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Troubleshooting the MageBridge trial-version

You can see how MageBridge works by using our free trial version. While this trial-version is completely functional, it requires ionCube-loaders to be enabled. This guide helps you troubleshoot trial-related issues.

Support for MageBridge-related issues

Please note that the MageBridge Trial comes without support. Issues that you may discover may be reported on our online forum, but we give no guarantee that it will be fixed in the trial-version. Our regular support-process is that bugs are fixed within days, by releasing a new MageBridge build - but the trial-version is not part of that procedure.

Installing ionCube support

For the trial-version to be used, you will need ionCube to be installed on your webserver. Please note that ionCube requires modification of the webserver on system-level: The loaders need to be added to the php.ini file. Most likely, you will need to contact the system administrator of the webserver for this. If you have a FastCGI-based environment, it might be that you can use your own personal php.ini file.

In general, the following line needs to be added to your php.ini (after replacing YOURPATH and YOURPHPVERSION):

zend_extension = YOURPATH/ioncube_loader_lin_YOURPHPVERSION.so

With previous PHP-versions, it was possible to dynamically load the ionCube-loader in Joomla! (through the use of the dl() PHP-function). With current PHP-versions, this is no longer possible.

Disabling all MageBridge plugins

If you have not upgraded the trial-version, but you have made your Joomla! installation rely on the MageBridge plugins, it might be a good option to (temporarily) disable all MageBridge plugins. To do this, execute the following MySQL queries - for instance through phpMyAdmin. (Change your database table-prefix if it is not jos_.)

Under Joomla! 1.5:

UPDATE jos_plugins SET published = 0 WHERE element LIKE "%magebridge%"

Under Joomla! 1.6, Joomla! 1.7 or later:

UPDATE jos_extensions SET enabled = 0 WHERE type = "plugin" AND element LIKE "%magebridge%"

PHP Fatal Error: The encoded file XYZ has expired

If you receive this error, it means that the trial-period of the MageBridge Trial has ended. We offer no easy procedure to recover from this error, so therefor our best advice is to never use this MageBridge Trial in production-environments.

If you do want to recover from this error, you will need to start with disabling all MageBridge plugins. Because the Joomla! backend is most likely inaccessible as well (due to this error), you will need to disable the plugins on the database-level. Locate either the table jos_plugins (Joomla! 1.5) or jos_extensions (Joomla! 1.6 or higher) and disable (or remove) all MageBridge extensions.

Alternatively you can also use the MageBridge file-patch to patch all files to their latest level. The down-side of this procedure is that the file-patch contains all MageBridge extensions, while you might have installed just a few of them.

If the Joomla! backend is available, things are easier to deal with: Download the Joomla! component of MageBridge from the Downloads section on our site, install it in Joomla! (it will override the existing component). Next, use the MageBridge Upgrade page to upgrade all extensions at once to their full open source version.

PHP Fatal Error: The file XYZ cannot be decoded by this version of the ionCube loader

Our MageBridge Trial is set up with ionCube version 4, and you will need decoders of version 4 or higher as well. You will need to replace the ionCube-loader with newer versions. If your system administrator is telling you that the server is already using the latest available ionCube version, ask him to RTFM and recheck - the ionCube message about wrong versioning is simple and true.