ideaman911 wrote on Monday, April 06, 2009:
Brady;
Well, at least your info made some progress occur. As I retraced my steps I see that I actually HAD a “new install” of the 1.7/3.0.1 which worked with fresh data. Then before I had actually logged in I copied the Openemr folder as I have been doing from my already operating copy of my real data from the 1.4/3.0.1 setup which works fine. The baseline problem was that once I made the mistake of doing that and couldn’t then login, I tried clicking on the Xampp Service button thinking that I had to do that, since there were no instructions for all the buttons.
That causes a problem for which there is no intuitive solution, both because it locks in XP and it turns out that the Xampp call for the service links to a file supposedly supplied by Xampp called "mysqld-shareware.exe" which does not exist. However, XP still tries to set the service, and once set it is impossible to get around. Until I found an obscure Command Line instruction which allowed me to delete the Mysql service (talk about convoluted) under XP, which again allowed the setup of a fresh 1.7/3.0.1. For anyone else suffering as I have, that command is "sc delete mysql" which saves the terror of manually editing the XP registry file. Then make CERTAIN to press NO buttons on the Xampp except the Start alongside each of Apache and MySQL, and make certain to press NONE of the Svc or SCM buttons at any time once they have been cleared.
After I did that, at least fresh data was operable. While testing that I noted that the new GACL still requires (as did the prior external version) defining a user’s rights in the Advanced area instead of concurrently with picking the group during the User creation, leaving a “Not assigned any group” error for any user merely configured within the Admin - User area until then, and therefore prevents their ability to login until that is done.
Once I had that pretty well understood and could fix any I created, etc., I again tried the way I was successful with 1.4/3.0.1, which was to upgrade my 2.9.0 data using the sql_upgrade.php tool and scripts, along with the gacl_ prefixer in the gacl folder files, then copying those over the existing files in the openemr folder. You probably noticed my expressed concerns about the external backup (since OpenEMR backup seems not to work for anyone in XP), and more critically restore, probably not working with the 1.7 setup at all. I was prevented from even batch replacement of the OpenEMR PHP files with those I had edited in the 1.4/3.01 to give me my desired usability. I could do them manually, but got "Access Denied" errors when I used a DOS batch file. Why is that considered "desirable"? If that is because of some added "security" for web servers, is there a way to switch it off for those not using the web? None of the files I mentioned above had any problem working if they WERE manually copy-pasted, so they were not the issue.
I tried every permutation I can think of, from manual as per above to simply replacing the …/mysql/data/openemr/ folder with the entire folder from my 1.4/3.0.1 successful setup. ALL still give me the same inability to get past the login screen. I even tried replacing the login.php with the 1.11 version which works fine and prevents the error message with 1.4, but that also has a login failure with 1.7 and my 1.4 sourced data. The ONLY one which works is fresh database creation, which may be useful for a newbie, but not much good to him the first time a server fails. I was able to delete the …/data/openemr/ folder after making a copy of it, then restore it by copying it back. But I was never able to make the prior 2.9.0 data which I had working with the 1.4/3.0.1 setup to be accessible by the 1.7/3.0.1 setup.
Clearly there is some fundamental change which occurred between the data format for the Mysql in 1.7 vs that for 1.4. But unless I can find out how to fix that I would advise anybody who already has data created with ANY earlier version to tread VERY carefully. If they have similar problems, how many will be happy with the fact that Xampp has "improved"? Again, users do not care one iota what the latest gee-whiz way of doing things is - they need to be able to utilize the time investment they have already made. If that cannot be done, we will be hard pressed to hope for more users, as existing ones will vent their frustrations.
WE must make a seamless and simple "fixer" which looks at the existing data a user arrives with and magically makes it work fine with our latest or we have no prayer. Just look at the massive push-back Microsoft suffered with Vista when they refused to make it able to be accessed by Win 98 networked resources.
I am not very happy that Xampp created a link to a file which doesn’t exist, nor that they have so many buttons which will simply trip up users of 1.7. It may be the standard of you programmers, but you programmers represent a very small droplet in the ocean of users who would never be willing to work at this like I have.
So you help me and I’ll help you. I can see no possibility that my Xampp 1.4 will be more than the tip of this iceberg when I consider the letter YOU responded to from the guy using Wamp. We had better get used to the whole idea of differing sources and environments and find a way to make them workable. Right this moment I would have no problem loading any new Windows client with 3.0.1 with the 1.11 login.php on a 1.4 Xampp BECAUSE IT WORKS and IT TOOK THE UPGRADES and IT ALLOWS BATCH COPIES to update files AND it works in XP. 1.7 does none of the above with my prior data, even AFTER I figured out the action it takes which it does not even support with service. This is the “stable” platform you advise for Windows?
To quote the Top Gear Guys - How Hard Can It BE?!
If you have any insights, I am all ears.
Joe Holzer Idea Man
http://www.holzerent.com
