re: Z3 theme site disabled 'invalid license key' message.

New Member Joined: Jun 21, 2008 Posts: 17

Help!

I am using the Z3 theme for which I have receipts and a license for, and today my site only displays an invalid key error page.

The install was stable and without problems. Worked well since I bought it.

http://sozzledboot.com

This is obviously a glitch at the vendor's end, but I am unable to contact them or they dont want to be reached. I contacted their webmaster to no avail. Crying or Very sad

Either way, I'm without a website.

I have email confirmations of purchase and license. It uses a key.php file which you must populate with the license key before an install.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Crying or Very sad

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:08 pm

Make sure your hosting provider has not changed PHP version. If this is a Zend or Ioncube encrypted theme it needs the correct loader which might be missing if server software has been updated.
Other than that, there is not much you can do if the theme creator is un-contactable.

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:22 pm

Greetings:

It's a DestineDesigns Z3 phpNuke 7.9 plus based theme.

I wanted to use the latest php-Nuke to test the theme first, then install RavenNuke and get a license key reissue from DD to use the same theme.

Z3 has a theme.php file that has all these function calls to servers. I could remove them, but I don't know how that act might be interpreted by the theme owner.

It's a shame that only now do I hear the DestineDesign server is always down and the webmaster unreachable.

I also contacted the code writers that make that key work. I was angry when I contacted them about ' a code that is blind to vendor server side issues', and the response I got was a very verbose line by line dissection of my message and response that was, to say the least, very discourteous, self-seeking and arrogant.

So now here I sit at home, disabled, no money, no way to go anywhere except online, and now no website!

Thank you for your reply and your time. I do appreciate that.

registered · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:23 am

I understand your frustration. I would be too. Why is all lost though? Why not use one of the stock themes which come with RavenNuke temporarily so that your site is up and running (albeit, maybe limping a bit), rather than dead.

You could upload fisubice theme back to your server (assuming it was removed), then go into phpMyAdmin to your database and change in nuke_config table the default theme back to fisubice! No more dead site...

registered · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:39 am

So let me get this straight...on every page load your theme contacts the theme vendor's server to see if you have a valid license?

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:59 am

i just released 7 100% FREE css themes for raven nuke.
Maby there's something of your taste.

Grtzzz wHiTeHaT Wink

registered · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6437

How did the theme vendor validate your license? By domain, server IP, and / or the existence of the key file? Did any of those change? Or is it possible that the theme vendor's server isn't responding?

It might not be difficult to "fix" if you can't get satisfaction from the vendor...

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:49 pm

To tell you the truth, I'm a little embarrassed here. I had no idea how these posts got to the forum. I clicked on a profile name and then where it says Viewing Profile, I clicked on Private Message. Is that a bug?

I know very little about php but I'm resourceful and learn fast. Forgive my reckless use of terminology.

The theme has two files - one file which contains the license key and the second file which calls the first file. A function in the second file goes to a remote server to perform a test of the key code it found. If the key code doesn't match what that server has on file, the server throws up an 'invalid license' page and won't permit the processing of the rest of the theme. Ergo the theme, the entire theme, dies right there.

I had programmed the site to only permit one theme to be used throughout. I could not even get into the admin panel because it had to call up the theme first, which of course had just died.

Unless one knows php.

I opened the second file and disabled the neccesary calls. The theme works fine now.

In the email I sent to the license key verification code writer, he says that vendors have the option to include code for a secondary backup server as well as for other security backups, but apparently the vendor in my case elected not to install those backup codes in the theme template.

In other words DD knew and didnt act.

I sent DD an email which was returned to me as undeliverable. Naturally the email was addressed to the one on their server that was down.

So the DD site was down, I had just been chewed out by the owner of the code that makes the license confirmation process work, and an answering machine message left on DD's PayPal registered contact number was never acknowledged. Then my monitor broke. I'm using a second CRT technology monitor. I need a new monitor and a new computer but I'm $10,000 in debt (I tried making money online through Internet marketing of ebooks and got screwed). So yeah I'm a tad under the weather.

Going back to the DD site today I noticed it was up again, but posts I have read at Codewiz suggests it goes down frequently and I'm not the only person this has happened to. In fact when my site went down yesterday, everyone who ever bought a license from them had their site go down as well.

When the DD site goes down, all pending tickets are deleted (why?) and the licensee has to resumbit a new ticket. After resubmission of a new ticket, an autoresponder sends an email that says in part:

"NOTE: We may not respond to all bug requests, as duplicate issues are merged for efficient handling. However, we investigate every bug report."

That all seems very slick and very strange to me.

I hope this answers all the questions you all have had about the matter.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:18 pm

So long as your site is working then that's great Smile

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:37 pm

The moral of the story is never buy a theme that depends on a remote resource.

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:16 pm

Touche!

The DD site was up for a while and now they are back down down with this error message:

The encoded file /home/dthemes/public_html/goods/client/inc/api_functions.php is corrupt.

I have a valid license, a license key, I have receipts, I have order confirmations, saved BB posts from other unhappy users who encountered the same problem, DD downed site screen captures, returned DD emails. long-distance telephone call bill to DD that was not returned, etc.

I'm disabling my DD code and using the template anyway!

Mad