Upgrade missing product descriptions on Admin, not site - Fonts a bit odd

[delia]

Don't forget to change both admin and catalog configure files and both admin and catalog english.php files. May sound dumb to have to remind folks of that but I finally realized that I had an admin english file to edit too. Maybe I'm just slow this morning......

Thanks Dr. Byte, again!

[delia]

after I made the changes, I check the site and everything was okay. Now it's down for maintenance and changing the setting in admin does not affect that. Any ideas?

The database setting does say false.

[DrByte]

That sounds like it's pointing to the wrong database. ie: your DB_XXXXX settings in your admin configure.php have different settings than your non-admin configure.php

[delia]

I was actually on the road when I posted the other day and have finally gotten time to report back.. I have to praise you and shamefacedly admit that the problem was exactly that, though I had figured it out by the time you posted. Thanks once again!

[smcelligott]

I too am having the problem with disappearing product descriptions. Perhaps I have a few more clues. When I copy the html product description from the current product (source code is easiest), I can then paste that into the source code view of CK Editor, and save any changes. Once text is "manually" restored and saved, I can go back in to THIS record and the description is there. I can edit and save without problem. If I go in to a product where there is no product description displaying, and change something unrelated to the description - e.g. sort order - it saves this blank description and my description is lost.

It is as if the catalog display "sees" the description but the admin edit can't find it . . . let me check something that might have triggered some a revelation . . . .

Back soon! Cheers, Seán

[DrByte]

Right. Those are the same symptoms these other folks are talking about.
And it's caused by mismatched character sets, as described earlier. And/or the use of an older PHP version not compatible with the version of Zen Cart being used.

[smcelligott]

OK, a bit of sleuthing, and this might help pointing someone in the right direction.

I just fixed another issue where my products couldn't be activated or de-activated in Admin. The fix for which ( had something to do with products that were linked to more than one category. So super sleuth that I am (and that is a joke) I looked at some different products that had links to more than one category. NONE of those multi-category products that I looked at, had product descriptions showing up in the edit product mode.

On the other hand, several of the single category products, did have product descriptions intact - unfortunately not ALL single category products had descriptions, because that would make this far too easy ;)

STRIKE THAT . . . ARRRRGH! Some multi-category products do actually have product descriptions, but I still think this MIGHT somehow be part of the issue. I looked at a bunch of multi-category products in our category "necklaces" and they had no product descriptions. However I went to the multi-category products in "pearls" and almost all had descriptions. While I then went back to necklaces and was able to find a pearl necklace that had product description (an exception in that category?), the disappearing product descriptions SEEM to be more likely in some categories than in others.

Is this making any sense at all?

I did try to look at categories in their primary categories versus their linked categories, but couldn't find a consistent rule there either.

I feel strangely drawn to "admin/includes/modules" but not sure where to go once I get there. LOL. Does anyone have a Ouija board?

Many thanks for those of you than managed to read this and have it makes sense . . . Cheers, Seán

[DrByte]

Got any examples of specific products we can view on your storefront which exhibit these problems during your admin viewing?
And, please click Reply below and answer all the questions in the Posting Tips section.

[smcelligott]

Dr B,

OK I no longer see ANY patterns . . . when I really sought out items with descriptions and items without descriptions, I found that they were scattered, and perhaps there is actually no correlation between single/multi-category and missing descriptions. Nevertheless, since I collected this information I've included examples of each with/without descrition and with single vs. multi-category items.

Perhaps you can see something that I am missing?

Single Category, WITH description
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...ces/braveheart
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...e-lis-necklace


Single Category, missing description
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...acier-necklace
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...-boho-necklace


Multi-Category, WITH description
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...pearl-necklace
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...-pendant-rings


Multi-Category, missing description
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...ces/peace-baby
http://talismanjewellery.com.au/TJOn...whisper-pearls

Hope this helps others, as this is a real brain cell killer for me. I look forward to your insights Dr B!

Cheers, Seán

[smcelligott]

I'm seeing this same issue appear on multiple threads, and just came across one suggesting that this could be a browser rather than a ZC issue, so attempted to look at these product description in Firefox and then IE9. This made no difference. The items that had missing descriptions in Chrome also had missing descriptions in Firefox and IE9 - same for those WITH product descriptions - consistent across browsers. I'll keep working on this . . .