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16. Troubleshooting

"Whoops, looks like something went wrong." error page.

This error message may be seen when attempting to install or during normal usage of HelpSpot. The error message on this page is rather generic, as the "data" directory not being writable is largely the most popular issue in HelpSpot 4.

As it suggests, it's important to ensure the "data" directory, and it's sub-directories, are writable by the web server.

Making the Data Directory Writable

HelpSpot comes with a directory called "data". This is written to by various processes in HelpSpot. Notably:

• The data/cache directory, which has some cached items used by underlying code
• The data/documents directory is the default path for email attachments saved to the file system
• The data/logs directory contains a log file in which you can find system event and error information, included information that can be sent to HelpSpot support to help debug issues
• The data/meta directory is similar to the cache directory, but used by particular set of underlying code
• The data/views directory is a cache of view files used during the installation/update process

The data directory and subdirectories must be writable by the web server.

In Debian/Ubuntu, PHP is likely running as user "www-data". We can ensure these files are owned and writable by that user.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/helpspot/data
sudo chmod -R ug+rw /path/to/helpspot/data

In RedHat/CentOS, php is likely run as user "apache":

sudo chown -R apache:apache /path/to/helpspot/data
sudo chmod -R ug+rw /path/to/helpspot/data

If you run SELinux, then Apache needs to know that it can write to the data directory via the "httpd_sys_content_rw_t" type.

sudo chcon -Rv --type=httpd_sys_content_rw_t /path/to/helpspot/data

Server setup is outlined further for Debian/Ubuntu and RedHat/CentOS, including more possible configuration for SELinux.

Windows

The Windows installer will ensure the data directory is writable by the web server.

CLI Commands and Log File

When you update to HelpSpot 4, you might run commands before the data/logs/helpspot.log file exists. This file may get created as the user you run the command as, for example user "root" or another administrative user. If the data/logs/helpspot.log file is not writable, check to make sure it is owned by user "www-data" or "apache" as needed by your server type and setup.

My Data Directory is Writable, But I still See the Error Screen

If you still receive the blue error screen despite ensuring the data directory is writable, there is a way to get a better error message.

Edit the config.php file and change the "cDEBUG" variable from "false" to "true"

define('cDEBUG',      true); 

If you re-run HelpSpot, you may see a error screen with more available information about the error in the browser. Furthermore, the bottom of the data/logs/helpspot.log file should contain the error and stack trace of the error, which can give clues to the error or be given to us to help you with the issue.

Tables Copied/Converted

The following tables are copied via the convert:base command:

HS_Settings
HS_Address_Book
HS_Automation_Rules
HS_Bayesian_Corpus
HS_Bayesian_MsgCounts
HS_Category
HS_Category_ReportingTags
HS_CustomFields
HS_Errors
HS_Filter_People
HS_Filter_Performance
HS_Filters
HS_Forums
HS_Forums_KnownUsers
HS_Forums_Posts
HS_Forums_Topics
HS_KB_Books
HS_KB_Chapters
HS_KB_Documents
HS_KB_Pages
HS_KB_RelatedPages
HS_Login_Attempts
HS_Mail_Rules
HS_Mailboxes
HS_Mailboxes_StuckEmails
HS_Multi_Portal
HS_Permission_Groups
HS_Person
HS_Person_Photos
HS_Person_Status
HS_Portal_Bayesian_Corpus
HS_Portal_Bayesian_MsgCounts
HS_Portal_Login
HS_Reset_Password
HS_Response_People
HS_Responses
HS_Saved_Reports
HS_Search_Queries
HS_Sessions2
HS_Tags
HS_Tags_Map
HS_Triggers
HS_luSMS
HS_luStatus

These tables are copied during the convert:request command:

HS_Assignment_Chain
HS_Documents
HS_Reminder
HS_Reminder_Person
HS_Request
HS_Request_History
HS_Request_Merged
HS_Request_Note_Drafts
HS_Request_Pushed
HS_Request_ReportingTags
HS_Stats_Responses
HS_Subscriptions
HS_Time_Tracker

Windows Installer Debugging

If you encounter and issue with the windows installer process you can obtain a detailed log of the issue during runtime.

1. Run the upgrade till the point of the error and then leave it on that screen.
2. Go to C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\2 (replace Administrator with the user you are running the installer with)
3. In that directory there should be a bitrock_installer.txt file that will have logging information.