'String could not be parsed as XML'

I downloaded and installed the latest release of Contact Enhanced Pro but all links on the website to established contacts could not be found. The Joomla site returned '): String could not be parsed as XML'. I had to remove the site and reestablish it using Akeeba Backup so that the CE Pro version is 3.8.5. The Joomla version is 3.8.13 running on PHP 7.2.

Doing this caused me to lose a few members who recently signed up for website user accounts.

I think this happened with an earlier release, too.

Sincerely,

Don White
usncva.org/

Dear Don,

I could not reproduce this issue locally. I've tested using Joomla version is 3.8.13 and PHP 7.2 as well.

Can you please set up a test environment, so I can try to install reproduce the issue and fix it? You can send the credentials using the Support -> Contact Form and I'll work on this on Sunday.

If it ever happens again, a possible solution is to unpack (unzip) the pkg_contactenhanced_....zip file and install each extension separately, stating with the Component.

PS: If you have Akeeba backup PRO you can configure it to take a backup automatically on every Extension update.

Best regards,

Douglas,

Thanks but no thanks. I'll continue to use version 3.8.5 of CE Pro. I am a member of the Board of Directors for the US NCVA and about 1500 of our members trust the website to maintain the integrity of their personal data. I simply cannot permit someone else to work with the system internals. Besides, whatever you would tweak will be changed with the next version.

I can only reiterate that all contact links and online forms created using v3.5.5 worked normally. With version 3.8.6, each menu link rendered a 404 error and the URL displayed '0: string could not be parsed as XML'.

Cheers,

Don White

Dear Don,

I understand you don't want to provide access to your site, however that error code is quite generic. There's no file and line number where this error occurs and we could not reproduce this error locally. It might be a conflict with another extension or something very specific to your server/extension configuration.

In these cases, it is very hard to debug if we don't have access to the website.
Anyway, can you set up a copy of your website, set Error Reporting to Maximum, Enable system debug (in Joomla Global Configuration) and try to Update again? Now PHP will display the file and line number of the error, as well as a call stack.

This might help us to understand and fix this issue.

Also, if the problem persists. We can always sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

Best regards,