Keep Shopping Cart From Expiring So Fast

[Zean]

zean, where did you add this code?

I added that non-syntactical garbage (adfgffdfhf erewererer) to the same file to see if I could get it to produce the myDEBUG-xxxxx-yyyyyy.log file which as I mentioned previously it did. I just did that to confirm I was looking in the right place for the error report which I was.

i tried adding the SESSION_TIMEOUT_CATALOG to my test system and it worked fine

Well that's baffling.

which means the error is still getting logged to the system PHP logs. do you have access to those logs on your server?

The problem does not get reported in the cpanel>statistics>Error Logs>PHP error_log

have you tried adding echo statements in the suspect file before the include and right after the include?

I tried removing the define statement and it sill bombs out with just this . . .

<?php ;

I even tried adding removing everything from the added file . . . just an empty file and it produced this message in the firefox browser . . .

Content Encoding Error

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.

    Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

and this in IE browser . . .

This page can’t be displayed

•Make sure the web address http://www.mydomain.com is correct.
•Look for the page with your search engine.
•Refresh the page in a few minutes.

Fix connection problems

And, I tried just this code in the added file . . .

<?php echo "Hello" ;

Which produced the same result as the empty file.

[carlwhat]

zean,
if you go to the admin -> tools -> server/version info and lookup:

zlib.output_compression

what is the value?

i think it is currently off... and you need to turn it on...

assuming you are on a shared host, you can contact your hosting company about a local version of the your php.ini file and do an override of that value. your hosting company should be able to help you with it....

it DEFINITELY is a configuration issue on the server, based on your information. and it IS something your hosting company should be able to help resolve with you.

good luck. let us know how it goes!

[Zean]

zean,
if you go to the admin -> tools -> server/version info and lookup:

zlib.output_compression

what is the value?

i think it is currently off... and you need to turn it on...

Yes, shared hosting at BlueHost.

Actually, my zen cart configuration turns GZip Compression on . . .

admin>configuration>Enable GZip Compression=1

And here is the zlib.output_compression info from admin>tools>server/version info

Directive	Local Value	Master Value
zlib.output_compression	On	Off
zlib.output_compression_level	1	-1
zlib.output_handler	no value	no value

I suspect the compression issue firefox is reporting is a result of the problem and not the cause of the problem.

I think the fundamental question is why does my adding any file with a php extension to /includes/extra_configures/ break my zen cart?
btw, it does NOT break the admin portion of zen cart. It 'just' breaks it for shoppers.

[carlwhat]

I suspect the compression issue firefox is reporting is a result of the problem and not the cause of the problem.

I think the fundamental question is why does my adding any file with a php extension to /includes/extra_configures/ break my zen cart?
btw, it does NOT break the admin portion of zen cart. It 'just' breaks it for shoppers.

zean,
#1 i think we are trying to find the answer to this fundamental question. and based on your information, i am convinced that there is a server configuration issue that is going on.
#2 i do not think the admin loads this file, which is why the admin does not break.
#3 what firefox is reporting is telling us the problem.

"...The output of your application should only contain one output encoding. If you have multiple chunks that are encoded differently, then the browser will get a result that it is impossible to work with. Hence the encoding error...."

a few other things to help in the trouble shooting.... i would first try turning off gzip compression in ZC. see what happens then....

can you send me the URL of your site?

if you open the developer tools, click on the network tab, and then click on the main script getting loaded, you should be able to see the accepted content-encoding.

you really need to see the apache logs as opposed to the php logs on your server. the ZC logs report PHP errors, we are not getting a PHP error which is why you do not see a ZC log or a PHP log error. i'm sure there would be an error in the apache log.

hope that helps. there are multiple compression encodings that seem to be happening at the same time.

good luck!

[Website Rob]

Right above your injected code is code that checks whether SESSION_TIMEOUT_CATALOG is defined, and if so, uses that.

Have you tried simply embracing that? Just create an /includes/extra_configures/my_ultra_long_session_timeout.php file and in it put:

<?php define('SESSION_TIMEOUT_CATALOG', 1441);

Out of curiosity, I also did this with ZC v1.5.5 and no problems.

As it can be helpful sometimes to get a second opinion, a site worth Bookmarking is:
http://checkgzipcompression.com/

See what it says for your site.

[DrByte]

Sometimes copy-and-pasting from the forum can put hidden markup characters in the text. While that shouldn't normally introduce extra encoding, I've encountered situations where various sites whose markup for displaying source-code text introduces undesired extra characters when pasting. In those cases simply typing the intended code by hand solves the problem. (So does running it thru a "cleaner", but in the case of the code snipped I pasted earlier it's simple to type by hand.)
Just a thought, to rule out one possible cause of issues.

[Zean]

Right above your injected code is code that checks whether SESSION_TIMEOUT_CATALOG is defined, and if so, uses that.

Have you tried simply embracing that? Just create an /includes/extra_configures/my_ultra_long_session_timeout.php file and in it put:

<?php define('SESSION_TIMEOUT_CATALOG', 1441);

Thanks DrByte!
I finally got this to work just as you suggested. So, I've set it to 14400 (4 hours).
I'm thinking of setting it to 1 month. Anything I should monitor?

[lankeeyankee]

I have mine set for 365 days, although I'm using keep cart which is excellent and no problem with 1.5.5f

[Zean]

I have mine set for 365 days, although I'm using keep cart which is excellent and no problem with 1.5.5f

Hey lankeeyankee, Good to know! So you've been running your cart with with SESSION_TIMEOUT_CATALOG set to around 1 year. That gives me more confidence to set mine to a month or two. Also, your use of Keep Cart is encouraging. I may try it. Most of my products have lots of attributes so I am mindful of what DrByte said here about cookie limits and possible concerns with an attribute intensive shop running Keep Cart.

[lankeeyankee]

HI am mindful of what DrByte said here about cookie limits and possible concerns with an attribute intensive shop running Keep Cart.

And I stand corrected, I never saw this so thanks a bunch for pointing it out! Will look at changing since our new launch will have more complex attributes and other features. I didn't realize this was a constraint.