Fixing OpenX Permission Error Warning

I was working on a site with OpenX installed today and after doing an upgrade, got the following warning message regarding permissions:

Of course, there was not a list of unwritable files in debug.log, even after deleting the log and re-running maintenance.

So, I did a quick grep to find where that error was coming from:

grep -lnR 'Error: File permission errors detected.' /public_html/openx/

Result: /public_html/openx/lib/OX/Extension/authentication/authentication.php

As you can see, that text is published in authentication.php on line #166, see below:

        foreach ($aSysInfo as $env => $vals) {
            $errDetails = '';
            if (is_array($vals['error']) && !empty($vals['error'])) {
                if ($env == 'PERMS') {
                   // Just note that some file/folders are unwritable and that more information can be found in the debug.log
                    OA_Admin_UI::queueMessage('Error: File permission errors detected.<br />These <em>may</em> impact the accurate delivery of your ads,<br />See the debug.log file for the list of unwritable files', 'global', 'error', 0);
                } else {
                    foreach ($vals['error'] as $key => $val) {
                        $errDetails .= '<li>' . htmlspecialchars($key) . ' &nbsp; => &nbsp; ' . htmlspecialchars($val) . '</li>';
                    }
                    phpAds_Die( ' Error: ' . $err, $errDetails );
                }
            }
        }

Identifying The Problem

In order to better see what was going on, I added “print_r($vals[‘error’]);” to line #5, right after ‘($env == ‘PERMS’) ‘ See below:

        foreach ($aSysInfo as $env => $vals) {
            $errDetails = '';
            if (is_array($vals['error']) && !empty($vals['error'])) {
                if ($env == 'PERMS') {
                   print_r($vals['error']);
                   // Just note that some file/folders are unwritable and that more information can be found in the debug.log
                    OA_Admin_UI::queueMessage('Error: File permission errors detected.<br />These <em>may</em> impact the accurate delivery of your ads,<br />See the debug.log file for the list of unwritable files', 'global', 'error', 0);
                } else {
                    foreach ($vals['error'] as $key => $val) {
                        $errDetails .= '<li>' . htmlspecialchars($key) . ' &nbsp; => &nbsp; ' . htmlspecialchars($val) . '</li>';
                    }
                    phpAds_Die( ' Error: ' . $err, $errDetails );
                }
            }
        }

After logging in and out, I got the error message + the following, which correctly identified the folders with permission errors. I have not seen the error since, just make sure to revert the above changes. Of course, why the plugins folders need write permission still needs to be investigated…

You may need to run the maintence script for it to go away though and or wait for it to run automatically.

/public_html/openx/plugins
/public_html/openx/www/admin/plugins
/public_html/openx/www/images

Update 01/09/2014: Permission Errors with the Revive Adserver

OpenX is now know as the Revive Adserver after being sold in September 2013. The above still works though and can help identify missing incorrect permissions.