Details

Written by Tech Notes

Published: 21 June 2018

Fix For Getting Browser Insecure (unsecure/non-secure) Mix-Content Warning Message Due To Donate Elite Joomla Module

Introduction. 

This article is not done in my usual well organized format with images, and clear guidance due to great lack of time, but because I believe many people may have this problem and not knowing it's related to the usage of the Donate Elite extension/module/component, I figured better to have something here than nothing.

I was going to post a question to Joomla about why Joomla is loading some insecure (unsecure/non-secure) images and CSS via  http:// instead of https://, but then realized I was misreading the code, and they were https://, except for one place. This turned out to be, as mentioned in other Joomla forum threads, a hard coded URL path in the module code.  Causes what's called "Mixed Content".  I tracked the code to the Donate Elite module used on a Joomla website.

It took 1 to 2 hours to create this article.  Doesn't include the many prior hours to figure out the problem and it's fix. 

The Problem.

The module of Donate Elite has the Paypal image link hard coded as http://www.paypal.com/, and as a result if someone goes to https://TechNotes.whw1.com, a warning message was occurring and asking if the visitor wanted to show insecure items too, or only secured items to show.  Most non-technical people, and many technical people too, get scared by this message and think of all kinds of scary things, and don't think it's just a picture that's being referenced as the "item", and will choose to show only secure items.  This also resulted in the Green Padlock not showing next to the address of the website, and also problems for an unknown reason with the menu, which I am assuming got fixed along the way via cache clearing.

The Fix.

Fortunately, it was only a single file that needed fixing.
So, where is the file?
The file is located at YOUR-FILE-SYSTEM-PATH/modules/mod_donate_elite/tmpl.   Don't respond saying you could not find that location because you used "YOUR-FILE-SYSTEM-PATH" as part of the path. The "YOUR-FILE-SYSTEM-PATH" portion needs to be replaced with whatever your hosting company's hosting provider or that particular server setup is.  For example, Web Hosting With $1's (also abbreviated at WHW1 due to their domain), used by me, or at least the one for this examination at WHW1 had he full path of

/dedicated/server5369/u888/public_html/modules/mod_donate_elite/tmpl/default.php

.  So, in my case, the "YOUR-FILE-SYSTEM-PATH" was replaced with "/dedicated/server369/888/public_html".

Once you find your way to that location (I just use WHW1's cpanel File Manger, but any 3rd party FTP software will do too), then edit the file default.php. 

If you don't know what I mean by FTP, then you can reference WHW1's video tutorials page on free FTP softwares, and see a full list there and lead yourself to using one.  I mention these things to avoid getting basic questions about such things, since I know all technical levels of people might be reading this, and I cannot assume everyone knows what an acronym or abbreviation I mention references.

Once you are editing the code, scroll way down and look for the code:

if ( $fe_c != '' ) {
  $doncd .= '<input type="image" src="http://www.paypal.com/' . $params->get( 'locale' ) . '/i/btn/' . $params->get( 'pp_image' ) . '" name="submit" alt="PayPal secure payments." />' ;

Replace the http://www.paypal.com/ with https://www.paypal.com/

After saving the edited file, then clear both the joomla caches and the browser cache, and reload the page, and hopefully you will no longer see the browser warning message about unsecure/insecure items and the green padlock now shows.