New Install Issue - downloaded yesterday

EcotypeS

I installed per instructions (on XAMPP).
I created a menu using Admin -- looks good -- I also installed the documentation module -- it works and it shows up in admin. So I think admin features are working.
The original home.php worked.

But then I started to claim it.
I altered home.php to have the following
$vars['meta_keywords'] = 'Florida plants, New York Plants, travel, wildlife, photography, ecosystems, botany, plant ecology, Shirley Denton'; $vars['meta_description'] = 'This site focuses on the nature of places ........... visit';
I did nothing with the layout file, main.php
I altered header.php to include only html plus the following (in appropriate places)
<meta name="keywords" content="<?php echo fuel_var('meta_keywords')?>"> <meta name="description" content="<?php echo fuel_var('meta_description')?>"> and <?php echo fuel_nav(array('depth' => 2,'render_type'=>'basic'));
fuel_var and fuel_nav produce nothing (I am getting empty strings back). They also produce no errors.

There is only one other use of fuel. It works.
<?php echo css('ink-min, docs'); ?>

The remainder of header.php and home.php are html and do not attempt to use fuel, and they behave.

Seems like the lines that are failing use fuel helpers.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

admin

What file was the following in:
$vars['meta_keywords']....
Is the fuel_mode set to "auto" in the fuel/application/config/MY_fuel.php file?

EcotypeS

Thanks !

Setting fuel_mode to auto got me there because it got me an error message! My attempts at getting php.ini set up correctly had apparently backfired (after I created the menu in admin) -- php had stopped loading mysql.

I'm now getting useful results.