Soulkreed:
#1045 - Access denied for user 'pma'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
and it remains a mystery still. I cannot even access the phpmyadmin screen any longer it just comes up with the above every time.
'pma' is the username that phpMyAdmin uses to connect to the mySQL database. Since you now have a new database the pma user (and the associated tables) won't exist yet. You need to rerun the myphpadmin installation scripts. Sorry, I can't tell you what they are called, or where to find them on your system. I don't use Windows.
Soulkreed:
I even downloaded a copy of wamp as i read in one of the forums how much easier it is to use, alas, i have no idea as to how/what implement wamp either ( same thing happens there also )
It isn't true that wamp is easier to use, but it can make initial installations a lot easier.
'wamp' stands to "Windows", " Apache", "mySQL" and "PHP". It is basically an installer system that installs the 3 applications in one unified way, rather than each application individually.
Soulkreed:
Is there an easier/faster way to go about all this ie : erase absolutely everything ( mysql,phpmyadmin,xamp ) except the store files of course and begin again from the very start.
Yes, erasing/deleting and starting again may be your best/easiest option.
Soulkreed:
I would need directions to do that though as well.
Looks to me like it is a simple 3 step process:
http://www.wampserver.com/en/
Soulkreed:
I have even thought about ditching the entire project in this format ( trying to fix all this up ) and rebuilding the site from scratch ie : first my local then transfer over to dot easy, yet i have come so far, be a shame to quit now.
Any thoughts?
The main problem, as I see it, is that you you don't quite understand the technology required to make zencart work. You need to isolate and identify the components rather than treating it all as some kind of mysterious "black box" thing.
The baseline technology is the Apache Webserver. This is a 'standalone' application that serves web pages to a client. The client being a web browser. Microsoft IIS is another type of webserver.
PHP is an addon module for Apache, that gives it 'dynamic' capabilites, for example, getting data from a database rather than simple html files. ASP is to IIS what PHP is to Apache.
**
mySQL **is a standalone database application. It has no direct connection to either Apache, or **PHP **- it is simply a database, much like MSAccess, nothin more, nothing less.
phpmyadmin is a web-based application the provides a convenient method to access and manipulate a** mySQ**L database, using the PHP programming language.
zencart is **also **a web-based application that uses the **PHP **langauge to access a mySQL database that stores the zencart products (among other things).
phpmyadmin has no connection or relationship with** zencart** whatsever, They are similar only in as much as the both use PHP to access a MySQL database.
Any and all accesses to a mySQL database requires that the database itself has user/password information stored in it to allow such access. Initially, the database will only have one user, named 'root'.
For zencart to access the database, a new user needs to be added to the database, this is the 'zen-cart' user - zencart itself doesn't know what this username is, nor what tables it has access too (they haven't been created yet), so when they ARE created by the zencart install scripts (which initially connects to the database as 'root'), zencart needs to 'remember' this information for future accesses, and it does this via the configure.php files.
.
A similar situation exists for **phpmyadmin. **this application ALSO needs a 'user account' stored in the mySQL database in otder to access it. As with zencart, **phpmyadmin **also 'remebers' its own log in details with its own configuration files.
This means that by the time you have finished installing MySQL, **phpmyadmin, **and zencart, the mySQL database (a standalone application) now has 3 different 'users', the 'root' user, the zencart user, and the phpmyadmin user. Each of them with their own unique username, password and privileges.
That is the database or 'back end' of the system.
The 'front end' of the system consists of the Apache webserver, and the .php files that outputs data to the screen. Apache is just as 'dumb' as any other application, it doesn't magically know where to find any of your files, let alone the backend database, It obtains this information from the configuration files. If you enter an incorrect path into these files then Apache simply isn't going to display the file(s). If you put invalid database connection information into the confuration files, then it simply won't be able to connect to the database to retrieve your product information, and finally, if you don't structure the configuration files correctly (in other words, if you introduce syntax errors during editing), then the **PHP **module will simply 'give up' and nothing will work as expected.
As you can see, there is a LOT that can go wrong, and when you start compounding problems, it can be very difficult to resolve, only one problem can be tackled at a time, and you my friend, appear to be tackling half a dozen problems at once and getting further and further away from your goal.
As per my earlier message, if you PM me your dot easy details I should be able to 'restore' those problems for you (before you make 'em any worse) - but for problems on your local machine, you are pretty much on your own. I can't really offer much in the way of help even if I wanted too.
Cheers
Rod
NOTE: We are sorry that Rod is no longer with us.
We are grateful for all his contributions to the Zen Cart community.
Ozpost - The Ultimate Shipping module for Australian Merchants. Click these links for its Homepage, or Download from Zen-Cart.com.
