Shipping Module Is Working, but Does not Appear in Backend

[todoonada]

Hi Rod,
thank you. It worked
I had a copy of a changed shipping module in the /modules/shipping/folder. I removed it and it worked. Seems like zen cart is reading all the files in this folder and if something is wrong, it might cause some unpredictable harm.

Cheers
Tim

[RodG]

Hi Rod,
thank you. It worked
I had a copy of a changed shipping module in the /modules/shipping/folder. I removed it and it worked. Seems like zen cart is reading all the files in this folder and if something is wrong, it might cause some unpredictable harm.

Thanks for the update that the problem has been resolved.

FWIW, zen-cart doesn't load *all* of the files in this folder, only the ones that have the .php suffix. This means if you are going to be editing any of these files and wish to make a backup before doing so (as you always should) you should call the backup file something like filename.bak or filename.php_bak, and this will avoid the issue that you had.

The results of naming them like filename_bak.php (or similar) has a very predictable result. The module won't show in the admin settings, neither will any other shipping module that are to be loaded after the offending one.
The same results will occur if one of the files has an error in its code, which is why it is impossible to say for sure which it will be.

If you are technically inclined, the actual cause of the error when creating a backup using a .php extension is because PHP doesn't allow two functions of the same name, which is what happens when it tries to load both the original and the backup file residing in the same folder.

The issue isn't limited to just the shipping modules either. The same can/will occur with any of the folders who's contents are automatically loaded.

This is one of those 'traps for young players'. It's not really a flaw with the way zencart functions, but some people do perceive it as such.

Cheers
RodG