How do I prevent the zenid from being added to URLs on the initial vist (v1.3.7)?

Hello All

My client wants to prevent the zenid (session id) from being appened to the URls on the users first visit. Is there are simple way in admin or am I missing something?

I have Chemos SEO URLs installed and the site is running on a windows box with the ISAPI rewrite engine.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Andy

Thieving_Gypsy:

My client wants to prevent the zenid (session id) from being appened to the URls on the users first visit.
Why? What is the actual problem you are trying to solve?

As long as 'Sessions -> Prevent Spider Sessions' is set to True in Admin (which it always should be) then the search engines will not have a session created when they spider your site and will not get a zenid.

The only issue is if someone decides to post a link to your site that includes a zenid. There are ways of working around that situation though if that is the problem.

Regards,
Christian.

I have the same issue.
It seems that if "Prevent Spider Session..." option was set to false and the spider has once indexed the site while it was false, they revisit only using already-indexed pages.

Here is my suspicion:
Leads that came through google's search results that bears zenid ends up not being able to log-in with their own user id, because it bears zenid.

It is a suspicion because I'm not 100% sure, but customers sometimes call-in to first complain about not being able to login, then takes up about 10~20 minutes to order things for them. It's a waste of time, but I still get the order. But what about those who just exit? I'm loosing business here.

Hence, suppose my suspicion is at least part correct, the cause for this issue (cannot call it a problem because it is the way it's supposed to work using sessions to identify one from another), and a workaround for those who found the page through indexed pages that bear zenid because we don't have much control over SE once they've indexed, unless one is dare to request SE to remove all indexed pages that bear zenid and request to re-index everything with "Prevent Spider Session.." option to true.

SK.

set prevent spider sessions to true

then in I believe its still in application top rename zenid to something else

SteveKim:

I have the same issue.
It seems that if "Prevent Spider Session..." option was set to false and the spider has once indexed the site while it was false, they revisit only using already-indexed pages.

Here is my suspicion:
Leads that came through google's search results that bears zenid ends up not being able to log-in with their own user id, because it bears zenid.

It is a suspicion because I'm not 100% sure, but customers sometimes call-in to first complain about not being able to login, then takes up about 10~20 minutes to order things for them. It's a waste of time, but I still get the order. But what about those who just exit? I'm loosing business here.

Hence, suppose my suspicion is at least part correct, the cause for this issue (cannot call it a problem because it is the way it's supposed to work using sessions to identify one from another), and a workaround for those who found the page through indexed pages that bear zenid because we don't have much control over SE once they've indexed, unless one is dare to request SE to remove all indexed pages that bear zenid and request to re-index everything with "Prevent Spider Session.." option to true.

SK.

Merlinpa1969:

set prevent spider sessions to true

then in I believe its still in application top rename zenid to something else

Merlinpa, my problem is a bit more complicated than simply setting the Prevent Spider Sessions to True... because it already is set to true.

Set Admin->Configuration->Sessions->Recreate Session to False if anyone's having the same issue as mine quoted above. (having zenid at the end issue even though Prevent Spider Sessions is set to True).

SK.

SteveKim:

Merlinpa, my problem is a bit more complicated than simply setting the Prevent Spider Sessions to True... because it already is set to true.
You missed the key bit of Merlinpa's post which is to change the variable that Zen Cart uses for session IDs from zenid to something else. That way any search results that have picked up URLs with zenid in or any links with zenid in will not mess up the session handling for customers that click on them.

SteveKim:

Set Admin->Configuration->Sessions->Recreate Session to False if anyone's having the same issue as mine quoted above. (having zenid at the end issue even though Prevent Spider Sessions is set to True).
Actually, I would have said it was pretty important to have Recreate Sessions set to True in this case to stop customer's logins and carts getting mixed up. Recreate Sessions does not always work properly on all servers though.

The main thing to do is to change zenid to something else. Do it when no one is browsing though.

Regards,
Christian.

In case some of you are wondering why zen_id is all of a sudden being added to your links (or always has) and you want it gone:

Be sure that your "Session Directory" in Configuration>Sessions is set to a directory that actually exists and is writable. If the directory doesn't exist, then Zen Cart will starting adding zenid to URLS.

Hope this helps.

hmm, for me this is now a big problem. I have a ezpage which I use in a campaign, for singing up for my newsletter. http://www.minshop.no/index.php?main_page=page&id=16

it works fine when users click my ads on other sites and linking directly to that url. but, If they first goes to http://www.minshop.no and then clicks the "Lyst på en Xbox-360?" link down in the left side boxes, they get a zenid attached to that page. Then when they want to confirm their subscription clicking the link in the e-mail it sends them, it contains the same zenid in that url. If a user does not click this immediately, but waits a day, he will then get an error when trying to confirm the subscription. How can I remove zenid for this specific page when users browse their way in?

What code are you using?

Ajeh:

What code are you using?

Not sure if this is the code your are looking for, but for the e-mail creating, I use Newsletter Subscribe v 2.1.0.

Do you think it is in that code I need to alter this?

sounds like the source of the problem ... need to strip the zenid off the url ...

Ajeh:

sounds like the source of the problem ... need to strip the zenid off the url ...

I see your point. When i hover the url from browsing to it from the front page, its shows with a zenid. Can this be done using the internal/external options in ez-pages settings for that page?

The code may need to be cleaned up to remove the zenid from the email in the same manner that the emails are built for Gift Certificates or Discount Coupons etc.

andyman23:

In case some of you are wondering why zen_id is all of a sudden being added to your links (or always has) and you want it gone:

Be sure that your "Session Directory" in Configuration>Sessions is set to a directory that actually exists and is writable. If the directory doesn't exist, then Zen Cart will starting adding zenid to URLS.

Hope this helps.

Can someone elaborate on this a bit? I copy and paste a lot of URLs from our site into my emails and I always first paste them into notepad and remove the zenid portion. Is there a way to prevent the zenid from being in the link in the first place?

My "Session" directory is chmod 755 (writable only by the owner). Should I change this? Or not?

Thanks for any help!
Rebekah

Using Zen Cart 1.3.8a

The sessions ID is a necessary function for your cart.... IF you have Zen Cart configured correctly, on reload (next click on the site) it will disappear.

~Melanie

Thanks for the reply, Melanie. I appreciate it.

Rebekah

Something you may want to check is the Chmod permissions for the session folder. I have found that if it is not set to 777 then new visitors will get the zenid code at the end of the url address. If you have the correct permissions, this will typically stop the zenid from appearing on a URL.

Hope it helps.

gtgderek:

Something you may want to check is the Chmod permissions for the session folder. I have found that if it is not set to 777 then new visitors will get the zenid code at the end of the url address. If you have the correct permissions, this will typically stop the zenid from appearing on a URL.

Hope it helps.

It is correct behavior for the first page on a visit to have a session ID.......

Making folders 100% writable is not correct, unless they are the ones Zen Cart says. This is a bad and vulnerable practice....

Where would you find this sessions directory you have made writable to me and everyone else? I have never seen such a directory in Zen Cart, maybe it is called something else?

~Melanie

I found my "Sessions" directory by going into ZC admin. It's under...

Configuration | Sessions |Session Directory

Mine is chmod 755. So, this is correct, or not?

Thanks for joining in, gtgderek.

Rebekah

755 is correct for standard folders...... It is not recommended to make anything NOT specifically noted by Zen Cart writeable as 777.

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Important_Site_Security_Recommendations

~Melanie