Geolocation Problems: Path wrong?

[floek]

Dear Matomo Team,
I'm on wordpress multisite in a docker PHP-FPM environment and trying to use geo location database.

Matomo Plugin says:

* Error Standorterkennung: error  (Der konfigurierte Standorterkennungsdienst (<strong>DBIP / GeoIP 2 (Php)</strong>) funktioniert nicht. Bitte korrigieren Sie die Einstellung, oder setzen Sie einen anderen Anbieter. )

And in my log files:

PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/matomo/app/tmp/empty): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/matomo/app/plugins/Diagnostics/Diagnostic/RecommendedPrivateDirectories.php on line 22
PHP Warning:  file_exists(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/usr/src/wordpressmatomo/DBIP-City.mmdb) is not within the allowed path(s): (/usr/src/wordpress/:/tmp/) in /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/matomo/classes/WpMatomo/Paths.php on line 176

This looks like a very wrong path to look for the DBIP-City.mmdb file.
There is a missing slash between wordpress and matomo.
Wordpress admin says it will put the file in wp-content/uploads/matomo which is wrong in multisite (should be wp-content/uploads/sites/<ID>/matomo). Okay, I've created the directory. But, the error message says it doesn't look into wp-content...

It would be very nice if you could fix this issue please. The database should live in wp-content/uploads/sites/<ID>/matomo

Thank you!

Best regards,

Floek

[diosmosis]

The GeoIP database is installed once per install, not once per site, as there is no reason for the file to be duplicated across an entire multisite install. For a quick fix, specify the directory explicitly by setting the MATOMO_GLOBAL_UPLOAD_DIR constant to the absolute path of the directory in your wp-config.php file.

If you'd like to find out why the path is so strange in your install, can you tell me what the result of wp_upload_dir() is for you in your install.

[floek]

Here is the result of wp_upload_dir():

Array
(
    [path] => /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2025/12
    [url] => https://www.domain.tld/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2025/12
    [subdir] => /2025/12
    [basedir] => /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/sites/90
    [baseurl] => https://www.domain.tld/wp-content/uploads/sites/90
    [error] => 
)

Setting MATOMO_GLOBAL_UPLOAD_DIR has no effect.

Best,

Floek

[diosmosis]

@floek what did you set MATOMO_GLOBAL_UPLOAD_DIR to?

[diosmosis]

Ok I see one bug that should be fixed, I'll have a patch for that soon. Can you tell me what the result of get_option( 'upload_path' ) is?

[floek]

Hm get_option( 'upload_path' )seems to be empty...

[floek]

@floek what did you set MATOMO_GLOBAL_UPLOAD_DIR to?

/usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/matomo

[diosmosis]

Can you replace the /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/matomo/classes/WpMatomo/Paths.php file with https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matomo-org/matomo-for-wordpress/35680ac1e730b9fb73500345227fd838a963a793/classes/WpMatomo/Paths.php and see if the issue is still there?

I don't know why setting MATOMO_GLOBAL_UPLOAD_DIR didn't have any effect. The specific code that allows this short circuiting is here: https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo-for-wordpress/blob/develop/classes/WpMatomo/Paths.php#L139-L141. I see no reason for that to fail.

[floek]

Hi,
the error is still there with the new Paths.php file:

NOTICE: PHP message: PHP Warning:  file_exists(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/usr/src/wordpressmatomo/DBIP-City.mmdb) is not within the allowed path(s): (/usr/src/wordpress/:/tmp/) in /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/matomo/classes/WpMatomo/Paths.php on line 177

in Line 177 is this code:

if ( file_exists( $parent_dir . $file_to_look_for ) ) {
	return $parent_dir;
}

$parent_dir does not end with a slash and $file_to_look_for does not start. so $parent_dir . $file_to_look_for expands to
/usr/src/wordpressmatomo

[floek]

I've also added debug output:

error_log($parent_dir);
error_log($file_to_look_for);

which gives:

NOTICE: PHP message: /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content
NOTICE: PHP message: matomo/DBIP-City.mmdb
NOTICE: PHP message: /usr/src/wordpress
NOTICE: PHP message: matomo/DBIP-City.mmdb

I thought the db should live in /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/matomo which is never checked here.

[diosmosis]

@floek That will only return $parent_dir if the file can be found. If the file cannot be found, then $path_upload_dir is returned in a couple lines below. Can you add error_log() calls right before each return statement and see what is being returned and where?

[floek]

Okay, I've debugged further and it seems we were on the wrong track.
The last return statement is used and the correct path /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/matomo is returned. But, the code in line 177 triggers the given error message, while trying to find the correct path. Seems it can be ignored. Not very nice, but okay. Also MATOMO_GLOBAL_UPLOAD_DIR works (if it is configured correctly 😇).

But, still the database is not downloaded to the given (and writeable) file. I will go on debugging ...

[floek]

Okay, got it. The problem is here:

matomo-for-wordpress/classes/WpMatomo/ScheduledTasks.php

Line 236 in 8ac851e

if ( is_multisite() && ! is_main_site() ) {

I'm on multisite, but Matomo is only enabled on one site. The code silently ignores the update when on multisite and not triggered from the main site. So first of all it would be nice to get a message about the behavior in the backend.

Next question: What is best practice in my case?

Can I enable Matomo on network level and opt out on some sites?

[diosmosis]

It seems having Matomo installed normally on a multisite install is not a expected use case. But I think in general it will work, apart from this geoip issue.

Can I enable Matomo on network level and opt out on some sites?

You can enable Matomo on the network level and simply disable tracking on some sites. But the Matomo Analytics UI will be visible for those other sites, as opposed to having the plugin only activated normally on a specific site.

If you don't want to network activate Matomo, can you try updating the /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/matomo/classes/WpMatomo/ScheduledTasks.php file to this: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matomo-org/matomo-for-wordpress/70c1b305c239c14f02408296fcec7b67bc9cad9f/classes/WpMatomo/ScheduledTasks.php and checking if the update task works?

[floek]

Thank you @diosmosis this fixes the issue. I'm using matomo this way for some time and have not seen any other issues.

[diosmosis]

Released in 5.6.1.