Category called "Unknown (id 17)"

[kcb410]

We've discovered we have a large quantity of products that were previously deleted using the Admin that are still present in the database under a category called Unknown (id 17). The products and category don't show in the Admin but do show when you do a product export using Apsona.

What's the best strategy for properly removing the products and the category?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.



Database: MySQL 5.5.5-10.1.37-MariaDB
HTTP Server: Apache
PHP Version: 5.6.38 (Zend: 2.6.0)

[DrByte]

Zen Cart would never create a category called "Unknown (id 17)". That's come from some other tool you're using.

In your database, what's that category's categories_id number?
Take that number and go into your Admin->Catalog->Categories/Products page and click on a category. Then change the cID in the URL to that number and press Enter to load that category.
Do the products show? You could delete them from there.

You could also use the the Tools->Store Manager option for resetting all products master_categories_id. But be aware that this may mess with products you've linked to other categories.

[mc12345678]

I had a slightly different idea, but had to reload the page because my token had expired.Sounds like the product may have in some way been linked to category 17 and in deletion the master_categories_id did not get properly reassigned. Two ways I can think of correcting this, though probably could come up with several.The first (though I don't think best) was to create a new category and then reassign the categories_id to 17. Then properly delete the product. In a way this touches the database more than it should especially with the reassignment to a previously existing number.The other is to run a query reassigning the master_categories_id for those having 17 to reassign them to some existing category (even if that category is made just for this purpose).The sql to reassign the identified product to another category (27 picked for discussion) is:

UPDATE products SET master_categories_id = 27 WHERE master_categories = 17;

Though DrByte's method seems like it could be "easier" to an extent. My thought with the product being assigned to a category (preferably of its own) was that I thought an option was offered when deleting a category to also delete all of the product in it...

[DrByte]

My thought with the product being assigned to a category (preferably of its own) was that I thought an option was offered when deleting a category to also delete all of the product in it...

I agree, but I wanted to see what the reaction was to my prior comments before getting into actual sql changes. THere's the added wrinkle of things not being in the products_to_categories table as well, which means you can't find the category in the admin panel in order to click delete on it in order to delete all the products inside it. Your suggestion to just change all the master_categories_id to a new category created just to be deleted is one suitable way.
One could also just create a new category with id 17 (manually in the database, in both tables), which would make it appear in the Admin, and then could be deleted.

But there's a root cause here too: what actually caused the problem in the first place. If the category is called "Unknown (id 17)" then it wasn't created by Zen Cart core code: It was caused by some third party package. And thus there are likely some additional complications beyond just wanting to properly delete all related remnants of these orphaned products.

[kcb410]

Zen Cart would never create a category called "Unknown (id 17)". That's come from some other tool you're using.

In your database, what's that category's categories_id number?
Take that number and go into your Admin->Catalog->Categories/Products page and click on a category. Then change the cID in the URL to that number and press Enter to load that category.
Do the products show? You could delete them from there.

You could also use the the Tools->Store Manager option for resetting all products master_categories_id. But be aware that this may mess with products you've linked to other categories.

Thanks for the reply. I can get the category 17 to load by logging in and changing the cID. Category 17 has many sub categories in it, when I try to delete one of those categories I get "WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again."

[DrByte]

I get "WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again."

When that happens on admin pages a myDebug-adm-xxxxxxx.log file is created in your /logs directory, containing the actual error message. What is it?

[kcb410]

When that happens on admin pages a myDebug-adm-xxxxxxx.log file is created in your /logs directory, containing the actual error message. What is it?

Here's the log contents:

[09-Jan-2019 15:12:27 America/New_York] PHP Fatal error: 1146:Table 'kcbgraph_pm410.TABLE_PRODUCT_EXTRA_FIELDS' doesn't exist :: delete from TABLE_PRODUCT_EXTRA_FIELDS
where products_id = '710' ==> (as called by) /home/kcbgraph/public_html/XXXXXXXX/includes/modules/delete_product_confirm.php on line 54 <== in /home/kcbgraph/public_html/includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php on line 155

[kcb410]

Here's the log contents:

[09-Jan-2019 15:12:27 America/New_York] PHP Fatal error: 1146:Table 'kcbgraph_pm410.TABLE_PRODUCT_EXTRA_FIELDS' doesn't exist :: delete from TABLE_PRODUCT_EXTRA_FIELDS
where products_id = '710' ==> (as called by) /home/kcbgraph/public_html/XXXXXXXX/includes/modules/delete_product_confirm.php on line 54 <== in /home/kcbgraph/public_html/includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php on line 155

I believe this error could be referring to the Product Extra Fields plugin we were using up until Zen 151, we stopped using it so possibly it wasn't brought forward during the Zen 154 upgrade. Would installing it resolve the issue and allow me to delete the products in category 17?

[carlwhat]

I believe this error could be referring to the Product Extra Fields plugin we were using up until Zen 151, we stopped using it so possibly it wasn't brought forward during the Zen 154 upgrade. Would installing it resolve the issue and allow me to delete the products in category 17?

it might; but it seems a little silly to me....

when you uninstalled the plugin, you did not remove the modified code that the plugin had you change. if you are not using the plugin, i would try and go back and remove all of the code associated with that plugin. that way you can be closer to the unmodified core code making it easier for future upgrades.

you can seach for TABLE_PRODUCT_EXTRA_FIELDS to see what code needs to be removed.

good luck.

[kcb410]

it might; but it seems a little silly to me....

when you uninstalled the plugin, you did not remove the modified code that the plugin had you change. if you are not using the plugin, i would try and go back and remove all of the code associated with that plugin. that way you can be closer to the unmodified core code making it easier for future upgrades.

you can seach for TABLE_PRODUCT_EXTRA_FIELDS to see what code needs to be removed.

good luck.

Thanks for the reply. I'll give that a try first thing in the morning.