[#6575] PHP Error on CB Activity Upgrade

I'm getting the following error after upgrading CB core and all plugins to the latest version (4.0 for CB Activity). It specifically happens when I try to view others' profiles.

0 - PHP regular expression limit reached (pcre.backtrack_limit)

I did some research before posting here and found that turning off the SEF plugin in Joomla somewhat fixes the issue, but seems to cause the profiles to load extremely slow.

Another option I found was to increase this limit in a php.ini file. That also works... but also takes a very very long time to load the page. This also seems to have the same effect on pages that had no error, like my own/home profile page. These fixes seem to bump up the page load time for all pages - not just the ones that had the error.

I've also tried lowering the limits on the 'paging' section of CB Activity.

After more processes of elimination, I found that this only happens to a specific profile that has a ton of posts on it. The one profile that happens to be the client's profile.

Any other suggestions?

Enable debug mode and maximum error reporting in Joomla global configuration then provide the full error output. Without the file path and line number for the error I wouldn't be able to investigate where it's coming from. CB Activity 4.0.0 was performance tested with over 10,000 activity and comment entries with no performance loss with more and more added (it has complete scale-ability). So a large number of posts shouldn't be an issue. Looks like there's just a REGEXP problem. Please also provide what PHP version you have.

Thanks for the quick response. Sorry I didn't think to do that first (error reporting). I'll paste the error below...

I should mention that it didn't have the issue before the upgrade (nor on the live site). I thought maybe it could be one of my templates (one in community builder, one in CB Activity (which I instantly re-wrote activity.php right after the upgrade, and the Joomla template) - so I changed the CB templates to default and the Joomla template to Protostar. Still same error.

As far as PHP version, it's currently (and on previous version) at 5.6. I changed it to 7.0 and checked.... still got the same error.

Like I mentioned, it does fix the issue, both turning the SEF URLs plugin off and also by changing the maximum pcre.backtrack_limit. But it seems very very slow. Even though it's set to load the feed as the user scrolls, it feels like it's loading all feeds when the page loads. I say that because it seems to make a huge difference between going to someone's profile with 10 posts and someone's profile with 100 posts.

I know you've been working on scale-ability, which I'm sure you were and I'm excited about too... so I can't imagine that being an issue unless it's specific to something with my server setup. Using InMotion. Their servers are very fast and it's a rarity, but... after a few years with them and a good handful of clients using them, there has been website issues that they've fixed by installing various 'forgotten' modules, etc. (even on the shared). So I haven't ruled that out.

I'll continue to look at it tomorrow. Especially since I don't know whether the issue is on your end or mine. Tried ruling everything out. Hate it when I've asked you guys for help and you help me... but it ends up being something I did. Feel bad in those cases - and I would hope other people would also try to rule things out that they might have done before hitting up the(ir) developer.

ONLY ERROR (Joomla
PHP regular expression limit reached (pcre.backtrack_limit)

Call stack
# Function Location
1 JApplicationCms->execute() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/index.php:49
2 JApplicationSite->render() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/libraries/cms/application/cms.php:267
3 JApplicationCms->render() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/libraries/cms/application/site.php:773
4 JApplicationBase->triggerEvent() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/libraries/cms/application/cms.php:1092
5 JEventDispatcher->trigger() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/libraries/joomla/application/base.php:106
6 JEvent->update() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/libraries/joomla/event/dispatcher.php:159
7 call_user_func_array() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/libraries/joomla/event/event.php:69
8 PlgSystemSef->onAfterRender()
9 PlgSystemSef->checkBuffer() /home/n1303a5/public_html/website.aero/dev/plugins/system/sef/sef.php:158

Call stack doesn't appear to be coming from CB at all. Please PM backend super administrator login credentials as well as include URL to offending profile and will take a look. Wonder if there's just flat out too many URLs in the buffer for Joomla to parse through, but I've never heard of that happening before.

Was able to find the cause. It's actually a bug in CB it self, but have implemented a workaround. The global parameters are being wiped out by the tab parameters causing the global fallbacks to all fail. I've added a bug ticket and am promptly fixing this issue for a nightly and next bug fix release. I've patched your install for the time being, which is working fine now.

forge.joomlapolis.com/issues/6575

New build should hopefully be out tonight or early tomorrow. Anyone needing a workaround can edit the Activity tab then adjust all the params from using "Same as Global" to actual values.

Awesome, Krileon! Thank you for the speedy fix there.