I can't make Categories

[nickita]

Yes, 0 Products & 0 Categories.

What can I do to fix this?

[Ajeh]

Okay the thing to do here is rebuild the tables that are causing problems ...

Let's take a few slow looks at your database in phpMyAdmin ...

Find the table:
products_to_categories

Since you have no Products and no Categories ... this table should be empty ...

If it is not empty, you want to empty it ...

If you click on your database name on the left column ... then mark the checkbox next to the table products_to_categories and then down at the bottom select from the dropdown Empty ... this will clear out all records as any in there are bad right now ...

[nickita]

Can I get to my database through my FTP? For some reason that I won't find out until some point tomorrow. MyPHPAdmin shows no databases....

Do I have to wait until this issue is resolved before I can go any further??

[Ajeh]

phpMyAdmin should be able to see your database otherwise, you need to contact your hosting site and find out what is wrong with your control panel etc.

[nickita]

Yeah, I contacted them on Friday, but they said that all the people that could help me with this will be back in the office on Monday.

When I ask it to show databases... it shows it under my hosting page, but when I go over to myPHPAdmin it says there are NO databases.

[Ajeh]

Well poopie ...

Let's try an experimental guess on what is causing this problem ...

In the Tools ... Insert SQL Patches ... of your Admin run these two commands and see if this breaks the curse:

delete from products_to_categories where products_id = 0;
delete from products_to_categories where categories_id = 0; 

[nickita]

I tried that, but nothing changed.

I've spoken with my hosting company and they are supposed to be working on my PHP issue this morning.

One other silly question, When making a category what should the sort order be? numerical, alphabetical

[Ajeh]

The Sort Order is for your display order of the Categories in the Categories Sidebox ...

[nickita]

Alright, finally got into my PHP My Admin.

Now what are my first steps to fix this "Curse"

[Ajeh]

Select your proper database on the left ...

On the right you will see the list of all the tables with checkboxes next to them ...

Check the following tables:
categories
categories_description
products
products_description
products_to_categories

Assuming that you had no specials, featured, sales, reviews and the like ...

Select from the dropdown at the bottom of the list of tables:
Empty

And click Go ...

This will empty or truncate these tables for you so that you start out clean ...

Next, go to your Admin ... Catalog ... Categories/Products ...

You should see two buttons:
New Product
New Category

and a dropdown for the Product Type ...

NOTE: the dropdown should have 5 kinds of Product Types in it ...

Unless you know why you are using a different Product Type than the:
Product - General

Leave it set to this ...

Can you now add Categories?