When trying to add a Plugin, Component or Module in Joomla’s Extension Manager, you might get the following error:

JFolder::create: Could not create directory
Warning! Failed to move file.

Shown here:

This is likely – but not definitely – to be after the site has been moved from location to another, a change of directory, or server.

Solution

When a Component, Plugin or Module is added, the Joomla system attempts to copy the installable zip to a temporary directory, called ‘tmp‘. From there, PHP extracts the files and installs them. The error above usually occurs for one or more of the following reasons (in order of likelihood):

The path to the ‘tmp’ directory is wrong in the Joomla configuration file

In the Joomla installation root, find the file called ‘configuration.php’. In this file there should be a line with that says something like:

var $tmp_path = ‘C:\\path\\to\\your\\cms\\tmp’;

A masked live example is shown here:

Check that this path is correct, and that the ‘tmp’ directory truly does sit in that location. In this example, the directory would need to be here: d:\clients\sites\[my client]\tmp.

The temporary exists, but is not ‘writable’

If the ‘tmp’ directory has the wrong permissions, the web service won’t be able to copy the installer files to it. To check/correct this you will need  access to the server physically, or via a remote admin method like RDP (terminal services), VNC or similar.

Find the ‘tmp’ directory in the web root, and view the permissions. The IIS Guest account, called ‘IUSR_[machinename]‘, needs to be given ‘modify’ privileges. Example shown below:

The temporary directory doesn’t exist

To check this, navigate to your web root (often wwwroot) and check that a directory called ‘tmp‘ exists. This directory should have been created when the Joomla was installed, but it’s conceivable that it might have been deleted… maybe? If it doesn’t exist, create it, and make sure its ‘writable’ (see previous step).

If none of this works, or you spot a mistake,  post a comment.

Every so often when I’m typing, usually when I’m coding because I use so many shortcuts, the at sign ‘@’ and double quotes (“) get swapped. Annoying!

Solution

When this happens it’s because I’ve accidentally pressed ‘Shift + Alt’. THis key combo causes Windows to switch my keyboard (input) language to US. The easiest way to stop this happening, is disable the ‘Shift+Alt’ shortcut:

1) From ‘Control Panel’, open the ‘Regional and Language Options’.

2) In ‘Regional and Language Options’ window, select the ‘Languages’ tab, and click the ‘Details’ button inside the ‘Text services and input languages’ section.

3) In the ‘Settings’ tab, click the ‘Key Settings’ button.

4) In the ‘Hot keys..’ section, highlight the action ‘Switch between input languages’ and then click the ‘Change Key Sequence’ button.

5) Un-tick BOTH tickboxes.

6) Now just ‘OK’ and ‘Apply’ your way back out of the open windows and IMPORTANT you need to reboot for the changes to make effect.

Know of a quicker way? please post a comment…

Yesterday my father-in-law needed to hook his old HP Photosmart 1215 Inkjet to Windows Vista Home Edition. HP don’t provide a Vista driver for the 1215…

Solution

A quick search around the web found that the driver for the Photosmart 7200 works perfectly. He tried it and says it works exactly as it should.

To install the diver use the following steps:

1. Click the ‘Start’ Icon, and select ‘Control Panel’ in the start menu.
2. Once the Control Panel window opens, double-click the ‘Printers’ icon.
3. In the ‘Printers’ window, click the ‘Add a printer’ icon/link in the top menu bar.
4. In the ‘Add Printer’ dialog window, select ‘Local Printer’ and ‘Next’.
5. When asked to ‘Choose a Printer Port’, select ‘Use an existing port’ and click on the ‘USB001 (virtual printer port for USB)’ item in the list. Then click Next.
6. On the following page, select ‘HP’ or ‘Hewlett Packard’ in the left pane, and find ‘Photosmart 7200′ in the list on the right.
7. IMPORTANT: Plug in the Printer now, if it’s not already plugged in, and switch it on.
8. Click ‘next’ and then print a test page.

That should do it…