Attribute dropped with Category Change

Running 1.3.6 (heavily modded)

Hello,
The Admin for our site created a series of subcategories and moved products into them. These products all lost their information to the download file. The Download Attribute was still there but the file information (xxx/filename.zip) was not. It had gone missing out of the DB also.

I assume this is not default behavior. I could not find any other entries on this with a search. Any ideas? We lost 300+ links that must all be redone.:down:

Thanks for any help,
Bill

If a product is moved all that is done is the categories_id is changed on the products_to_categories table ...

If a product is copied to another category, the download is not copied with it ...

Do you know if it was moved or copied to the new category?

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I assume this is not default behavior. I could not find any other entries on this with a search. Any ideas? We lost 300+ links that must all be redone

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Too late for this time but "ALWAYS BACKUP THE SITE FILES AND THE DB" before doing things like this

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Originally Posted by kobra

Too late for this time but "ALWAYS BACKUP THE SITE FILES AND THE DB" before doing things like this

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Tried. We need to get better order than we are currently doing. They are very much treating it like a file system. So, I backed up Monday night and the moved Monday during the day. I could go back to a previous version but a lot of products have been added.

Like I said, more chaos than I am happy with currently.

Thanks for the advice. I am going to try for a more rigourous backup schedule, probably nightly, until things settle down.

Bill

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

If a product is moved all that is done is the categories_id is changed on the products_to_categories table ...

If a product is copied to another category, the download is not copied with it ...

Do you know if it was moved or copied to the new category?

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Not sure. I will query and let you know. This is definitely within the realm of possibility.

Thanks,
Bill

Bill,

Place the shop in maintenance mode and take a backup "right" before you do something like this.

If you have cPanel, plesk, or another featured manager, this only takes 5 min

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

If a product is moved all that is done is the categories_id is changed on the products_to_categories table ...

If a product is copied to another category, the download is not copied with it ...

Do you know if it was moved or copied to the new category?

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The used Move. This begins to worry me more and more.

Bill

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kobra

Bill,

Place the shop in maintenance mode and take a backup "right" before you do something like this.

If you have cPanel, plesk, or another featured manager, this only takes 5 min

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Not a problem. That is how I do it. I use Navicat. The problem is the owners will do these things much like you would use a file system;i.e. without much thought to data loss and without warning me. This is a good lesson for them as they are doing the re-attributing.

I will keep it in mind to try and impress on them how important it is.

Thanks,
Bill

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Originally Posted by HinterWelt2

The used Move. This begins to worry me more and more.

Bill

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Worries you? Worries me ... :eek:

There is nothing in the:
/admin/includes/modules/move_product_confirm.php that even refers to the attributes ...

What version of Zen Cart are you running and what add-ons are you using?

Are your products all done manually or are you using add-ons?

Did you use the M for Move or something else?

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

Worries you? Worries me ... :eek:

There is nothing in the:
/admin/includes/modules/move_product_confirm.php that even refers to the attributes ...

What version of Zen Cart are you running and what add-ons are you using?

Are your products all done manually or are you using add-ons?

Did you use the M for Move or something else?

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Using 1.3.6.

I have done some custom mods and that could be an issue. Mostly it is supporting a muti-vendor mall setup with just two changes to the DB (a vendor status and vendor ID in the customer table). They did not use any of my mods to move the products (I have a Vendor Tools console).

Add-Ons - Sales Report, running a modded version of Future Zen Template 15, About Us 1.3, Go Daddy and Paypal Seals, Login BoxBack up MySQL Plugin (couldn't get it to work).

Just got this from the owners:

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Update: Just ran a test with one of Goodman's products. We found it didn't have an linked download, but the attribute controller had been assigned so that on the screen it still had the button that says "download zip file."

I purchased the product and didn't receive a link. The product then changed to red disabled and listed 0- just like what our XRP products had done. I think that means the problem is coming first from something erasing the linked file, but the attributes still thinking there is an attached file.

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They used the M for move.

Sorry to be such a pain. It has me a bit stumped.

Thanks,
Bill

Me too ...

Off to do a bunch of testing ... :cool:

Check one other thing ...

On the products_attributes_download where the filenames removed from the field products_attributes_filename? The records themselves removed? Or were the filenames missing from the /download directory?

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

Check one other thing ...

On the products_attributes_download where the filenames removed from the field products_attributes_filename? The records themselves removed? Or were the filenames missing from the /download directory?

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The entire record was missing. The files were still in place. The download attribute was set but the download field was not....ah, when you look at the Attribute Controller you would see a "Download" attribute but no file path/name. So, the attribute is not being dropped per se, but the file information is lost, like it gets deleted from the product_attribute_download table.

Clear?

Thanks for your help,
Bill

Makes no sense ...

I also have not been able to reproduce this in any manner when using the M for Move or when using the Multiple Categories Links Manager where I add the Product as a Linked Product to a new Category then change the Master Category and remove it from the old category ...

Nothing about the move that I am finding touches the Attributes ... only the copy touches the attributes and that does NOT copy the download ...

I will keep hunting ... let us know if you learn anything else ... and if you could, perhaps setup a copy to move to another category and see if you can reproduce the issue with the move ...

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

I will keep hunting ... let us know if you learn anything else ... and if you could, perhaps setup a copy to move to another category and see if you can reproduce the issue with the move ...

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I am not sure I understand what you are asking for. Let me give it a try. You would like me to try a Copy command to move product around and see if that causes the delete of the download link?

I will see if I can get it to do it again...on a smaller scale and on my test server. :)

Oh, another thing. Should disabling (setting the Out of Stock) a virtual product also delete the attributes? This is not related but we had a vendor drop out of the initial launch and now he is ready to go. Unfortunately, he has around 400 products all without download attributes...meh.


Thanks,
Bill

No, I'd like you to repeat the Move with the M command and try to recreate the error ...

I know the C for Copy does this ... but I cannot get the M for Move to do this ...

Out of stock does not delete the attribute either ...

So, update. We will be moving some products around this weekend and will give it a thorough test then. The admins who moved the products in the first place tried to replicate the error but could not. Again, I hate ebugs that do not behave.

Here is their detailed response on what they did last time. You may need to visit the yourgamesnow.com site to understand the categories and context.

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Bill, we tried to reproduce the problem yesterday evening by going into the admin tools, and using the "move" tool. That did not recreate the problem. However the actual process of the big move was more complex and perhaps this information will help.

In brief, we moved Roleplaying>System>d20 to Roleplaying>d20. We moved Roleplaying>System>D20 Modern to Roleplaying>d20>d20 Modern (and the same for d20 future). Then we created new categories (D20 items, d20 monsters, etc.) and moved them inside of Roleplaying>d20. That means that there was both products and categories in the same folder and we did get the warning on the screen in admin tools. We then used the "move" tool. For example, we would move "A Dozen shields" from Roleplaying>d20 into Roleplaying>d20>d20 items.

Hopefully, that information helps.

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I wonder if it could be something with d20 becoming a root category instead of a leaf.

Well, I will keep you updated on the move that should be coming this weekend. And, yes, I will be backing up this time. :yes:

Bill

Nope still cannot make it happen ...

Unless I use Copy the C as Duplicate Products ... I cannot manage to lose the downloads ...

Let me know if you trip over anything ... I will keep hunting too ...

Well, just an update. All went well with the big category reorg and subsequent move. I am inclined to chalk this one up to user error at this point...

Thanks for all the help and I will let you know if it happens again.

Bill

Not a problem ... do let us know if you are ever able to replicate it ...

NOTE: should it happen again, and I forgot about this before ... the admin_activity_log does paint a picture of what was done in the Admin ... might help solve the mystery ... :cool:

The drama continues. It appears to be a deletion from the products_attributes_download table and it happens at random or atleast in a pattern I cannot discern. These are definitely not files that are being touched. The entries for the downloads are deleted though.

So, likely suspects. I have modified the admin pages to create a second interface called Vendor Tools. This is for self administration of the products on the site. Would/Could this be due to a heavily modified Attributes Controller page? The strange thing is the entry is still there but the download information is gone. So, you hit Display and an empty assigned attribute comes up.

Theory: Could be a delete attribute artifact in the vendor pages just deleting the entry in products_attributes_download. This seems a bit far fetched but I will pursue it.

Grr, what a pain. (But thanks for all the help guys. Not mad at you, just the situation.)

Bill

Could you look in your admin_activity_log ... this should give you the movement through the Admin when this was done ...

Maybe it can help locate a pattern in there?

Thanks for the update ... still cannot repeat it myself either ... :unsure:

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

Could you look in your admin_activity_log ... this should give you the movement through the Admin when this was done ...

Maybe it can help locate a pattern in there?

Thanks for the update ... still cannot repeat it myself either ... :unsure:

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This is going to sound stupid, but I can't find the Admin log...where might it be? :unsure:

Thanks,
Bill

In phpMyAdmin ... look for the admin_activity_log ... browse that to see actions in the Admin that are recorded ...

We are suddenly having this problem on our site too. Two orders in today customers emailed to say downloads weren't there... only some products are missing like this.

Went in to look -- it shows the attribute has a download, but it's no longer linked to the actual file.

It's very difficult to check in our store what other products may have lost their files, as we have 900+ products all download and growing.

When you say:

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Went in to look -- it shows the attribute has a download, but it's no longer linked to the actual file.

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Do you mean that the Attribute is added but the Download filename is blank?

Have you looked at the Downloads Manager to see if it can help spot these?

If you browse the products_attributes_download table in phpMyAdmin, do you see any entries without the download filename?

More or less what I am trying to discover is if the record is missing or blank or not filled in with the right information in the products_attributes_download table ...

Hopefully I can explain clearly enough...

As far as I can tell, the products missing their download files are not showing up in the download manager, and when a person purchases them no download at all shows.

However, when I have gone in to look at the file itself and its attributes, it still has a "download" attribute set, just blank for the actual file name and path.

I know these were originally set.

We do have some addon modules - admin permissions (for multiple manufacturers to be able to add their own products), export orders, image handler. These have all been installed since the get go (about 9 months now) and we've had no issues with them. And this issue has only been occuring within the last week to two.

Might see what files that you have added, changed, etc. reference the products_attributes and products_attributes_download tables to see if there is something askew ...

Just to add, this continues to be an issue with us as well. I have three Zen stores I maintain and all have this issue. Two are heavily modded while the third is virtually unchanged from the original install. Versions range from 1.36-1.38a.

Bill

Also, if you have the UN_Wishlist installed it is VERY BAD for downloads.

If you are dealing with lost download links I have developed a tool for dealing with it. Here is the SQL. Zencart Gurus, this seems to work but am I missing something?

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insert into orders_products_download (orders_id,orders_products_id, orders_products_filename, download_maxdays, download_count, products_prid) VALUES (ORDERNO, ORDERS_PRODUCT_ID, (select products_attributes_filename from products_attributes_download where products_attributes_id=YOUR_PRODUCT_ID), 0, 5, (select products_prid from orders_products where orders_products_id=ORDERS_PRODUCT_ID))

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Replace CAPS vars with your values.

Hope that helps.

Bill

We do have un_wishlist... could this be the whole reason its happening? Its utilized by some of our customers, but not the majority so it may just be better to get it off??

We are still dealing with this, two orders today missing download links, and unfortunately while I can poke around and fix some minor things I am not comfy with delving too deeply in the databases yet.

I've installed the things we have myself, but pretty much just following directions... not too much heavy lifting on my own.

What exactly does your fix do? Find the products missing attributes? Or fix the orders missing download links?

At least it helps to know we're not the only ones dealing with this.

Misery loves company right?? :P

Well just to be safe I did remove the un_wishlist...

Well, my fix was far from graceful. I had wanted to update the wishlist to inject a link with the attributes but Linda said this could not be done. I have not had the time to dig into it to see if I could make a workaround. So, I ended up disabling the links. It worked out o.k. but now there are no links to the products from the wishlist and as you can imagine, it just is not very useful.

Sorry I do not have better news.:no:

Bill

I know this is an old thread, but at least you know I searched for an answer before posting :) .

I have a client that has had this same thing happen. The file names just disappeared. I don't think she's made any recent changes, I will check to see, but on just some of her items, the file names are gone. I looked in the database and those records are completely gone from the products_attributes_download table, but are still in the products_attributes table. If I look at the product attributes in the attribute manager, the attributes are there, but the file names are gone.

Help?

This still randomly happens to products in our store too. I have never been able to figure it out (but not by any means an expert at looking either)... we just fix the ones we find that way, usually when a customer emails saying there was no download for their order - not a fun way to find them but with thousands of products about the only way.

Once we fix them, they seem to stay fixed at least...

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Originally Posted by digidiva-kathy

I know this is an old thread, but at least you know I searched for an answer before posting :) .

I have a client that has had this same thing happen. The file names just disappeared. I don't think she's made any recent changes, I will check to see, but on just some of her items, the file names are gone. I looked in the database and those records are completely gone from the products_attributes_download table, but are still in the products_attributes table. If I look at the product attributes in the attribute manager, the attributes are there, but the file names are gone.

Help?

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Hah!!! I am not insane!...well, delusional anyway. ;)

This continues to happen to all three stores I manage. This ranges from 1.36 modded to be a mall vendor set up to an unmodded 1.38a install.

Take a look at this thread:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136022

I have found a way to detect the dropped file names. This helps with one of my clients because they have a huge catalog. Who knows, it may lead to a solution down the road.

Hope it works out for you.

When you say Attributes are dropped on the Category change ... is this via a MOVE or a Copy to Duplicate Product?

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

When you say Attributes are dropped on the Category change ... is this via a MOVE or a Copy to Duplicate Product?

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Not speaking for others, no, they are just sitting there.

Also, I realize I may be misleading you. It is an important distinction that the ATTRIBUTE is still there, the DOWNLOAD_FIELD is empty. So, you can go to the Attributes controller and see the download attribute still attached to the product but the download field is empty.

Hope that helps.

ETA: I had a theory at one time that somehow the stock level was being counted and it was dropping to 0 then releasing the download somehow. Unfortunately, I reconfigured the store to not track stock and it still does it.

So the records are still in the products_attributes_download table but the field products_attributes_filename is mysteriously blank? :unsure:

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

So the records are still in the products_attributes_download table but the field products_attributes_filename is mysteriously blank? :unsure:

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I believe this is what happens for us. I am not sure though whether its triggered by a category change or what exactly. We have 2300+ downloadable products. So it's been mostly just stumbling across the ones missing them when someone emails and says they are missing from their orders.

As stated, it's still set like their was originally a file attached but the field itself referring to that file is empty.

Thanks for the link to the other thread, I will definitely check it out. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

So the records are still in the products_attributes_download table but the field products_attributes_filename is mysteriously blank? :unsure:

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For reference, here is the SQL I use to find the missing filenames:

select pa.products_id, pa.products_attributes_id, p.products_name
from Products_attributes as pa, products_description as p
where not exists(select * from products_attributes_download as pad where pa.products_attributes_id = pad.products_attributes_id ) and pa.products_id=p.products_id order by pa.products_id

So the entry in products_attributes_download is missing but the entry in products_attributes is still there.

Yeah, it has taken me two years to track this down just because it makes not sense.

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Originally Posted by DigitalScrapDesigns

I believe this is what happens for us. I am not sure though whether its triggered by a category change or what exactly. We have 2300+ downloadable products. So it's been mostly just stumbling across the ones missing them when someone emails and says they are missing from their orders.

As stated, it's still set like their was originally a file attached but the field itself referring to that file is empty.

Thanks for the link to the other thread, I will definitely check it out. :D

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I just ran the script and found another four products BEFORE anyone purchased them.

My next mod will be one that allows for attaching downloads to orders directly. Currently, it is all through SQL scripts on the DB. Still, if we coudl just stop it from happening it would be great. Luckily, I have a version of this with the Subscription mod I did so whipping this bad boy up should not be too hard.

Good luck!

Bill