index page not displaying after install

[whiteboxer]

I just installed Zen Cart on a new site I'm working on and, for some reason, the "Thank you for installing zen cart" message is appearing in place of the home page. I followed the install step-by-step (at least I think I did), and I can also log into the admin section and add products. Does anyone know if I missed something or did something wrong, or could this be an issue with the host (Network Solutions)? Here's the URL to see what's appearing:

http://ellerue.com/

[whiteboxer]

I may have tracked down the problem. It doesn't seem the site has a SSL certificate set up. Can I omit that info in the configure.php and get it to work properly? If not, how do I modify the configure.php file?

[DrByte]

Network Solutions does weird non-standard, unconventional things with their SSL on their servers, making it impossible to run Zen Cart in SSL mode using their hosting service.

In your configure.php files there are ENABLE_SSL switches available. Set them to 'false' in order to turn off all SSL support in Zen Cart.

Or better yet, find a host that *does* support SSL.

[whiteboxer]

did that and still getting the same "Hello. Thank you for loading Zen Cart™." message. I double-checked all the path names in the two configure.php files, and they seem correct. Anything else anyone can think of? If I reinstalled zen-cart, that shouldn't affect the mySQL database with the product info, should it?

[DrByte]

If I reinstalled zen-cart, that shouldn't affect the mySQL database with the product info, should it?

Well, if you make a backup, you can always go back to it, right?

And, yes, if during the re-install you click the "Install" button instead of "Database Upgrade" button, yes, it will wipe your current database. That's why you need a backup if you choose that method.

[DrByte]

In various places in your configure.php files you are using './../' instead of a proper path.

ie:

  define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', './../');

(as well as other lines elsewhere in the files)

It would be more appropriate to provide the actual filesystem path to your Zen Cart folder.
It seems that setting is causing Zen Cart to not be able to find its own files, and thus it believes it's necessary to do an install ... hence the symptoms you describe.

[whiteboxer]

According to Network Solutions, the files are in a subfolder named htdocs. I changed the code in admin/includes/configure.php to this:

define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', '/htdocs/');
define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', '/htdocs/admin/');
define('DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE', '/htdocs/cache');

and in includes/configure.php to:

define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', '/htdocs/');
define('DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE', '/htdocs/cache');

but still getting the same problem. I figure its one of four problems:
1. didn't code the path name above properly
2. missed a line where I still need to change it
3. physical path name is incorrect
4. something else

Anyone have an idea of what it could be?

[DrByte]

Sorry, without having direct server access to once again attempt to figure out what bizarre configuration Network Solutions has come up with for their server configurations, all I can do is guess, and post an idea here, let you try it, have it fail, try something else, and so on and so on ... only to find out that their server configuration is crap.

As I've said elsewhere, it's not worth flogging a dead horse ... they're not a hosting company who lives up to their expensive expectations as far as I've ever experienced.

[whiteboxer]

Anyone know of a way to confirm the physical path without having to actually talk to the host?

[DrByte]

The installer already tells you what the server operating system is telling it about the physical path. You can see that information on the System Inspection page.