Questions are asked and answered on the forum. You need to be a subscribed user before you can ask questions in the forum. It is easy to become a subscribed user. Go to the subscriptions page to see which plan works best for you.

There are three broad categories of questions:

1. “Is it possible” questions: to learn more about this service, please read the article Is it possible …?
2. General questions: questions about anything else relating to Kunena.
3. Questions about migrating from J! 1.5 to J! 3.x: to learn more about this, please read Migrating your old Kunena forum from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x.

This fact sheet is about “general questions”.

General questions

People ask all kinds of questions[1] ranging from “How do I set up my website” to “How can I customise my forum to work best for my website”.  In order for me to give you the best possible answer, it is important for me to know a little about your website.  I may not be able to answer all your questions.

Do you only answer questions about Kunena?

Absolutely not!  I have to admit, however, that with over 8 years of experience, Kunena has been a specialty of mine.  These days, given the declining interest in Kunena and the inability of the developers to maintain a stable version, I prefer to deal with the Kunena as an outside observer and independent commentator.

Do you answer questions about old versions of Joomla?

I prefer to answer questions about versions of Joomla that are supported. There are good reasons why people should keep their websites up to date with the latest version of Joomla.

Do you answer questions that have nothing to do with Kunena or Joomla?

I will do my best but I don’t know all there is to know about everything.

After my problem has been solved, what happens next?

Your topic(s) may help someone else. When your question has been answered, and if you are satisfied with the answer, I will move it into the Resolved Questions[2] category on the forum. If you want to ask another question, please start a new topic.

What happens if my site subscription expires?

You can still use the forum to read topics but you cannot post replies or create new topics unless you renew your site subscription.

Login to the site and go to the subscriptions page to renew your subscription or choose a different plan that works best for you.

Can you go to my Joomla backend and fix the problem for me?

I do not like to go to people’s websites to fix problems. I prefer to explain what you may need to do and let you do this yourself.

Will you register yourself as a user on my site?

I do not register myself as a user of your website. If I need to visit your website to see a problem for myself (and your site requires me to login first) then I will not create an account on your site. If I need to login to your website then you will need to have a test account that I can use.

Examples of issues that people can have

‘The requested page cannot be found’ (HTTP 403) problems

In Joomla nearly all of these problems are related in some way to the Joomla menu system. The Joomla menu system can be quite complicated and, if it it’s not done right, you can get “The requested page cannot be found” errors.

‘This webpage has a redirect loop’ problems

Nearly all of these problems are related in some way to the Joomla menu system and Joomla’s Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Implementing SEO can be tricky and, if it it’s not done right, you can get “This webpage has a redirect loop” problem.

The best way to handle these kinds problems is read about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

‘Fatal Error was detected!’ (HTTP 500 Internal Server Error)

Most times these errors are not caused by Kunena[3]. Most of these problems are usually caused by other extensions[4] that you may have installed on your Joomla website. It is possible that you have installed another extension that is incompatible with Kunena, for example, or you may be using an extension that is out of date, or defective.

The best way to handle these kinds of problems is read the article HTTP 500 Internal Server Error.

Javascript library conflicts

The easiest way to know if these kinds of things could be causing problems in your website is to test what happens by creating a new “vanilla-flavoured” Joomla site, install the one extension you’ve been having problems with (e.g. Kunena), and see if those problems occur. If you do not see problems on this “vanilla-flavoured” Joomla test site then you know that the problems you are having are because of a Joomla extension you have installed on your problem site.

Your main task is to isolate the cause of the problem—uninstall other extensions, one by one, until you find the one that is responsible—and then you can decide if this other extension is worth the trouble of keeping.

Another cause of these kinds of problems is “code consolidators”[5] (software that “optimises” your CSS and/or Javascript by merging this code into one place to reduce the time it takes to display your page); code consolidators may not co-operate well with certain Joomla extensions.

Changing colours, fonts (CSS styling issues)

Another way of saying this is "How do I change my extension template?" The simple answer to this question is ... don't!  Except in a few special cases, it is not necessary to change the CSS of a specific Joomla extension. Rather, if you want to change colours, text sizes or fonts, you should make those changes to your Joomla site template. In this way, when you upgrade that extension, your Joomla site template will apply the customised changes that you’ve made from one version to the next.

See also What CSS file should I change …? but if you have specific questions I will do my best to advise you what is the best way to solve your problem.

Summary

I generally prefer that people use the forum to ask their questions, in public, and for me to reply to those questions, in public, on the forum. There is no private messaging system here.  For more information about the conditions of the service, see the Terms of Use page.

Sometimes your question may be similar to something posted on another website (and I might direct you to what I find for you) and sometimes your question may be completely new and it’s never been asked before. I’m here to help you as best as I can.

I will generally try to answer your question(s) as soon as I receive them—particularly if I do not have to wait for you to post your configuration report—but you should also know that because of the time zone where I live and other (paid) work that I do, I may not be able to answer your question instantly.

Notes:

[1] Please use a separate topic for each question.

[2] Topics moved into the Resolved Questions category are locked. People must be logged into the site to read the topics in this category.

[3] It is a reasonable assumption that most reputable Joomla extension development teams test their products before they release them to the community as “stable” versions.  This was true of Kunena in the past.  The development team that took over after Kunena version 3.0.8 was released does not conduct rigorous field testing.  Because of this, successive releases of Kunena now contain many HTTP 500 Internal Server Errors that have nothing to do with other Joomla extensions people may have installed on their websites.  Therefore, the assumption that “most times these errors are not caused by Kunena” is no longer reasonably valid.

[4] Joomla extensions are components, plugins, modules, languages and templates.

[5] Examples of CSS/Javascript consolidators are ScriptsDown, JCH Optimize and ScriptMerge.

About the author:

Michael Russell has worked in the information technology industry since 1971 and, since retiring from the workforce in 2007, is a website hobbyist specialising in Joomla, a former member of the Kunena project for more than 8 years and contributor on The Joomla Forum™. The opinions expressed in this article are entirely those of the author. View his profile here.