Does Zen Cart have to run my entire site?

[csamson777]

Thanks for your answer. We are required to run the cart in iframe from an existing site. Since parent site is in a different domain than cart site (embeded iframe), looks like the browser can't create the cart session cookie. That is why i was loosing my stuff.

I solved the issue by punching the user out to an invisible page in cart's domain which creates the session cookie and then re-direct the user to the client site embedding the cart iframe. The browser has the ability to read the cookie and work with the session then...

ugly solution, but it works

[tipgypsy]

Like I said above - it's not the cookie that's lost, it's the time that's set for the cookie. I've had no problem starting a cart and navigating from site to site - as long as I return to the cart in that 24-minute window, my stuff is still there whether I'm logged in or not. If I come back *after* the 24-minute window has passed, everything is gone.

You can set the session for longer amount of time, but I really wouldn't do that.

Where do you set the timeout for the cookie - Is this still valid for the current version of Zen ?
Thanks much

[Kim]

tipsy -Please don't post in a thread and then start your own new thread for the same issue.

[tipgypsy]

Sorry,
My bad, Hopfully it can be deleted by the Mod's

[jmbrbr]

Wouldn't navigation to all off pages through an EZ pages redirect solve that without any question? Easy enough to link through an EZ page and they ARE unlimited. :o)

[Seltron]

I just want to recap on with what I know.

The server creates the SessionID and holds the Session (cart) information.

Then stores a cookie on the browser that references the SessionID.

The session is held for X amount of time after the last time the session was accessed (i.e. any php page on the site). There is several different places to set the X time, but this is where you are seeing the '24 minutes'.

Right now the cookie is store indefinitely on the user's browser, UNTIL the browser is closed. This is from the settings that I see.

So in other words, the user can browse anywhere, even off-site.
As long as the user doesn't browse away from the site for more than the Session Timeout OR close the browser window; the cart should be safe.


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I will state that with php code, they code can change the SessionID, although this isn't really likely and usually for special purposes only.

[achachet]

I don't know if this post is still live, but here's an elegant solution to keep session information when browsing away from ZC.

This solution assumes your static site is hosted in the same dir as ZC.

In any static page just include:

<?php require 'includes/application_top.php'; ?>

This will load the main ZC environment and restore the $_SESSION variable.

You can then return to your cart with no timeout issue.

Cheers

[frank18]

...This solution assumes your static site is hosted in the same dir as ZC.

In any static page just include:

<?php require 'includes/application_top.php'; ?>

This will load the main ZC environment and restore the $_SESSION variable. ....

Technically this should work fine. However, in most cases the static pages do not reside in the same dir as ZC. In other words, if the static pages reside in the top level of the server and ZC in a sub dir then simply no go...

[loosefast]

Would it work if you used absolute link?
<?php require 'http://www.zen-cart.com/includes/application_top.php'; ?>

[EZorb]

I have built my website using NOF-11 and linked to Zencart for the shopping. I have not found this to be a real issue. If it is a new customer they are leaving for some reason and could leave on either design. If it is a Returning customer and they place products in cart then they should be there even if they return next week. To me no big deal, I find it easier or what I am custom to have them split.

Larry