Pagination not working after moving to another web host

You're client is running movable type v4.34.

The reason why you're having that issue is that either you're not having the right .htaccess rules for the "Pagination" plugin to work, or that you didn't port also the MT files, which contained that "Pagination" plugin.

Kind Regards,
Mihai Bocsaru

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What do I need to put in the htaccess file?

Well, you could look at the plugin details, or inside the .htaccess file you've had on your previous hosting.

You should put something like this:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(p|page)=[0-9]+$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /your/server/path/mt-folder/plugins/Pagination/pages.cgi?blog_id=2&lastn=10&idx=index.html&path=/$1 [L,QSA]

Obviously, you should replace "/your/server/path/mt-folder/" with the path to your movable type CGIPath, but the server path, not the browser URL.

Thanks for your support Mihai.

There is no plugins folder in the directory where mt is installed, all there is is a mt.js and a bunch of folders with static html pages in them (its a static install). I think he gave me all the files except the .htaccess and I don't think hes got access to the old host's files anymore. Is there a way to put something in htaccess to make the pagination work without the plugin? Shouldn't pagination work with this version without the plugin?

You're welcome!

I believe that you are not looking at the MT cgi folder, but at the mt-static one, which is not the same thing.

You should install that plugin, unless it is installed, inside the mt cgi folder, plugins sub-folder.

What I would do if I were you is to find the MT folder, the server path to it, and then to add the lines I've mentioned to you about to your server .htaccess file.

The way pagination is done now is based on a specific plugin, called Pagination and available at:

http://mt-hacks.com/pagination.html

Another plugin, which would generate actual files for sub-pages, instead of the current redirection rules, is:

http://www.aldenbates.com/plugins/pagedarchives.html

This is weird, I only have static files, I don't even have a cgi mt folder. I'll try to download the plugin and put that code in the htaccess file to see if that works.

Maybe you didn't get the movable type cgi folder, which is bad, but you could reconstruct it from a fresh install and then from uploading plugins, while fixing publishing errors which report unrecognized tags (tags from plugins, but which in the absense of the plugins would be reported as unrecognized).

I am now wondering if you've got at least the mysql database that was behind the site. If you didn't get that, you're definitely in trouble.

There is no mysql database, this is a static install without any dynamic functionality. I was surprised something like this even existed, but somehow the site works with the exception of pagination...I guess they had it set up in some weird way using htaccess code, but I didn't get the old htaccess file. As I mentioned it all worked fine on the old host and I think he sent all the files that he had so I don't think I need to download plugins and install anything, only if I knew what was in the old htaccess file...

Too bad that whoever took the site from he previous host didn't take also the following:

1) the mysql database behind movable type;

2) the movable type installation (the "cgi-bin" folder);

3) the .htaccess file.

You're now enjoyed the feature which makes movable type an excellent publishing platform and which is the "static publishing" feature.

Basically movable type created all the pages in the site as "static", meaning "physical" files and not files generated on the fly from the mysql database.

However, without the mysql database which contains all the data, settings and templates, you won't be able to change the look and feel in other way that manual search and replace, or manual editing.

Without the movable type database with that site data, you cannot implement changes to the site files and then have movable type republish the site to have those changes implemented on the static files.

And you cannot have functions like that pagination, because it was implemented with a php plugin, which relies on the database.

If you would have used the Paged Archives plugin, you would have had also the pagination based on static files, so it would have worked without the database.

Again, bad without the database is that you cannot add new stuff to the site other than manually editing files...

Last, but not least, it is useless to edit the .htaccess file if you don't have the mysql database and the movable type installation files.

Hi Mihai,

I really appreciate your help once again :)

Here is where I'm at so far:

I downloaded Pagination plugin and put it in the plugins/Pagination folder

I modified my access file and put this in:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(p|page)=[0-9]+$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /plugins/Pagination/pages.cgi?blog_id=2&lastn=10&idx=index.html&path=/$1 [L,QSA]

Just like you told me.

Now when I go to:

http://www.patenttrademarkcopyrightattorney.com/?page=2

It gives me an error:

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

I've seen this type of error before where it was unable to parse SSI, do you know what else may cause this in this case?

Here is my full htaccess file code:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5s .php
Options +Includes
XBitHack on
AddHandler server-parsed .html
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(p|page)=[0-9]+$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /plugins/Pagination/pages.cgi?blog_id=2&lastn=10&idx=index.html&path=/$1 [L,QSA]

I'm using XBitHack on to make SSI work. Do you know if I'm doing something wrong?

Thanks.

Hi,

How would you expect the pagination plugin to work without the movable type installation and without the mysql database?

It won't work without the two :)

Cheers,
Mihai

I just added this line to htaccess file:

AddHandler server-parsed .html .cgi

and now I'm getting this code showing up on the page:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use lib "lib", ($ENV{MT_HOME} ? "$ENV{MT_HOME}/lib" : "../../lib"); use MT::Bootstrap App => 'Pagination::App::Viewer';

I was hoping for a miracle since the old host said there was never a database....

:(

I'm afraid that you're just wasting your time!

You will have to grab the mysql database and the movable type installation files from your previous provider.

Or maybe from a backup...

Without that you will have to forget about pagination.

Or you will have to manually edit pages...

Alternatively you could start with a fresh movable type install and re-create the templates and then recreate the content, but that would be a lot of work.

They are lying because you've been running movable type v4.34 which cannot be based on a berkeley db (which works like a folder inside your install), but on a mysql database.

So you've definitely had a mysql database. Keep insisting with them or see if you have any backup, or your client does.

nextlevelseo and Mihai:

I understand that you guys have more or less concluded that this is a badly botched migration. I have a few questions:

1) Did you just become responsible for managing this site when it was migrated to the new site?

2) Who arranged for the migration to take place? Was it your client without any advice from someone familiar with Movable Type?

3) What did the original hosting provider say when you told them that there had to be a database acting as the source for Movable Type-generated pages? What did they say their backup retention policy is for customer data?

Other information:

Technically, it's possible for Movable Type 4.3x to be run on any of the following databases:

a) MySQL 4.0 or higher
b) PostgreSQL 7.x or 8.x
c) SQLite
d) Oracle 10g or 11g
e) Microsoft SQL Server 2005

In general, most customers run MySQL. It's unlikely that your client was running Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server because they are only available through Movable Type Enterprise, which is very expensive to license.

See: http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/system-requirements.html#database-requirements for more information.