Admin Panel the product description box is blank after upgrade to 1.5

[Balloonalicious]

Hello I up graded my site from 1.38 to 1.5.1 since the upgrade sales dropped dramatically to almost 0

In the back end Admin Panel the product description box is blank yet product descriptions show for the products on the main web site fine?

I cant change or edit any information in Admin Panel for Define Pages Editor or Ezy Pages all the description boxes are blank yet the information is showing on the main web site? Such as the front/main page, contact us etc?

Meta Tag descriptions in Admin blank some show and some don't?

When i place a description in for a product in Admin i get Capital A's all over the place?

I did previously have a Pay Pal issue that's why i upgraded the site to 1.5 but this was resolved by a new IP address.

My site has not functioned correctly since the upgrade to 1.5.1

Should i go back to the old version 1.38 or does any one have a solution please? Thank you

[strelitzia]

It sounds as though you have made errors in your merges during upgrade.
The A's you are seeing sound like utf-8 issues.

Carefully check all your merges, be sure to check any files in custom folders against the vanilla files from default folders.
Save any language files as utf-8, without BOM.
Don't change the reference to utf-8 in the 1.5.1 english.php
Run Dr Bytes MySQL-latin1-to-UTF8-Converter script, available from downloads i believe, that will update your db to utf8.

[DrByte]

Or just: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...8859-1-to-utf8

[strelitzia]

Very true DrByte, although it should be pointed out, as we don't know the level of knowledge the OP has, that the utf-8/iso-8859-1 point won't be the cause of a bunch of blank boxes in admin. Of course, if sensei knows better, i will stand corrected :)

[Balloonalicious]

Hello


OK so i feel it will be best to re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this?

[Balloonalicious]

Web master tools also says Googlebot can't access your site so i guess this is why no sales for me?

I don't know what my SEO company is getting paid to do if they don't already know this!

[Balloonalicious]

OK so i feel it will be best to re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this?

[Balloonalicious]

Can i re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this?

[dbltoe]

First of all, the 1.3.8a that you came from is known to have several vulnerabilities. Going back to that is not recommended.

Secondly, while it seems that there's no light at the end of the tunnel other than a train, these things are often fixed more simply than one might think. I for one would like to know more about your installation. Answering some of the posting tips could help. What mods are installed on this cart? Are you in the root or a subdirectory? Have your SEO "experts" done any link rewriting?

Thirdly, what part of editing the files are you having problems with? Finding them or editing them?

Lastly, have you also looked in your log files for any clues? https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82

[RodG]

OK so i feel it will be best to re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this?

Please don't do this. You will regret it.

The problem you describe isn't particularly unusual, and generally quite easy to fix.

1. Edit your upgraded english.php file to use the old CHARSET and setlocale settings (SEE YOUR OLD english.php FILE CONTENTS).
   That is, KEEP the old references to iso-8859-1 INSTEAD of utf-8.
   ... AND ...
2. Also edit your two configure.php files to set DB_CHARSET to 'latin1' instead of 'utf8'
   (add the line if it doesn't exist):
   define('DB_CHARSET', 'latin1');

If you try *anything else* before trying these 2 steps (3 files to check/edit) you are doing yourself (and us) a great disservice.

Don't worry if you don't have any idea what it all means. Just check/ensure that these files have the text 'iso-8859-1' & 'latin1' and that there are no references for 'utf8'.

Cheers
Rod