Hi Chris,

I'll talk to the team about this as we can't replicate this locally on our wamp versions

Cheers
Paul

Thanks Paul. I figured that this might be an issue. Let me know if I can give you any further info or run any other tests.

Wait to hear from you.

Chris

Hi Chris,

That error says that there is an error in the ajax file which parses the information sent from the admin to get compiled.

It's really hard to troubleshoot this kind of stuff since it's working on our test beds.

Could you create a ticket and paste us a link of the jpa so that we can install it here just to rule out any template config issues. Pretty sure this is a server issue but Paul is testing on the same setup though.
Thanks

Hi Anthony,

I'm assuming you mean a link to a .jpa of my test site. Happy to do that, but since I have exactly the same issue with a virgin build using your Quickstart pack, I can't see how that will help.

I'll go ahead all the same and create a ticket as you request.

Thanks,

Chris

Hi Chris,

If you turn off error reporting on both the localhost and in the joomla site global configuration does that make any difference?

Cheers
Paul

Solved

---

Hi All,

I have resolved this issue. Bit embarrassing. The Less compiler was being timed out. That simple.

Solution is to edit php.ini and make the following change -

max_execution_time = 60


Many thanks for your feedback, head-scratching and the time you put into this, and apologies for sending you home for the weekend with an apparent bug. Perhaps worth saying that I really like the Xero template (despite the slow Less compiler).

Regards,

Chris

Thanks for letting us know

Cheers
Paul

Paul that's a pretty cool - and I don't mean that in a good way - response. I resolved the issue that you guys left in there. That was your cue to take it on the chin and say actually, it was dumb of us not to realize right away what the issue was. I put the solution here for your other customers, not for you.

As I said, a bit embarrassing for me being slow to work it out, but totally red faces all round for you guys.

Chris

Hi Chris,

As I mentioned above its really hard to track down the missing variable on a local set up like that.

Your php execution time is something totally out of our control and this is the first time we have run across this as an issue.

Sure we should have thought about that, but in most tests less takes around 10 seconds to compile and never more than 30 seconds. When the less compiler has failed in the past it's been due to an internal server error and when that occurs it will time out indefinitely - and before php execution time ends.

As a follow up question it would be good to know the system you are running your wamp server on - how many databases do you have? This may give us a clue as to what conditions lead to the slow compiling.

We certainly appreciate that you found the solution and posted it here for others to find. We are totally committed to the support we provide and not opposed to admitting we were wrong - you can check this forum for evidence of that.

Paul could have been more effusive in his response and I'll chat with him about that. I'm sorry if somehow it caused you offence.

Thanks Anthony

Hi Anthony,

I appreciate your reply. I wasn't actually offended, but I was annoyed. I decided to buy a template because my own one needed redeveloping for J3 and I also needed to improve the responsiveness. The main reason for buying one was to save myself some time and, as you know, a bullet-proof template takes work.

After carefully reviewing the products available I decided that Xero is broadly a solid and well considered product and would meet the needs of my workflow. I believe it to be well worth the money I paid - with the proviso that it actually does save me time.

There is an argument that I might well have found myself with the same issue with my own template, and nobody to turn to but myself to resolve it. The point is that had I provided my template to a customer and the same thing happened, I would consider it good politics to apologise.

Anyway, spleen vented and thanks again for your response.

Chris

PS: My test box is as follows-

Sony Vaio laptop, circa 2006
2Gb RAM
240GB solid state drive
Intel core duo. T2350 1.86GHz
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit. SP2
Apache 2.4.4
PHP 5.4.16
Joomla 3.3

Ideal platform for understanding the average end-user experience.

Thanks Chris.

I don't have a direct experience with using a laptop with 2 gig of ram but I imagine that is the main culprit in terms of the slow compiling.

I'm have 16gb ram and the files compile in a few seconds - with bootstrap a few seconds more.

I appreciate that it might be a good box to use for testing user experience but seems pretty low spec for developers.

My apologies we didn't ask about your execution time earlier but in the future this is certainly something that we will ask when customers have a similar experience.

Thanks

If I plan to compile less regularly I will be inclined to use a faster box for building test websites.

Cheers,
Chris

Sounds like a good plan.

As a further note I made changes to the compiler in the update that meant that a few more files were compiled - the new row style functionality. So it must be that the extra files tipped your system over the edge.

Thanks

Afternoon all - sorry for digging up an old thread however I wonder if this got resolved, and if so what the cure was?

I'm getting the same issue with a Rasa2 install, compiling less to css never stops.

It's not the first time this has happened and I usually work around

things but editing the CSS rather than going through template manager.

Anyway I've got an error log from cPanel I can add if that helps ?

Hi,

The original issue from this ticket was due to the server's php setting for max execution time.

If your site is live then it's best if you open a ticket with access details so we can take a look.

Regards,

Rob