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I had a form working on a site. After a couple of days, the form has vanished, plus the component access via the menu system.

GONE all of it.

No one has touched this machine except me. Looking at the file structure the component files are still there. Looking in the database, the tables are still there, but NO data. The form I had worked on, is not in the DB.

I thought it might be some kind of hack, so i checked my local machine on which I develop: The menu to the component is still functioning in the admin, but clicking it brings up a page error, component not found. The files are still in the website file system.

Checked the local db, was lucky enough to find the form data and managed to restore the original form back to the webserver.

Still puzzled, and concerned. This could just happen again.

??

Hi soletread,

this is the 2nd time I hear about this issue this week so I think that this is a kind of some conflict which must be fixed somewhere yes, can we try to fix this together because I can't regenerate it locally here ?

#1- whats your joomla version ?

#2- if 1.5 then do you have legacy mode ON or OFF ?

#3- which Chronoforms version did you install ?

#4- you say the Chronoforms menu item vanished, can you call the Chronoforms page by writing this URL into your website admin area ? :
administrator/index.php?option=com_chronocontact&act=all

Thanks!

Max

Running Joomla 1.5.3

Legacy is on.

Chronoforms RC3.1

Pasting the url you describe does not work. I get a 404 error "component not found" message.

Gzip page compression is off

?

Please turn OFF legacy, does it work ? I assume that Chronoforms is still there and you didn't uninstall it!

also please look at the installer components list, this is where you uninstall components, does Chronoforms in the list ?

Turning legacy off does not work.

Looking in the component list as you said, the component is not listed at all. BUT the files are still on the server.

I will turn legacy off and leave it off and hold thumbs that the form does not vanish again.

It is VERY strange. I didnt even consider uninstalling the component.

Also ALL entries in the table vanished

Yes this is very strange! the other case didn't suffer from the component being not listed in the uninstall list! can you check your DB through phpmyadmin ? check the components table and see if there are any entries with chrono_contact mentioned ?

can you look at your website log files for some clues on some kind of hack OR even contact your web host admin regarding this ? ask them if they have made ANY changes on the server recently ?

whatever was the results we reach here, please consider having backup and upgrade to the new version which will be released in a few days!

Cheers

Max

I did look for the table and found 2 that belong to this component. But zero records in both.

Its almost like the component tried to uninstall itself.

No, please be specific, you are talking about tables or records in the jos_components table ? please check this table for entries regarding com_chronocontact, then check the whole table list for 2 tables with jos_chrono_contact, whats the result ?

Thanks!

Max

Yes, I checked the components table and the component was not listed. The two tables that belong to this component were both there, but they were both empty.

Thanks soletread, in the mean time I see no reason for this to happen through some bug, a hack attempt wouldn't do this too and nobody else complained, so we will leave this issue aside unless somebody else make the same complain!

Cheers

Max

Hi, a problem just occurred with my chronoforms. The menu for chronoforms just disappeared from the components menu. It has not been touched or anything. It just suddenly disappeared from the components menu. I've tried reinstalling but although it says that the component has been successfully installed, the menu for chronoforms does not appear. It also does not appear in the uninstall section.

Hi, I've manage to access to the Chronoforms menu but its in a weird way. I have used a backup I've previously save deleting the old joomla folder and using the backup in its place. But in the component menu, it has the Show Data instead of Chronoforms. And to create a menu for a link to the form, I need to use the External Link option and manually type the link. Besides that, everything seems to be working fine for now. I'm using IIS 5, PHP 5.2.6, ChronoForms V2[1].5 J1.5 RC3.1.zip and 5.0.51b. I can't use ChronoForms V3.0 beta 1 as my backup form can't be restored.

Hi Joeey,

did you try to create a menu item before ?

Hi, I'm sorry but may I ask what is a menu item? If its a link to the form, then yes I've created it by selecting the external link and copying the form's url into the link.

Hi joeey,

No actually I mean a backend menu item through the menu creator in Chronoforms ?

Hi, I'm sorry but is there a menu creator in ChronoForms ? Could it be a new function in ChronoForm as I'm using an older version of ChronoForms because the newer version has problems restoring my backup form. If its a function of Joomla or included in the older version of ChronoForms then I've never used it before and I don't know where to find it.

HI joeey,

Here's the Menu creator item in CF 2.5

Bob

Hi Bob, I've never used it nor can I see it now. Right now, in the space where ChronoForms is suppose to be, I can only see "Users". Placing the cusor over it expands it to Show user data. I can only access ChronoForms through there.

But in Joomla by default there is no menu should have the name "Users" or users data! I think something went wrong with the components table, are you comfortable with phpmyadmin ?

I've heard of phpadmin but I don't have any experience with it. Currently, the problem isn't that much of a hassle. Chronoforms still work but I just have to go to the user data first before I can enter ChronoForms main menu. Just thought I let you guys know about this weird problem. I've got to show my form to the assessor tomorrow and after that they will be taking the project which means hopefully they won't call me back,

Hi joeey,

If possible please can you post an image of the admin menu for us to see what's there.

Thanks

Bob

I just experience a similar disappearing act for ChronoForm too. I click on the Menu from the frontpage and I get Error 404: Component not found. Same error when I try to access the menu from the backend. Chronoform is still listed in the Component list but when I click on it, it gives the error 404.

In the Uninstall/Install screen, It is listed in the Component tab as a component. However, I now have an opening error:

Warning: opendir(/local/home/mysite/domaino.com/administrator/components/com_chronocontact): failed to open dir: Permission denied in /local/home/mysite/domaino.com/libraries/joomla/filesystem/folder.php on line 391 Warning: readdir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /local/home/mysite/domaino.com/libraries/joomla/filesystem/folder.php on line 392 Warning: closedir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /local/home/mysite/domaino.com/libraries/joomla/filesystem/folder.php on line 416 

I have set all files and folder referenced to 777, still error persist. Not sure what to do now.

I am running Joomla 1.5.7 on a linux server (PHP 5, mySQL 5+). This worked perfectly before the form (and component suddenly disappeared)

New Update: It looks like the ChronoForm app may have been hacked. I say this because, I suddenly noticed that all permissions on it were reset to no allow public access. Also a file called "chronocontact.php" under "components/com_chronocontact/chronocontact.php'" is now mysteriously missing from the server. Any chance I can get this file back? Or do I have to manually uninstall and reinstall the extension again? I doubt if it will be possible to uninstall the component via the Joomla Uninstall/install module since it will be looking for that file to do a clean uninstall.

How do I prevent this type of attack that can compromise other components on my site? This may be a break point for me but I promise to hand on and give Chronoform a chance. I believe this component is great.

Hi omojesu,

I don't think this was a hack, or if it was then that may be simply bcoz you left some file with 777 permissions, means something like "any body in the world can delete my file"!

lets do this, FTP to your site, delete com_chronocontact folders under components/ and administrator/components/

now, go to the normal uninstall screen, you can see ChronoContact is still there, click uninstall, it should give some error like "component folder not found" or so, ignore this, now you should not be able to see the component listed anymore!

make a clean install with Chronoforms V3.0 stable file only from the joomla installer!

let me know how this goes!

Regards
Max

Thanks Max. I just did this and so far so good.