BUG REPORT permalink structure not saving

[jlyon1515]

I have my Custom Permalink Structure set to "%parents%/%slug%", and just noticed that clicking "Flush All Caches" resets the Custom Permalink Structure setting to "%parent%/%slug%/".

I wouldn't think a flush caches button would reset settings as well, so I'm assuming this is a bug. Does it reset other things? Email address?

[shawn_a]

If you navigate back to settings.php, does it still show changed ?

[shawn_a]

cannot reproduce

[jlyon1515]

If you navigate back to settings.php, does it still show changed ?

No, whenever one goes back to the settings page after changing the Custom Permalink Structure field, that field is ALWAYS the placeholder text, no matter what I just saved that field to. So it always has %parent%/%slug%/ greyed out in it, even after I just applied %parents%/%slug% (added that S on parent and removed the trailing slash) then navigated away and back to the settings page.


BUT, it appears I reported the bug incorrectly. It wasn't the Flush All Caches button that caused it, it was the Save Settings button.


Here's what I do to reproduce it:


- make the change to %parents%/%slug% and hit submit, then the pages says "Your updates have been saved, and that field is still reporting correctly. When navigating back to the page, that default placeholder text is there (%parent%/%slug%/) but my setting is save and the site works with multi-level parents.


- go back to the Settings page, without touching anything else, change the email address, and hit Save Settings.


Now, my Custom Permalink Structure is not showing multilevel parents anymore. It is like hitting Save Settings is submitting with the grey placeholder text. So if I wanted to prevent this from happening, anytime I make a change on the Settings page, I have to retype my custom permalink.

[shawn_a]

What browser?
What plugins?

This definetly is not a known problem and unique to you so far.

Are you sure your settings are even saving at all.
See what the website.xml says

[jlyon1515]

What browser?
What plugins?

This definetly is not a known problem and unique to you so far.

Are you sure your settings are even saving at all.
See what the website.xml says

I have been using GetSimple since January, and this has happened in all of my web browsers and operating systems consistently since the very beginning. I use Chrome v 52 on my home Windows 10 PC, and Chrome on my work Mac (El Capitan), but also Firefox sometimes on each, and it happens in both browsers.

To test more, I just opened up Microsoft Edge  (which I have never used) on my Windows 10 machine, and went to my website, logged in, and then went to the settings page. Looking at the website.xml file, it showed permalink was set to %parents%/%slug%. On that settings page, Custom Permalink Structure was showing the default placeholder text NOT what was in the website.xml file, and the email field was blank (even though I had previously set it). Without touching any other fields, I type in my email address and hit Save Settings. Now, when I look at my website.xml file, permalink is empty. Now I check my multi-level pages, and their URLs aren't multi-level, it's just parent and slug. So this same thing happened in a Edge, which I have never logged into my website with, and this is identical to what I was experiencing in Chrome.

[shawn_a]

What plugins ?
Check error log ?

I suggest you test this on a clean install.

permalink is the global $PERMALINK, something has to be changing it for it to not be populating in the form.

$PERMALINK = $dataw->PERMALINK;

[shawn_a]

oh what version of php are you using ?

[jlyon1515]

GetSimple version 3.3.11 (though this issue has happened since 3.3.8, the first version I installed)
PHP version 5.2.17
Everything is green and OK on the Support > Website Health Check page (except GSLOGINSALT and GSUSECUSTOMSALT, which I don't use).

I just deactivated ALL my GetSimple plugins, and the problem still occurs. I went to my Settings page, submitted my custom permalink, and verified that it was in website.xml. Navigated away then back to the Settings page, and only changed my email address and hit Save Settings. The website.xml file now has an permalink as empty.

Here are the plugins I usually have installed:
I18N Base, I18N Custom Fields, I18N Navigation, I18N Search, and I18N Special Pages
Cumbe_contact, GS Plugin Installer, nanoGallery, Auto-open Page Options, Theme Highlighter, and URI Redirect

I just did a clean install on a completely different server, and used Microsoft Edge, and everything is working fine. Just to verify, I used my usual Chrome browser and went to the new site, and everything works as it should.

I had made some modifications to my .htaccess file, so I took all those out just in case. Problem still occurs. I almost feel like something didn't happen during the run of install.php or something, so some file somewhere doesn't have the right permissions... but the Website Health Check has everything green and OK.

I checked the GetSimple error log, and nothing is in that since back in February 2016. And the 10 entries there are just PHP Notices: "Use of undefined constant FILTER_SANITIZE_FULL_SPECIAL_CHARS - assumed 'FILTER_SANITIZE_FULL_SPECIAL_CHARS' in /public_html/get-simple/admin/inc/security_functions.php on line 260"

That notice reminds me that I initially installed GetSimple in a subfolder, but have sinced moved it to the main folder... and everythign has been working perfectly except that settings page.

SO, I guess at this point, I'm wondering what steps I would have to do to download my whole current site, reinstall, and upload the pages again. I've got 149 pages, but quantity shouldn't really matter, right? I think I can just reinstall everything, then copy back my /data, /plugins, and single theme file... right? I'd copy them back slowly to see if any of those three things were causing the problem, but I feel like it was something in my initial setup of the site that went wrong because this problem has happened since the beginning.

[jlyon1515]

I'm not overly familiar with Debug Mode, but turning it on and going through my testing process never reveals any text in that debug mode box either.

[shawn_a]

ok this is probably a php 5.2 bug will fix.

[shawn_a]

you can test this
https://github.com/GetSimpleCMS/GetSimpl...g/3.3.12b1

fix
https://github.com/GetSimpleCMS/GetSimpl...7947c16359

[jlyon1515]

Problem solved! Thanks so much for taking the time to look into this. I am blown away that the fix was just casting a variable as a string. It's weird that this didn't cause more problems with my install. I'm also surprised that no one else ever reported this bug.

Thanks again, Shawn. I've sent a donation to show my huge appreciation for the quick turnaround on this fix, and also because I'm a just a big fan of GetSimple in general.

[shawn_a]

yeah very odd, i guess whatever filter I was using was not auto typing the simplexml obj as a string, but other fields do the same thing and seem to work fine, like $NAME., in the future all globals that come from simplexml objects will be cast to strings to avoid stuff like this.