Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

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artemisia
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Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

Post by artemisia » 2020-04-23 18:09

Appgini 5.81, Reports 3

Not being allowed to specify output folder path: it's marked "invalid path" no matter what I append. I'm just adding "/reports" to the end of the otherwise correct path that's filled in for me. (In fact it doesn't like any folder name).
Is this a permissions issue? Is the folder supposed to be created by the plugin? (I tried w/o success to add the folder myself, permissions 755)

Help appreciated. ~Bob

hgarbe
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Re: Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

Post by hgarbe » 2020-04-28 14:36

Hi Bob,

the output folder should be the application directory. The Plugin simply checks if the provided input is valid to this.
So if you append an folder name (eg. reports) regardless if existing or not, it will state "invalid path" because its not the application directory.
Reports are created in the hooks folder.

artemisia
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Re: Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

Post by artemisia » 2020-04-30 19:00

The screen I see for "Specify Output Folder" shows the default path to my application on the server, which is correct; the help text says "Specify the full path of the AppGini application you want to install the output code to. Example: /var/www/html/photo-gallery". (On my server anything in /www becomes /home/<domain>/public_html/<projectfolder>) Nothing on this page about writing to the Hooks folder. I'm a bit confused about your reply.

~Bob

hgarbe
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Re: Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

Post by hgarbe » 2020-04-30 20:00

Maybe those screenshots help:
I was using the northwind demo for this. You see the output folder "northwind" and on the second screenshot one of the generated reports (the selected entry). The plugin generates the reports in the hooks folder. Thats why you get an error message when you enter any other folder than the path to your application.
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artemisia
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Re: Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

Post by artemisia » 2020-04-30 20:30

Your explanation is clear enough now, thanks. But I do think that page's help text could be updated to be more obvious about the intention of the path.

It's possible I have a permissions/security problem, related to my site being hosted on a shared service. I have seen a similar issue with other php-based report frameworks. In that case there is no straightforward solution unless my website would be upgraded to a dedicated physical machine, according to support.

regards, Bob

hgarbe
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Re: Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

Post by hgarbe » 2020-05-06 16:09

You may got a point there with the explanation. Can be misleading. I'm running my apps on nginx on a shared server. Path was already prefilled with the correct path. So not had to change it anyway.
Probably you got to solve this individual problem with your service provider.
To test the application may try running it on localhost. There is a nice tutorial on the appgini homepage for that.

artemisia
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Re: Reports 3: Unable to specify output folder path

Post by artemisia » 2020-05-06 18:02

I've confirmed that for a linux/php server and applications, creating and writing to a php file from a php application is a major security risk. Thus it's not usually allowed at most hosting services, unless perhaps a customer has exclusive control. The workaround then has to be to duplicate my appgini db on a local host using e.g. xampp, then upload the report file to my production server. That's potentially a lot of work, but once setup it might not be too bad if reports are not modified very often.

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