Cart fails to capture submissions... (hosting problem)

**The Annoyed Man** · 9 May 2007, 07:16 PM

Honestly, I don't know for sure if this is a bug, or a setup issue, but I used the zen-cart installer provided in the download to install this store, so I'm not certain it is a setup problem.

BACKGROUND: I have run into exactly the same problem setting up both zen-cart AND setting up the original osCommerce that zen-cart is supposedly based upon. I can tell you that when I first installed osCommerce, I kept getting the "too many users" mySQL error, but between errors when I could get connected myself, the cart worked very well. When I brought the mySQL error problem up with my webhost, they said I had to purchase an SSL certificate to secure the site, which I did.

Ever since installing the SSL certificate, I could not get the osCommerce cart to function. I asked a lot of questions, and read a lot of suggestions, and nothing worked. Then, I heard about zen-cart, and about how it is based on the old osCommerce code, but is supposed to be more user-friendly. So, I installed it, using the installer script provided with the zen-cart download, and BINGO, I have exactly the same problem...

...you select an item, add it to the cart, and the script tells you that the cart is empty. When I check on the admin side, none of the selected items show up in an order, so the data is definitely not being passed through. I am pretty much dead in the water until I can get this fixed, and I'm under pressure to get it done.

In a separate (I THINK) issue on the admin side, whenever I try to update a record, for instance changing a value for a given field from "true" to "false," instead of updating the record upon submission, it erases it, replacing it with an empty field.

I sure could use some help with this. Is there someone out there who can walk me through the possibilities and give me some suggestions?

**Kim** · 9 May 2007, 07:31 PM

Who is your host?

**The Annoyed Man** · 9 May 2007, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by Kim

Who is your host?

Our host is ipowerweb.com.

**Kim** · 9 May 2007, 08:08 PM

Suggest a search of the forum for ipowerweb. I believe you have a hosting problem.

**The Annoyed Man** · 9 May 2007, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by Kim

Suggest a search of the forum for ipowerweb. I believe you have a hosting problem.

Will do. Thanks for the heads up.

**The Annoyed Man** · 9 May 2007, 08:49 PM

Well, the search results are not exactly encouraging. Problem is, we've already purchased the SSL (GeoTrust) at their price of $99, plus $150/year afterward (which makes no sense to me at all).

Since we don't want to jump hosting ships in the middle of our prepaid year, and since we have already purchased and paid for that $99 SSL, and since it looks like I am going to have to do battle with their impenetrable fortress of "support," do you have any particular suggestions I can give them to get them pointed in the right direction?

Again, any help you can give me is very much appreciated.

**DrByte** · 9 May 2007, 10:06 PM

Somehow your hosting configuration is preventing your PHP sessions infrastructure from working properly. There are likely a myriad of other things too.

Perhaps you might convince them to get you onto a different server as a start. Linux-based preferred. PHP 5 is fine. MySQL 4 would be best.

As for your SSL certificate, depending on how nice they play, you should be able to carry it forward to another host and not have to renew it until it expires.
There are some great hosts recommended in our "hosting" link at the top of this page.

**The Annoyed Man** · 9 May 2007, 11:42 PM

The more I go over this, the more I am convinced that we need to change web hosts. I just don't have the energy to do battle with my webhost to make this thing work for me, and to do the development and the rest of my job.