Checkout when not logged in or with empty cart

[CJPinder]

Hi,

In ZenCart v1.3.7 trying to checkout when not logged in or when your cart is empty sends you to the timeout page.

In includes\modules\pages\checkout_shipping\header_php.php the code says:

// if there is nothing in the customers cart, redirect them to the shopping cart page
  if ($_SESSION['cart']->count_contents() <= 0) {
    zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_TIME_OUT));
  } 

I think this should read:

// if there is nothing in the customers cart, redirect them to the shopping cart page
if ($_SESSION['cart']->count_contents() <= 0) {
  zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART));
} 

This will redirect the user to the shopping cart page rather than the time out page if their cart is empty.

Also the above code should be moved so that it is after the checks to see if the user is logged in. The user will then be correctly redirected to the login page if they are not logged in rather than being sent to the timeout page.

Hope this helps.

Christian.

[Ajeh]

Actually ... if we went to checkout_shipping at the moment of the click ... the screen knew we had content in the shopping cart ...

However ... you went outside to play with the dog for 24 minutes ... and the session timed out ...

What good is going to the empty shopping cart? I'd rather be reminded that my session timed out and log in so that I get my cart back and hopefully complete my order ...

Does that make sense?

[CJPinder]

Hi,

What good is going to the empty shopping cart? I'd rather be reminded that my session timed out and log in so that I get my cart back and hopefully complete my order ...

The problem is that the code as is does not check for a timed out session it checks if the shopping cart is empty. If the user has a valid session but an empty shopping cart and they try and check out they are told that their session has timed out, which it has not. There should be a seperate check for a timed out session.

It looks as if the code originally redirected the user to the shopping basket as per the comment but someone tried a quick fix for a timed out session. An empty cart does not mean a timed out session, it means the cart is empty (or the session has timed out and cart contents cannot be checked).

Regards,
Christian.

[Ajeh]

If you go to the empty shopping_cart you will note that there isn't a link to checkout_shipping ...

If you empty your shopping_cart you will note that there isn't a link in the header for the checkout_shipping ...

If you have your shopping_cart sidebox always on ... you will note when empty that there isn't a link to checkout_shipping ...

If you add something to the shopping_cart and were logged in ... then move somewhere ... or even stay on the shopping_cart page ... you will see the links are now active to go to the checkout_shipping ...

But, if you sit there for 24 minutes (the session times out) and you now click one of the displayed links to the checkout_shipping ... you must have had products in the shopping_cart before this time out occured ... or you would not have seen the links to get to the checkout_shipping ...

By default ... if you do get to checkout_shipping with nothing in the cart ... it is therefor assumed you had to have had a session timeout or this never could have happened ...

So the whoops! you timed out is the better choice here so the customer will try to login again and recover their cart so that they can continue to shop or proceed to checkout_shipping normally ...

Make more sense?

[CJPinder]

If you go to the empty shopping_cart you will note that there isn't a link to checkout_shipping ...

If you empty your shopping_cart you will note that there isn't a link in the header for the checkout_shipping ...

If you have your shopping_cart sidebox always on ... you will note when empty that there isn't a link to checkout_shipping ...

This is the default out of the box behaviour but it is not always so. Some people have the checkout button always present and this was the case on the site I have just set up. The client wanted the checkout button always present so that the interface was consistent and buttons where not appearing and disappearing.

Assuming that an empty cart means the session timed out is not always a valid assumption, especially in a product that is meant to be configurable as Zen Cart is. Wouldn't it be better to explicitly check for a session timeout? Something like...

// if the session has timed out then redirect the customer to the time out page
if (!isset($_SESSION['cart']))
  zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_TIME_OUT));

// if there is nothing in the customers cart, redirect them to the shopping cart page
if ($_SESSION['cart']->count_contents() == 0)
  zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART)); 

Regards,
Christian.

[Ajeh]

That might be more logical ... we will play with the idea and see what else can break ...

Thanks for the suggestion!