Word Press Install Missing civicrm.settings.php; dashboard unavailable; no menus

Question

I have a problem that appears to be similar to this post: https://forum.civicrm.org/index.php?topic=34290.msg145436#msg145436

I'm in the middle of setting up an evaluation instance of CiviCRM within my staging WordPress environment. I used FTP to upload all files and folders into a newly created civicrm folder within the wp-conten/plugins folder. It appeared as a plugin and i clicked "activate", which seemed to go well. I followed the link to configure, validated ddatabase information, clicked "Verify and Install" (or whatever it was) and it seems to have run without issue, except that I can't proceed with step 6 of the install instructions. All prerequisites were met.

I have no civicrm.settings.php file to backup (or even view).

When I click on the "CiviCRM" link in the main navigation, I get a page that looks like this:

Note there's an error, but when I click on the error link it doesn't tell me anything. Figuring perhaps I'll just proceed without backing up the file, step 7 talks about performing functions I don't have available to me in this state.

I'm stuck. I've tried this twice, and both times the results are the same (thinking perhaps I missed a step earlier, which is still quite possible, but I don't think so after doing it twice).

Any help would be appreciated.

WordPress Version: 4.4.2 PHP Version: 5.5.9-1ubuntu4.14

Clicking on "Refresh Dashboard Data" first couple of times didn't do anything, but the 3rd time it gave me the following in a red box: System Status: Error Cron Not Running Configure Default Mailbox Complete Setup

The link to "View details and manage alerts" didn't render anything.

Answer 1

Am new to CiviCRM and have installed WP many times on various platforms. I had the same issue installing the latest version (4.7.3) with WP.

First tried installing CivicCRM on an existing test WP site using the existing MySQL DB. Got same error as explained above. Next tried new WP (4.4.2) and different DBs, no luck? Tried to give cli.php write access as mentioned on a forum, no luck. Wasted time trying to chase cron jobs not running error? Actually, this can be handled later and is not critical for installation! Got timestamp mismatch error (again, not critical). Verified MySQL and PHP times, seem to be OK.

Finally, tried to install prior version (4.6.14) and found bunch of errors during the installation step! Turns out that it requires wp-content/plugins/files directory with write permission! This seems to be correct and not reported by new version! Create the directory and installation seems to have worked. Need to spend some time to get familariazed with it next.

Hope this saves some of you some time (cost me 5 hrs and tons of frustration!)

Answer 2

I dug further into the changes that WPE does to the file structure.

It looks like the new magic method of determining the file location using [civicrm.files] is failing. See https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/blob/master/Civi/Core/Paths.php

I am able to get both 4.6.13 and 4.7.2 running on WPE by adding the following to my civicrm.settings.php file right after the opening <?php tag:

global $civicrm_setting;
$civicrm_setting['Directory Preferences']['customTemplateDir'] = '/nas/content/live/kcrist/wp-content/civicrm/templates/';
$civicrm_setting['Directory Preferences']['customPHPPathDir'] = '/nas/content/live/kcrist/wp-content/civicrm/php/';
$civicrm_setting['Directory Preferences']['extensionsDir'] = '/nas/content/live/kcrist/wp-content/civicrm/extensions/';
$civicrm_setting['URL Preferences']['extensionsURL'] = 'http://kcrist.wpengine.com/wp-content/civicrm/extensions/';
$civicrm_setting['URL Preferences']['imageUploadURL'] = 'http://kcrist.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/civicrm/persist/contribute/';
$civicrm_setting['URL Preferences']['userFrameworkResourceURL'] = 'http://kcrist.wpengine.com/wp-content/plugins/civicrm/civicrm/';

This is based on the following article https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Override+CiviCRM+Settings

Give this a try and I will create an issue for the [civicrm.files] issue. edit- Issue updated https://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-18009

Answer 3

Looks like the menus did not build correctly. I would install this plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/civicrm-admin-utilities/

You can activate and it allows for a menu rebuild and a cache flush.

The file civicrm.settings.php is in uploads/civicrm

I do see that you are on WP Engine, to be honest , I have not been able to install CiviCRM on WPE.

Try clearing the cache and menu via the plugin. If that fails, I would move the civicrm.settings.php file to plugins/civicrm

We look in both locations for the settings file. It is much better outside the plugins folder, but we can try this.

Please let me know if we make any progress.

Answer 4

OK, so I had similar problem - the CiviCRM menu is perfect for http URLs but as soon as you switch to https, the menu breaks.

In my installation, there appear to be two civicrm.settings.php files:

• one in uploads/civicrm and
• one in plugins/civicrm

They appear to be the same file. Both of them have several URLs that need amending from http to https:

• Lines 80 to 82 under '// Additional settings generated by installer:'
• Line 222, where the CIVICRM_UF_BASEURL is defined

In addition, I've changed the WordPress address in the WordPress UI (in Settings > General)

And fianlly, the CiviCRM Resource URL in the CiviCRM > Administer > Resource URLS (http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=CiviCRM&q=civicrm%2Fadmin%2Fsetting%2Furl&reset=1)

Then I cleared the cache and I think I also rebuilt the menus (using the CiviCRM Admin Utilities plugin) and it works!

Took me several attempts to get this working!