Invalid Category Id

[DanAdair]

Hi all,
I hope you can help...

I'm getting an 'Invalid category ID' error when trying to add new categories, and also when trying to post a new topic in a category.

Very similar to this post here: https://community.nodebb.org/topic/15644/invalid-category-id-cannot-create-category-or-post
This post suggests a corrupt database. Is there anything I can check / do before reinstalling from scratch?

[DanAdair]

Update:
-It's possible to reply to existing topics.
-I can change everything withing categories (images, text etc)
-I can move categories around (i.e. change the order)
-I can join groups etc
-Notifications works
-Chat/direct messaging works

Surely if my database was corrupt I wouldn't be able to do all of that?

-I just cant add new categories or post new topics in existing categories. Very odd.

[baris]

Does the network request to create a new topic have the selected category id in it?

[DanAdair]

I'm not sure... I'm not a developer so perhaps don't understand what this means. Are you able to tell me how I can check the network request?

[baris]

Well from that screenshot I can tell that there is something wrong with your composer, it is missing the category selection dropdown. Is your forum public? What version of nodebb is it running and what plugins are active?

[DanAdair]

Thank you @baris. It's version v2.8.6.

The following plug-ins are active:
nodebb-plugin-composer-default
nodebb-plugin-emoji
nodebb-plugin-emoji-android
nodebb-plugin-markdown
nodebb-plugin-mentions
nodebb-plugin-question-and-answer
nodebb-plugin-session-sharing
nodebb-rewards-essentials
nodebb-theme-lavender
nodebb-widget-essentials

Additionally there are 6 inactive plug-ins installed:
nodebb-plugin-2factor
nodebb-plugin-dbsearch
nodebb-plugin-spam-be-gone
nodebb-theme-persona
nodebb-theme-slick
nodebb-theme-vanilla

It is public: https://community.tryb.cc/

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated. Thank you so much again @baris

[baris]

What version of lavender and composer-default are installed?

[DanAdair]

[DanAdair]

@baris Does this help at all?

[baris]

Those are the correct versions, with those versions on nodebb 2.8.6 I get the below. Maybe try a rebuild and restart. If you have access to the server run ./nodebb plugins and post it's output as well.

[DanAdair]

Very strange... I switched back to Persona to see if it had anything to do with my recent switch to Lavender. All worked fine in Persona.
So out of curiosity I switched back to Lavender again - and it's all working fine!!

How very bizarre!

Thanks so much for your help.

I hope to be able to give something back to this group one day, as it's been such an amazing resource for me. You guys are all amazing. Thank you.

[DanAdair]

Just one other update on this, in case it's useful for other users...

It seems to be this plug-in that creates an issue on lavender: [nodebb-plugin-category-join-group]

Yesterday's events:
-I had Persona theme - all fine
-I changed to Lavender - all fine
-I installed and then uninstalled above plug-in, and thought nothing of it.
-Problem arose with categories...

Today's events:
-Reverted back to Persona and all was fixed
-Once again reverted back to Lavender, and still everything was ok.
-Tried again to reinstall above plug-in - problem came back again

Again, I have flip-flopped between themes and the problem is sorted, but it definitely seems that the above plug-in doesnt agree with Lavender theme for some reason. Which is a shame, because I'd love to use this plug-in.

I hope this might be useful for others.