"Empty Cart" message when attribues not selected

[rickj]

Hi Everyone,

My web site www.ergoware.com has a problem when users try to add something to the cart and neglect to select all the options for that product. It used to give a canned Zen Cart error message; however, now it takes the user to a page with a mesasge "YOUR SHOPPING CART IS EMPTY. Below that it shows the new products for the month, followed by featured products, and then the monthly specials.

My site does have significant customizations, but the cart did work for months. We've recently added some modules, which may be related. They include the fast and easy checkout, a module that updates the price to include the attributes add-on amount, QuickBooks Integration, Sales tax report, and an enhanced reporting capability.

My programmer has been unable to isolate the problem and I am losing cusomers as a result. Any recommendations / ideas would be MUCH appreciated!

Rick Jackson

[Kim]

Start removing the modules one by one until things work again.

[Ajeh]

You could also force a selection by setting the Please Select to be:
Display Only YES
Default YES

now the customer has to make a choice or the Product cannot be added to the shopping cart ...

Why you cannot add the product without selection of everything is a mystery, as Kim has suggested it must be one of your add-ons or customizations causing this ... by default, the Product would of gotten added without the attributes and not forgotten totally ...

[rickj]

You could also force a selection by setting the Please Select to be:
Display Only YES
Default YES

now the customer has to make a choice or the Product cannot be added to the shopping cart ...

Why you cannot add the product without selection of everything is a mystery, as Kim has suggested it must be one of your add-ons or customizations causing this ... by default, the Product would of gotten added without the attributes and not forgotten totally ...

Thanks for your answer, Ajeh.

Here's how we are set up on the attributes. We get the errors in this setup:

LEGEND - (Refers to "Please Select" Option Name)
Display only - yes
Free - no
Default - yes
Discounted - no
Base price - no
Required - no

ATTRIBUTES FLAG (Applies to all the attributes, except legend):
Display only - no
Free when product is free- yes
Default attribute marked selected- no
Apply Discounts - yes
Include in base price - yes
Required for text - no

If we change the LEGEND Diplay only to NO we don't get the empty cart error message, BUT THE USERS DON"T HAVE TO SELECT THE OPTIONS. This results in orders that are incorrect / incomplete, etc.

These setting have been like this and we didn't get the empty cart message. Previously, if a customer forgot to select one of the options, there was a canned error message indicating that all of the attrbiutes need to be selected. It never went to the next page and it forced the user to select all the available options.

Assistance / recommendation appreciated.

Rick

[Ajeh]

I am suggesting only change 1 Option Value in each of the Option Name groups where it says Please Select and make that 1 Option Value be set to
Display Only YES
Default YES
Sort Order 0

The others are just setup the normal way ...

[rickj]

I am suggesting only change 1 Option Value in each of the Option Name groups where it says Please Select and make that 1 Option Value be set to
Display Only YES
Default YES
Sort Order 0

The others are just setup the normal way ...

Thanks, Ajeh. We changed the PLEASE SELECT from
Display Only = yes
Default = no
Sort order = 0

To the following:
Display Only = yes
Default = yes
Sort order = 0

There was no effect doing that. We still get the empty cart page. Note that we have a "Please Select" Option value for each option name, and we have that one as display only. Each option such as color, size, etc. is set to display only = no. Before this problem showed up, this prompted a Zen Cart error message indicating that the options weren't all selected on the same page. Now, the user gets taken to a new page with the empty cart error message.

I'm asking Host 99 to back out a module that adds the dollar value of the attribute to the base price to see if that module had any effect on this. (For business purposes I'm also going to add a message above the attributes indicating that the customers MUST select all options to avoid an empty cart error message.)

Thanks for your willingness to help!
Rick