Spell Checker

[elephant]

Doing a little more digging, it seems that IIS 6 security model has changed causing PHP not to allow shell_exec()

Can anyone confirm aspell in kayako is working under Windows 2003?

[netFusion]

Originally Posted by elephant

Doing a little more digging, it seems that IIS 6 security model has changed causing PHP not to allow shell_exec()

Can anyone confirm aspell in kayako is working under Windows 2003?

I have it working under Windows 2003.

The problem you are seeing with shell_exec() failing is because of the way you have the security permissions set on your server. Don't worry, this is a good thing! It means you have your web site users locked out of your Windows system folder.

In order to get the shell_exec() to work, you will need to give the web site user account (IUSR_...) Execute privileges on the system file %systemroot%\system32\cmd.exe (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CMD.EXE).

SHELL_EXEC() fails because PHP launches CMD.EXE in order to run the command line app for aspell.exe.

This should be done VERY VERY VERY carefully because it can compromise the security on your server.

Make SURE that you ONLY grant the web site user for your SupportSuite/eSupport web site execute permissions to that one file. Do NOT give the web site user access to the folder or anything else in that folder.

Make SURE that nobody else (other than you) has ANY access to upload scripts of ANY kind to the web site running your SupportSuite/eSupport web site.

If you let anyone upload a script to that website, and the script calls a shell command via PHP, their script can compromise your server.

Again, be VERY careful to make sure you grant ONLY the web site user account access to ONLY that file in the system32 directory.

Note that in addition to mhunt's instructions above, I also had to add the "C:\Program Files\Aspell\bin" folder to the system path in order to get Aspell to find the dictionary files.

Oh, and did I remember to mention that you NEED to be careful with your permissions?

Eddie

[netFusion]

Originally Posted by mhunt

. . . I have no idea why this is needed, but for some reason, the Windows version of php/aspell won’t support the data files which are installed by default.

This is because the files provided are from a *nix platform. It was the CR/LF conversion when they were extracted from the tar.gz file onto the Windows platform that killed them.

Eddie

[mhunt]

Thanks Eddie....that makes sense. Hopefully the info in this thread will make it through to the manual.

[elephant]

Since the speller is a .dll loaded into php, why cant the methods for pspell be called thru php rather than dropping to CMD and running the executible?

This does seem like it could be a potentially a bad security risk.

[netFusion]

Originally Posted by elephant

Since the speller is a .dll loaded into php, why cant the methods for pspell be called thru php rather than dropping to CMD and running the executible?

This does seem like it could be a potentially a bad security risk.

The speller (aspell.exe) is actually a windows command line application, not a dll loaded into php. That's the catch... php_pspell.dll is an interface that allows it to call the speller interface. It actually calls the aspell-15.dll shim that shells to CMD and runs aspell.exe. aspell-15.dll isn't the actual speller.

If someone knew enough to rewrite/recompile aspell.exe as an actual php module instead of a windows command line app, there would be a lot of happy campers visiting the GNU ASPELL web site!

[elephant]

There has to be a spell checker for PHP thats integrated.

Or how about a webservice, like Google Spell Checker API. Here some details:

http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/Tutoria...3C09CD94B.dcik

[Varun Shoor]

We can use the PHP inbuilt spell checker, It might not make into the gold but the code can certainly be edited to support it.

Regards,

Varun Shoor

hi

as anyone got the aspell-data.zip file? as the above links dont work.

[elephant]

Does anyone have a way to use the internal php speller? Am sure this is going to be an issue for Windows installations of kayako.

[elephant]

Ping. Does anyone have a new solution for getting spellcheck to work in Windows 2003?

[gguarnere]

same issue here...please help

[Varun Shoor]

I will see if we can add a toggle to switch to Aspell extension available with PHP (On most systems atleast) on Monday.

If not, Then it might not make into the .98 stable build.

Regards,

Varun Shoor

[scoutdriver73]

I know this thread is old, but I was trying to get Aspell to work Windows Server 2003 SP1, and was getting the System Error: Aspell program execution failed

Following the instuctions in this thread did not solve my problem. I had to give the "everyone" group read/write access to temp directory. After doing this, Aspell worked great.

To Recap:

1. Follow directions posted by mhunt.
2. Add permission to cmd.exe as outlined by netFusion.
3. Give "Everyone Group" read/write permsions on the Windows\Temp dir

[webit_csullivan]

Thanks scoutdriver73 the missing thing for me was giving the correct permissions to the Windows temp dir like you said in number 3. My only small suggestion is to give Authenticated Users read/write permissions as it is a little more secure than the everyone group. I did and it works just great now.

Kudos to you!

Thanks everyone and especially md3v for your help.

Chad