zencart admin backend showing incorrect

Hi
I am using the latest version of zencart and have followed the procedures to install the programme. I had a few issues with the template not showing up but thanks to the forum i managed to get this sorted.what i did was
change the .htaccess to .htaccess_off on the includes and admin

I have also emailed my server streamline.net to see if they can help with the security by either making this compatible or changing the access privileges. Dont really know how to explain it but i found an article on this forum advising me what to do. So with the small change the template is coming up.

I went to change the chmod configure.php back to and found that they had already changed from 777 to 644. When i load my homepage it has a warning message that says

Warning: I am able to write to the configuration file: /home/fhlinux139/r/ravsappliances.com/user/htdocs/shop/includes/configure.php. This is a potential security risk - please set the right user permissions on this file (read-only, CHMOD 644 or 444 are typical). You may need to use your webhost control panel/file-manager to change the permissions effectively. Contact your webhost for assistance. See this FAQ

so i tried to change the chmod from 644 to 444 as it clearly picks out the chmod of 644 being a issue.

For some reason every time i change it and save it over it looks like it has worked but when i go back into the folder to check the chmod is set to 644 still. Dont know what the problem is so done a little reading and found that i need to do something with SSH.

I have created the SSH and have tried to access it with puTTy but dont know where to go from here.

Another big issue that i have got is that the admin back end is incorrect. i am very new to zencart and watched a tutorial on how to add a product. I have managed to add categories however there is no option to add a product. The admin back end of the tutorial compared to my admin backend is different. I have taken a screenshot for you to see.

*** huge screenshot removed ***

Here is a image from the category and products link. As you will notice at the bottom it says products can not be added

http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww350/gradedlikenew/zen2.jpg

Im not sure what to do now as i am assuming i have either installed it incorrectly or the chmod attributes haven't been added correctly or are not saving.

Saying that i did check the images directory as this also needed to be changed to 777 and it is still at 777 so that looks fine.

Any help will be extremely appreciated

cheers

Your host should be able to answer the permissions question, but sometimes you can't use an FTP client to change file permissions. You shouldn't need shell access. Try using the File Manager in your control panel.

For the adding products question, Zencart categories can contain subcategories or products, but not both. Create your products within the subcategories.

Click on the folder icon to the left of your category name to go to that category. Then, as long as you do not create a subcategory in it, you can add products.

Hi
Thanks for the help guys.
I dont have a file manager in my control panel, well i cant seem to find it anywhere.

So simple. I clicked on the folder like you said and it now allows me to add products.

But what do you guys think about the way the layout is on the screen shot. Is it incorrect? Well its certainly different from what the tutorial was showing

The first screenshot is without a stylesheet, but the second one is showing the effects of a stylesheet.
Apparently your admin home page is not seeing the stylesheet.

any idea how i can resolve this

I have added another screen shot below. Its for when i want to add a product. As you can see i dont have any toold to increase the font size or anything. Surely something is wrong

huge screenshot removed

Nothing is wrong there - you just have the editor turned off.

Go to admin > Configuration > My Store > HTML Editor.

Hi
Thanks alot
your a great help. Dont know what i would do without you. lol.
Honestly cheers

any idea how i can get the admin stylesheet to show

cheers

Ok ive turned the html editor on but still no joy, still no options on the description parts

are you using a live url or a shared one?

Hi
Its a live url
not shared

In Categories/Products > category list, there should be a dropdown at the top right labeled "Text Editor:"
Do you have that?

ok thanks
I will have a look to see if that sorts it, but it would be so much easier if i could have my admin template showing.

Any idea what seems to be the promblem as i would rather install a new copy of zencart now instead of adding products to this one and then needing to do it later.

cheers

Ok ive had a look and there isn't any option for that. The html editor is turned on in the configuration end as advised in a earlier post but no options available to me. I have taken 3 screenshots so you can see all that i have available. The frustrating part is that everything is so spread out that i must scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to make any changes.

Surely someone else has had the same problem with their admin back end.

huge screenshots removed

thanks

As far as your admin menu is concerned, perhaps your admin stylesheets and/or javascript files aren't loading ... either because the files are damaged/incomplete on your server (failed FTP upload perhaps?) or there are additional .htaccess restrictions that you need to address to allow your particular server to share the required content to your browser.
Your hosting company may need to be involved if there are continued permissions problems.

HI Thanks for all the help.
I reinstalled zencart and after changing the .htaccess files to .htaccess_off both templates are now fine. The store template and the admin template seem to be working.

The html text editor still doesn't seem to work although i have enabled it through config/store/html editor.

I am still having problems with the configure.php files. I cant seem to change them from 644 to 444. As they are already on 644 the security message still shows.

I contacted my host and advised him of this issue. They arnt being very helpful. They told me that the problem is with zencart as it is overwriting the chmod when you change it. They went on to say that this isnt the first time people have called about this same issue.

I asked him to have a go for me just for peace of mind and he done exactly the same thing as me from the ftp access that they supply.I mentioned that i have tried to get the chmod changed though filezilla and the local ftp for the server. There is no file manager as its all built into the ftp access streamline.net provide.

What i dont understand is if zencart is overwriting the files automaticaly then why would it not overwrite it to a secure chmod setting?

I have sent a support ticket to the host but they take about 2 days to reply. Anyone suggest i change host. I havent had any issues with them but if this isnt a zencart issue but a host issue then my host is just trying to get rid of me and not help.

Any advise will be great

cheers

Issue isnt ZC overwriting the chmod....
the issue is that the system isnt able to chmod to 444 using ftp.

Try this workaround: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?p=567405

Something akin to that is built-in to the upcoming 2.0 version to help work around some of the confusion about permissions.

Hi
Thanks for the link. It worked a treat. All sorted now. Just the html editor not showing.

thanks alot though

Set the editor to html. log out of zen cart admin. Reset the cache on your browser. Close it and reopen it. Log back in. You should be sorted.

The html not turning on may be due to cache issues on your browser.

I tried everything. Clearing the cache closing the browser. I must note that i have my mozilla browser set to clear all cookies, cache and history when it closes.

What i have done is installed fckeditor and it works just fine. So im sorted now. Would like to know why the html editor doesnt work though. I even re uploaded the files in case i had corrupt ones in the editor section. But no luck

cheers