I hope I have the right forum. If not I trust the admins to place it properly.
I have a website (hutchinsclan.com). I am trying to add a forum to the site. The forum is based on Simple Machines Forum (SMF) which requires a sql database. The database is created as a result of installing the forum. I have successfully installed the forum on my localhost server. It works without error (so far ).
I am so new to this technology that I didn’t know that I had to upload the db separately from the website files. Since learning that, I’ve successfully uploaded the database; however, as I learned today using Claude.ai, the settings.php file must be configured to run on the sql servers that my webhost (Ionos) uses. I went through the settings.php file with Claude.ai’s assistance and changed those things like port number, boardurl, user id, db name, etc. I uploaded the changed settings.php file to Ionos but I’m getting errors: “Connection Problems - Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.”
Ionos has been patient and helpful, but I fear that they throw up their hands at answering questions about what values to set in the various $db_ variables in settings.php. Is that not something my webhost should support? IDK.
I come here to ask if I’m even on the right track in diagnosing and fixing the problem. It’s logical to me that the database settings have to be different for the webhost sql servers. I’ve configured all the $db_ variables that Claude.ai helped me identify. I questioned a number that were not suggested at first that led to fixing references to my local XAMPP environment. I made all those changes and uploaded the modified settings.php file to the appropriate folder. (FWIW: I did not overwrite the settings.php file on my local server; it remains unchanged so my localhost will run my forum.)
Can anyone here tell me a) what to look for and change in the settings.php file (a checklist, if you will); b) what to look at beyond the settings.php file, if anything.
Are there, perhaps, other issues besides values in settings.php that I should be addressing? If so, what are they?
Yes, I did follow all the installation instructions from the SMF manual. As I said, it runs on my localhost server without any known issues. I’ve even customized it and added a gallery (for images) to it. My issues have all arisen since I tried to put it into my existing website hosted on the Internet.
Do the settings look the same on localhost (your computer) and web (web hosting)? I have done this mistake several times. Forgotten that the server is a different environment with different paths, ips and ports.
Yes, I made the settings.php variables for my webhost environment. I created a separate file and uploaded it to my webhost into my forum folder. I did not change the settings.php file that is located in my XAMPP localhost environment. I can link to the forum on localhost without errors and con use the forum there.
I don’t know if the database for my forum is properly configured on my webhost’s system. I don’t know that it’s not properly configured either. The symptom I encounter is that webhost system throws this error: “Connection ProblemsSorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.”
The text leads me to believe it is a db config error, but I’m too ignorant to know for certain or to use the log files on the webhost to diagnose the issue. I’ve managed to find those log files. Most of them do not bear today’s date; so I’ve ignored them for now. The ones dated today I’m using to try to learn how to interpret server log files. Based on what I’ve seen, I suspect that there might be an app that will process those log files and give me more information - but that is a SWAG.
My first attempt at getting the forum installed on my website was wrong from the start. I thought that I could do a simple upload of files from my local server running under Apache. I’ve learned that approach was wrong. Although I read that it can be done, it requires more technical skill than I have. To begin with, the settings.php file on my local system is configured for that environment but not for the webhost environment. There are database complications using that approach as well.
When it dawned on me that I had been paying little attention to the part of the installation guide in the SMF manua that deals with installing from the host, I re-read it carefully a few times. It came clear to me then that the SMF install.php file is meant to be run from the webhost using a browser. To do this, one uploads all the unzipped SMF forum files and folders to the equivalent space on the webhost first, then runs the install.php. This process then renders the screens from the SMF script that allow entry of variables needed for the webhost environment. This includes port number, db name, user name, password, etc. Having completed that step successfully, one then uses other SMF scripts to configure name, logo and other options for the forum.
I have not yet successfully completed those steps. I think the problem is that I have been unable to learn how to translate values that the webhost has established for the installation variables to values that the SMF install script requires. I’m still pursuing that. I’ll try to remember to return and report when (if?) I succeed.
UPDATE:
I finally got the forum installed on my website, www.hutchinsclan.com (use the first line in the navbar). All my problems were self-inflicted. It seems I only ever choose the hard way.
I slowed down and re-read the installation instructions until I finally understood them. This meant I had to try and fail a few times to learn what some of the variables meant. When I finally understood the equivalence between a local server installation and the webhost installation, I was able to make a step my step plan in which I put the exact values that had to be entered and the order they had to be done. Along the way I had to learn how my webhost, Ionos, handles databases. Of course, I had to misinterpret things a half dozen times and make even more typographical errors a few bad assumptions; but in the end perserverance and a lot of help from the SMF support community saw me home.
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