Showing error "Connection string is empty" in magento

Question

When i am installing an extension in my magento admin,it shows Connection string is empty. I don't know why this problem occurs. I cleared the cache also then also the problem is same. If anyone knows how to do this,please help me out. Thanks!

Answer 1

To solve this problem, follow the steps below (I suppose you are using Ubuntu):

1) sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/magentoInstallationFolder/

2) Install Magento Extension

3) Restore correct permissions for directories and files respectively

sudo find /var/www/html/magentoInstallationFolder/ -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/html/magentoInstallationFolder/ -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \;

Read more about why 777 permissions are bad and you need to restore good permission code (775) after you install the extension: https://askubuntu.com/a/30635

Answer 2

Magento tries to put the maintenance flag in the root directory. Here is the code that does it:

<?php
//downloader/Maged/Controller.php::startInstall()
if ($this->_getMaintenanceFlag()) {
...
//downloader/Maged/Controller.php::isWritable()
$this->_writable = is_writable($this->getMageDir() . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR)

If you can't change magento root directory permissions just uncheck "Put store on the maintenance mode while installing/upgrading/backup creation" flag.

Answer 3

There's a couple of suggestions to change the permissions to this:

sudo chmod 777 -R /var/www/html

Which is a really really bad idea. Have a search for 'Magento permissions' and follow the guide instead. Unless you're seeking to get your site hacked wihin a few minutes.