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File/Directory Permission Problems (wwwrun problem)

If you run your CMS (Joomla!/Mambo) and SOBI2 on a Linux based web server you have to keep in mind the permission and owner system of Linux.

In general there are two "users". The first user is the Apache web server and the second user is the FTP user. All actions, performed by SOBI2 are done by the web server.

What a user can do with the files or directories depends on the owner of them.
Who is the owner of a file or directory?
If you install SOBI2, or any other component, the component files and directories belong to the web server because the installation process is done by the web server.
If you copy a file/create a directory via FTP to your web space (server) the owner of this file/directory is the FTP user.

Permission and Owner Flags

There are three permission flags and three owner flags for each file or directory which control access rights.

  • Permission Flags: read, write, execute/search
  • Owner Flags: User (owner), Group, World

Now you have to determine for each file/directory which user may do what.

The web server needs read and write access, because it is responsible for presenting a site to the visitors (read access) and for installing new components and uploading files (images etc.) it needs write access.
The owner (user) of a file should have always write access.

What does 755 (directory) / 644 (file) mean:
  • User (Owner): may read and write
  • Group: may only read
  • World: may only read
What does 775 (directory) / 664 (file) mean:
  • User (Owner): may read and write
  • Group: may read and write
  • World: may only read
What does 777 (directory) / 666 (file) mean:
  • User (Owner): may read and write
  • Group: may read and write
  • World: may read and write

The most frequent problems which occur

  • You have copied a file via FTP to your web space, SOBI2 wants to write to this file but it has no rights.
  • You have created a directory via FTP, SOBI2 wants to create a subdirectory (during the installation process of plugins, etc.) and has no rights for that.

These problems often happen if you copy a complete local installation to your web server via FTP.

If you create a directory via FTP, the FTP user is the owner. The web server (and SOBI2) can only write to this directory if it has write access. Because the FTP user is the owner it cannot write to this directory if it is set to 755.

If your server is well configured, at least the group of both users (FTP and web server) should be the same. In this case you can set the permission flags to 775 and the web server (SOBI2) can write to a directory created via FTP.

If FTP user and web server are not within the same group you have to set the permission flags to 777/666 which is really not recommended.

We experienced as a good setting:
Owner of a directory/file can be the web server or FTP user, the directories and files should belong to the group of apache (web server) and the group has write access (775/664).

If your FTP user and web server are not within the same group and you are not able to set the owner and group rights, or if it is but you want to set the flags to 755/644 because of safety reasons, you should never copy files or create directories using FTP. In this cases use JoomlaXplorer for that because it acts (like every component) as the web server.

Another special case is, that other restrictions of your server, like the Safe Mode, limit write access to the owner of a directory/file only. In this cases, setting the permission flags to 777/666 don't help. Safe Mode and similar settings should be turned off if using Joomla!/Mambo

SOBI2 Troubleshooting

One of the common problems is, that the necessary directories could not be created during the installation process.
If the directories don't exist you will get errors like "Error moving file" when you try to upload files or you won't be able to install a SOBI2 plugin.

If a directory is missed, create it using JoomlaXplorer.

  • After installation of SOBI2 check if the image directory is created: /images/com_sobi2/clients
  • After installation of the Gallery plugin check if the image directory is created: /images/com_sobi2/gallery
  • After installation of the Media plugin check if the media directory is created: /images/com_sobi2/media

Additional Information

POSIX Access Control Lists on Linux
Linux Administration Handbook - Access Control Lists

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User Feedback

Very flexible and powerful directory component - Wednesday, 21 May 2008
its the coolest the most costomizable and profitinal component.
Very modular piece of work. Simply incredible how easy it was to set up and get running.
Thank you!
 
Simply The Best!!! - Tuesday, 20 May 2008
If you need a sofisticated, but at the same time easy to set up and control open directory system, this component would be probably your best solution! There are addtional modules supported for the system, so it's customizable, there are labguage packs... is there anything else you can dream of? :) My advice is : just use it for your needs and say thanks a lot to its developers! Thank you!
 
Works just great... easy in use... :) Super - Tuesday, 20 May 2008
This component is amazing and very easy to setup and run out of the box! You can also heavily tweak it if you know even a little bit about PHP. It's fast, reliable and very good secured. I saw the code and I think that it will never possible to hack any site thru this component. If it was sold at $100, I would buy it with no hesitation!
 
Perfect application - Tuesday, 13 May 2008
This is a perfect application. It is clean programmed and has a nice layout. The code is very nice and clean. It's very easy to customize, and has got some really great modules! Try it, This package beats them all!
 
Wonderful Joomla directory extension - Monday, 05 May 2008
I spent some time researching the different components out there, and none looked as apealing, easy to install and use, yet be powerful and scalable, as SOBI2.
SOBI2 seemed to have all the features I was interested in, and many others. Good program and excellent support.
 
Easy To Install And Use SOBI2 - Wednesday, 30 April 2008
SOBI2 is the best directory manager for Joomla! that i have seen. With all the features and tools at first one would think this would be to complicated to use and manage, but that not the case. SOBI2 works and is very easy to use.
 
What more would you ask for a directory - Tuesday, 22 April 2008
SOBI2 is I can say the most adaptive, the fastest, the most usable and tweakable directory there is on the net Speed, adaptability, powerful, easy to understand and simple. Everything a webmaster would ever want to offer their clients, and everything a client would want on their site.
And to be honest, because of this directory extension I've started to use Joomla ... ;-)
 
Amazing - Monday, 14 April 2008
I've spent about 10 hours in the last few days trying to figure out the best solution for Directory/Review listings. This soars so high above every other option out there that they can't touch this component.
This is by far the best addition to Joomla I have seen.
 
Excellent component - Friday, 11 April 2008
I discovered SOBI2 only one week ago, but I can say that I am very pleased to work with it. You can modify it to develop your own custom theme, or if you are a beginner it has everything integrated to be able to use it in your way. Nice work and by deepest respect for the developers that made this (and made it free). Keep on going with this and I hope to see future developements.
 
Intuitive Design - Incredible Support - Thursday, 10 April 2008
The title says it all - and to think it is provided free! This is what opensource programming is about! (user of this component since Oct 2007)
 
SOBI2 is by far the best directory available - Wednesday, 09 April 2008
The template system is very easy to modify. Masses of available styles allow different look and feel. The installation is for dummies. This component attracts all levels of users from beginners to advanced programmers.
 
Very Good - Saturday, 05 April 2008
I was looking for Directory listings which has Multiple sub Categories in it for my client. my search ended when I found SOBI. It perfectly meets my requirement and the installation was painless. I thank the SOBI team for developing such a good component. Keep up the Good Work ;)
 
Robust Free Business Directory component - Thursday, 03 April 2008
This is a FANTASTIC component. It provides multiple RSS feeds, is easily configurable, and it's free.
 
Poweful, very customizable - awesome! - Sunday, 30 March 2008
After trying several other components to create a custom database, I finally found SOBI2. It's very customizable, and did everything I needed. Haven't had even a hiccup. Great job guys!
 
Nice Product / Great Support / Free - Sunday, 30 March 2008
I needed a module that allowed me show businesses in a way that allowed many different payable fields. I was surprised that there were also other great options in this competent that I could allow my customers to use. The community is also really great as well. I started off by posting questions and would get answers fairly quick. I got involved and started to help make SOBI better.
 
The best support ever seen - Wednesday, 05 March 2008
I use sobi for 2 years and every time when I had a problem I could find a solution on the sobi-forum, where a great community and the developers can help you immediately or at the latest within 1-2 days. Just great!
 
Love it - Wednesday, 05 March 2008
SOBI2 is the most adaptive, the fastest, the most usable and tweakable directory extension for Joomla.
I use it for a business site I have.
I love the templating system within it. Very easy to adapt and integrate it to your website. The code is valid XHTML which I have tested and run in almost all popular browsers. Overall I have to say this script impressed me, and is the best free script I have found.
 
Competent and friendly developer - Tuesday, 04 March 2008
I installed Sobi2 on my webserver and bought the Radius Search Plugin from Mr. Suski. It is easy to install and fullfills all of my requirements. More important is the service provided to sobi2 clients. You may contact Mr. Suski and he will provide you with competent and quick solutions.
Waiting for further releases of Sobi2.
 
One of the best directory components out! - Tuesday, 04 March 2008
Sobi2, is most probobly one of the best directory style components out there at the moment. Perfect for any category based listings system, such as yellow pages style directories. The ability to have an unlimited number of categories is fantastic.
I would highly reccomend this component to anyone wanting to start a business directory.
 
Exactly what I was looking for - Tuesday, 04 March 2008
Installed, configured and ran just as advertised. These guys did a wonderful job. Enough Superlatives? Not Yet!
 
5 stars - Saturday, 01 March 2008
Almost all of the reviews are 5 stars. You simply can't find a better component than SOBI2.
Great features, easy customization, mega support, and they are always working on a new version. Next release is going to be amazing.
Ease of setup,installation was a breeze, very rich in features, better than expected!
 
A Truely Amazing Component - Thursday, 28 February 2008
It is simply amazing, the most advanced component out there so far.
It is hard to believe that this system was put together by two person.
The quality of the Javascript, PHP, design, software design, graphics, and even the documentation is like that of a highly-tuned.
 
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The number of functionalities is incredible.
It's a "must have" component
 
This is an excellent extension - Thursday, 14 February 2008
I'm using this extension since about 6 months and I have to say it's very great. It is easy to install and use.
This is one of the first really professional components I installed and I've even bougth many commercial components. It is a very good directory and the support is really great. Very easy to configure and works like a charm.
 
Very customizable - Wednesday, 13 February 2008
I very impressed about the possibility to customize this component.
I saw it as Yellow Pages, software directory (similar to this site), as classified ads component, as offers directory on car dealer site, as software reviews and ranking site, and even as bug tracker. It is indeed very impressing. And I probably still didn't saw all ....
 
first class component - Monday, 11 February 2008
Very easy to configure and works like a charm.
This component is simply first class and the support by authors is the best. An absolutely perfect edition to my site.
 
Good stuff! - Tuesday, 05 February 2008
It took me about a day to get my head into it, but when I was up to speed it did everything I asked of it and more, the CSS and Templates are so easy to edit that it is a joy to work with. The back up is also very good, always get a reply same day, which you rarely need as the support forum has most things covered already.
 
Cool thing - Tuesday, 22 January 2008
This is the most configurable component I ever installed on my Joomla site.
And it is absolutely professional. You can set all debug levels to maximum and you will never see warning or even small notice.
Kudos to the developers
 
It's really great - Monday, 07 January 2008
With this component I have easily created my own bookshop. I strongly recommend to everybody!
 
the best of the best - Saturday, 05 January 2008
This is one of the best, if not the best, components for Joomla, Mambo .....
And the support is great. Thank You very much
 

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