Problem about control the 404 error product

[macbookpro]

Hi all, I touched on this quite some time ago but can't seem to find the thread.

I want to change the behaviour of my site when products are disabled. Instead of displaying the product not found page and issuing a 404 message, I want the product to display as normal.

So essentially, all I want disabling a product to do is for it to not be listed in the front facing catalogue and thus ensuring that the original link tot the item (whilst the id exists) still works. meaning that if someone shared a link somewhere to an old product, I still want that link to work and display the product.

so as a start, in the following file:

includes/modules/pages/product_info/header_php.php

this code:

// if specified product_id is disabled or doesn't exist, ensure that metatags and breadcrumbs don't share inappropriate information
  $sql = "select count(*) as total
          from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " .
                   TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd
          where    p.products_status = '1'
          and      p.products_id = '" . (int)$_GET['products_id'] . "'
          and      pd.products_id = p.products_id
          and      pd.language_id = '" . (int)$_SESSION['languages_id'] . "'";
  $res = $db->Execute($sql);
  if ( $res->fields['total'] < 1 ) {
   unset($_GET['products_id']);
    unset($breadcrumb->_trail[sizeof($breadcrumb->_trail)-1]['title']);
    $robotsNoIndex = true;
    header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
  }

I assume I just remove the p.products_status = '1' WHERE clause and that will remove the 404 bit?

Thats just the start, can someone point me to ALL the other places I need to make a similar change so that the page displays correctly even when the product is disabled?

Many Thanks

[mc12345678]

To ensure that you identify all of the locations that apply as other plugins may also filter disabled product out, go to your admin panel, tools, developers toolkit.
In the lower left corner enter: products_status
Select catalog in the dropdown, then search...

This will provide the list of files that and the line number of the code where that is used... From there you may need to make modifications to the code to obtain the desired result. Remember that if a returned file has the ability to be overridden with a template equivalent to copy the base file if it doesn't exist in the associated template folder and make the change there. The pages directory identified above is not overrideable, so yes the above modification should support product_info (product-general) products being displayed.

[DrByte]

Yes, you can actually remove (or comment out) that whole section of code you quoted.

And, in the first 60 lines of main_template_vars.php in that same folder, remove the 2 criteria for products_status in those queries too.

[mc12345678]

And similar process for the other product types (default install has 5 product types to start with other plugins possibly creating additional) if you are using any of them ... (Ie. Document-general, etc...)