SimpleLists FAQ: Troubleshooting
The following FAQ contains questions and answers for troubleshooting SimpleLists.
- No items found
- The component doesn't work at all
- After upgrading SimpleLists, the page doesn't work anymore
- I've created a list but none of the items show up
- Toggle or hover doesn't work
- I try to edit an item but it's locked
- 404 - SimpleList not properly configured
- Toggle in Internet Explorer
- JFolder::files: Path is not a folder
- Cannot redeclare class jfilteroutput
No items found
The message should be pretty obvious, but what are you doing wrong? First make sure your environment meets the minimum requirements, for instance PHP version 5 is needed. Second of all make sure you have set a Category within the Menu-Item.
If you have already read the tutorial on how to use SimpleLists and the problem still persists, feel welcome to post your problem on the forum.
The component doesn't work at all
First check if you are using Joomla! versie 1.5. This component will NOT work with anything older than Joomla! 1.5 Release Candidate 3. It is not compatible with Joomla! 1.0 or Mambo. Second of all, check that you're using the latest version of SimpleLists. There is still some work in progress. In most cases the component works fine, but bugs may still exist.
After upgrading SimpleLists, the page doesn't work anymore
The problem here is that if you deinstall a component within Joomla! you might loose your menu-item parameters as well. After reinstalling the SimpleLists component you'll need to reactivate the menu-item properties by editing the Component Parameters within the menu-item. This problem is confirmed on Joomla! 1.5.3 and older, but might be solved in newer Joomla! versions. It is not related to SimpleLists.
I've created a list but none of the items show up
The cool thing about SimpleLists is that it's very flexible. But - in general - the more flexible a software package is, the more you'll have to configure.
For every page you can decide whether to show the images, links or main texts of the items contained within a list. You can do this by setting the "Preferences" within the SimpleLists component (check the toolbar), or you can do this for a single list through the "Component Parameters" of the menu-item.
Under Joomla! 1.6, 1.7, 2.5 or later, you might also want to check the permissions: If you have modified your own ACL-rules, it might be needed to explicitely allow outside visitors to see the SimpleLists items and/or category.
Toggle or hover doesn't work
You might want to make sure that the regular MooTools script of Joomla! is not overriden by any kind of module, component or template. Check the browser source of your SimpleLists page for any occurance of the script-name "mootools.js". It should only appear once.
I try to edit an item but it's locked
First of all SimpleLists works together with the regular locking of Joomla!: If somebody else is editing the item, you'll get a message telling you that the item is locked. If you're the only one editing the item, you might be running into an old bug: The database-field "checked_out" in the table "#_simplelists" should be of the type "int(11)" and not "tinyint(11)". Because later versions of the component allow you to uninstall the component without loosing the data within the database-table, it might be that you're stuck with this bug even after upgrading SimpleLists to the latest version. For now try to edit the database manually for instance with a tool like PhpMyAdmin.
404 - SimpleList not properly configured
You didn't put any items in the SimpleLists category yet, or you didn't configure a category for the menu-item.
Toggle in Internet Explorer
Sometimes the toggle-layout doesn't work with Internet Explorer. This is not a problem of SimpleLists but of the MooTools Accordion used to create this effect. Ofcourse, it's actually a problem of Internet Explorer. The Accordion-effect fails to work if the browser is put into the so-called "quirks mode". This "quirks mode" is sometimes called by the browser if some HTML-elements are messed up, but in other cases this mode is actually forced by the Joomla! template by using a XML-statement at the top of the HTML-document. If this is the case, and you're not able to change the Joomla! template to work without quirks mode, forget about this effect.
JFolder::files: Path is not a folder
When installing SimpleLists, the installer tries to create a folder to store images for the lists. This folderlocation can not be changed at the moment, but is required for SimpleLists to work correctly. Probably the permissions on your filesystem are set too strict. You'll have to create the folder manually: The folder is called "simplelists" and is placed under the common "images" directory.
Cannot redeclare class jfilteroutput
If you get a PHP Fatal Error "Cannot redeclare class JFilterOutput" you probably have a Joomla! 1.5 installation that was upgraded from a very early 1.5 version.
This problem is not related to SimpleLists but to some files still remaining within Joomla! after the upgrade. You'll need to clean up your directories otherwise some components (both from the Joomla! core as third-party) might fail.
Modified on Friday, 07 October 2011
More tutorials in this section
- Upgrading SimpleLists
- Hidden secrets of SimpleLists
- SimpleLists and template overrides
- SimpleLists - Usage
- Lightbox with SimpleLists
- Create download-pages using SimpleLists
- How can I create a language-pack for SimpleLists?
- SimpleLists FAQ: Troubleshooting
- SimpleLists FAQ: Usage
