Discussion Forums  >  Self Hosted Control Panels

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GilbertAZ
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05/24/16 11:31 AM (7 years ago)

How is anyone installing the Self-Hosted Control Panel?!

I just did a brand new install of the Self-Hosted version of Buzztouch (3.0) and can't get anything to work past the initial installation. I'm getting so many error messages about deprecated PHP calls and incorrect functions that I have no idea how anyone finds this usable!! How is anyone getting this working without going through and changing all the "mysql_*" calls to "mysqli_*"? I renewed our Buzztouch subscription for another year but this whole thing seems completely pointless if none of the things we're paying for work. How is everyone else getting this working (assuming anyone is actually able to get this to work)?
 
Dusko
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05/25/16 12:16 AM (7 years ago)
Could you be more specific? Where do you host, what versions of PHP and MySQL are supported there? >How is anyone getting this working without going through and changing all the "mysql_*" calls to "mysqli_*"? This is the first time I hear this. Does your host provide MySQL at all? You may also want to reach to your hosting provider support and see what help they can offer. Maybe they support multiple versions of PHP and maybe there is one that suits BT server? In that case, one line in .htaccess could solve a great many problems that you are having now.
 
GilbertAZ
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05/25/16 08:07 AM (7 years ago)
I host on InMotion but that has nothing to do with it. I've tried multiple versions of MySQL and PHP to get this working. The setup process doesn't even fill the information that you provide correctly into the copy/paste section. Yes, my host provides MySQL. I use it every day. The mysql_* series of PHP functions has been deprecated in PHP 5 and removed in PHP 7. If you have strict enforcement turned on, you can't use these deprecated functions. If you have error reporting turned on in Buzztouch, the app becomes unusable because of all the deprecation warnings. This is not an issue with the hosting. This is an issue with Buzztouch. It obviously hasn't been updated in a very, very long time and is no longer supported. Push notifications don't even work on the Buzztouch.com hosted control panel and users in the forums have even submitted a fix for it that hasn't been implemented. At this point, they should just make Buzztouch open source and just offer the hosting/support as a paid service. That's the only thing that's worthwhile.
 
Dusko
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05/25/16 11:48 PM (7 years ago)
My BT server has been running for years on Hostgator. Current verion of PHP is 5.4.20 and of MySQL 5.6.30. As you may or may not know, I do custom programming for various BT clients and for most of them I had to install the self hosted server. I've always managed to install it so your report comes as a surprise to me. Apart from that, I agree that BT software could do with an upgrade to most modern versions of Java, Obj C and / or Swift, PHP, MySQL and so on. However, the only person to address these objections to is David Book, not me, I'm just a member here as you are.
 
David @ buzztouch
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06/05/16 10:54 PM (7 years ago)
@GilbertAZ Small rant here, bear with me. The Self Hosted platform I created 6 years ago, yeah, that long ago, works great for lots and lots of folks. Of course you could be running into trouble. Of course your server / backend / environment may not play happy with the BT code. That's kinda the nature of the beast with Open Source offerings. Like @Dusko mentions, lots of this code could be updated. Lots of it. iOS, Android, Self Hosted, etc. He reminds all of us about this regularly. But, that doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile offer (like I said, lots of folks think different) and that doesn't mean "This is not an issue with the hosting. This is an issue with Buzztouch" - it means it's an issue of trying to run dated software on a machine with a PHP / mySQL config that didn't exist when it was created. With that said, there are a zillion ways an admin could easily fix / get your backend running the Self Hosted package if you're interested. If not, I get it, you may be well suited moving onto something more modern. Thanks for allowing me to vent a bit :-) d.
 
GilbertAZ
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06/06/16 10:39 AM (7 years ago)
@David @ buzztouch: I understand your point but, with all due respect, that's not the problem here. As I see it, there are 2 separate problems here that uniquely affect each other. The first problem is that the buzztouch.com-hosted version of the software doesn't work. The second problem is that the self-hosted version also doesn't work, but in different ways. To expand, this issue began because the buzztouch.com version of the control panel has a major issue where push notifications don't work and can't be setup. You can't upload certificates using the instructions provided anywhere on buzztouch.com. Forum users have found the issue with the code and provided a fix, but that fix can only be applied to the self-hosted install (for obvious reasons). Attempting a self-hosted install, though, puts us right where you've pointed us - into a situation where we're using software that hasn't been updated in years on a machine with a config that didn't exist. I've been able to get the self-hosted install running enough to where I can create new apps, but then I lose all of the features of the buzztouch.com hosted control panel. So let me respond to your rant with a rant of my own (that I'm sure you've probably heard before and have addressed): It's incredibly frustrating to be a paying customer of Buzztouch. When we first set up our account, we were paying $50/year for Buzztouch - an incredible value. Since then, the price has gone up. We've had to renew for a few years now and the price has gone up for the last 2 years in a row, I believe. The features, on the other hand, have not kept up with this increase in cost. It almost seems as if we're losing features since several of the buzztouch.com features don't work anymore, have deprecated code, and/or don't compile without major fixes. This wouldn't be a big deal for me, as I could just vote with our dollars and move on to something more modern, as you've suggested, except that we have apps currently in the store that were built with BT that would need to be recreated. I still think Buzztouch is valuable, in this regard, and it's just frustrating to see the small pieces fall apart as we use the service more. In fairness, I took most of these projects over from someone else so it's possible that they weren't set up properly to begin with or there are other outstanding issues keeping things from working. The more I dig into it, though, the less likely those possibilities become. All in all, I'd just love to be able to say that we use Buzztouch because it's a great package that's worthwhile for these types of apps instead of saying that we use Buzztouch because we're kinda locked into it for right now. I genuinely appreciate everything that's gone into making BT, I just wish that the same amount of effort was put into making sure that it still works. Cheers!
 

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