We provide here a set of common sources of problems that users should check for when experiencing problems with the OpenEngagement CMS. These may each cause any number of problems.

1. Users cannot install the OpenEngagement DMS multiple times on the same computer without some effort, and we recommend users do not attempt to do this. Installing multiple instances where each is on a different computer will work fine. Note though, each instance will have a separate database, which implies separate data and separate user accounts.
2. Cookies and javascript must be enabled in all web browsers which access the DMS
3. Do not install Python or Zope on the same computer on which the OpenEngagement DMS is installed.
4. Do not install the Go-Between in multiple locations on the same computer. Each time the Go-Between is re-installed or upgraded, users should do so in the same directory in which it was previously installed. If it was installed in more than one location, users should unregister each instance (calling regsvr32 -u dms.dll from the command line) and then re-installing

The database & index files may be out of synch. Delete the index file, which is named Data.fs.index.

You may have other versions of Zope, Plone or the OpenEngagement DMS installed. Using the Windows control panel, uninstall them, then delete them, then reboot. If this does not work, go through the registry and remove any mention of them (you may have to do this before you can delete them), and reboot again.

1. The SMTP server may not be defined properly in the Mail Setup page.

2. Some firms may have to specify a username and password for ESMTP authentication. If so, they must fill in the ESMTP username and password fields in the Mail Setup. One reference for this issue is Meloni, p. 172.

3. Email will not work if the current user is logged in as an Administrator. Administrators are Zope users, and not OpenEngagement DMS users, and they do not have email addresses. Users should not access the site as Administrators regularly; Administrator accounts should be used only when necessary.

4. It is possible that mail sent from Plone is flagged as spam.

This indicates the database catalogue is corrupted. Do a complete re-index of the database. This is available in the ZMI. See the section Re-Index Database.

One source of high traffic can be search robots, which you may or may not want. You may provide a "robots.txt" and use firewall rules to ban requests from IP addresses launching bots not obeying "robots.txt".

Traffic may also be from hackers, attempting to gain access to the site, damage the site, or shut the site down by flooding it with unwanted traffic. Usually the best defense for this is to use a network firewall and/or application firewall. Internet security is a large but well-documented subject and many good resources are available on-line.

A common cause of this, for users using Internet Explorer, is the web cache can be at times poorly maintained by IE. Users can check if this is the issue by accessing the site using Firefox or another web browser. If this is much faster, most likely the issue is the IE cache. To clear the IE cache, close all instances of IE except one. In that browser, go to Tools | Internet Options. Hit the Delete Files, Delete Cookies and Delete History buttons, then hit OK. Close the web browser and re-open. The browser should be faster once this is done.

Users who experience this issue with the Internet Explorer cache often may wish to purchase third-party products which help with the IE Cache. Some products provide better systems for maintaining the browser cache than IE itself provides. Other tools simply make it simpler to clear out the cache. These products are often free or available for under $50. Users may also consider setting IE so it clears the cache after every session.

Users may also check if there is an increase in data volume or traffic to the site. These will both slow down the OpenEngagement DMS.

Occasionally after upgrading the DMS, web browsers, particularly IE, may still have old pages in their cache. Users then accessing the OpenEngagement DMS through a web browser will be viewing some pages from the cache and some pages that are not cached. Mixing and matching in this way can cause errors. To correct this, clear the IE cache.

The problem may be the network connection. Local Solution users can check if they are able to ping the computer or access it through Windows Explorer.

Firms can not run another HTTP server, such as Apache or IIS on the same server, unless you specifically configure them to work together with the OpenEngagement DMS. In some cases, OpenEngagement may be accessible intermittently on servers running both OpenEngagement and IIS. Therefore, users may initially find they do not have problems running both. However, doing this, OpenEngagement may be inaccessible from time to time. To determine if IIS is running, users may check http://localhost through a web browser.

Ensure you are using the correct case in the URL. The OpenEngagement DMS is case-sensitive. For example, if the server is located at http://localhost/CMS, entering http://localhost/cms will not work. 

If the server is installed on a computer using the Windows 2003 operating system, there's an application called inetmgr which may be running on port 80. It's possible for this to run on other operating systems as well. Since the CMS also uses port 80, this results in a conflict, and inetmgr may receive traffic intended for the OpenEngagement CMS. One fix for this is to modify the port used by the CMS, which is set in the zope.conf file. Another is to un-install inetmgr or to change the port it uses.

This may be a problem with the web browser's cache, particularly when using IE. If this occurs, you may try clearing the browser cache.

The problem will also occur if the user has two browsers of the same type open at the same time, where each is using a different user account. Users may, on the same computer, open IE and Firefox and log into the same DMS as two different users, using one user account with each browser. However, users can not do this using two instances of IE or two instances of Firefox.

This may occur if there is an error with the web browser maintaining the cookies properly. Try deleting your cookies.

This may also occur if the user logged into the ZMI, in which they would then be HTTP authenticated. In this case, the user would have to close every web browser that is open in order to log off.

When opening a Working Papers client file from IE, IE should launch Working Papers, and the client file should be opened in Working Papers. IE has a bug which may prevent this from working properly from time to time. To avoid this, users may use Firefox instead, or may shutdown all instances of IE and restart one instance. Then, re-navigate to the Engagement and try again to download.

It's possible the scripts were not installed properly. Check the section on installing the OpenEngagement CMS. Users may also examine the scripts.log file in the bin directory to find any problems.

The Go-Between must be configured to download from the correct server. Test dowloading using the Go-Between and ensure that is working properly.

Also, Internet Explorer occationally does not free up resources properly. It may help to close all instances of Internet Explorer and try again. Firefox does not have this issue.