Why is it so difficult?

[igiveup]

OK I know I shouldnt whinge, after all its a free open source project, and if I dont like it, Im welcome to pay for one of the commercial ones.... :)

But anyway.....
I dont know if it is just me, but I keep running into problem after problem just trying to set up the basics, with a zencart install on bravenet server (they dont support zencart aside from supporting php/mySQL so had to figure out how to install it myself

Anyway, today I was trying to get the customer login, sign up, and so on working. Not perfectly by any means, just to a point where a customer could register, and then login with the registration name and password they used, and view their orders etc. My version is pasted below - i believe there is a fix or two available, but when I click on the 'check for updates link' it tells me I am up to date, and manual update attempts have failed miserably (thats another post or 3 so wont go into here)

Anyway I got to the point where testing myself with a made up email thanks to yopmail, I was able to log in, and purchase an item. I couldnt select payment by bank deposit (which I thought I had set up to display my bank account details to the user and log payment status as 'waiting for payment' till manually changed (but apparently not)

My test users can register, and receive a registration confirmation. They can log in and purchase, and receive an order status update.

However if I try and either view the order via the 'view' link which I navigated to by logging in, then clicking on my account, then view or view order...
Or if I try and view the order by clicking on the link which is emailed out via the order status update

I get the same message, that field: osh_comment_by does not exist
After figuring out that osh_comment_by, presumably meant a field called 'comment_by' in the Order Status History table, and assuming that osh was simply informational to let me know that it was the order status history table that the code was trying to find the field 'comment_by' in.

I added the 'comment by' to the table 'order status history' as a text field

It must have done, something, as now I get a totally blank page when I either click on the link in the email or click on view order (same actions that above gave me the no such field as osh_comment_by)

What am I missing here? As far as I am aware, I have followed the instructions here and elsewhere to set things up. This is not the first time this has happened, and either there are some significant support issues that are not documented well enough for noobs like me to understand, or I am totally missing a huge chunk of the support info....

Can anyone provide a solution? And even better in a more generic way point out what went wrong? As this pattern (error message followed by me trying to figure out what was missing/wrong, followed by me creating a DB field that did not exist, followed by no error, but totally blank pages loading (view source also gives a blank nameless page)

Seems like either I am missing something or have not installed something which defines and inserts fields and tables needed, or someone has not added that script to the install code, or documented (after the event) the inserts and so on that need to be made to the database.

please help me, my sql experience is minimal at best, my php experience is null, and Im trying, really I am, but every tiny little thing seems to take hours and hours and hours, then not work anyway, till I spend a lot of time looking for a solution, cant find one, or cant find one that works, and then give up.....

Should I just look for an easier e commerce solution (oh and it needs to be free or really cheap lol)

My store (or attempt at such) is at store.celphone.co.nz

if you want to test it, create a user account there, and buy something without (obviously) paying then email me [email protected] with the info and I will change the status to paid for, which will email you a status update that will allow you to recreate the problem I am having...

Here is my version info : (if it is out of date, please explain how to update it as the nice and easy update link thinks its all up to date)


Server Information
Server Host: store.celphone.co.nz (69.90.24.174) Database Host: sql7.bravehost.com (172.16.0.231)
Server OS: Linux medusa13.vc.bravenet.com 2.6.18-194.26.1.1.el5.bravenetxen #1 SMP Tue Nov 23 11:42:56 PST 2010 x86_64 Database: MySQL 5.0.66a-log
Server Date: 03/18/2011 11:00:35 Database Date: 03/18/2011 11:00:35
Server Up Time: Unsupported HTTP Server: Apache
PHP Version: 5.2.14 (Zend: 2.2.0) PHP Memory Limit: 90M PHP Safe Mode: Off
PHP File Uploads: On Max Size: 82M POST Max Size: 90M
Database Data Size: 1,872 kB Database Index Size: 907 kB

[enchantedneedle]

Stop, take a deep breath and count to 10. You sound exasperated. There is lots of information available, you just have to get used to process of finding it. If you are having a problem the first thing you should do is check the faqs. https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82
If you still can't find it, do a search on the forum for your problem. The chances of you being the first one to have a specific problem is rare.
There is also a wiki site with a lot of information. http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
It will tell you how to do almost anything you want to do and if it doesn't then you can probably find it in the forum.

[stevesh]

Have you installed any mods ?

There is no comments_by field in that table in a stock Zencart installation, nor does comments_by appear in any file, nor do any the fields begin with osh_.

[gjh42]

You are apparently trying to use a mod which requires extra database table/fields. There is no "osh_comments_by" field in the stock order_status_history table.

We need to know more details of what you are doing, including customizations, to give advice.


OK, so the tab was old when I posted:)