Render Server gives error after upgrade to MediaWiki 1.19.1

[DanR]

This may not be a render server problem, but perhaps someone else has experienced it and can figure out what I'm doing incorrectly.

I have two MediaWikis running on the same server.  Until recently, they were both running Mediawiki 1.16.0, along with the Collection extension version 1.4.  They both had exactly the same render server settings in LocalSettings.php, including the same $wgCollectionMWServeURL.  These wiki's are internal to our firewall, so we have our own version of the render server running.  Everything worked properly.

We made the decision to update both MediaWiki's to MW version 1.19.1.  I upgraded the first one, and in the process, also upgraded the Collection extension to 1.5.   Now, whenever I attempt to generate a PDF, I get the following message on the 1.19.1 MW.  I've replaced the real server name with "servername" "The POST request to http://mwrender.servername:8899/ failed ($2)."  Because of this problem, I have not updated the other MW on the same server, and it still works properly.  I can't tell if this is a problem with the collections extension, or with the new version of MW, or both.  I tried updating the MW 1.16 collection extension to 1.5, but I get a message that there are unsupported operand types in Collection.php.  I tried downgrading the MW 1.19 collection extension back to Collection version 1.4, but then, when I try to generate a PDF, I get an error that says " Hook CollectionHooks::buildNavUrls failed to return a value. 

I can't find anything that I need to be doing differently in the LocalSettings.php file with MW 1.19 and collection 1.5.  

I'd appreciate any advice that someone could give if they've experienced a similar problem, or if someone can provide some suggestions that I can use to gather more information about the root of the problem.

It it's relevant, the server is running RedHat Enterprise Release 4 and the kernel is 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELxenU GNU/Linux.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

[ZBarth]

Hello,

I have exactly the same problem, I upgraded our wiki to version 1.19.1 and since that, the Download-Button of a book leads to a message: "The POST request to ~~~server name~~~:8899/ failed ($2)". Even the upgrade to collection 1.5 didn't change anything here...
I made a copy of the old wiki, where the Collection Extension still works smoothly and without problems - both wikis have the same entries related to the collection extension in the LocalSettings.php.
My wikis are running on a Windows XP machine.

Thanks in advice...

[DanR]

Bump.....it seems I'm not the only one who is seeing this problem.  Does anyone have any idea where this comes from?

[Ralf Schmitt]

could be https://github.com/pediapress/Collection/issues/1

[TomBombadil]

Hi,

Mediawiki 1.17
I'm using mediawiki 1.17 properly with mwlib and $wgCollectionMWServeURL = "0.0.0.0:8899";
The Books will be generated as requested


Mediawiki 1.19.1
For another Mediawiki instance I'm using 1.19.1 and  I'd to change to $wgCollectionMWServeURL = "http://127.0.0.1:8899/";
mwserve is generating PDF oder ODF properly, but mediawiki is not able to download the generated files.

I found no workaround for 1.19.1 up to now!

-- Tom

[Joseph Messerschmidt]

Will this issue ever be resolved? I've seen this issue 1 linked many times yet no word about development or a consistent workaround.

[Ralf Schmitt]

Joseph Messerschmidt <jcmesse...@gmail.com> writes:

>>
>> could be https://github.com/pediapress/Collection/issues/1

>>
> Will this issue ever be resolved? I've seen this issue 1 linked many times
> yet no word about development or a consistent workaround.
>

Judging from the importance it should have and the fact that it's been
open for 10 months, my guess would be 'no'. If anyone feels like fixing
it, feel free to submit patches through gerrit.

Besides, it's still on my list of things to do...

--
Cheers
Ralf

[Shadi Akiki]

I got over the POST error by setting the "require_once" command in the LocalSettings.php file AFTER the variable settings.
Here is the relevant part of LocalSettings.php
# Collection
$wgCollectionFormats = array(
    'rl' => 'PDF', # enabled by default
#    'odf' => 'ODT',
#    'docbook' => 'DocBook XML',
#    'xhtml' => 'XHTML 1.0 Transitional',
#    'epub' => 'e-book (EPUB)',
#    'zim' => 'Kiwix (OpenZIM)',
);
$wgEnableApi = true;
$wgCollectionMWServeCredentials = 'Shadi Akiki:****'; # password instead of ****
$wgCollectionMWServeURL = '0.0.0.0:8899';
$wgCollectionContentTypeToFilename = array(
              'application/pdf' => 'collection.pdf',
       #       'application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text' => 'collection.odt',
      );
require_once("$IP/extensions/Collection/Collection.php");

[Shadi Akiki]

Now I get the error referenced in
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Thread:Project:Support_desk/Collection_Extension:_RuntimeError:_command_failed_with_returncode_256

[Facundo Gini]

This Solved the POST request problem for me. Thanks a lot!