Upgrade to JFBConnect v6.1 brings site down

If you're getting a blank page, it means there's a PHP error on the page. If you go to the Joomla -> Global Configuration area and set "Error Reporting" to 'maximum', it should show you the error to help narrow things down.

The most probable cause of the error is that you have a template override for the SCLogin module and that override is trying to call some code that no longer works in the newest release. To check, I'd look in the /templates/<YOUR_TEMPLATE>/html/mod_sclogin directory. If there are any files in there, try renaming them. If the site starts working, you'll need to compare the differences in your override file and merge the changes from the new file into it. Otherwise, you can remove your template override if you don't need whatever changes you had made.

Hopefully that gets you started, but if you don't have an override, let us know the error on your page and we should be able to narrow things down from there.

Thanks,
Alex

The 6.1.1 release of JFBConnect and will include an SCLogin module that won't have fatal errors when you upgrade. However, if you have template overrides, you always need to compare your file to the 'new' file included in the updated release. There are new features and changes in each release. If your older template file doesn't use the updated code, the new features won't work (at best) or will cause failures (at worst).

The fatal error caused by the template override is something we tried to avoid going forward by removing additional function calls from within the template itself. Instead, we generate as much code as we can outside of the template file. That way, we can change how that code is generated, and you can change the presentation code, without running into issues like this going forward.

I hope that helps explain, and thanks for your patience and understanding.

Alex

Rich,
You shouldn't need to wait, but it never hurts to do so. The v6.1.1 release is planned for Friday, but we're still testing, so it may be delayed until next week.

Either way, whenever you upgrade any extension, not just JFBConnect, if you have template overrides, you need to incorporate any changes from the new releases layout files into your overrides. Otherwise, you'll either a) run into errors where old code from your override won't work or b) new features won't work since your old file won't know to call them.

To be clear, the 'fix' in the 6.1.1 release will prevent Fatal Errors. However, if you still have an old template override, your Forgot Username and Forgot Password links will not be visible. You'll need to upgrade your override to use the new layout files to use the new features in the new release. We'll just be avoiding the fatal error situation that some users are experiencing.

That's just how upgrades work if you keep an older version of a file around.

I hope that helps explain,
Alex