I have a "fatal" problem with Panels: The Layout choice does not appear to be saved (on the Layout panel it's not selected; and on the variant Summary panel the layout description is blank), and the Content is also not saved or displayed on the Panel (and also not described on the variant Summary panel).

This same behavior happens on both Panel Pages and Panel Nodes. It doesn't seem to be a javascript issue -- there don't seem to be other glitches with js anywhere else on the site -- plus, see detail#(2) below for an odd behavior of the drag-and-drop working perfectly.

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Here are more details:

(1) The one thing I can do is go to Layout, choose a Layout and then click Update; it then takes me to the layout confirmation screen, where it says "There is no content in the panel display. If there were content, you would be given an opportunity to select where in the new layout the old content would be placed. Select "Save" or "Continue" to proceed. This change will not be processed if you do not continue."

If I then click Update, it will go to the Content editing panel and will show the drag-and-drop editing interface, with no content. I can add content perfectly well. However, once I save it, it's gone. There is no content displayed on the Panel when I view it, and if I go back to the Content editing panel, it gives me options for Display Settings, Title Type, and Title -- but NO drag-and-drop interface and no content, with no way to put anything on the Panel. The Panels are effectively non-functional.

If I click Update and Save, or Save, the layout is not saved, content is not saved, and I can never get to the drag-and-drop interface ever again.

(2) Strangely, the Panels that come "built-in" -- the ones that are of the Type "System" and Storage "In code" -- for example, the /ctools_plugin_example -- show their content just fine AND the drag-and-drop editing interface is completely operational for them.

What is going on? I can't figure out what the culprit is here!!

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I have seen what I think is almost this same problem reported in other posts, but all issues on it have been closed with varying degrees of resolution. Here are 2 examples of these other posts:

"Content does not save properly on panel pages"
http://drupal.org/node/711598

"I had the same"
http://drupal.org/node/547986

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I have tried all 3 suggestions I have seen in other posts, in the following order. None of them fixed the problem or made any change whatsoever:

1) Upgrade to the latest (as of about 3 days ago) -dev version of CTools.

2) Clear all caches (I used the dev menu in Admin Menu to do it).

3) Disable Organic Groups module (I also disabled all other OG modules, including OG Access, and then rebuilt node permissions just to make sure).

As I said, none of these worked, so I re-enabled Organic Groups, and OG Access, as I rely on that for our site's complicated member access levels.

I have also tried importing Panels to see if that would work, but it just creates a Panel in the list with the same missing content, layout, and drag-and-drop interface as all the others I create.

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I'm not sure how to function without Panels, as some of the most important pages of my site must be constructed with Panels, so I'm now missing about 30% of my site. This is critical and urgent to our operation, so I'm hoping someone has an answer to this soon.

Please help!!

Comments

timwee’s picture

timwee commented

I have the same problem.
Panels 6.x-3.x-dev
Ctools 6.x-1.x-dev
Jquery udate 6.x-2.0-alpha1
PHP version 5.2.9

shrimphead’s picture

shrimphead commented
Version: 6.x-3.x-dev » 6.x-3.3

I've been having the same problems as well. All my content (3x3 grid) kept disappearing or rearranging. So badly that I was very frustrated. I've discovered that the "Update & Save" button was the problem. Using the individual 'Update' and 'Save' buttons solved my disappearing panel data.

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

I tried this, and it didn't work for me:

When I click update, it shows me the drag-and-drop interface, and lets me put nodes, views, etc. in it. Then, when I click save, it acts like it saves, but it shows no layout summary and when you go to look at the layout setting there is none, and when you go to the content settings there's no drag-and-drop interface and the content is all gone (and, of course, when you view the page, there is no content on the page).

It seems like a lot of people have some version of this problem, but not everyone. I am really trying to figure out what's the culprit, but I cant figure it out.

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented

My guess is a database out-of-sync problem. Check your watchdog and PHP logs for errors?

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

Here's what I found when had PHP show errors -- it showed this on every page:

Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated in /path-to-our-server-folder-containg-the-drupal-folder/drupal6/sites/all/modules/connect/connect.module on line 890
Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated in /path-to-our-server-folder-containg-the-drupal-folder/drupal6/sites/all/modules/connect/connect.module on line 890

That's all for errors.

How would I know if the database is out of sync, and what do I do about it?

Thanks for any help you can give!!!

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented

If it were you'd hit update.php

If it's the Update & Save button losing data problem, be sure to always refresh right after hitting update and save. Or use the current CTools -dev.

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

Thanks for the quick response, Merlinofchaos,

I have already updated the database successfully a number of times. Also, I am using the current version of CTools -dev. Despite this, the problem persists.

timwee’s picture

timwee commented

The only way you can save a page in panels is to go to the layout tab and save, if i press update and save in the content, my content is disapear. At the mini panels i cannot save or anything, i add the content and when i hit save the content is gone.

I also updated the db, upgrade the last verision of ctools 1.4 and panels 3.4 same problem.

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

Update: Last night, I just updated to the latest dev version of both Panels and CTools, that were released this week, hoping they were meant to be fixes for this issue.

However, unfortunately, the problem is still there.

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented

somatics: You should try uninstalling Panels and reinstalling it. (Use the uninstall tab to remove the module's database tables). This iwll mean you will lose any existing data but I can't imagine you have any if layouts do not save.

timwee’s picture

timwee commented

The problem in my case is from the db. i uninstall all the modules i have on my website and install only panles and ctools and the problem was the same, i also made a new db and try again with panels and ctools and then i realize that is from my db.

Any ideea how can i fix this problem in my db?

Thank you again merlinofchaos.

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented

You can uninstall and reinstall Panels.

What is more interesting would be if you can compare the two database schemas and see what is different? Understanding this might help us figure out what is causing this.

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

merlinofchaos, I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do I uninstall it without an uninstall link on the uninstall panel of the modules page?

I know I can just uncheck the module checkbox on the modules page and save, and then check it and save, but I didn't think that would delete the Panels tables.

Also, if you tell me how to compare the 2 db schemas I will. I can use Navicat, but I'm not sure what you mean in terms of how I would go about comparing the schemas (and which are the 2 schemas -- do you mean before and after I delete one and create a new one?).

Thanks in advance!

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented

Once you have disabled the module, when you go to the uninstall tab, Panels should show up as an option. It does have uninstall hooks which should remove the schema.

Another option is to install devel.module and use the 'reinstall module' tool it provides.

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented

The only way I really know how to compare the schemas would be to describe the tables and eyeball the two definitions. The tables that matter here are panels_display and panels_pane and possibly page_manager_handlers and page_manager_pages as well.

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

Okay, so I disabled and uninstalled everything with the word Panel in it -- Panels, Mini Panels, Accordian Mini Panels, Panels Stylizer, Panel Nodes, etc. etc.

Then I reenabled Panels, Panel Nodes, and Page Manager (and CTools is also enabled).

I tried to create a new Panel page. I got as far as choosing a Layout, and then clicked continue. This produced a White Screen of Death, with the following error message (I turned on error reporting):

Fatal error: Call to undefined function panels_mini_load_all() in /path/to/drupal/sites/all/modules/panels/panels_mini/plugins/content_types/panels_mini.inc on line 38

(FYI, Mini Panels module is currently not even enabled.)

So, I can't go any further than this WSOD. What do I now?

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented

Hmm. Maybe cached content types are giving you trouble, though...they really shouldn't be.

Try going into your database and clearing two cache tables:

mysql> TRUNCATE cache;
mysql> TRUNCATE ctools_object_cache;

(If using database prefixes you'll need to add your prefix to those).

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

Well....it's possible that we're almost there...Here's what's happened next:

ROUND 1:

I performed the truncates you suggested.

I then attempted to make a new Panel Page. It let me select a layout as usual, and then -- it successfully pulled up the content section with the drag and drop interface. Yea so far. I then clicked on the little gear icon to add content to one of the columns, and that's where it broke: The javascript popup popped up a white background but then spun and spun without ever proceeding to displaying anything on it -- no sidebar of option, no settings etc.

ROUND 2:

I used the Devel module to first reinstall all Panel modules I have currently activated: Panels, Panel Nodes, Page Manager, and CTools module. Then, since there seemed to be some issue with javascript in the previous round, I also performed a reinstall via Devel on the only javascript related modules I could find on the list: query_plugin module, jquery_ui module, jstools module.

This seemed to work a little further: I got past the point in round 1 -- I got to a full popup window that let me add a node or a view or other. I choose a view to add, checked a few boxes, and then clicked save. The popup window displayed one of those little javascript progress circles that are so common in drupal now, and spun and spun and spun. An hour later, it is still spinning, with no end in sight. I also checked the Page Manager, and there is no new panel page -- so it's not like it hangs on save visually but still saves under the hood.

What do I try next?

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

Success!

I went back and installed the latest dev version of Panels and CTools as well (there were dev versions a few days newer than the recent stable releases I had installed). This seemed to do it.

Or this might be why it's working: I went straight past the point in round 1 and 2 above where the content drag-and-drop editor was presented: Rather than adding anything to it and having it hang in javascript, I just clicked continue/save/whateverthenameofthebuttonwas and when I got the normal interface for the panel, I then returned to the Content section of it and then started adding content via the drag-and-drop interface -- this seems to work just fine so far, on the few test panels I've created.

Thank you so much for all your help.

Sooooo, now that I'm out of the woods, I've got over 30 panels from my old Drupal 5 version of this site that are the lifeblood of my site. Is there a way to bulk export them from Drupal 5 and bulk import them into Drupal 6?

Otherwise, what is the best way to go about doing this? Manually importing each panel and variant individually seems a little cumbersome, but I'm glad to do it if it assures data integrity.

How should I proceed to get my old panels back up and running?

Thanks again for all of your help!!!

elviento’s picture

elviento commented

If it's not in the stable release it is broke! I'm also seeing this ... the new content just does not persist in Panels. It appears to be something that has worked fine in the past so maybe a code error that regressed the functionality of these modules (ctools & panels). I'd hate to go to a development module on a production website.

alreaud’s picture

alreaud commented

My problem is I'm going along fine and then all of a sudden I can't add a content region in a sub-panel of the panel page.

I've an interesting workaround to the problem, which was to disable the Clean URL's and Profile Pictures module and then clone the problematic view. It doesn't work 100% of the time but it worked for me this afternoon. Profile Pictures has some significant issues with preventing profile fields from being accessed while enabled.

My issue is a production release deadline of June 8, 5PM, and I'm a TOTAL Drupal nubie. But a quick pass through Zend Debugger gave me over 1600 lines of warnings, across the whole site. Apologies I can't help more at this time.

Another thing I've been doing is running mysqlcheck and backing up every hour of work. That has saved my butt, allowing quick database restores using the mysql command. I do have a full testing server running the latest of releases of the operating system software including mysql, apache and php 5.3.x.

somatics’s picture

somatics commented

Merlinofchaos, I'm hoping you or someone else with Panels expertise can help me soon.

I was originally looking for a way to bulk import our Panels, now that my issue with Panels have been fixed. I gave up on that, and I have now tried to export them individually. This fails completely. Here's what happens:

I go to our old Drupal 5 site, export a single Panel, copy the code and past it into a new Import Panel page in our current Drupal 6 site.

When I click the Import button, it then takes me to a summary page telling me there's no Variant for the Panel, so there will be no display -- Problem#1.

Then, when I click the Save button, I get a page not found page with a URL like so: http://oursite.org/admin/build/pages/edit/page-panelpage_machinename

Just to be sure it's not the missing Variant issue, I checked the list at http://oursite.org/admin/build/pages and there are no new pages listed (even though I attempted to import 3 of them).

Do you know what I should do? Is this a bug? Is there some other problem with this kind of import? Is there some other method to migrate these Panels out of 5 and into 6?

I'm on a strong deadline and running out of already borrowed time.

Thanks!

zarkinfrood’s picture

zarkinfrood commented

Similar issues when adding multiple panes/views to a panel. We have run upgrade.php

The only issues arise when using the 'update and save' button. What happens is the red 'status:changes not saved' appears on multiple panes/views before saving, what happens after saving is whatever changed on the one pane is applied to all panes.

Sometimes panes disappear altogether. We have solved this issue by returning to the old workflow, update THEN save.

merlinofchaos’s picture

merlinofchaos commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Ugh. Yes, you won't be able to import Panels exported from a Drupal 5 version of Panels. Sorry about that; there is not a lot I can do there. The only thing I can think of (and I'm sorry, this advice is probably now far too late as it's been over a month since it was asked) is to perform an update on a copy of the database into Drupal 6; export *those* panel pages (use the bulk export module and put them into code!) into your freshly installed system and see if that works.

The "Update and Save" button was known to be buggy with older versions of CTools, but the version that is currently available should be fixed.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.