I did have a duplicate runway top navigation package, I uninstalled both versions of them, this still didnt fix my problem.

Not only cant I edit and save changes to existing templates, or create templates that are not empty and uneditable

Bump

Anyone have any ideas?

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but I still got the same problem.

There is a major bug in the package installer where it fails to detect existing copies of packages and tries to install over them, this borks the umbraco installation and trips out the error message about 2 templates with the same alias

I too am getting the same message when trying to edit the Runway Master Template. I do NOT have any duplicates that I can tell.

Any ideas? Thanks.

We are using V4-final.

[quote=kc0jov]I too am getting the same message when trying to edit the Runway Master Template. I do NOT have any duplicates that I can tell.

Any ideas? Thanks.

We are using V4-final.[/quote]

Some of the packages are not being recognized properly by the packages installer and try to reinstall over existing packages, this is what causes the 2 templates with same alias error to occur.

You have to uninstall v4 of umbraco and reinstall it, here is how I do this (I am a newb too so there may be a quicker way than this?)

1: Uninstall SQLserver Express
2: Open windows explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data and delete umbracoCMS.mdf and umbracoCMS.ldf
3: Install SQLserver Express again
4: Delete umbraco from wwwroot and nsert a fresh copy of umbraco into your wwwroot folder
5: Follow the instructions from here http://umbraco.org/documentation/books/install-umbraco-30-on-windows-xp/configure-sql-server-2005-express for installing if you are on xp, or here if you are on vista http://umbraco.org/documentation/books/install-umbraco-30-on-windows-vista/configure-sql-server-2005-express-for-umbraco

Once you have the install wizard running on localhost install everything that is shown on the wizard login including the editors picks of runway modules to your fresh install of umbraco.

Once your site is live login as admin and only download and install these packages following these exact steps.

1: go to developers section
2: open the packages node, then open the installed packages node so you can see what you already have installed
3: Click on the umbraco package repository node to open it
4: Install the following packages, after each package is installed right click on the installed packages node and choose reload, or if packages folder has closed up after install reopen it and the installed packages node.
5: Install the following packages only, do not install any others as this may cause an error;

BlogForUmbraco4 (then follow step 4)
ImageGen (then follow step 4)
MemberControls (then follow step 4)
PingXMLRPC (then follow step 4)
Creative Website Wizard (then follow step 4)(This package may not be available)

6: Do not install all of the runway modules as you may experience conflicts with previously installed packages, install only the following;
7: Make sure the installed packages node is fully open then click on the runway modules node.
8: Select only the following runway modules to install from the accordian menu;

check Runway FAQ Module checkbox
check Runway jCarousel checkbox
check Sitemap checkbox
check Dropdown Navigation checkbox
check Accordian checkbox

9: Click the "install selected modules" button
10: Now move out of the developers section and into the settings section and open up the templates node
11: choose any template you wish to edit and test changes to make sure you are not getting the 2 templates with same alias message.
12: Have fun with umbraco o:)

Same issue, thanks for the diligent research. Will give it a try.

I also had a similar issue where I'm guessing this is causing the problem...that is with the Runway top navigation. It displayed it twice. I uninstalled it, then got a macro error. So i re-installed it from the admin and now it shows up 3 times.
1) centered
2) left justified
3) centered again

I'll assume this re-install process will blow out all data, which is not a major issue now in testing, but in a production environment would be a real propbem.

Is there a way to update the template?

Thanks again!

[quote=slulaw]Same issue, thanks for the diligent research. Will give it a try.

I also had a similar issue where I'm guessing this is causing the problem...that is with the Runway top navigation. It displayed it twice. I uninstalled it, then got a macro error. So i re-installed it from the admin and now it shows up 3 times.
1) centered
2) left justified
3) centered again

I'll assume this re-install process will blow out all data, which is not a major issue now in testing, but in a production environment would be a real propbem.

Is there a way to update the template?

Thanks again![/quote]

Follow up, and not sure if this is proper protocol for this, but for a quick solution I was able to go into notepad of RumwayMaster.master and comment out the duplicate calls and now just displays one. All looks and works fine now. When I bring it up again in settings editor, I do see the comment tags and still get the error that I have 2 templates with the same alias, but it works. I do have concerns that it may cause problems in areas I have yet to explore!

Note: Only working with this for about 4 hours now, so still have a lot of learning.

You followed the instructions and deleted your install of umbraco and still couldnt edit your templates after a fresh install?

Even when your install of umbraco is working properly it will add an extra top nav and drop down nav. You should be able to go to settings open up runway master from the templates node and edit out two of the three top navs easily.

When you install your runway modules umbraco adds extra menus for some reason, but this is easily fixed.

No - I never deleted and re-installed. Using notepad I made the changes template that I couldn't do in the settings editor. When I open Runway Master, it shows the changes I made. So it's basically a work-around. It still thinks I have 2 aliases with the same name. If I do, I'm sure not seeing it anywhere.

I see what you're saying and will do a re-install and re-config SQL server, when I selected all modules I got a server error anway, so I'll do the selective version as you described...for now test users are editing in canvas mode.

Thanks!

After you have done a complete uninstall and reinstall tell me how you go?

I suggest you add your comments and vote for this bug in Codeplex:
http://www.codeplex.com/umbraco/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=20562&FocusElement=CommentTextBox

Thanks Hfloyd, I have just done this now

Hi,

So I've encountered this problem as well - and rather than using a sledgehammer to crack a nut in terms of uninstalling and re-install SQL server and toying with file system permissions I delved into the database schema.

These are my findings, and my solution.

Caveat to all this: This is my first bash at Umbraco (I think probably 2 hours into actually implementing a site). My instructions below provide guidance on how I solved my problem - it may or may not have the same results for you!

I'm using SQL Express 2005 & Bundled SQL 2005 Express management tool.

1.) Open up SQL 2005 Express Management Tool and connect to your database.
2.) Right click on your database and choose "new query"
3.) In the blank "new query" window paste this following SQL statement and execute it.

SELECT ct.pk as TemplateID, ct.nodeId as TemplateNodeID, ct.alias as TemplateAliasName, un.text as TemplateDescription FROM cmsTemplate ct INNER JOIN umbracoNode un ON un.id = ct.nodeId

4.) In the bottom pane of the view you will see the query results, if you look in the right most column ("TemplateDescription") and see any duplicate names then this is probably your issue.

5.) I then corrected my problem by executing an update query against the database.

So I did:

UPDATE umbracoNode set [text]='Blog2' where id=1159

So rougly speaking this works out to be:

the value of "[text]" is what you want the Template Name to be, and needs to be unique. the value of "id" is the value in the TemplateNodeId returned by the query results from step 3


Best Regards,

Jon Webb
DigitalTonic Ltd
www.digitaltonic.co.uk

Cool I knew there had to be a better way, glad you found it.

Thanks Jon,

Just a quick note for others who are getting this problem, adding an "order by templatealiasname" to the end of the query Jon provided will help you find that duplicated text!

In our case it was the xsltseach plugin had been installed twice.

Regards
Ed.

Check that the .master file is correctly privileged. Look in build/masterpages.

I made mine read-only (with VSS, I think) and its taken me all day to figure it out.

But if your data is actually corrupt then, of course, you'll have to fix that as well.

Jeb.

As far as updating the tables, it's not enough to change the description. The error is caused because two templates have the same alias.

So the update query should be:

update cmsTemplate set alias = 'Blog2' where nodeId=1159

Hi guys,

Very nice guidelines. 

I also found doublicate templates in my DB, and I'm pretty sure where it comes from:

When creating a new document type, there is a default checkmark saying "Create matching template?" If checked, the document type along with the template gets created no matter if a template with the same alias already exists.

I was actually trying to re-create a documenttype and a template but did not delete the template first. And I did not pay (enough) attention to the checkmark.

So now I have two templates with the same alias. I am going to clean that up using nice John's pieces og advice.

Would you expect Umbraco to perform a validation of unique template aliases before creating a document type along with a template? I think I would... What bout you?

EDIT: 

I tried to just change the alias one the template visible in the Templates section in Umbraco and save it. This works fine and the two templates get visble alongside in the templates pane. Thus no need to execute SQL-update at this point for me.

Hate to spoil the party but this isn't a fix for me.

I have a vanilla umbraco 4.0.4.2  installation and all has been working fine. Today i get the error when saving.

No runway or any packages installed apart from the security patch.

Looked at the dbase tables and no duplicate names either.

This is the second time on different databases this has occured.

After spending too long on this I found that it a permissions problem applied to the masterpages directory.

I suspect a bug with umbraco. When writing the template file it is losing its full permission from NETWORK SERVICE (on IIS 6)

Re-apply the permission and hey presto saving works.

Supplimental:

Ensure that the Template master file has NETWORK SERVICE or OS equiv with "full control" (Read Write and Execute) applied.

Works like a charm.

This was really obnoxious as it happened to me during a demo... the system disallows removal of the offending nodes creating a train wreck of a situation.

my solution was to locate the keys and relations and delete them from the db directly. I used a simple script to generate the delete statements I needed: Obviously I only selected the duplicate nodes that *were not being referenced by any content in the system*

Adding a uniquity constraint to the cmsTemplate.alias field would cause an error on insertion of such a value, but to me that's a preferable alternative to having to do something ridiculous like this [and being embarrassed in demos because I can't edit a template =P, ha ha ha]. 

Regards,

Sorry for double post but editing on this forum is wonky! never seems to work for me...

I don't know iff adding a unique constraint is a viable solution... I get some weird errors when doing so... trying to chase down an interim solution.

One issue seems to be that if you create a template, then someone creates a doctype with the same name a duplicate template gets created... meh

Thanks Jeb,

I've just had this propblem too, it was because the file was marked as readonly through VSS.

It would be nice if the error messages were a little more helpful, it's not like .Net doesn't give enough of a reason why things don't work.

John

The best way to get a useful error message is to try and create a new master page - the dialog will show you the .net error which in my case was down to lack of permissions on the masterpages directory in the root of the site.

Hey streety: NETWORK SERVICE perms did the trick for me. Thanks!

Changing the rights on the MasterPages directory fixed the issue for me.  One suggestion though, don't just assign Network Service modify rights.  Check in IIS and see what app pool your site is running under.  Then check what identity the app pool is using.  Give that account modify rights.  For most people it will be Network Services, but for me, I'm running a server with Plesk and it assigns an account like iwam_plesk to the app pool.  I had to grant that account rights to fix this problem. 

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