Internal Server Error

On some servers, when running the component you get a message like

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete
your request.

Please contact the server administrator, 
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  and inform them of the time the error occurred,
and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

This usually only occurs when importing feeds, either when hitting the apply (1.5) or save(1.7) button or when running the import/cron.

This error message is mostly related to server configuration or security problems, for example:

1. typos in the .htaccess,
2. file permission issues,
3. disallowed usage of ini_set and similar,
4. usage of incorrectly blocked functionality like remote opening of files

From a security point of view it is excellent that the server does not reveal the real problem it's quite a challenge to solve these kind of errors. Actually it is close to impossible or very time consuming.

To find the real problem  get into the error log of your server often available in your servers admin panel.

For the point above

1. com datafeeds does not change the .htaccess so this shouldn't cause problems
2. some servers require the permissions of the files/directories site to 644/755. some even require correct ownership. That might be a problem when ftp'ing files. (and see point 4 as well)
3. the component does a few ini_sets however the server should simply ignore them. or raise warnings only.
4. the component does external file requests using the url_file_open permission. If it is not allowed the component reverts to curl trying to  write the files to disk first. That might cause file permission issues. If the host blocks the request incorrectly it might cause a server error.

Requirement test.

Under System requirements there is a small script to test your server.