FATAL ERROR: Invalid URL.

[woodmj]

I am seeing this error pop up on my forum quite a bit from time to time.

When it occurs either the page is there but just with the error at the top or the page isn't with just the error or in the Admin CP (where it is most prone to happen) the content can be missing from either of the panes with the error at the top.

Just wondered if anyone else has come across this?

[Mark.B]

Please disable all plugins on your board and tell us if the problem persists.

To do this, edit your vBulletin config.php file currently on the server by adding the following line after the <?php line:

define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true); 

Then reupload the config.php file into your forum's includes folder.

[woodmj]

Hi Mark, I disabled all plugins in config.php as you suggested and tried to access ACP 3 times and the 3rd time it still threw the 'Fatal Error: Invalid URL.' error in a blank right pane.

Is there anything else I could try?

[BirdOPrey5]

If that is the complete error it seems to be the result of the $GLOBALS array not being created properly- are you sure that is the complete error?

[woodmj]

Joe - Yes, that's the only error message that will show up in your browser when it happens.

Mark got me looking at my config.php this morning with him asking me to try disabling plugins and I was comparing it to the master in the VB installation files and one thing I did notice was I was using vB_Datastore_Filecache rather than vB_Datastore_Memcached for Datastore so I switched mine over to vB_Datastore_Memcached. That seemed to speed the forum up somewhat and I haven't seen the error again, yet, but I don't want to speak to soon as it may crop up again when the server hits peak load this evening.

[woodmj]

Oh dear, I thought that the change I had made had fixed this but when I went into my Admin CP this morning I saw the dreaded "FATAL: Invalid URL." error again in the right hand pane. Would there be anything else I could try to resolve this?

[Lynne]

What is in you error_logs (if you don't know where they are, ask your host) when this happens? It is a server issue, so something should show up in some error logs somewhere.

[woodmj]

Which error log are you thinking of Lynne? PHP, Apache, syslog?....... I have SSH access to the server so I can take a look......

Joe mentioned above possible problems with the $GLOBALS array. Taking a quick look at Google is that a PHP rather than VB thing?

There are a couple of other non-VB sites on the server that use PHP, mySQL and Apache and they seem to be running ok according to my collegue so that is odd.

[Panthro]

Did you manage to solve this?

My board currently breaks every 4th or 5th load... I found the piece of code that throws the error:

includes/calss_core.php:

if (!is_array($GLOBALS))
{
var_dump ($GLOBALS);
die('<strong>Fatal Error:</strong> Invalid URL.');
}

I'm using VB 4.....

[BirdOPrey5]

$GLOBALS is an automatic array created by PHP - http://www.php.net/manual/en/reserve...es.globals.php

The code you posted is a sanity check that if GLOBALS doesn't exist as an array for some reason, stop the code. For $GLOBALS not to be an array something must be wrong outside of vBulletin.

[woodmj]

No, mine still does it now and again. Never did get to the bottom of it.

Sometimes restarting Apache helps if it starts to get really bad.

Did try reinstalling PHP but that didn't help,

Did you manage to solve this?

My board currently breaks every 4th or 5th load... I found the piece of code that throws the error:

includes/calss_core.php:

if (!is_array($GLOBALS))
{
var_dump ($GLOBALS);
die('<strong>Fatal Error:</strong> Invalid URL.');
}

I'm using VB 4.....

[blacklab]

i'm getting the same Fatal Error: Invalid URL. on every page.

This is a new install on a server I wiped and installed freebsd/apache24/php56/mysql56
I rsync'd over the whole forum from a working server that is on freebsd/apache22/php54/mysql55

php info seems fine

I can connect to the database which sits on another server fine from the command line

there is nothing in the http-error or http-access logs

I put the define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true); at the top of config.php and nothing changed.

Any ideas on where to go from here?

[blacklab]

well, I guess all I had to do is spend 10 minutes figuring out my password and post here and it cleared up

[woodmj]

It's still a transient problem for me. I think it happens most at peak traffic times. I find restarting Apache kind of resets things but it does come back. Never got to the bottom of it.