cryptic php error message foils loading of my admin dashboard

I have a Zen Cart which successfully opens but when I attempt to open the admin dashboard I get the following error message:

Warning: require(includes/application_top.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /homepages/16/d402074206/htdocs/Zen Cart/alpha-admin/index.php on line 10

Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'includes/application_top.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php5') in /homepages/16/d402074206/htdocs/Zen Cart/alpha-admin/index.php on line 10

That file, application_top.php, is where it's supposed to be (includes/application_top.php) but the index.php function "require" can't see it, so to speak.

I'm not a php programmer so I'm completely clueless about how to solve this.

I forgot to add the information that permission on the application_top.php file is set to 777.

cyberbaffled

cyberbaffled:

Warning: require(includes/application_top.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /homepages/16/d402074206/htdocs/Zen Cart/alpha-admin/index.php on line 10

I'm not a php programmer so I'm completely clueless about how to solve this.

Get rid of the space from the "Zen Cart" part of the file path.. In other words, you'll need to rename this folder.

Even if this isn't the immediate cause of your problem (although I suspect it is) folder names should never contain space characters because these are seen as 'delimiters' and will cause all sorts of unexpected problems.

You may find it easier to do yet another fresh install because simply renaming this folder isn't enough, you'll also need to edit any references to it.

Cheers
Rod

Cheers
Rod

cyberbaffled:

I forgot to add the information that permission on the application_top.php file is set to 777.

cyberbaffled

This is a security risk. It means anyone can edit this file.

Tell me, exactly WHAT instructions are you following with your installs? What with this, and your previous issues, you appear to be your own worst enemy.

Cheers
Rod

I've deleted all the Zen Cart files associated with the "php bug" and uploaded completely new files, freshly unzipped. Then I've done an install from scratch. And I get the exact same previously copied error message when I attempt to open the filename/admin dashboard. Without the /admin suffix to the domain url the starter ZenCart file opens. The issue can't be the space in the folder Zen Cart because I previously opened the admin process with that file name. Then I lost the admin process when I changed the db password; my previous posts.

cyberbaffled:

I've deleted all the Zen Cart files associated with the "php bug"

Even the files that didn't apparently exist? (rhetorical question).

cyberbaffled:

and uploaded completely new files,
freshly unzipped. Then I've done an install from scratch.

This is why the previous question is rhetorical. With a new/fresh install what you did prior to this is no longer relevant.

cyberbaffled:

And I get the exact same previously copied error message

Would I be wrong in assuming that you ignored my advice and still tried to install into a folder with a space character?

cyberbaffled:

when I attempt to open the filename/admin dashboard.

"filename/admin dashboard" obviously has some meaning for you, but to me, it sounds like gobbledegook.

cyberbaffled:

Without the /admin suffix to the domain url the starter ZenCart file opens.

More gobbledegook, but this time I think I know what you are trying to say.
You are apparently trying to navigate to http://yourdomain.com/admin/ and you are getting a page not found error? (not to be confused with a "no such file" error).

If this is the case, it is possibly because according to your original 'php bug' report, the admin section of your store is to be found at
http://yourdomain.com/alpha-admin/ or perhaps
http://yourdomain.com/Zen Cart/alpha-admin/
The 'correct' one of these will be determined by your Apache (webserver) settings based on where it expects to find the document root folder.

cyberbaffled:

The issue can't be the space in the folder Zen Cart because I previously opened the admin process with that file name.

You DO realise that I'm actually trying to help you, don't you?
OK, so my original suspicion may be incorrect according to your experience, but that doesn't in any way change the fact that filenames and folders that contain space characters will cause all sorts of unexpected problems.

If you are unwilling to take advice and suggestions then what is the point of us given them to you?

cyberbaffled:

Then I lost the admin process when I changed the db password; my previous posts.

Regardless of what has gone wrong in the past, when we recommend/suggest a 'fresh install' we actually mean, completely start from scratch. This means 'forgetting' about what has gone before because those mistakes/errors are in the past and would be no longer relevant to the current situation.

I could be way off the mark in regards to the space in the folder name being the immediate cause of the current problem, but as long as you insist that this isn't going to cause an issue (either now, or with some future function/feature) then you are building your store on a shaky foundation, and I feel I won't be doing you any favours by accepting your own observation that this isn't the cause and trying to help you move past it because it'll only come back and 'bite' you in some other way.

So please do a fresh install into a folder with no spaces in the names. Also use a newly created database so that there is no connection between the old installs and the fresh install.

Chances are that you'll not have any further problems. Very few people actually have difficulties with a fresh installation (unlike upgrades, which are significantly more complex)

Oh, and before I forget (again) do be careful with file permissions, because although I previously stated that
application-top.php with file permissions of 777 is a security risk, there are many servers that are setup in such a way that the server itself will produce a "500 error" (or similar) when they encounter such files, this could also be part of your 'php bug' (I originally discounted this under the assumption that you set the permissions this way in an attempt to fix the failure to open the file in the 1st place).

We both know the problems with making assumptions though.

Cheers
Rod

ps. Further in regards to space characters in folder names... as an example, check out the two links I entered earlier in this message.. Now note how the one with the space character in the name is a badly formed (incomplete) link? Do you still think spaces are a good idea?

RodG, thank you for your thorough analysis. I'm going to repeat the install using a new domain and folder named without a space. It will take awhile for the DNS to recognize the new folder as the domain destination. You were right, I repeated the new install without removing the space from the folder name because I had earlier achieved a complete installation using the folder with the space in the name; Zen Cart.

cyberbaffled:

I'm going to repeat the install using a new domain

No need to go to the extent of installing into a new domain (which I assume you really mean subdomain).

cyberbaffled:

and folder named without a space. It will take awhile for the DNS to recognize the new folder as the domain destination.

Where did you learn this piece of misinformation? DNS doesn't have anything to do with folders. DNS maps IP addresses to hosts, nothing more. Anything to do with folders is related to webserver settings, never DNS.

Furthermore, I for one will never understand why so many people think any changes to DNS will take hours or days for the changes to take effect... Actually I do know, it is because most people don't understand DNS at all and as a result confuse delegation changes (which can take up to 48hours to propagate) with changes in the data (which can have a near immediate effect (depending on the TTL settings and whether the data has already been cached or not).

Newly created subdomains are no exception, these are usually globally resolvable within minutes of their creation.

cyberbaffled:

You were right,

I get very little pleasure from being 'right'. My pleasure comes from knowing that I've helped someone in some small way. Even when I'm wrong I get pleasure because it means I'm the one that gains knowledge. :smile:

cyberbaffled:

I repeated the new install without removing the space from the folder name because I had earlier achieved a complete installation using the folder with the space in the name; Zen Cart.

As I have stated several times now... including my very first response to you in this matter, the space character may not be the cause of your immediate/current problems, but it will cause problems, so why risk building a store on such a shaky foundation? I for one cannot conscionably help you go past this point knowing this fact.

Other people may be forthcoming in this regard and I wouldn't be too surprised to see some of them speak up and proclaim the spaces haven't had any negative impact on their store (They'd be wrong, of course - it just means that among other things they've never tried clicking on their own links when they've supplied them via email, forums, etc, cos such links will be just a broken as this one.
http://yourdomain.com/Zen Cart/admin/

Cheers
Rod

cyberbaffled:

You were right, I repeated the new install without removing the space from the folder name because I had earlier achieved a complete installation using the folder with the space in the name; Zen Cart.

Spaces are not allowed in URLs. It might look ok, it might seem to work in some browsers in some environments, but it's against the rules and will cause you never ending problems. Don't do this.

It is very important to understand the general principles of how the WWW operates, and additionally, how your server system operates, your chosen platform, and finally, the fundamentals of being a "webmaster".

More than 90% of the problems people experience with "starting their new website" are cause by their ignorance of protocols and "rules".

The essentials can be learned in a couple of days, and if they are learned, can save weeks and months of later heartache.

I programmed my first site using HTML in 1994. However webmastering is not my primary activity so the rules don't get rehearsed. It's a matter of having forgotten more than I once knew.