Admin Page Not Loading

[RiazShahid]

Hi,
I am quite new to zen cart. I installed it successfully on my website and it loaded, its fine. But I didn't find any admin area. I came to knew at first, I need to delete, insall directory, I did that. Then I found to rename the admin folder, I did the same. But admin page never loaded for me (either before renmaing or after renaming).
I found it was showing some cloudflare warning, I asked my hosting company, they said I should disable clouldflare, which might preventing admin page to load. I disabled cloudflare nearly 20 hours ago, may be it takes 24hours to completely applied to the domain.
But so far, no luck.
What should I do now?

[mc12345678]

Hi,
I am quite new to zen cart. I installed it successfully on my website and it loaded, its fine. But I didn't find any admin area. I came to knew at first, I need to delete, insall directory, I did that. Then I found to rename the admin folder, I did the same. But admin page never loaded for me (either before renmaing or after renaming).
I found it was showing some cloudflare warning, I asked my hosting company, they said I should disable clouldflare, which might preventing admin page to load. I disabled cloudflare nearly 20 hours ago, may be it takes 24hours to completely applied to the domain.
But so far, no luck.
What should I do now?

Do not post the path/name of your secret admin directory. I am going to pose an example.

After installation, you had the ability to goto your site by entering your uri into the browser, call it: http:// your site . Com (although it may end up helping us to know the real name).
In the directory structure you had a folder named admin, that got renamed to let's say YOUR_ADMIN. Now when you type in: http:// your site . Com / YOUR_ADMIN with no spaces and YOUR_ADMIN representing your secret folder name what happens/what is the result?

Nothing is not exactly a valid response. Something happens, please explain what is seen.

Also, just realized something. Those trying to help need more information. Please see the posting tips visible above the text are when selecting reply to this message. (Zc version, php version, method of install, source of files, etc...)

[RodG]

I found it was showing some cloudflare warning,

Providing the Cloudflare Error number would be a great help.

I asked my hosting company, they said I should disable clouldflare, which might preventing admin page to load.

Sounds like they are guessing. My experience with Cloudflare is that it rarely (if ever) has been the cause of any problems, after all, at the basic level it is little more than a server cache, which is why knowing the error code would be a great help.

I disabled cloudflare nearly 20 hours ago, may be it takes 24hours to completely applied to the domain.

This depends on the DNS for your site. If the site is delegated to use the CloudFlare Domain servers then any changes come into effect within 5 minutes (300 seconds).
If you are using a *different* DNS server, such as one provided by your domain name registrar or your Webhost then it can take considerably longer. 4-5hrs is 'typical' but 24hours (86400secs) isn't unusual.

Although you haven't provided much in the way of information I'm going to take a punt, and assuming that you are using a valid URL for the admin folder then your problem could be SSL related.

Cloudflare has several options for SSL data, and the correct setting depends on whether you have an SSL certificate for your site or not.
Again, more info is needed. I could be completely off the mark.

Cheers
RodG

[RiazShahid]

Thanks for your replies here. I have rectified it. It was nothing but just secure hosting issue, the values set for "https" were not OK. In fact I didn't had a secure hosting account, I reinstalled zencart and removed those https entries, now its fine.

Thanks for your support.

[RodG]

Thanks for your replies here. I have rectified it. It was nothing but just secure hosting issue, the values set for "https" were not OK. In fact I didn't had a secure hosting account, I reinstalled zencart and removed those https entries, now its fine.

Great. Now that you have it functioning, how would you like to have SSL support at no cost to you? (of course you would).

Thanks to the fact that you are using CloudFlare this is very easy to do. (Actually easier than purchasing your own certificate, and generally a lot easier than using a 'shared' certificate (that many hosts provide).

It only takes a couple of *minor* changes to the two configure.php files.

In "/YOUR_ADMIN/includes/configure.php"
Ensure that the 'defines' are similar to these:

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.yourdomain.com');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://www.yourdomain.com');
define('HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER', 'http://www.yourdomain.com');
define('HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER', 'https://www.yourdomain.com');

You probably won't even need to change anything here other than to ensure that they include the 'www' (just add them if they don't).
Don't make any other changes to these URL's

Then ensure the following are set to 'true'

// secure webserver for admin? Valid choices are 'true' or 'false' (including quotes).
define('ENABLE_SSL_ADMIN', 'true');


// secure webserver for storefront? Valid choices are 'true' or 'false' (including quotes).
define('ENABLE_SSL_CATALOG', 'true');

------------------------------------------------

In "/includes/configure.php" there are similar lines that need to checked or changed

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.www.yourdomain.com');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://www.www.yourdomain.com');


// Use secure webserver for checkout procedure?
define('ENABLE_SSL', 'true');

Save your changes.

The next thing to do is to log into your cloudflare account and click the 'CloudFlare Settings' button and look for the 'SSL' setting. Set this for "Flexible SSL".

That's it, all done.
It may take up to 5 minutes (but no more) for the changes to come into effect.

I would also suggest you make a backup copy of both of the configure.php files before changing them, JUST IN CASE something goes wrong.

I will add that there is no *need* to have SSL enabled for the store, but many people will try to convince you that this is essential for any eCommerce site and it is generally only a matter of time before you start to believe this and start asking questions about how to do it.

I figure that if you have this info at hand you won't get yourself too confused with the different types of certificates and the different configuration changes that *they* require.

Note: There are also many people that will disagree with my suggestion/recommendation to use the CloudFlare SSL rather than purchasing your own, and these people will raise a valid (but rather insignificant point) that I won't go into at this stage.

Cheers
RodG