Microsoft IIS and Processwire

[KentBrockman]

Hey there!

What a great project! As mentioned before, we are absolutely thrilled by Processwire. Coming from MODX Revolution Processwire is now declared to be the system of choice to build all new websites for our customers.

After some smaller projects, which we will present in the Showcase-Forum later on, we are currently building our first large project using processwire.

The main challenge here is, that we have to use a Microsoft IIS Webserver with ISAPI Rewrite Version 3.1.0.96.
The installation went fine, after tuning up the .htaccess-File like mentioned in the following thread:
http://processwire.com/talk/topic/766-isapi-rewrite-3-on-iis/

Processwire obviously is running like always. But the further we went on in the configuration of processwire to the needs of the project, there are some issues which we are not able to solve. And these issues make us feel uncomfortable to the upcoming development of this large project, because we don't know what other challenges will come up.
It would give us confidence if everything runs fine from the ground up.


Currently there are the following issues:

- Admin Theme is not recognized
We installed the "Teflon Admin Theme" in the common way, but PW is still using the standard theme.

- Not able to upload Language Pack
After implementing the Language Support Module and the language.zip file can not be uploaded. PW shows the upload status bar, but after 100% are reached the field is empty.
Testing the issue with an easy field "file" on a page, the upload of a jpg works fine.

- Page order is not saved
If we sort the pages in the Admin by using the move function, the new order is not saved. After logging in and out the pages have the old order.

If IIS is not the reason for these issues, we would also be glad for help.
We didn't find anything on these topics in the forums.


We hope some of you will have experience in using IIS and will help us getting this project to be a hugh success.
Be sure that we share all our experience in this thread.
Perhaps this will be a great help to all who have to use Microsoft IIS in the future.

Thank you so much for your support.

[fmgujju]

- Admin Theme is not recognized

We installed the "Teflon Admin Theme" in the common way, but PW is still using the standard theme.

I have installed "Elegance" Admin theme on the Windows Hosting and its working fine. Make sure to installed inside /site/templates-admin/ directory.

[KentBrockman]

Hey fmgujju,

thank you for your fast reply.

The "Teflon" theme is working now. We had a typing error in the folder-name. So much to "in the common way".

Our fault!

Cool, one easily solved.

[fmgujju]

- Page order is not saved

If we sort the pages in the Admin by using the move function, the new order is not saved. After logging in and out the pages have the old order.

I haven't done any particular setting or configuration on the admin side or on the url rewrite. Mine page order is working as it expected. No issues so far. Have you change any configuration?

[KentBrockman]

Okay, this is probably a misunderstanding due to my bad english.

As Processwire comes with the "Basic-Page-Example", we strip down the basic installation to just the things we need, so that we start with a clean system. This means we delete the templates and the fields we do not use. From this point, we start to build up the project.
That's what i meant by "configuration".

The only thing we "really" modified was the .htaccess as described above.
If don't comment the line out, PW is not working.

[ryan]

IIS isn't technically supported by ProcessWire. Though I understand that several people are successfully using PW in IIS. But just want to point out that this is not the recommended environment for PW, and it would not surprise me if some things don't work. Actually, I'm impressed that it apparently works for the most part–maybe someday we can officially support IIS. 

After implementing the Language Support Module and the language.zip file can not be uploaded. PW shows the upload status bar, but after 100% are reached the field is empty.

This is one component that is LAMP-specific at present. You will have to unzip the language pack locally and upload the JSON files individually. I'm hoping to convert the unzip process to one that is cross-platform before long. 

[KentBrockman]

Hey Ryan,

your workaround works perfect!

Thank you so much.

Hint: Just unpack the .zip-file, select all included .json-files and upload them all at once by Drag&Drop.

Just to be clear, we do not want to use IIS, we have to. The customer is a company, which is specialized in windows-hosting and want to host the site on there own servers...

Any suggestions on the sorting issue?

[ryan]

I don't actually have any experience with IIS, and have only rarely come across it over the years. As a result, I'm not sure how to provide support for it, and that's why I've always kept Apache as a requirement for PW. But I know there are others here successfully running PW under IIS, so it certainly seems possible. The biggest issues will likely be centered around the .htaccess file. If there is something that makes IIS understand an Apache .htaccess file (including especially rewrite rules), that would be desirable for sure. 

- Admin Theme is not recognized
We installed the "Teflon Admin Theme" in the common way, but PW is still using the standard theme.

I don't think this could be an IIS-specific issue. Double check that you've installed the new admin theme in /site/templates-admin/ and that it is fully readable by IIS. 

- Page order is not saved
If we sort the pages in the Admin by using the move function, the new order is not saved. After logging in and out the pages have the old order.

This also doesn't sound like an IIS-specific issue. Instead, it sounds like the pages might not be set for manual sorting. Either that, or a potential browser issue. What browser/version are you using?

[KentBrockman]

Ryan,

the issue with the theme is already solved. See my explanation above.

Thank you for the hint on the sorting issue. Browser and OS are fine. I use it with all of our Processwire installations.
But "manual sorting" gave me the clue. These are the keywords, i had to search for. I was so focused on processwire and the IIS, that i forgot all other things:

http://processwire.com/talk/topic/1210-issue-with-manual-or-default-sorting-in-the-admin/

The customers server is runs MySQL 5.0.51, which seems to have a sorting problem.

The database will be updated in the next few days and then i will let you know, if this is the solution.

Thanks!

[KentBrockman]

The customer updated the MySQL and now the manual sorting works like expected.

For now, everything is fine with IIS.

[fisnik]

i have a problem uploading images/file at processwire installed on windows 2012 iis7.5 server

 

when i try to upload it shows: Error writing to C:\Windows\TEMP. PLease define $config->uploadTmpDir and ensure it is writable.

 

at config.php i have $config->uploadTmpDir = dirname(__FILE__) . '/assets/uploads/'; 

this folder is created.

 

Any idea how to fix this?

php shows this info - Can i overwrite it from processwire?

upload_tmp_dir C:\Windows\temp C:\Windows\temp

[ryan]

It sounds like Windows/IIS isn't honoring your upload_tmp_dir PHP setting, or it isn't being set. Just to double check: in your /site/config.php file, that setting is commented out by default. Meaning it's between /* and */ characters. Make sure that it is uncommented, so that the setting takes effect. It should look like this:

/**
 * uploadTmpDir: optionally override PHP's upload_tmp_dir with your own 
 *
 */ 
 $config->uploadTmpDir = dirname(__FILE__) . '/assets/uploads/'; // example

not this:

/**
 * uploadTmpDir: optionally override PHP's upload_tmp_dir with your own 
 * 
 * $config->uploadTmpDir = dirname(__FILE__) . '/assets/uploads/'; // example
 *
 */

If that doesn't work, try changing those slashes to Windows-style back-slashes, just in case (not sure it matters here, and I'm not next to the code to double check). Next thing is to make sure that the directory is writable by your web server. 

[brendan_rice]

@Ryan - I am having trouble with IIS and the image upload as well. I modified the config file as you suggested but am still having the issue. Can you help please?

[ryan]

I've got no experience with IIS so not sure how to troubleshoot with it. (PW doesn't technically support IIS, though some are apparently using it without trouble). Maybe someone who is using PW with IIS could suggest things to try. 

[fisnik]

Thanks for you reply Rayn, that line is not commented and it is still no overwirting windows default temp folder, i have managed somehow (i am not sure how, i told server admin to make some folders writable...) to upload pictures only on new posts and it is working fine.

With old posts i have problem with uploadin pictures, i have an error destinationPath is now writable.

But it is ok like this if new posts are working, if i found a solution for old posts i will let you now. 

[ryan]

If new posts are working and not old posts, then it definitely sounds like a directory permissions issue. Most likely the directories represented by the old posts are under a different account ownership than the new ones.