Product deleted from Admin still showing in catalog

[jc8125]

Ran into a problem today..

A product was deleted from the admin a few days ago. No problem, we do it all the time. The next day, a customer ordered that product. When i went into the catalog and searched, the item did in fact show up. When i go into the admin to investigate, there is no trace of this product. Looked in the database, found the product, and is says it was last modified back in 2009.

So, if one of the db gurus could jump in and give me a hand, i'd appreciate it. I assume i could manually delete from the database, but that would leave two questions:
1) what possible harm would that cause and
2) why did it happen in the first place / will it continue.

Tried searching the forums, not much luck. Found a random post or two about a similar problem, but they all had done goofy things to their db prior to the problems.. We haven't manually touched the db in quite awhile.

Running 1.38a, fully patched. couple of mods, but nothing that I could see interfering with the deletion of products.. (and everyone on the cart has been up and running for months with no probs)

thanks in advance..!

[Ajeh]

Check the database tables ...

products <-- is there a products_id for this product?
is there a master_categories_id in this product record?
if there is a product record, what is the products_status set to?

products_description <-- is there a products_id for this product?

products_to_categories <-- is there 1 or more products_id for this product? If so, what are the associated categories_id

If there is an associated categories_id ... look in the table:
categories <-- is there a matching categories_id
<-- also check if there is a matching categories_id for the master_categories_id if there was one

categories_description <-- is there a matching categories_id

[jc8125]

Ajeh,

Thanks so much for coming to the rescue! You're a life saver. It did have a master_categories_id - which I actually had checked.. just didn't go the extra step to see if it was a VALID master_cat_id..

Changed it to a valid cat_id and whadyya know, there it was in the admin! went ahead and deactivated - and now the "product that won't die", as we affectionately refer to it, is gone from the catalog.

Thanks for your help, as always. Coffee to follow shortly.

[Ajeh]

Thanks for the update that the problem was due to an invalid master_categories_id ...

Thanks also for the coffee to go with my donut this morning ...

[drysdaleandco]

Check the database tables ...

products <-- is there a products_id for this product?
is there a master_categories_id in this product record?
if there is a product record, what is the products_status set to?

products_description <-- is there a products_id for this product?

products_to_categories <-- is there 1 or more products_id for this product? If so, what are the associated categories_id

If there is an associated categories_id ... look in the table:
categories <-- is there a matching categories_id
<-- also check if there is a matching categories_id for the master_categories_id if there was one

categories_description <-- is there a matching categories_id

Hi,
I'm having the same problem with a deleted product still displaying but I don't know where to find/check the database tables. How do I check these tables? Where is this info found?

[schoolboy]

Your host account should have a CPanel administration feature. (Not the same as the Zencart admin panel).

In C-Panel (or your host's equivalent) there will probably be a mechanism to access the mySQL databases and a tool called phpMyAdmin.

phpMyAdmin is the tool you use to see into the heart of your database.

But tread cautiously... errors using this tool can damage your database, so:

Find a tutorial on phpMyAdmin, and (like I did all those years ago) do a full install of zencart as a TEST site. This can be in a sub-directory on your main domain - or if you have the luxury of another hosting account, do it there.

Then... do your experimenting and learning on that installation, where errors will not be serious.

[drysdaleandco]

Hi,
I'm having the same problem with a deleted product still displaying but I don't know where to find/check the database tables. How do I check these tables? Where is this info found?

OK. Nevermind. I figured it out.
The product was deleted in the master category but it was still linked to another catagory.
When I searched for it in Admin>products it did not show up in the search results, presumably because it was deleted from the master category. I couldn't find it in Admin anywhere but it was still showing on the live catalogue.
The solution for me was to go to the product in the live catalogue and view the source code. By checking the source code I could see what category it was linked to. And sure enough, when I checked that category, there it was. Was then able to delete it from that cat. and then it stopped displaying.

[easyphil]

Hi. Thanks for your post. I could see the source code... but cant seem to see what category it is pointing at.

[gjh42]

What category is it displaying in? (Assuming you have the same issue of a deleted product still showing up.) Look in that category in admin > Catalog > Categories/Products > the particular category, and see if the product shows up there.

If you can't tell which category it is in, post some of the source code where the category/product listing is being output. If you can let us see it live, we can tell what category id to look in.