We’re running EE v2.5.2 and MSM v2.1.3 and get the following error when trying to create a new MSM site, duplicating everything from the existing site:

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Notice
Message: Array to string conversion
Filename: mysql/mysql_driver.php
Line Number: 557

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/our/path/html/system/codeigniter/system/core/Exceptions.php:170)
Filename: core/Common.php
Line Number: 412

A Database Error Occurred
Error Number: 1054
Unknown column ‘Array’ in ‘field list’
INSERT INTO `exp_field_groups` (`site_id`, `group_name`) VALUES (5, Array)
Filename: controllers/cp/sites.php
Line Number: 1213

The site DOES seem to copy over correctly, it appears in the drop-down list of EE sites and is half-functional, but doesn’t copy over channel information, statuses, etc.  All of the pages on the new site simply say ‘{products_body} {products_wysiwyg}’ and our attempts to correct this open a new can of worms.

There’s nothing obvious in our MySQL or PHP error logs, apart from some deprecated notices (we run PHP 5.3.3).

We’ve already applied the “hack” bugfix found here to no avail.  Could we please get some support?

Thank you.

- Cary

Just to give a bit more background we started and developed the existing site in EE without MSM installed and then installed MSM to create a ‘sandbox’ site for development tests without affecting the production site.

This is pure basic functionality of EE and MSM that I would expect to work right the first time, or at least give some discernible error message.  We certainly don’t have anything crazy in our initial site’s configuration with the possible exception of the “wygwam” WYSIWYG editor.

This is killing us and I’m already hearing whispers of “Joomla” and “Drupal” in the hallways.

Thanks.

Sorry to keep bumping this thread but we really need some support.  We have an extremely simple configuration and are perplexed at how this basic functionality isn’t working.

All we have done is:
1. Developed a simple website using ExpressionEngine
2. Installed Multiple Site Manager
3. Attempted to create a new MSM site, duplicating EVERYTHING from the existing site
4. Received the error messages shown in the first post, the site still copied but is only semi-functional.  Any attempts to fix its behavior only make things worse.  We need the duplicate process to work properly.

Has anyone had this experience?  We are running on a Debian Linux system with Apache 2.2.16-6, MySQL Server 5.1.63 and PHP 5.3.3-7.

Thank you.

Hey there BlueRidge,

First, you did a lot of footwork and I am so impressed. Nice job.

Second, I can feel your frustration and I totally understand.

Let’s get you into private support and get this solved.

Please be on the lookout for an email from EllisLab.

Cheers,

Hello Shane,

Thank you for getting us into private support, they were fantastic.

After a few days of back-and-forth they were able to identify and resolve our problem!  I’m pasting the solution text here so that anyone else who encounters this trouble can (hopefully) Google the error and find this thread.

—Begin solution email—
Got you fixed up! Looks like the problem was that the channel titled “Channel CSS” was still reporting to ExpressionEngine that its field group was the one with ID 2, even though that Channel Field Group doesn’t really exist. Do you know if that field group was deleted?

I fixed it up by assigning to the “Channel CSS” channel a different field group and then assigning it to no field group. Once I did that, I was able to successfully duplicate the existing site to the sandbox site without errors. Give it a check if you’d like!

Kevin [redacted]
—End solution email—

Thank you again!

- Cary

Hi Cary,

I am really glad that Kevin was able to help you out.

And just for reference, here is the bug you were lucky enough to run into.

From all of us on TeamCAT, thanks for using ExpressionEngine.

Have a great week!