Help please! I cannot update my site, and there are constant database errors. As far as I can tell, this began in April 2024, when I tried to install UNA Classes from the Apps store. We were not able to fix the issue completely, there were still errors, but the site worked despite the errors so I decided to hold off trying to fix it further until 14.0.0 stable was released.
Now I am trying to update from 14.0.0-B2 to 14.0.0 through the beta channel. But when I try to update the site, the site does not update, and no new lines are created in updates.log. Instead, a new message appears in sys_modules.log:
Jan 18 03:02:01 [0] CRON :
[upgrade] Cannot get a list of modules which require to be updated.
Auto-update is enabled, so there are about 2,000 lines of this, as every auto-update since July of 2024 has failed!
I believe that this is occurring because of the database errors related to Classes. When I tried to install it from the App store the install failed, but parts of Classes were added. The constant database errors occur when UNA tries to find something classes-related, but can't, here is an example:
Jan 10 19:52:23 [4] /searchExtended.php?action=get_mention&symbol=%23&term=ir&i=text&f=bx_timeline_post&fi=&m=bx_timeline Database query error
Error: Table 'indiesel_una566.bx_classes_meta_keywords' doesn't exist
Query: SELECT `object_id`, `keyword` FROM `bx_classes_meta_keywords` WHERE `keyword` LIKE ? ORDER BY CHAR_LENGTH(`keyword`) DESC
Account ID: 3
This morning I thought, well, the update is failing because parts of Classes are installed and parts of Classes are not installed, so maybe I can just try to install Classes from the Apps module and see if it works now. I tried that, and I was able to download it, but at the install step I get a forever spinning icon. I checked and there is a new error in sys_db.log:
Jan 18 11:12:27 [1] /studio/store.php Database query error
Error: Duplicate entry 'bx_classes-added' for key 'alert'
Query: INSERT INTO
`bx_timeline_handlers`
SET
`group`=?,
`type`=?,
`alert_unit`=?,
`alert_action`=?,
`content`=?,
`privacy`=?
Account ID: 1
It's a catch 22! I can't update without having my list of active modules match what UNA thinks they should be, but I can't get Classes installed because the system thinks I have it already.
Before when we tried to fix this, we were going to be using the UNA site to host a virtual convention in a week, so I was in a huge hurry to just get it functional for the 200-ish people attending the convention. Now there is no rush. What do I need to do to get the site working and error free, ideally with the Classes app installed (love the functionality it adds to Groups)?
Hello friends, it's been a while! I had to take a long break from my UNA site which is a community for a volunteer-powered nonprofit organization - got swallowed by life in 2025. 2026 is looking up though, so you should be hearing from me again this year!
When I installed UNA it defaulted to the "beta" upgrades channel, and I wound up with 14.0 B2 on the site when I would have preferred sticking to the 13.0 stable!
Now I'm back and I see that 14.0 stable is available and I want to update the site to this. I switched to the stable upgrades channel, but when I did this, the update button disappeared!
Couple screenshots. Here's what I see when on the beta updates channel:
And here is what I see if I switch to stable updates:
Something has to have gone wrong here right? 14.0.0 is a later release than 14.0.0 B2!
Thanks for your help!
I discovered a bug! I want channels to only be created by admins with studio access, each one attached to a label. That way it's possible to limit use of channels to spots where we have added a "Labels" field. I have turned off the "Create Channel Auto" permission for all levels. It works for most instances of hashtags being used on the site, people can use a hashtag but there will be no auto channel created.
BUT - if someone uses a hashtag in a profile field, it will still automatically create a channel. I was able to repeat the bug on my test account.
I'm trying to get a macro that finds all members with a specific subset of account levels. The documentation says that the first parameter in the macro can be an array of multiple membership levels. So I want to create something like this macro, but with multiple level #'s attached to it:
{ {~bx_persons:browse_by_acl[10]~} }
I found plenty of examples of macros with arrays, but none with arrays of multiple items in the same parameter.
{ {~bx_persons:browse_by_acl["8", "10", "12"]~} }
This returns "error - too many arguments" because I'm assuming it thinks the "10" is the $iDesignBox parameter and doesn't know what to do with the "12". I can't figure out how to assign all three levels to one parameter.
Interestingly, I think I figured out how to do it in a developer block:
array (
'module' => 'bx_persons',
'method' => 'browse_by_acl',
'params' =>
array (
0 =>
array (
0 => '8',
1 => '10',
2 => '12',
),
),
)
That seems to return the correct people.
Anyone know how to do it with a macro?
I have a feature request, and a related question, and possibly a "weirdness report" - all in one!
1: Feature request
Our previous community site was set up via a Wordpress plugin - and in comparing the Wordpress plugin to UNA, automatic emails is the one and ONLY area where Wordpress was a lot better. It was possible to add new automatic emails that would send to members. The "add new automatic email" window would let you choose a trigger - IE "membership level changed", and also which membership level the email is sent to - which made it possible to have emails that only send for specific membership levels.
Finally, there was a list of automatic parameters that could be used in emails to get info from a person's profile/account into an email. I think this is another huge difference between our Wordpress plugin and UNA - all profile fields (including custom ones created by site admins) had an ID which allowed them to be inserted in emails. I think I saw in a discussion elsewhere that UNA profile fields don't have ID's, so it's not possible to call them up other than in "profile info" blocks.
It would be amazing to have a "create new" button under Polyglot > emails, or at least the ability to better customize the email that sends when a membership level is changed, so that it's a different email for a different membership level. Which brings me to:
2: Question
Is there a custom parameter that can be used to insert a membership level's description into an email? On that note, is there anything that can be done with a membership level description?
I have added helpful descriptions for each membership level on my UNA site, but I can't figure out how to actually use them!
3: Weirdness report
When an existing member creates a new profile on the site, the automatic email generated by this action is the "Membership Level Changed" email. I have modified this email like so:
My modifications work perfectly for when someone's membership level is changed - the page describes all memberships, and the person can click the link to figure out what their membership level means. But it's super weird to receive the email in case of a new profile being created - technically the membership level wasn't changed - it's the membership that's automatically given to new profiles via Settings > Persons > "Default member's level to assign after person's profile creation".
If I could customize these emails by membership level, either by an actual custom email, or by inserting a membership level description, that would also solve the problem - as I could put an explanation in the email which only appears for the default membership level.
I LOVE that you made it so that event visibility can be controlled by membership level! That's new, right? The way I would expect it to work, is as long as a user has the requisite membership level, the event shows up everywhere they might browse to find events, and if the user does not have that level (or if they aren't logged in) then they don't see the event at all. But instead what I'm seeing is that the event doesn't show up at all anywhere a member could browse, and can only be found if the person has the link. Is that a mistake?
Here is what I see if I look at "my events" - I created all the events for the guild meetings, and they are all currently set to visible for all levels except unauthenticated.
The August one is August 5th - it should show up on the upcoming tab...
But it's empty!
One of my upcoming projects for our site is setting up rewrites for URL's like how it is on this site - the rules that replace long things like /view-persons-profile/ with short things like /u/. I found the instructions for how to do so using phpMyAdmin on the discussions forum.
But I find myself wanting to change the URL of several pages too, and I'm wondering what is the best way to do that? I see that it's actually possible to change the page URL in Developer, and then it seems like the only other step would be finding all instances of the item in the Navigation module and changing those too. But is that the wrong way to do it - would updates erase the changes?
As mentioned in my previous post, we tried to install classes, and the installation failed, and when I uninstalled it that failed too.
I did follow the exact instructions on how to uninstall and delete an app - starting by setting it to inactive, then going to manage apps and deleting it, and then finally I also deleted the downloaded app from the apps market.
But the app did not uninstall completely, and as a result, I'm getting quite a few database error emails. I'm worried that the site is going to break when more people join it. How do we get this app to actually delete?
I've installed the "Classes" app on my test installation, and it's exactly what we need. I want to use it without "Courses" - and on the test installation, I was able to. When used without "Courses", the "Classes" app adds a small bit of functionality to both events and groups - letting you add a list of "classes" to an event or group. I was going to disable event "sessions" (which just gives you a static list of things that can't be clicked) and replace it with "classes".
Now I'm trying to install it on the live version of the site, and I can download it, but when I click the install button, it does not actually install. It just gives me the spinning icon forever.
Is it supposed to be possible to use "Classes" without "Courses"?
If I have to, I can use "posts" to introduce this functionality (we aren't using posts anywhere) but it will be complicated because I would have to disable a ton of things to configure posts so that they are only available to admins/moderators and they only exist in events or groups, and not as their own module! And I like how there is an option to view the next or the previous class too, and mark them as complete.