Killer Problem Number 2: When going after the cutting edge in blogging it helps if you bring band-aids. Such is the case with this weeks rippin problem, when no images display on the new Revolution Church 4.0 template, which is probably one of the most popular templates produced by “Studio Press” for bloggers. Sometimes you face a problem that no matter what you try, eventually you have to seek help, because what you got ain’t good enough. One likes to think that given enough time, deductive reasoning will win the day, or so you would think.
I just download the new “Church 4.0″ template from “Studio Press” thinking that my blogs could use a new face lift and wound up with a skull fracture instead. Here goes …………
I faced immediate trouble with the set-up of the template after installing the plug-in for the “Featured Content” manager which has been raising hell with me for months …….. I will wait on another post for that one. Studio Press has now integrated a php script within the template called “timthumb” which is a photo manager of sorts that helps you resize your photos ………. I think …….. I”m still trying to recover from the fractured skull ! This script has to have special file permissions to work …… like would you believe 777. Whatever ……… If you host your own site this should not be a problem, however if you host elsewhere with one of the more popular hosts like “Bluehost” or “Hostgator” you may or may not have permissions to do this. And even though you may be able to reset your file permissions ……… say above 755, or in the case of the timthumb.php, 644, if your host is running “PhPSuExec” your out of luck with possibly no type of warning from your host. If you do get one, you will usually get a “500 internal Server Error”
“PhpSuExec” provides additional security for the php install and folder permissions cannot be above 755 and individual file permission’s must be 644 or less.
The Fix: What you need to do is contact your host and have them add or “Whitelist” these certain “Mod_Security Rules for whichever domain you are working with. They are:
1234234 , 340151 , 340153 These need to be “Whitelisted” for your domain.
Got that ……… just the domain that you are working with. Just one at a time, this is not a system wide or root directory change.
Then check your site after allowing ample time for “Apache” to re-start on the server and the rules to take affect. If you still have no images on your site than fire up Firefox with Firebug add-on in NET monitoring mode. Reload your page and see if you get any 500 errors on your calls to timthumb. If so, you need to change the file/folder permissions as mentioned above. Chmod 777 on a server running “PhpSuExec will give you a 500 Internal Server error – hence folders must be no higher than 755 and the timthumb.php file itself no more than 644.
Good Luck ! You’re going to need it ……….. now where are those band-aids ?
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