Bill Murray,

do you use Firefox? if so, there are several developer tools that let you see every header, every redirct and every server response…  do you use any of those and can you check for any profile instances? 

I have checked here and a couple of my sites, none have anything unexpected…

Yes, I use FF.  What tools are you referring to?

firebug, live http headers, httpfox and web developer though I dont use the last one too often though its active…

I’ll get back to the Firebug stuff later.

Meanwhile, I was premature when I said a clean install resolved my redirect problem, but I have now have more insight and think I understand what the problem is.  However, I can’t fix it.

If you do a clean install, SPF auto-creates the forum page.  After a new install, the settings in Forum->Integration show that the page template for the forum page is empty.  At that point, the forum works on the main site on a multisite install.  However, if I edit the page that SPF auto-created but do not change the page template, “default” now shows up as the page template in Forum->Integration.  Once “default” appears in the page template on the Forum->Integration settings, any attempt to access a forum redirects to the home page. 

As I mentioned before, I did have SPF v 4.x active on my main site months ago, but never on a test site.  So next up, I did a clean install of SPF on a test site (part of a multisite install), edited the page, and although “default” showed up in the Forum->Integration settings, everything still worked.

Is it possible that having SPF v 4.x on the main site left some settings that conflict with v 5?  I am now off to check the DB, and I’ll post back.  Update: I checked the DB, and I had cleaned it of any old SPF settings: the original tables and wp_options.  If there was something else, I might have missed it. 

Any thoughts on why blank vs “default” page template would trigger a redirect to homepage?  I should also add I am using Genesis with a child theme.

for your two tests were you using same theme? what do you mean by ‘default’ page. do you mean a page called ‘forum’? or a page that is using the default page template?
If the latter, I wouldnt think it matters. If wp cant find the page template specified, it uses the default. at least that is what is supposed to happen, but have never tried it. frankly, not sure how to get a ‘blank’ page template. but not sure thats where you were going either…

Yes, same theme.

I was not trying to get a blank template.  I was only observing that on a clean install, the page template shows as blank in SPF.  When it shows as blank, it works.  When “default” appears, it does not work.  If you do a clean install of SPF 5 where it creates the forum page, you will see that SPF shows the page template as blank.

I am not changing the page template when I edit the page in WP.  I don’t have to change anything, other than to save it.  On saving, “default” appears in SPF and then it won’t work.  I don’t know if this is a Genesis thing or a multisite thing.  I suspect it is NOT Genesis, because I am also using a Genesis theme on my test site on the same multisite install, where it works fine after the WP page is saved.

you find some odd ones!

the showing of the current page template in the integration panel is purely informational…  SP does not care or even look at what the current page type is…  other than this informational display…

but the wp theme will surely care…  but only in how it lays out the page…

so what happens on the page when viewed when its not working?  same plugins for both sites?  wondering if trying the display multiple and display in loop options on the integration panel will help?

When it doesn’t work (which is just trying to view a forum), it redirects to the home page.  My multisite install is setup such that if it can’t find or generate the page, it redirects to the home page.  So something about having a template throws a twist into it.

You said SP is just showing an informational display.  Fair enough.  But why does the information change when the post is saved and the page template is not changed?  When SP created the new forum page, why doesn’t it display “default” as the information?

yes, we just query the wp page in the database and pull off the postmeta entry for the page template for the page…
when we create the page, we use the wp api for creating the page. not sure why it would have a default but I can research that – perhaps another arg is needed on the function call…
you will have to ask wp as to why saving the post but not changing the template actually creates the postmeta entry… probably a good thing to do for wp… and as I said, I will check into why we dont have default at creation…

In attempting to do another test, I ran into another strange situation.

I set SP to uninstall, deactivated the plugin, and it removed tables.  I reactivated, went to install, and instead of a steady progress from table creation to beyond, the orange status bar displays from start to finish virtually in an instant and no tables are created.  If I click the button after install, it restarts the install loop.  I have run installation several times this AM; is there a counter on it?

Also, is sfInstallID in wp_options one of your settings?

yes, sfInstallID is one of ours…  from versions some while back…

there is no counter like you are thinking… but there are something like 10 steps in the install that are output as it progresses below the status bar…

Deleting sfInstallID and the passage of time allowed the install to complete.  I know there are 10 steps or so.  My point earlier was that the progress bar indicated they were completing, but they weren’t.  It showed installation complete, but no tables were created.  Is there any sort of timer/cookie that would block successive uninstalls/new installs?

When SP auto-creates the forum page, it does NOT add a _wp_page_template to wp_postmeta.  With no _wp_page_template, I can access the forums.  Once I save the page on the WP backend, _wp_page_template is added to postmeta, and at that point, the forums generate a 302 error.

When you add a new page to WP, it DOES put _wp_page_template in postmeta, so the fact that it is not there has something to do with their API or your calling it.  Still, if you put it in, that’s what breaks things for me, so your fix might only cause things to break sooner.

actually, I was mistaken… must have searched for wrong thing previously (space at end, maybe?)… it IS a current option… only for install… and is removed at the end of an install…

I committed a change about 15 minutes ago to force the default page template…

so we will need to figure out why you are redirecting to the home page…  the default template is the right thing to do…

Thanks.  You might also want to investigate why that option wasn’t deleted when I deactivated the plugin.  If the option is there and you proceed to install, nothing happens.