"Invalid backend model specified: auit_editor/customer_attribute_backend_groups" after deleting AuIt_Editor module

Question

I've just removed the AuIt_Editor module and now when I try to log in (or create a new account), I get the following error: Invalid backend model specified: auit_editor/customer_attribute_backend_groups

Note that I have flushed the cache, in backend, as wel as through n98-magerun and I've also deleted the var/cache folder (and as an extra precaution even the media/js and media/css (js and css merge is enabled) folders)

This is the output from my system.log

2017-01-12T15:52:22+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: include(Mage/Auit/Editor/Model/Customer/Attribute/Backend/Groups.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory  in /var/www/src/lib/Varien/Autoload.php on line 94
2017-01-12T15:52:22+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: include(): Failed opening 'Mage/Auit/Editor/Model/Customer/Attribute/Backend/Groups.php' for inclusion (include_path='/var/www/src/app/code/local:/var/www/src/app/code/community:/var/www/src/app/code/core:/var/www/src/lib:.:/usr/share/php:/var/www/src/app/code/community/Zookal/Mock/Model/Mocks')  in /var/www/src/lib/Varien/Autoload.php on line 94
2017-01-12T15:52:58+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: include(Mage/Auit/Editor/Model/Customer/Attribute/Backend/Groups.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory  in /var/www/src/lib/Varien/Autoload.php on line 94
2017-01-12T15:52:58+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: include(): Failed opening 'Mage/Auit/Editor/Model/Customer/Attribute/Backend/Groups.php' for inclusion (include_path='/var/www/src/app/code/local:/var/www/src/app/code/community:/var/www/src/app/code/core:/var/www/src/lib:.:/usr/share/php:/var/www/src/app/code/community/Zookal/Mock/Model/Mocks')  in /var/www/src/lib/Varien/Autoload.php on line 94
2017-01-12T15:53:32+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): Entity: line 1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T15:53:32+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): default  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T15:53:32+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): ^  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T15:53:40+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/controllers/CacheController.php on line 82
2017-01-12T15:54:16+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): Entity: line 1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T15:54:16+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): default  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T15:54:16+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): ^  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T16:17:28+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): Entity: line 1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T16:17:28+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): default  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T16:17:28+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): ^  in /var/www/src/app/code/core/Mage/AdminNotification/Model/Feed.php on line 173
2017-01-12T16:23:35+00:00 CRIT (2): Not valid template file:frontend/base/default/template/aw_rma/sales/order/info.phtml
2017-01-12T16:31:22+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: include(Mage/Auit/Editor/Model/Customer/Attribute/Backend/Groups.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory  in /var/www/src/lib/Varien/Autoload.php on line 94
2017-01-12T16:31:22+00:00 ERR (3): Warning: include(): Failed opening 'Mage/Auit/Editor/Model/Customer/Attribute/Backend/Groups.php' for inclusion (include_path='/var/www/src/app/code/local:/var/www/src/app/code/community:/var/www/src/app/code/core:/var/www/src/lib:.:/usr/share/php:/var/www/src/app/code/community/Zookal/Mock/Model/Mocks')  in /var/www/src/lib/Varien/Autoload.php on line 94

When I check the eav_attribute table in my database, there is a row there with following data:

attribute_id: 140
entity_type_id: 1
attribute_code: auit_group_ids
attribute_model: NULL
backend_model: auit_editor/customer_attribute_backend_groups
backend_type: text
backend_table: NULL
frontend_model: NULL
frontend_input: multiselect
frontend_label: SNM Groups
frontend_class: NULL
source_model: auit_editor/customer_attribute_source_groups
is_required: 0
is_user_defined: 0
default_value: NULL
is_unique: 0
note: NULL

Does anyone know how I can solve this? Is it safe to just delete that row? This is weird because I've searched the code and couldn't find any reference/stray class/... connected to this module and so it should not be an issue. So what's happening here?

Any help would be nuch appreciated.

Answer 1

It is important that, you need to remove database changes that is made by the removed module. Database changes which would be possible to occur by a module are :

• Any new tables which use to store specific data for the module.
• Any existing table changes (eg: adding or removing of a column).
• System configurations specific to the module.
• Eav attributes removal if any.
• and so on.

To get an idea on what are the changes which has done to the database by a module, you need to look inside sql directory files within a module.

An ideal module is the one which also provides provision to remove all kind of changes which has done to the application.

So in this case, do not hesitate to remove that attribute from your application.

Answer 2

Nico,

Yes, you can safely delete that row now. This is one of those long-standing Magento issues: modules do not provide uninstall or cleanup routines so you sometimes need to modify the database directly.