Forum showing on local system but not on live site

[GregChapman]

ajac63 wrote

GregChapman wrote

ajac63 wrote

Great, so disabling 'force https' worked for you?

No it did not work for me. At least, not immediately and I didn't keep it turned off for 24 hours or more, which I suspect may be necessary for it to take effect

ajac63 wrote

So it didn't work immediately, but did it work eventually?

I only turned "force https on" for a few minutes. It would have left all my add-on domains without https if I had left it on for a longer period and I didn't dare do that.

[GregChapman]

ajac63 wrote

Thanks again for helping.  So, as a temporary measure I should first disable SSL and wait until the forum is embedded (?), and only then do the steps for creating a sub-domain?

I'm sure disabling SSL will come good after a period and your forum will then appear properly embedded, but I don't know how long you'll have to wait.

You say it can't be my main domain, as that will serve the rest of my site/pages.  The thing is that I intend to have the forum embedded/showing in all pages, which is how it is currently (for the offline version anyway).

As Nabble point out you can embed your forum in multiple sites if you want to (and it follows that can also be multiple pages on one site as you say you have locally), but for SSL to work on any page on your live site that entire page must be served from your domain and/or one of its sub-domains.

Technically, it's perfectly possibly to set up Nabble to serve from your main domain, and then arrange things in cPanel to serve your main site from a sub-domain, but that would be an extremely unusual approach as it would appear to visitors that the tail is wagging the dog.

[ajac63]

Many thanks once again for your help, and sorry for late reply...  Right, the forum still wasn't embedding even after SSL had been disabled for some time already, so I raised the issue with my hosting provider and they suggested renaming the .htaccess file.  I said ok, and they then renamed it to .htaccess1 for me and attached a screenshot of the embedded forum.  
So. temporarily I'm now able to see the forum embedded, but only on my smartphone and not on my laptop or desktop.  I mentioned this to them, and they think it's an issue with my ISP as they were able to see it on their desktops and laptops.

[ajac63]

Due to a small crisis that came up a few days ago, I had to put anything to do with my forum on hold, so I haven't actually finished resolving this issue yet, I just didn't have time to get down to it.

So, just to make sure, I have to do the following steps to see my forum embedded with SSL/https enabled:

Remove that part of the customisation code that specifies a width of 1470px.
Go to the Zone Editor in cPanel and create a CNAME record for a sub-domain.  In the form provided I should enter forumname.talk-it.net in the 'Name' field and s1.nabble in the 'CNAME' field.

I then wait for a confirmation email from Nabble.  I then post to Nabble and ask for SSL to be enabled and I should provide both the Nabble URL and the sub-domain URL.

I then wait again until Nabble responds saying SSL is enabled on my forum.  I then tell my hosting provider to deliver requests for my main site with the https protocol.

[GregChapman]

ajac63 wrote

So, just to make sure, I have to do the following steps to see my forum embedded with SSL/https enabled:

Remove that part of the customisation code that specifies a width of 1470px.

That is bit isn't part of the process, just a Nabble feature that I don't think is relevant for an embedded forum.

You don't mention it, but I assume you have already done the bit to change your domain name within Nabble. Here's what one of my forums shows:


Then you do the Zone Editors bit...

Go to the Zone Editor in cPanel and create a CNAME record for a sub-domain.  In the form provided I should enter forumname.talk-it.net in the 'Name' field and s1.nabble in the 'CNAME' field.

Here's what I have under the Zone Editor in cPanel for one of my forums:

I then wait for a confirmation email from Nabble.  I then post to Nabble and ask for SSL to be enabled and I should provide both the Nabble URL and the sub-domain URL.

It's along time since I've done it, but my understanding is that those steps still stand and that Nabble will send an email with a link that will revert the change made.

I then wait again until Nabble responds saying SSL is enabled on my forum.  I then tell my hosting provider to deliver requests for my main site with the https protocol.

In my notes this is where I say go to the Lets Encrypt" part of the cPanel interface. It's the first time I've looked at this area in ages and cPanel has been updated at my host and it looks nothing like what I recall!

There is now a "Security" section and within that a SSL/TLS heading. Towards the bottom of the screen there's a section that says:

===============================
Install and Manage SSL for your site (HTTPS)

Manage SSL sites.
===============================

This all looks very different to the last time I tried this and I'm not sure what you'll see on this screen as a first timer. Hopefully, you see your domain (and variations including your forum's sub-domain) already listed with an "Install" link in the Actions column.

I see my full collection of domains each with these four links in the Actions column:

Uninstall
Update Certificate
Certificate Details
Use Certificate for New Site

If you can't see an "Install" link, or work out how to get a certificate installed, it will be time to contact your host's Support service.

Once it is installed and working you should also edit the embedding code. After Nabble had enabled SSL my SeaHawk site the code changed to take this form:



Sorry all is not as I had expected, but hopefully, there are enough clues here to get you fully up and running.

[ajac63]

Thanks again for helping.  So first I enter a custom domain and then do the Zone Editor bit.  The problem I find with this is that Nabble won't allow a custom domain initially.  

I get this message or pop-up:
Your domain name currently resolves to an IP address that doesn't belong to Nabble. Please follow the instructions (see link below) in order to update your DNS. If you have just updated your DNS, please wait 24 hours for the changes to take affect.

So, do I in fact update the DNS first via the Zone Editor?  Apologies if I've misunderstood.

Also, if I go to the Zone Editor and select '+CNAME Record', I am presented with the following:

Add a CNAME record for talk-it.net
Name
[example.talk-it.net]
CNAME
[example.com]

This I understand, which I've now done, so a new sub-domain is now showing in the Zone Editor, but I'm still getting the same message above.

[GregChapman]

I am beginning to realise that the steps I suggest in my post at:
https://support.nabble.com/Forum-is-not-embedding-on-Weebly-tp7613364p7613397.html
are a little out of date. For a start Nabble now runs under https, which it did not when I wrote it. Nor did cPanel default to https being forced on.

However, as far as I know, allowing for this, everything else should work if you do things in the right order and wait for such things as the email from Nabble with the revert link and for DNS changes to propagate across the Internet. You don't mention any waits. Changes in the DNS also do take at least a 24 hour to propagate across the system. Things will take time before they work.

If you didn't receive the revert email from Nabble then I  suggest you create a new topic in the forum quoting your forum details and proposed domain change and ask Nabble to confirm things look right at their end.

[ajac63]

GregChapman wrote

I am beginning to realise that the steps I suggest in my post at:
https://support.nabble.com/Forum-is-not-embedding-on-Weebly-tp7613364p7613397.html
are a little out of date. For a start Nabble now runs under https, which it did not when I wrote it. Nor did cPanel default to https being forced on.

However, as far as I know, allowing for this, everything else should work if you do things in the right order and wait for such things as the email from Nabble with the revert link and for DNS changes to propagate across the Internet. You don't mention any waits. Changes in the DNS also do take at least a 24 hour to propagate across the system. Things will take time before they work.

If you didn't receive the revert email from Nabble then I  suggest you create a new topic in the forum quoting your forum details and proposed domain change and ask Nabble to confirm things look right at their end.

If Nabble now runs under https, why does it generate URLs starting with http?  Anyway, so I've now got the sub-domain, and as I understand it, that has to be specified in the embedding code for the forum to be embedded or to show in the sub-domain URL.
Except I cannot do this, because it's not accepting the sub-domain as the custom domain, right?  So I just seem to be going round in circles with this.

[ajac63]

Seems I was a bit confused.  What I have is the CNAME record forum.talk-it.net that points to s1.nabble.com which should have propagated by now.  Anyway, this is the new domain that I want for the forum (forum.talk-it.net), so what do I do now?