oh good gravy. what did i do now?

hi all,

last week i was so close to going live (on 1.3.8a), but had to get my https and credit cards set up properly. i also tried to set up a new dev environment on my server so i can move to 1.3.9 as soon as possible. in that process, i accidentally wiped out my almost-live installation (who knew i couldn't point to the same database, whoops) and although i had my database and files backed up, now that i've restored all of those, something is just not right and i have no idea where to begin.

the re-uploaded version takes FOREVER to load (either on http or https) and once it does, the images are loading strangely (broken, static-y images). i have deleted and reloaded my image folder (twice) and the images all still load properly on my local installation.

can anyone tell me how to start troubleshooting this? if you'd like to look at my site, the url is in my sig and you can use un: alphatester pw: Gr8gratitude to log in and look.

sigh i was so close....:frusty::frusty::frusty: thank you for any ideas you can share. i'm not a terribly technical person and i'm hosted on godaddy (two strikes!) but i've been working on this webstore for 2 years and i REALLY want to make it live for the holidays.

thanks.

To start with, I'd say the images have been corrupted somehow, maybe in the uploading process. I downloaded a couple, and my imaging software can't open them. Be sure your FTP program is set to auto.

Also, your button images all show a file size of 0 bytes - might be the same problem.

i thought so too -- and did that before posting originally. i deleted the remote version i had uploaded on restore with cyberduck and then uploaded the image directory again through dreamweaver. same results, but a couple images fared better than the first time - like the medallions on my front page, those didn't come through at all on the first upload.

what setting should be set to auto? I don't have any options in my programs (cyberduck & dreamweaver - mac) that could be set to auto. i can also upload through bbedit, if you're familiar with that.

i've just upgraded my computer though (shiny mac book pro!), so i'm gonna try it again tonight. i'll let you know.

then uploaded the image directory again through dreamweaver.
Geta a good good standalone FTP client...

Dreamweaver is not to be relied upon for clean FTP transfers

kobra:

Geta a good good standalone FTP client

I like --> Filezilla http://filezilla-project.org/download.php

fontaholic,

Your web server seems awfully slow. I would try uploading a static .html file and see if it loads just as slow in your browser to determine if it's a hardware issue or software issue as a quick diagnostic method.

i re-uploaded the image directories (yes, through dreamweaver) with my new machine and things seem to be working fine. :clap:

Your web server seems awfully slow. I would try uploading a static .html file and see if it loads just as slow in your browser to determine if it's a hardware issue or software issue as a quick diagnostic method.

it takes longer than it should to load a plain html file (though i've disabled that now. can you translate this error from one of my firefox addons?

23:11:51:03: Warning: Error in parsing value for 'margin'. Declaration dropped. Source File: http://store.inspiritcommon.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_133_459_491&products_id=33357 Line: 0, Column: 16 Category: CSS Parser

23:11:51:032: Warning: Selector expected. Ruleset ignored due to bad selector. Source File:
http://store.inspiritcommon.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_133_459_491&products_id=33357 Line: 0, Column: 249 Category: CSS Parser

23:11:51:051: Warning: Selector expected. Ruleset ignored due to bad selector. Source File:
http://store.inspiritcommon.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_133_459_491&products_id=33357 Line: 45, Column: 822 Category: CSS Parser

:blink:

First of all. Why are you wasting your time on 1.8a when a drastically new version 1.9h is out there?

Filezilla and winmerge are two programs highly recommended by the zen team. They have been invaluable to us. By starting a new store using 1.9h and merging your customized pages you would kill 2 birds with one stone. Then you could look at both stores to make sure it's setup the way you wanted.

No, I'm not a developer or totally zenned, matter of fact I was just reading the upgrading for dummies forum. I first thought someone wrote it about me.

However, I know how much work went into learning some of zen cart and how much more work was needed to upgrade to the 1.9. After attempting it. I followed my own advice. It worked alot smoother.

I just hate seeing people working hard on an old version just to have to go back and upgrade.

Just my $.25 (was $.02 10 years ago)

yd29999:

First of all. Why are you wasting your time on 1.8a when a drastically new version 1.9h is out there?

Filezilla and winmerge are two programs highly recommended by the zen team. They have been invaluable to us. By starting a new store using 1.9h and merging your customized pages you would kill 2 birds with one stone. Then you could look at both stores to make sure it's setup the way you wanted.

No, I'm not a developer or totally zenned, matter of fact I was just reading the upgrading for dummies forum. I first thought someone wrote it about me.

However, I know how much work went into learning some of zen cart and how much more work was needed to upgrade to the 1.9. After attempting it. I followed my own advice. It worked alot smoother.

I just hate seeing people working hard on an old version just to have to go back and upgrade.

Just my $.25 (was $.02 10 years ago)

if you read my original post, you would see that this happened while i was trying to create a 1.3.9 environment to move to. i know i need to do the work, and i was in the process of doing so when i wiped out something i worked very hard on for TWO YEARS. while i appreciate your twenty five cents, it's not very helpful to advise me to do something i'm already trying to accomplish.

i have the tools. i have dreamweaver, cyberduck (it's straight ftp filezilla) and deltawalker (which is like winmerge). i've got my fresh local installs of old and new versions. i've made my lists of changed files. in the process of learning zen cart, i've made changes in some files that i now understand were the 'wrong' ones, in the scheme of template overrides, so it's going to take me a bit of time to untangle those and also eliminate various addon code that i tried implementing, but couldn't get to work.

for the issue i had at the beginning of this thread, i now believe that since my power adapter on my old powerbook was failing, it was disturbing the upload, no matter what program i used. since i've had my new machine, i've had no problem uploading and getting these images to work.

Yes it had taken me years also.... One of the points I was trying to make was it may be in your best interest to stop working on the 1.3.8a. It seems to me that the extra work involved with updating 1.3.8a to 1.9h is risky at best for us newbies.(well, it was for me)

By starting with a fresh 1.9h you can finish customizing it knowing that all the files are where they should be. Rather then banging your head and "hoping" they are. Then add the mods that work with 1.9h.

I'm only speaking from experience at being a newbie. I was concerned I wouldn't have any brain cells left after trying to upgrade.

saitomedia:

Your web server seems awfully slow. I would try uploading a static .html file and see if it loads just as slow in your browser to determine if it's a hardware issue or software issue as a quick diagnostic method.

I've sorted enough out that I'm out of panic mode with my site. My local and remote installations are running again. The remote site is still running really slow and now the test HTML file I put up loads just fine. My local installation (MAMP) seems to be quicker now. How does one sort out what might be making the pages load so slowly? My parse times are usually about 13 seconds on pages with lots of images. (what is the proper emoticon for LEARNING!)

thanks for any help. in other news, i got credit cards and all my requirements for SLL/security stuff up! :clap:

fontaholic:

The remote site is still running really slow and now the test HTML file I put up loads just fine. My local installation (MAMP) seems to be quicker now. How does one sort out what might be making the pages load so slowly? My parse times are usually about 13 seconds on pages with lots of images. (what is the proper emoticon for LEARNING!)

There could be several possible reasons for your site running slow (and it is running VERY slow).

You have many levels of categories, and it looks like you have category counts showing in some places.

You might want to consider moving the categories so that they are in only 1 or 2 layers. To look at some books, I had to navigate down 5 levels of categories, and I think that will slow things down considerably. Displaying the category counts also takes a lot of resources.

There may be other issues too, but this is something to think about.

Also make sure your database indexes are in place and that you are on a fast server. A dedicated server would be best for a large product database and a lot of customers.

Lastly, you posted info which makes your site accessible. If you are still running the old version, change the password and keep your site private until you upgrade or you will likely encounter ugly issues.

Nice site design though :)

Ed

edadk:

There could be several possible reasons for your site running slow (and it is running VERY slow)....

thank you for these words of advice and ideas to try regarding the categories. i will have to do some reading on what you mean by database indexes being in place. i don't entirely know what that means either. :smartalec:

Lastly, you posted info which makes your site accessible

:shocking:thank you. i have changed my passwords. what did i post that was sensitive? that i use MAMP? just so i know next time...

Nice site design though :)

thanks! just in time! we redesigned our logo and need to update the whole look... but it's ok. that's what my plan for 1.3.9 is for.

what did i post that was sensitive?

Older versions are susceptible to hacks. If you let the bad guys get to your site, they might be able to mess it up. You're better off behind a password until you upgrade to 1.39h.

Don't worry about the indexes for now. Get rid of the category counts and think about a less complex category setup first and see if that speeds things up.

Ed

thanks... i really have tried to be mindful not to post passwords or database names.

another zenner i know gave me a bit of code that put the category counts in the center panel. i took that out so it doesn't have to do math every time a category page loads and i think i've gotten better parse times this morning because of it (once as low as 2s!). perhaps once i get some of the extra category layers out of there it will get even faster. it still takes a long time to load a single product detail page, which makes me feel like i'm not done finding the problem yet.

i struggle about reducing the categories though... i'm going to have twice the amount of products in here eventually and really need to give folks a sane way to find what they're looking for. books and music are the most terrifying because you can make SO many layers of topics within those.

because i want to offer the 'shop by intention...' idea, the category layers are already going to be complex enough.

ok, so i took the plunge and have started the upgrade to 1.3.9h. in that process, the parse times for my pages were not improved.

i reduced the number of category levels from 7 - 4 and saw a minimal increase in speed. and then...

i found this page...

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=21

and followed the suggestions there and now have what an offsite tester describes as "lightning quick".

i think all the things helped, but the last one was key... i had a background image in one of my header elements that was being called from my www server and not the shop subdomain. once i moved it, it sped right up.

hope this helps the next person!