Disappearing Download Attributes

Hello!

My store carries virtual products. Every so often, Zen gets hungry and eats our download attributes. Meaning, they literally disappear. One minute products will have a green dot, the file name is there; the next it's completely empty (no file name, no red or green dot), though the file is still on the server.

This is a rather large problem for me. I have more than 20 manufacturers and 3,000+ products in inventory. It's a burden to ask everyone to drop everything and reset their downloads every time, let alone do it all myself. Restoring a prior database backup doesn't always work because it's hard to pinpoint when exactly it happens. I usually receive my first clue when a customer writes in to say they can't download their product. By that time, a newer database copy has often overwritten the last 'whole" one.

I've come across various posts on this topic. Some of the posts are even from other stores in the same line of work, with a similar setup to mine. We subdivide the download folder in order for each manufacturer to have their own "private" FTP directory. A normal file path would look like something this:

toni/ProductABC.zip

I've tried to analyze the pattern, but there doesn't seem to be one. The missing category of choice seems to be random, usually a product category that all manufacturers can copy to. It's never usually the same category twice. Though some have made repeat performances. ;)

On the flip side, I've also noticed extra, empty download attributes are sometimes added to random products. A product will have six file attributes, for example, then there will be three more "empty" ones below, with green dots, but no file name.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated! It's driving us absolutely crazy! And, with a very large inventory that grows on a daily basis, not a problem I want to keep dealing with. Can you spell "m-u-t-i-n-y?" LOL!

Thank you again! :)

Are you using the Copy Products or Copy Attributes features?

Or something like Copy Attributes to another Product or a Category of Products?

Hi, Linda!

Thanks for your post!

We rarely do a "straight copy." If we do, then it's a linked product, not duplicated. 99% of the time, we use the MCLM, where we don't have that option.

Does that assist the assistance? LOL! Happy to provide anything you may need! I've just upgraded to 1.3.9e from 1.3.9d. I've done them all faithfully. Also modded to the hilt if that helps to know.

Thank you again for your help with this!

So far, the only times that I have been able to find the disappearing Downloads has related to copying Attributes from one Product to another or to a Category of Products where the Attributes overwrite the exiting Attributes and the Download is lost as the Download files are not copied in this manner ...

I have not pinpointed any other cause, at this time ...

Perhaps keeping current backups and checking the products_attributes_download count of records can help pinpoint when this happens based on a sudden change in the number of records in that table ...

One idea is if the Downloads remain the same for the Products but new ones get added, a backup of the products_attributes table and the products_attributes_download table can restore the attributes/downloads or help identify the lost ones ...

So far, I have not been able to reproduce anything like this ...

Do you have any add ons for the attributes?

No, we don't use any attribute add-ons. We don't add additional downloads to existing products, either. Products are loaded once, downloads set, then they're copied to the additional categories where they need to go, either through "Linked Product" or the MCLM.

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to "watch" the table you've referenced. That table currently has over 5,300 records. Some are probably for extra "empty" downloads, and some are probably missing. So I would have to fix over 3,300 products to ascertain what the "true" number should be, then take a daily count from all the new products added to inventory, check those downloads and keep a running total, at the same time running several backups and trying to figure out when the problem happens?

When would I have time for anything else? I appreciate the suggestion, but it's a bit impractical for the size of my store. There's obviously a big problem here. This happens too many times to be random. Not only to me, but to many others, as evidenced by the the threads I've found relating to it.

Happy to provide my tables, screen shots, and/or anything else you might need to duplicate the issue and see it for yourself. This issue very much exists, and it's going to become a deal-breaker on continuing to use Zen cart. I simply can't keep going through this every few weeks with the amount of inventory we have. :(

You could run, in phpMyAdmin, the following SQL to find any missing download filenames in the products_attributes_download table:

SELECT * FROM products_attributes_download where products_attributes_filename = '';

This will find all records that do not have a download name set ...

Do ALL of your Attributes have downloads on them?

I will try that code and see what happens. LOL! Thank you!

All of our attributes are radio-button downloads, except one, which is value, specifically related to gift certificates.

SELECT * FROM zen_products_attributes_download where products_attributes_filename = '';

Ran that, received this:

MySQL returned an empty result set (i.e. zero rows). ( Query took 0.0001 sec )

Yet, here's this and this:

That makes it appear that the downloads are not missing from the products_attributes_download record, but rather the record itself is missing that should be associated with the Attribute ...

Ajeh:

That makes it appear that the downloads are not missing from the products_attributes_download record, but rather the record itself is missing that should be associated with the Attribute ...

I'm so sorry, but I have no idea what that means. Unless it's what I've been trying to tell you? Downloads mysteriously go missing?

We also have the problem of empty attributes being added. Not sure if this is one problem or two problems, or what I'm supposed to do next.

Please advise. Thank you! :)

What I am trying to explain is, if you do not have a record in the products_attributes_download table that is associated with the products_attribtues then the download is not missing from the record, the record is not there ...

Have you ever actually tried to add an attribute with a download and after you hit insert the download filename was not there?

I am trying to determine if the download filename is not being added when the Attribute with the download filename is added or edited ... or if there might be some other bizzarro reason that this is happening ...

I cannot find any reason that this would happen using the standard Zen Cart v1.3.9e ...

What version of Zen Cart are you using?

Is this a clean install or an upgrade?

No, I've never added a download file and received the "empty" attribute. If the file name was typed incorrectly, there would be a red dot, which would turn green when corrected. Nor has anyone ever reported that while uploading one of their products.

I began Zen with 1.3.8a and have done every upgrade since, currently through 1.3.9e.

It's definitely a bizarro reason. LOL! One minute green dot, file names are there. The next, poof, they''re gone! Again, not all of them, only in seemingly random product categories, while random extras/empties appear elsewhere.

Without going through your files and database and trying to see something in the admin logs ... I just cannot reproduce this one ...

I am not really sure what to tell you other than create some SQL statements to check the downloads and attributes to see when they are missing for faster repair ... and to keep watching the admin logs for anything odd someone might be doing ...

I'm more than happy to furnish whatever you need to diagnose the issue. I'm not quite sure how SQL statements are going to help me. Once the downloads are gone, they're gone. There's no way to put them back that I know of except to manually re-enter each and every missing download file, and/or delete the extra empties. Which have been deleted before yet they keep returning, while downloads have been re-associated yet they keep disappearing.

Again, more than happy to provide whatever you need and to help however I can. This isn't a minor defect that I can simply wave away. I've certainly tried to play along and overlook it, but it's become an untenable situation. And it isn't new.

We are having the same problem with our store. It doesn't happen to all the products or to all the designers. We never realize it until a customer orders a product and they find that there are no downloads for that product in their order. It gets really annoying not just for our designers but especially for our customers when they cannot download their order or all of their order right away.

I totally agree! It's not only annoying for everyone involved, it's a downright crucial issue for stores who carry virtual products. If you look down below this thread, you'll see several other threads about this very same issue, and countless more can be found, as well. This problem has been around for years, yet no one seems willing to do anything about it. I guess being told, "I don't know what to tell you," really means, "Buzz off!"

I won't be able to stay with Zen if this doesn't get addressed. Our store has become too large to reset thousands of downloads every time Zen decides to get hungry. If I do have to go to a pay-to-use cart, I don't think I would be inclined to buy one where the same programmer might give the same answer if it were to happen again. Hmmm, maybe that's why this has never been addressed? It's certainly food for thought.

While the mere thought of having to change carts makes me want to cry after all of the work I've put into our setup, not to mention the custom panels and mods I've bought. All down the drain if this continues to remain unsolved. :(

Toni I feel your pain. I made a post about this issue a few weeks ago, and got the exact same response you have, and then actually they were downright rude in some of their repsonses. It is like they cannot understand exactly what we are talking about. I scoured this forum from one end to the other and found posts from way back in 2006 about this issue...guess what...same responses. We always use the multiple category link manager when copying products to other categories, and even my own products which had not been changed in days will vanish. I just went in and readded all the attributes to my full size kits, last week it was taggers kits vanishing, and even weirder, the cu products never lose their attributes....talk about odd.

Hi, Nikki!

Fancy meeting you here. LOL!

It's funny you mentioned the CU products. At first, it seemed like they were exempt from decimation, but I could swear that they too, eventually went poof during one of Zen's refrigerator binges. It's happened so many times now I can't recall.

This time it was Images, which had never been touched before, but was recently switched to being a subcategory rather than a top-level. The Tagger Kit category has been hit several times! Those products usually have only one download file, while the Full-Size Kit category, usually containing products with multiple downloads, is usually the recipient of the additional "empties."

I'm not sure how we couldn't be understood. I've explained it quite clearly in addition to providing screenshots. And I'm certainly not the first to do so. What I don't understand is how "they" can't understand is how important this is.

Then again, I'm not sure "they" is a fair characterization either. I recently complained quite loudly about another annoying and ongoing issue, which led to it being investigated off-forum by another Zen programmer. He was quite awesome in working to resolve it, something I greatly appreciate. So it would doubly suck for me to have come this far and have to give up Zen now.

IMHO, Linda should adopt the same attitude about her attributes, and should have done so a long time ago. This many complaints over the span of several years, complaints that haven't abated even through the latest upgrades, is surely a sign something is wrong - and has always been wrong. I don't think we'd be in business if we ignored our customers that way. And we give plenty of free products, too. ;)

umm ... excuse me ... but I and the rest of the Zen Cart Team are pulling our hair out trying to reproduce this issue to figure out how it is happening to you ... :blink:

I have not been able to reproduce it and am looking through everything I can find right now that might be related in some manner other than the obvious methods where someone is copying Attributes from 1 Product to another and causing this issue ...

So far I have not been able to make this happen ...

Currently, I was trying to find you some SQL tests that you could run to identify as quickly as possible when this happens in hopes of pinpointing a cause to the problem ...

I am sorry you think we don't care because we have not identified the problem yet and that you think trying to locate when the problem happens is not something you consider helpful ...

We don't like that this is happening to you either ...

But, as I have mentioned, so far any time we have identified a possible cause to this situation it has turned out to be someone managing the Products in a way triggers the error that everyone thought "no one" was doing anything like Copy the Attributes to a Product or Category of Products and wiping out their own downloads ...

If any of you would like to talk about this privately in please send me a PM with your phone and best time to reach you and perhaps we can find what is happening on your specific sites ...

If it is a code issue with Zen Cart we are happy to fix it ...

If it is something in how the Products are being managed, maybe we can find a way to prevent that from happening for you ...

And please post a list of ALL the addons you've added to your site, and a list of any other customizations you done besides stylesheets and graphic images.
We're looking for common threads amongst people reporting the problem.
If you don't give us anything to go on other than "it's broke, and here's the symptoms", then all we can do is hope to guess that we can somehow magically recreate the problem.

We can't fix the problem until we can consistently recreate it by following a specific list of steps.

Until then, our guess is as good as yours. Adding "me too" gripes doesn't solve anything. We need to know what exactly creates it, and that requires that you cooperate with us when we ask for information. So far, only Toni has given any "information" in this discussion. Everyone else is just piping up a "me too".

Help us help you.

Does that make sense?

If you find my post rude, then I guess you're in some other world and don't deserve the help we're offering you. (LOL ... okay, now THAT comment could be considered rude! :blush: ... sorry )