued working on my site.

Recently I continue to run into these problems. I cannot figure out where the problem comes from. I have a working version on my Localhost but cannot restore it to my live site. I am able to restore it on my Localhost but not on my live site.

I also tried to make an export of all Connections tables on my Localhost with phpMyAdmin and restore them to my live site. I get no error messages, but the end result is the same. I see all connections but for some of the connections all other info is missing.

I have no clue what to do next. Unfortunately Connections does not have an export / import functionality, so I am stuck. I tried to figure out the referential integrity of the tables, but see nothing wrong there. Tried to figure out if I miss any Primary Keys, but also see nothing wrong there.

Please help?

[Axel]

Oh I also did the repair actions in phpMyAdmin. Also did not work :(

[Steven Zahm]

@ Axel

re: Import.
I use both those methods and well as using BackupBuddy quite regularly. My best guess is you need to drop the existing connections tables in the destination db before you import the tables from the source db.

re: Unfortunately Connections does not have an export / import functionality, so I am stuck.
Connections does not need such a feature because plugins like BackupBuddy and Duplicator that can transfer site’s data. It would just add to the plugins bulk. It is also better to rely on an import/export that has been put through their paces, such as those plugins. If it were to be built-in, it would use the same process as those plugins and phpMyAdmin. So in this instance it would not help because the same error would occur.

Hope that helps! Let me know how it goes.

[Axel]

Hi Steven,
Unfortunately that does not work either.

I dropped all wp_connections* tables on my live site.

I use the following settings (see screenshots):

On my Localhost everything is fine (example screenshot):

When importing directly the SQL via phpMyAdmin I never get error messages. When I use Duplicator, I do see error messages on missing indexes. The result is like this:

I have used Duplicator for a very long time now, and never had any problems. The first time I got this error I thought it was a glitch and used an older backup. The error now occurs very frequently. I cannot put my site online anymore (complete that is).

It does not seem to be related to Duplicator because I have the same end result with a direct SQL import. I have no clue what to do next.

If you need access to my site, I can give you full access. If you need money to fix this, please let me know. I am kinda desperate right now. We spent many many days manually checking all entries and typing them over in Connections.

Thanks in advance!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Axel

Can you do a fresh export phpMyAdmin?

• View the Structure.
• Select all wp_connections* tables.
• Scroll to the bottom.
• In the With Selected drop down, select Export.
• Do a Quick export in the SQL format.

Can you also attach a screenshot showing just the wp_connections* tables from your localhost?

Could I get a temp admin WP account and access to the production server phpMyAdmin? Login details can be sent via the contact link at the bottom of the page. Please paste a link to this forum thread so I can relate the login to this thread.

Thanks!

[Axel]

Hi Steven,
I’ve sent all login information to you via the contact form. I also created a directory with a complete Duplicator file, the requested SQL dump and screenshot.

Feel free to do anything with that directory. The site is not live yet. Hopefully you can find the issue at hand.

Many many thanks in advance!
Cheers, Axel

[Steven Zahm]

@ Axel

The issue might be the PHP version difference on your localhost compared to the production server.

The entry data cache seems to be fine but the unserialize() function on the production server says there’s an error.

I installed the Code Snippets and Query Monitor plugins.

I added a new code snippet which disables the use of the cached entry data and everything loads fine.

If you want to see the error being generated, deactivate the Disable Connections Cache snippet and then visit the Connections : Manage admin page.

After the Connections admin bar menu item, there is a new menu item added by Query Monitor. When you click this you’ll see PHP Notices. Clicking that you will see all the error when trying to unserialize() the cache data.

So, I guess just leave the code snippet active…

Hope that helps!

[Axel]

Hi Steven!
Many many many thanks! My skills are way too limited to have found the root cause of this issue. Even if in some scenario I would have found the issue, I would have never been able to find a solution.

I’ve read your reply a couple of times and understand only a little bit about the issue and what you did.

Please correct me if I understand wrong:

Your code snippet enables loading the SQL with all Connections data via myPHPadmin? I don’t really understand how that can be done, but as long as it works ;)

If this is the case, I can disable the two plugins you installed? When I want to do an update of the site, I have to do an SQL dump of the production data. Upload the new site via Duplicator. Enable the plugin / snippet. Import the SQL?

Sorry for my too limited knowledge. I used to program old school programming languages, but this is beyond me.

Is this something I should report to the creators of Duplicator? Or is this something more related to Connections?

Thanks in advance! (again!)

[Steven Zahm]

@ Axel

re: Your code snippet enables loading the SQL with all Connections data via myPHPadmin?
No, let me try to explain further…

When an entry is added to Connections with addresses, phone, links, dates and such, that data is save to their respective tables. It is also saved serialized data in the main wp_connections table. This is done to keep db queries to a minimum when view entries. The data in the tables is only used when searching, custom ordering and editing.

This serialized data seems to be “corrupted” when being exported from the source db. This could be simply do to PHP version differences between the source and destination. I use “corrupted” in quotes because it seems fine and I can unserialize it without errors but on your production site, it gives errors which causes the data not to be displayed.

The code snippet I added using the Code Snippet plugin basically disables the use of the serialized cache data in the main wp_connections table. It uses the actual data from the other tables instead.

This will results in more db queries on the directory page but this is the only working solution I can come up with.

re: If this is the case, I can disable the two plugins you installed?
No, you will need to continue to use the Code Snippets plugin with that snippet in order for the viewing of the Connections entry data to be complete for the reasons I previously explained.

You can uninstall the Query Monitor plugin, but if I may, I do suggest leaving it installed, but deactivated. If you run into trouble, activate it as it can be a huge asset in trying to trace issues in WordPress and plugins.

Is this something I should report to the creators of Duplicator? Or is this something more related to Connections?
No, I think both plugins are fine … even though I am not quite sure what exactly the error you are receiving in Duplicator is and why.

I hope the better/more thoroughly explains it!

[Axel]

Hi Steven,
Excellent explanation :) I couldn’t position the snippet. I now understand what goes wrong how it is fixed. For my little Connections database it shouldn’t be a problem. Performance is so far more than ok.

I will give a yell when everything is (finally) up and running. Still have to do some polishing on the WordPress end and do some integration with the Xenforo Forum.

If you want to, you can use the site as reference material.

Again, many many many thanks again for your help!

Cheers, Axel

[Author]

Posts