Settings go blank...

[Athenon]

What Version of Zen Cart are you using? 1.3.7.1
Was this an upgrade? from what version? no
What addons/contributions have you installed on your site? none
What browsers are you testing this with? firefox and IE
Does this happen from more than one computer? yes
Do you have any login problems on the storefront or in the admin? both
Has this always been happening, or has it just started? always
When you did the installation, did the System Inspection page give you any warnings ? no
Did you install manually or via an automated install such as Fantastico ? manually
Who is your hosting company ? self hosted
Do your customers have any trouble editing settings in their My Account area? ie: shipping address, date of birth, newsletter format selection, etc? no

Additional details:
I am a programmer, and I have discovered that when settings are changed in the admin page, they do NOT show up in $_POST...$_POST exists, but is empty. As such, blank data is put in the database. Apache version 1.3.37, PHP 5.2.3. As such, the shopping cart is also always empty.

[DrByte]

Additional details:
I am a programmer, and I have discovered that when settings are changed in the admin page, they do NOT show up in $_POST...$_POST exists, but is empty. As such, blank data is put in the database. Apache version 1.3.37, PHP 5.2.3. As such, the shopping cart is also always empty.

You claim to have some knowledge of debugging, so here are some more questions:
At what stage is the $_POST found to be empty?
Is $_GET also empty ? (assuming you're on a page where $_GET is relevant)
Does this happen to you if you do a similar installation on a live commercially-operated server, instead of self-hosted?
Does this happen to you on a different version of PHP ?
What are your PHP settings related to GPC ?
Do you have a relationship to the original poster, or is your comment another instance of similar problem?

[Athenon]

You claim to have some knowledge of debugging, so here are some more questions:
At what stage is the $_POST found to be empty? anytime after the form is submitted...in other words, it never gets filled at all

Is $_GET also empty ? (assuming you're on a page where $_GET is relevant) no - its the admin config page with zone, store name, etc...the edit/save var still works fine, so $_GET is fine

Does this happen to you if you do a similar installation on a live commercially-operated server, instead of self-hosted? don't have one with the same setup to test

Does this happen to you on a different version of PHP? can't really test it

What are your PHP settings related to GPC ? variables_order GPCS GPCS

Do you have a relationship to the original poster, or is your comment another instance of similar problem? another instance...saw the thread, having the same problem...jumped at the opportunity

On a side note, OSCommerce has the same problem.

[DrByte]

If Zen Cart is to blame, then I'd be expecting that $_POST would have data immediately after form submission but then lost it during some sort of sanitization. I can't say that I've ever seen that happen though.

But if $_POST is never getting set as you say, then you have a problem with your server configuration. Perhaps mod_security set too tight? or something else blocking $_POST data from getting through to PHP scripts.

[Athenon]

If Zen Cart is to blame, then I'd be expecting that $_POST would have data immediately after form submission but then lost it during some sort of sanitization. I can't say that I've ever seen that happen though.

But if $_POST is never getting set as you say, then you have a problem with your server configuration. Perhaps mod_security set too tight? or something else blocking $_POST data from getting through to PHP scripts.

I know for a fact it's not all $_POST data. I tested it with a little home-made script, and $_POST data came through perfectly fine, just like I expected.

[DrByte]

At what stage is the $_POST found to be empty? anytime after the form is submitted...in other words, it never gets filled at all

On a side note, OSCommerce has the same problem.

If Zen Cart is to blame, then I'd be expecting that $_POST would have data immediately after form submission but then lost it during some sort of sanitization. I can't say that I've ever seen that happen though.

I know for a fact it's not all $_POST data. I tested it with a little home-made script, and $_POST data came through perfectly fine, just like I expected.

Let's do some debugging then.

You said this was related to the Admin "configuration" screen, so edit the /admin/configuration.php file
Around line 24 you'll see this:

  require('includes/application_top.php');

put this on the line ABOVE that:

echo '<pre>' . print_r($_POST, true) . '</pre>';

Then attempt another edit and submit.
What do you see ? (besides a bunch of "Cannot send session headers -- headers already sent" messages and maybe a javascript error or two)

[DrByte]

Are there any errors in the server errorlog related to your admin pages ?

[Athenon]

Are there any errors in the server errorlog related to your admin pages ?

Nope, error logs are clean for apache, php, and mysql.

[methodcomptech]

Nope, error logs are clean for apache, php, and mysql.

same here

[methodcomptech]

If Zen Cart is to blame, then I'd be expecting that $_POST would have data immediately after form submission but then lost it during some sort of sanitization. I can't say that I've ever seen that happen though.

But if $_POST is never getting set as you say, then you have a problem with your server configuration. Perhaps mod_security set too tight? or something else blocking $_POST data from getting through to PHP scripts.

i use $_POST, $_GET, and $_REQUEST on plenty of other things i have coded and i dont have any problems, so, i know it is not a server issue. and as i said befoer, i have had zencart before, but, it was an older version, and an older server. but, i did however have it on this server too before, on an older site, and it seemed fine, so, i am not sure why this is happening now.