Download problem...

[colin_newell]

Have been reading up on Nice PayPal for around a year - product looks good... no great!

Problem is...
It almost works 100%... almost

Downloaded and installed Nice PayPal Downloads -- seamless install -- very clear instructions. Good work!

I Uploaded my files for download - mp3's actually (maybe that is part of the problem...) and inserted plugin code in an article.
When I pay for the "file" I get the e-mail and the link which takes me to the down load. All good.

With the download comes a critical error...
===============================================
/Users/Downloads/2011blablabla.mp3.part could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.

Try again later, or contact the server administrator.
===============================================

Interestingly, on one of my Linux boxes running Firefox, I was able to successfully download the mp3 file -- but not on my MAC.

So: Should I be "zipping" all my files for download in my secure file area?

Cheers and thanks for a neat product!

[colin_newell]

Update -- I am updating all of my sites to 1.7

Nice PayPal Downloads works great on my 1.7 Non production site.

So that is a valuable clue.

Also gets me back in business for the time being.

Because my 1.5X sites will be up until the Spring time - 2012,
I would like to figure out what the issue is.

I have a good relationship with my ISP and an intimate knowledge of
my servers and PHP settings - so this will probably sort itself out quickly.

[Michael]

Hi,

I am glad that you like the Nice PayPal Downloads so much. Sorry to hear that you have an issue with downloading MP3s.

Should I be "zipping" all my files for download in my secure file area?

I always recommend zipping files up, only because I think that they are more protected from corruption. But, this is probably just fancy thinking on my part.

Although, when I purchase music online, it almost always downloads as a zip file.

One thing you could try is to turn off the concurrent download connections feature. To do this, do the following:

1. Go to Administrator>>Components>>Nice PayPal Downloads>>Settings.
2. Find the field labeled "Maximum Concurrent Download Connections" and change its value to 0 (zero).
3. Click save.

Turning this feature off may work better with your Joomla 1.5 and server configuration. Let me know if it does the trick.

~ All the best

[colin_newell]

Yup - turned off the concurrent download thing - as read in earlier forums - read everything on the subject prior to posting here -
Yea, how radical is that!

(it) Did not change anything -
The best clue is that my Joomla 1.7 install works flawlessly in every way. And they are on the same server.

I am going to do some point by point comparisons of the way the two are set up via the php.ini tools I have -
and I have a couple of trouble tickets running with my ISP (they are locally owned and operated with real humans on the other end of the phone and their server farm is right here in my community.

If anything this is going to motivate me to move up my 1.5 --> 1.7 Migration by a month or so.

I will pick away at this for a while on my own - if you have any other ideas, let me know - but keep it at a medium-low priority.
Did my first full check of how Nice PayPal Downloads works on my 1.7 install - all flawless - IPN works great, all the paypal gateway interaction 100%

Thanks for jumping in - Love your product and hope to play with some of the other extensions - maybe I will spring for the entire suite once I get rolling.

Colin

[Michael]

Hi Collin,

Yup - turned off the concurrent download thing - as read in earlier forums - read everything on the subject prior to posting here -
Yea, how radical is that!

You are radical!

Thank you for sparing me from answering the same three questions for the 1000th time.

(it) Did not change anything -
The best clue is that my Joomla 1.7 install works flawlessly in every way. And they are on the same server.

Strange. But, now that I think about it, I think there might be a difference between the two versions. Basically, the way the system works like this:

1. The user clicks the download button.
2. The download button submits to the download controller class.
3. The download file is read into memory and then pushed to the browser.
4. The user's browser starts saving the file to the user's computer.

I can't remember any specifics off the top of my head. But, I vaguely remember that, when I migrated the extension to Joomla 1.7, the technique I was using to keep the page from changing to the download controller view no longer worked. Which would have forced me to use a different technique. I have compared the two versions of the extension and I am not able to find the change. So, I may be wrong. But, I will keep looking and let you know if I discover anything.

In the meantime, thanks for the information that you have provided regarding this issue. It is invaluable to me.

~ Best regards

[colin_newell]

I appreciate the rich dialogue in this forum and your dedication -

I used to be on a quality control team and beta tester for a couple of Joomla 1.0X extensions that later evolved into better and stronger things.
..have used Joomla since day 1 and before that I used Mambo also from day one.
Have administered my own linux boxes and severs since Slackware 3.0 or something - but trust me, I am no expert.

I am fairly conversant in PHP and MySQL from an advanced amateur point of view - that is, I grasp about 40% of what is going on under the hood quite well
and the remaining 60% is dark and mysterious - and often times purple lasers and smoke appear to be metaphorically emanating from a lot of the things I take for granted of in Joomla
World. Which is probably OK.

I believe is reading the heck out of every support forum and giving back as much as I take out.
And not asking for anything until I have had a good look around.

The beauty of this minor bug is that it is near the end of the entire process - and everything else works great prior to it - and there must be some subtle differences between the two
iterations of the extension... well, because one works and the other doesn't.

I think the word tantalizing comes to mind.
So. Take your time. I will poke around under the hood and talk to the consultants at my ISP -- who love Joomla as well... and we will figure this thing out.

Many thanks!

[colin99]

Ack. Nice PayPal Downloads is now not working on either 1.5 or 1.7

And I have no idea why.

Same errors as above posts.

[colin99]

OK - just loaded some small MP3 files onto my downloads space...

Error message is:
-------------------------------
/Users/colin/Desktop/bn7jAG+X.zip.part could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.
-------------------------------

Where does the "zip" part come in? My files are simply .mp3 extensions?

At some point within a few seconds I get the "save to" prompt on my MAC (Have a PC too, same result...)
So I save the file (or open the file) with Audacity - and the file is corrupted.
I guess what is so puzzling: Why it all worked on Joomla 1.7 for a week and then stopped working.

My ISP insists nothing has changed in the last few days - or in the last week for that matter.

[Michael]

Hi,

This is puzzling.

Your server is Linux based, yes? What is the folder permissions and ownership for the file folder?

~ Best regards

[Michael]

In addition to my above response, the "zip.part" is a result of how downloads are sent. The server breaks the files up into manageable packets. Those packets are then sent to your computer. Your computer then splices all of the parts together to make a whole file. When your computer is in the middle of a download or the download gets interrupted, the file is marked with the ".part" extension label.

~ Best regards

[Michael]

Oh, I misread your post. In addition to the last two of my posts...

"Where does the "zip" part come in? My files are simply .mp3 extensions?"

No Idea. If you would like, I would be happy to take a first hand look at your installation. I would need a temporary super admin account for your site. If you are interested, you can email or private message me the log in information.

~ Best regards

[colin99]

Hi,

This is puzzling.

Your server is Linux based, yes? What is the folder permissions and ownership for the file folder?

~ Best regards

BSD -- so close.

Folder permissions: drwxr-xr-x

Ownership - Me I imagine... specifically NOT "nobody" - interestingly I have used and am using several "open" download and file management apps like Phocadownload
and they work perfectly.

[colin99]

Oh, I misread your post. In addition to the last two of my posts...

"Where does the "zip" part come in? My files are simply .mp3 extensions?"

No Idea. If you would like, I would be happy to take a first hand look at your installation. I would need a temporary super admin account for your site. If you are interested, you can email or private message me the log in information.

~ Best regards

In addition to the pop-up message, here is the browser message (which might be helpful...)

[colin99]

Here is the pop - up error message - although I have cut and pasted that for brevity.

[Michael]

HI,

I am just gathering info. I am not sure that file permissions factor in (as I haven't seen it to be an issue in the past), but it is good info to have.

I have sometime later today and will try to take a look at the install then.

~ Best regards