ionCube Loader Problem

[ajmueller]

Hello all,

I'm trying to install the calendar script for a site I'm developing for some people. The host is GoDaddy.com. I used the automatic installer option and everything went smoothly until it said there was a problem installing the ionCube Loader. I ran the test script, the Zend Optimizer failed, but the ionCube Loader said it passed. It then told me the Linux loader for PHP 5.2 was required. So I manually uploaded the proper loader in binary mode using GoDaddy's FTP client. However when I try to run the setup I still get an error saying the loader is missing. So then I tried a couple other things. One involved adding a zend_extension path in the php.ini file, which didn't work. Another is runtime loading, which also didn't seem to work (even though the tester script said that runtime loading should work).

Yesterday I contacted GoDaddy's support and have not heard back from them. Does anyone know what the next step may be? Has anyone had problems using GoDaddy and the script before? Thanks!

[ajmueller]

Now that I've looked into it more, it appears this ionCube Loader problem is kind of common. Has anyone else had this specific problem with GoDaddy however? What steps did you have to go through with them to get this working? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[ve9gra]

If you have no requirement for having your own php.ini, you might want to simply remove it. When you have your own, it overrides the parent server settings, usually omitting the settings that control Zend and ionCube.

If you do need to have your own php.ini, contact the host to make sure that you have the proper settings to match their installation.

And btw, for ionCube, you do not need to download anything else as the decoder binaries are included with the calendar package. Just make sure to download the version as recommended by the Tester script.

[ajmueller]

I heard back from GoDaddy. Here is what they said:

"Thank you for contacting Online Support with regards to this issue with your ionCube installation. Unfortunately we cannot enable ionCube or assist in the installation. We have recently upgraded PHP to version 5.2.5. You will want to make sure you are using the appropriate binaries for PHP 5.2.5 and update any php.ini references to the old version of ionCube. You can review the ionCube binaries at:"

Having PHP 5.2.5 won't make a difference right? The loader is for PHP 5.2...

Anyways, here's the page that the calendar's installer takes me to:
http://www.tigardlacrosse.com/calend...der-helper.php

ve9gra if you could take a quick look and give me suggestions I would really appreciate it. I assume I need my own php.ini file since it was put there by GoDaddy. I've tried following their instructions but it doesn't seem to work (for both the ini and run-time loading). When doing the run-time loading I get this page:

http://www.tigardlacrosse.com/calend...age=rtl-tester

I've also tried editing the php.ini file, though the instructions aren't too clear. It says to locate or edit a file called php5.ini, but the only ini file is php.ini. I'm just really confused (and I have experience as a PHP dev). Any clarity in this would help me a lot. Here are the ini files:

http://www.tigardlacrosse.com/php.ini
http://www.tigardlacrosse.com/php5.ini

The only lines I added to those files were the first zend_extension lines with the loader file reference. Would it matter that I don't have control over restarting the web server? Please help!!!

[ve9gra]

That first Zend line is wrong. PHP's core files are running system side... not web side. So the path /calendar is invalid.

Here's the correct path, but I'm not sure that it would solve your issue.

zend_extension=/home/content/t/i/g/tigardlacrosse/html/calendar/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so

The last two lines seem to indicate that Zend Optimizer is installed, but I don't know of version 4.3 (if that's what it means).

A quick Google search returned this post which was very informative.

You might be able to completely replace the entire [Zend] section, for this one:

zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-3.3.3
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-3.3.3
zend_optimizer.version=3.3.3
zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so
zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so

Only downside to doing this is that you will need to change your calendar version from the ionCube encoded version to the Zend encoded one. You can follow the upgrade instructions for the calendar to change which version you're using.

[ajmueller]

Thanks so much ve9gra! I'll take a look at this later tonight. Hopefully it works. I'll let you know what happens.

[ajmueller]

Originally Posted by ve9gra

That first Zend line is wrong. PHP's core files are running system side... not web side. So the path /calendar is invalid.

Here's the correct path, but I'm not sure that it would solve your issue.

zend_extension=/home/content/t/i/g/tigardlacrosse/html/calendar/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so

The last two lines seem to indicate that Zend Optimizer is installed, but I don't know of version 4.3 (if that's what it means).

A quick Google search returned this post which was very informative.

You might be able to completely replace the entire [Zend] section, for this one:

zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-3.3.3
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-3.3.3
zend_optimizer.version=3.3.3
zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so
zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so

Only downside to doing this is that you will need to change your calendar version from the ionCube encoded version to the Zend encoded one. You can follow the upgrade instructions for the calendar to change which version you're using.

Ok after a whole mess, I'm still curious what I REALLY need to do. That post you linked me to had a whole bunch of "solutions" that I tried, but still didn't get anywhere with. I'm sure the answer's there somewhere, but I just need to dig it out.

This help document for GoDaddy may be useful:
http://help.godaddy.com/article/1232

According to that, the installed versions of Zend on their servers are only for PHP 4. I have PHP 5 on my server. Should I follow GoDaddy's instructions and have them change the version of PHP to PHP 4? If I follow this route, will I need to change my .htaccess file again? What changes will I need to make?

If I decide to stick with PHP 5 and follow this help document:
https://support.cubecart.com/index.p...kbarticleid=84
Do I do what this guy says?
http://www.zend.com/forums/index.php...t=0#msg_num_18

I tried this last setup as well. It didn't work for me either.

I'm getting very frustrated and I'm sure the people I'm building this site for are getting antsy and want to see results. I don't understand how something like this can be so difficult. This should be a simple setup.

BTW, here's what the calendar setup page says for me:
http://www.tigardlacrosse.com/calendar/setup/

[ve9gra]

The difficulty is not in setting up the calendar... And the part that you're dealing with should be done by your host - not yourself.

Instead of trying to piece bits of posts together, contact your host to get the definitive answer. Ask to have your domain setup with PHP5 and Zend. Once that is done, run the Tester script to confirm that it's done, and then setup the calendar.

[ajmueller]

Originally Posted by ve9gra

The difficulty is not in setting up the calendar... And the part that you're dealing with should be done by your host - not yourself.

Instead of trying to piece bits of posts together, contact your host to get the definitive answer. Ask to have your domain setup with PHP5 and Zend. Once that is done, run the Tester script to confirm that it's done, and then setup the calendar.

I have heard back from GoDaddy. Here's what they said:

"Zend Optimizer™ for PHP4 and GD Library are installed on all Linux Shared Hosting accounts. GD Library is a PHP library that affects image resizing, among other things. Zend Optimizer™ works with Zend Guard™ to enhance the performance of PHP applications. Zend Guard protects the source code of PHP applications by distributing them without revealing the application's source code. Zend Optimizer runs and optimizes Zend Guard's encoded files, which enhances the performance of PHP applications.
Customers can upload newer versions of Zend Optimizer (and other PHP modules) and reference the path to their files.

CAUTION: This will not work with PHP5. If you attempt to use the installed version of Zend Optimizer with PHP5, it will cause problems.
If you want to use your own php.ini and Zend Optimizer, add the following to your php.ini:
[Zend]
zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-2.5.7
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-2.5.7
zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so
zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so"

I already knew all of this because of the forum you linked me to. So I followed that forum's instructions explicitly to get a newer version of Zend working with PHP5 (evidently with GoDaddy we have to do this ourselves). I now have Zend working alongside PHP5, evident by my phpinfo:

http://tigardlacrosse.com/phpinfo.php

However the calendar tester script still does not recognize this:

http://tigardlacrosse.com/tester/

Since I had Zend working, even though the tester didn't recognize it, I decided to reinstall the calendar again. I removed the old installation, downloaded the auto-installer for Zend for PHP5, ran it, and it says this when trying to run setup:

http://www.tigardlacrosse.com/calend...p?locale=en_US

I obviously have a new enough version of Zend installed and working. I don't feel like I've done anything wrong. Any ideas? Thanks again for the help ve9gra.

[ve9gra]

Well, I actually can't find anything wrong with your phpinfo(). It's almost the same as mine. Only thing that you'll have to fix to make the calendar work is that you don't have a value for session.save_path which would make your sessions not work.

That's why I'm finding it weird that the tester even passes the session test.

Try this... my last resort.

Install the ionCube version of the calendar (I know, we're switching back to ionCube). Then take the full path to the ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so file in /calendar/ioncube and add that path to your php.ini. You'll want to add this as the first line under the [Zend] heading.

zend_extension=/*full path to*/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so

That might make ionCube work.