Publisher API Authentication Error

Backlight 4 & 5 Support
#1

Hi. New user here.

I’ve installed backlight on a local Ubuntu server and it is accessible by web browser and FTP from my PC. It is installed under http://server/ttg as there are other sites under server.

I’m trying to install the Lightroom publisher. Under Edit Settings I have entered the API URL of http://server/ttg/backlight/publisher/, and the API key which I know to be correct as I reset it via Backlight’s settings page.

When I click Check Authentication there is a delay then a message box with the title Error and message of “Unable to find Publisher. Check API URL is correct.”

There is no folder under ttg/backlight called publisher. I don’t think I missed a step during installation but if I did, I can’t find it in the documentation.

Ideas anyone please?

#2

Try going to http://server/ttg/backlight/publisher/ in a browser.
What message do you get?

Also, does the site portion of the API url exactly match the Site URL in Backlight Settings?
For example, if the site url begins with https://, does the API URL also begin with https:// ?

#3

I get a Not Found error in a browser. I expect that because as I said, there is no publisher folder under the backlight folder. I may have missed any instructions to create it but I can’t find them.

The API URL does match exactly, http:// etc.

#4

It wasn’t this message?

image

If you see that message, then it means Publisher is where it’s supposed to be. You won’t find a publisher/ folder in the backlight/ folder. @Ben explained it once but I don’t recall how it all works.

If you don’t see that message, there is probably some misconfiguration or missing php module in your server, and that’s something Ben will need to help you with.

Error message locating API
#5

No, not that. I get the standard apache “Not Found” page.

I’m UNIX savvy so would be grateful if @Ben could point me in the right direction.

#6

@rod_barbee, based on what you said about there not being a publisher folder under the backlight folder got me thinking about rewriting URLs.

The server and apache are both new so apache configuration is almost out-of-the-box.

I’ve enabled mod_rewrite and added a block to the config to allow use of .htaccess. After an apache restart, Lightroom authentication is now working.

@Ben, is there anything else you’d recommend in the apache config to help backlight along?

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#7

Hi @mickseymour, Backlight expects a properly-configured Apache. Having mod-rewrite enabled is part of that. There are other requirements that you’d expect a host to meet, such as having PHP set up to work with Apache, having index.php enabled as a handler for index files and having your virtual hosts in order. If your site is working then it sounds like that’s all good.

I’m late to this thread. We don’t absolutely require mod-rewrite to work. If for some reason it’s not available and can’t be configured then the fallback is to use an API URL ending in the format of /backlight?m=publisher (which is what the .htaccess rule maps to). The downside to running without mod-rewrite is that your entire site would fall back to parameterised URLs.

#8

Thank you. It is all working and I’ve used Lightroom to publish my first Backlight album this afternoon. :grinning:

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