Can access Admin, and storefront through admin, but storefront directly...no joy

crimsoncomputers.com.au
zencart 1.5.6b
PHP 7.2

Hi, I am sorry in advance for what must seem a dumb question but it is almost 3:00am and i have searched the forum, FAQs and google for an answer (for what seems like forever) and I am posting as an absolute last resort.

Here goes: I have no problem accessing the admin and if I click the link to the storefront from inside admin It takes me to the fresh install demo data in the default template (Responsive), however when I enter my shops URL into a browser I get the little waiting /loading graphic of a circle of dashes goind round and round in the middle of the screen but the storefront never materializes.

The only difference when successfully accessing through the link in admin is that the following is added to the domain URL and the template appears:

/index.php?main_page=index

and when i add that to my domain in a browser directly the template and demo data appear no probs

http://crimsoncomputers.com.au/index...ain_page=index
or
https://crimsoncomputers.com.au/inde...ain_page=index


So my question(s):how can I fix this and what have I done wrong?

I thought I had a reasonable grasp of the installation process, after all the test directory prior to loading it into the root directory seemed to load fine if I entered the domain name and additional directory like this:
crimsoncomputers.com.au/zen-cart/

obviously though i know very little about the whole system.
My apologies for what i am assuming is a simple fix and a problem caused by something i have done.
I so don't want to waist anyone's time.
Thanks in advance

Do you have or have you put an .htaccess file in the root of your store?

Basically I ask because it appears that your server doesn't realize that it should be looking for an index.php file at the root of the domain name. It will operate when told to access it, but doesn't realize.

It may also be something to be adjusted in your cPanel if your host offers that.

Another way to go about resolving this issue is to reach out to your host and ask them how to modify your site's configuration to attempt to use index.php as the home page.

Oh, may also want to remove an index.html file that may be present in the root of the store as provided by your host.

Could also identify here who your host is and perhaps someone familiar with their operations may be able to give a direct answer rather than the comments/questions posed above. :)

thanks for your answer mc.
nope i havent dealt at all with a htaccess file yet
the cpanel filemanager doesnt even show me the file or directory that should be there called .htaccess
but i can see/manipulate it through the ftp program
my host is hostgator.
i will try removing the index file you suggest and see what happens.

thanks again

Thanks again all fixed. called the host who fixed the dot files that were corrupt and now it all works fine

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by adam

Thanks again all fixed. called the host who fixed the dot files that were corrupt and now it all works fine

---

Were they able to explain how they became corrupt?
Do you now know what was corrupt about them?

Those are the kinds of things that are important to come to understand. Hopefully it was some innocent mistake made, but changes should only be made by those that are permitted access.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by adam

the cpanel filemanager doesnt even show me the file or directory that should be there called .htaccess

---

In cpanel's File Manager, click on Settings and make sure Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) is checked.

i am not sure what was corrupted or broken about my files, the hostgator rep just said:"Apart from fixing your website files is here anything else i can do for you"
in hindsight i should of said "damn straight wtf?!" but was so relieved things were working that I took off quick smart.
Anyway, I noticed a new ZC release (1.5.6c) and quickly installed it, typed in the domain name and found myself in exactly the same predicament as before + wishing i had asked what was done to fix it b4.
This time the explanation given was: There was two index files html and php with html having priority, she disabled the html one and bingo - working homepage

looking at the files in public_html I find that she just renamed index.html to index.html1 which did the trick but seems a lazy fix to me ...but what do i know?

Also what also seems different is the htaccess file which is now renamed to htaccess.bak. A seperate problem ive been having is "not secure" displayed even though im using https and a valid /current ssl cert. looking into it i apparently need to add some code to the htaccess file to have it force https but when i rename it back the page doesnt load at all and i get an internal error 500. maybe this has not got anything to do with the php problem and i am about to go off and discover a fix but if you do have an idea where to send me it would be great if you could. my htaccess file has all this weird stuff in it about acme challenge and well-known etcetera but it all seems so foreign to me:
# Enable rewriting.
RewriteEngine on
Header add Vary "User-Agent"
Header add X-Generated "%t"
Options -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "iphone|ipad|ipod|android|nokia|ios|opera m(ob|in)i|iemobile|symbian|samsung|sec-|htc|huawei|ericsson|sonyericsson|blackberry|motorola|sagem|kyocera|zte|kddi|doc omo|j-phone|kwc|lenovo|lg|mot|softbank|nec|audiovox|alcatel|sharp|sie-|sanyo|sendo|amoi|xda|bird|benq|palm|pantech|panasonic|fly|asus-|##########ispider|googlebot-mobile|nintendo|psp|dalvik|windows ce|foma|brew|webos|fennec|netfront|teleca|obigo|vodafone|up.browser|portalmmm" [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/cpanel-dcv/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteRule ^$ mobile_index.html
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/cpanel-dcv/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteRule ^$ index.html
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "iphone|ipad|ipod|android|nokia|ios|opera m(ob|in)i|iemobile|symbian|samsung|sec-|htc|huawei|ericsson|sonyericsson|blackberry|motorola|sagem|kyocera|zte|kddi|doc omo|j-phone|kwc|lenovo|lg|mot|softbank|nec|audiovox|alcatel|sharp|sie-|sanyo|sendo|amoi|xda|bird|benq|palm|pantech|panasonic|fly|asus-|##########ispider|googlebot-mobile|nintendo|psp|dalvik|windows ce|foma|brew|webos|fennec|netfront|teleca|obigo|vodafone|up.browser|portalmmm" [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/cpanel-dcv/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteRule ^([^/]+).* mobile_$1.html [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/cpanel-dcv/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteRule ^([^/]+).* $1.html

thanks dbltoe

Apologies for the whole htaccess digression.
not much point in this update as its not really related to my initial already solved query but
was able fix the internal error by changing all of the *.html instances to *.php
and fixed the https "not secure" issue by adding this code to the htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]


anyway thanks to you guys for having my back.

bye now :)