suddenly my orders fail to post in orders admin (hosted on GoDaddy)

Running SC V1.3.9f
As of approx June 11, 2011 my new customer orders no longer appear in customer/orders, nor is ZC sending me email notification of orders.

I am made aware of new orders as I'm getting payment notification emails from Pay Pal showing the purchase amount, and the items purchased.

ZC orders notification was working fine up to June 11, 2011: no changes or upgrades to ZC have been made. Nothing changed on my end.

Any idea why this would suddenly stop working correctly or how to troubleshoot and fix?

Thanks much.
Addlink
:shocking:

Odd indeed. Have you tried checking out with a fake order to see for yourself?

Can you provide a link?

What paypal module are you using?

I know Dr Byte posted something about paypal IPN in the last month or so

Run through a bogus transaction,

1. using paypal
2. using a different payment method (this will allow you to be sure its a paypal issue)

Can you turn on error logging for paypal?

Jackie, thanks for your response. Fake order placed, does not show, you asked for a link? To What?
nigelt74, thanks for your response.
To both of you, I have the Pay Pal IPN set correctly, having contacted Pay Pal support and gone through all settings. Pay Pal says its a Zen Cart Issue, not paypal.

I tend to think this has something to do with Admin in Zen Cart concerning STORE MANAGER. About the time this began happening I had rec'd a message in yellow upon logging into Zen Cart that the Empty Admin Activity Log table from the database
and did so. This is all greek to me. I notice that the yellow notice went away. But, my product orders have dissappeared. There are a bunch of "reset" buttons in this area, one of them being, Reset ALL Products Ordered
I have not hit any "reset" buttons.
Any help on resolving this issue would be appreciated. I had been getting email notices from Zen Cart that an order had been placed, and the order showed up under "customer orders" and now they don't. Thanks.

Now I just rec'd a notice from a customer who ordered a download and can't download it after paying with Pay Pal.

Since orders are not posting in Store Admin, I cannot resend the download link.

I have no idea how to trouble shoot this.
But I need to get my store back working.
I have made no changes, other than in Store Admin clicking the yellow notice that the
"The Admin Activity Log is a tracking method that records activity in the Admin. Due to its nature it can become very large, very fast and does need to be cleaned out from time to time."

I clicked this back in June to clean it out. Since then, all my orders no longer appear. Any suggestions on how to repair this?
Thanks much.

Honestly you will not find any solid answer here. Some people will tell you to only use PayPal Express Checkout which may fix your issue. But I don't see a reason why PayPal IPN is all bad now even though some of us have been using it for years.

I do have similar issue with PayPal IPN which start happening back in early May, My issue is one a customer order 2+ items and pay with PayPal they will not be recorded in Zen Cart. I did switch to PEC for few weeks but customer start calling and complaining about being sent back to Zen Cart after they login in to PayPal.

You can try to use PEC see if that fixes your problem.

It is clear (at least to me from other user complaints) that there are issues with PayPal/Zen Cart. I don't know who to blame for it but the issue is there as a lot of people have reported it.

I'll jump in before the Dr lights his afterburner.
What changes did your host make (if any) around the time this happened?
Why not upgrade to the latest version as things have changed (could that be why there are newer versions:smartalec:)?
What versions of PHP and MySql are being used?
Why do people insist on using a BUGGY IPN that will (hopefully) be sent to the bit bucket by PayPal itself?
I could go on, but I'll leave something for the Dr.:P

People use IPN simply because they have multiple stores and they can't just keep opening bank accounts to accept PayPal. IPN will allow you to use one PayPal account for multiple stores. I have 10+ stores and don't wish to open 10 business accounts when some of these stores barely generate sales to justify opening new account for them so I still want to use IPN. I do use PEC on some of the larger stores but that still have issues.

I don't think PayPal will discontinue the IPN anytime soon, so instead of telling people to Change the method they accept payments maybe posting solutions would be better idea.

CoolCarPartsOnline:

People use IPN simply because they have multiple stores and they can't just keep opening bank accounts to accept PayPal. IPN will allow you to use one PayPal account for multiple stores.
CoolCarPartsOnline, I know you're passionately opposed to anything we have to say about PayPal. But that doesn't justify posting inaccurate information.
Express Checkout provides all the SAME "features" you've enumerated. No extra bank accounts required. Good on multiple stores. Customers can easily pay without a PayPal account. etc etc etc.

IPN is just older architecture, and was designed by PayPal to be used with "PayPal buttons" which you place on static product pages on non-database-driven websites. It was never intended to be used on self-hosted dynamic webstores. And, it breaks badly if there's ANY glitch in communication between PayPal's server and your server when it's attempting to notify your store of a new order.
EC, on the other hand, was written specifically to be used on self-hosted database-driven dynamic webstores such as the likes of Zen Cart. EC is NOT vulnerable to the breakdown of communications that IPN is prone to. That is why it is the recommended primary means of accepting Paypal on your site.
If you don't like the "flow" of EC when activated from the Shopping Cart page, you can turn that button off so that the "experience" is just like the IPN flow. Customers won't know the difference.

addlink:

Running SC V1.3.9f
As of approx June 11, 2011 my new customer orders no longer appear in customer/orders, nor is ZC sending me email notification of orders.

I am made aware of new orders as I'm getting payment notification emails from Pay Pal showing the purchase amount, and the items purchased.

ZC orders notification was working fine up to June 11, 2011: no changes or upgrades to ZC have been made. Nothing changed on my end.

Any idea why this would suddenly stop working correctly or how to troubleshoot and fix?

Thanks much.
Addlink
:shocking:
Your symptoms sound very much like you're using the PayPal Website Payments Standard module (also referred to historically as the "IPN module").
As I explained in my prior post, that module is limited by PayPal's architectural design and prone to failure if there are communication problems between PayPal's server and your server. It can also easily break if you add an addon to your site which changes how orders or checkout work.

Also, earlier this month PayPal implemented a change to their datacenter and added extra servers that handle IPN responses. They spent 4 months notifying all their customers of those upcoming changes, and we posted notices here on the Zen Cart forum about those changes too. If your hosting company has a very restrictive firewall configuration that prevents incoming traffic from PayPal's new server IP addresses, then it's possible that might be related to your problem. See the link contained in the article found at the link in the next paragraph for specifics of PayPal IP addresses.

Further, if you need to troubleshoot your PayPal configuration and/or the communications between PayPal's server and your server, there is a very detailed list of things to check at http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

Your PayPal debug logs will be useful in diagnosing what exactly is going on with your Website Payments Standard transactions.

But it will be MUCH simpler and way less technically complicated if you just upgrade to the latest version of Zen Cart and switch to PayPal Express Checkout instead.

There shouldn't be ANY connection between clearing the Admin Activity Log and sudden problems with PayPal payments. They're completely unrelated things.

Thank you all very much for your opinions and insights. However, unfortunately none of this resolves my store issue. CoolCarParts said it best I guess, "you'll not get any sold answers here." (Forum)

Does anyone know how to get support from ZenCart directly? Is there a support email? What other options may be available for resolving the issue? Any expert Zen Cart masters out there that can help? Thanks again!:lookaroun

Dr. Byte,
Thank you. Best info yet.
The ZC upgrade is very scarry. It's not like you can click "update" and its done. Seems like you have to go in and make all kinds of changes to individual PHP files, that's why I've left it alone. I'm running 1.3.9f. I see upgrade to 1.3.9h.
How can I easily upgrade without having to open these PHP files, or is that possible? Also, where do I make changes to the Pay Pal Module install you suggested? Thanks again, Dr. Byte.

In each download of Zen Cart is a docs folder and at the top of this page is a Tutorials/FAQ link. Both of those contain very good directions for upgrading.
Just like sitting ten people in a circle and whispering something in each one's ear in turn, you will likely get incomplete information from an answer to a forum thread. It's simply because we each have a favorite way of doing things.
The docs and Tutorials/FAQ methods have been developed so as not to leave out any of the steps needed to upgrade.
Following either step by step may take a couple of hours at first, but you will learn many things in the process that will help you in maintaining your site in the future.:bigups:

addlink:

Dr. Byte,
Thank you. Best info yet.
The ZC upgrade is very scarry. It's not like you can click "update" and its done. Seems like you have to go in and make all kinds of changes to individual PHP files, that's why I've left it alone. I'm running 1.3.9f. I see upgrade to 1.3.9h.
How can I easily upgrade without having to open these PHP files, or is that possible? Also, where do I make changes to the Pay Pal Module install you suggested? Thanks again, Dr. Byte.

FYI updating will not fix your problem as I am running the latest version and having problems.

Did you see the other part of Dr. Byte's comments, besides upgrading? Have a look through this list of items to make sure Paypal's configured correctly: http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

CoolCarPartsOnline:

addlink:

Dr. Byte,
Thank you. Best info yet.
The ZC upgrade is very scarry. It's not like you can click "update" and its done. Seems like you have to go in and make all kinds of changes to individual PHP files, that's why I've left it alone. I'm running 1.3.9f. I see upgrade to 1.3.9h.
How can I easily upgrade without having to open these PHP files, or is that possible? Also, where do I make changes to the Pay Pal Module install you suggested? Thanks again, Dr. Byte.FYI updating will not fix your problem as I am running the latest version and having problems.Again, an irrelevant statement, since the context is unrelated to your EC problems to which you're referring.

Upgrading will help if it does nothing more than get the OP's site onto the same page so that any troubleshooting or code suggestions refer to the same line numbers etc. And of course fix all the other bugs that were fixed between versions. Those are always good reasons to upgrade anyway.

Besides, the upgrade from v1.3.9f to v1.3.9g and then to v1.3.9h is just a matter of replacing a handful of files.

DrByte,
The upgrade appears incredibly complicated.
I see two references:
1.) Simplified: download 1.3.9h, extract w/folders, FTP upload to server into a new directory, FTP into directory on server, click "/zc_install/index.php" DOES THIS ASK FOR EXISTING INSTALL INFO, LIKE DB, ETC? Do I need to change permissions on all these admin PHP files?

2.) Complex version: /docs/1.readme_installation.html document.

Question: which one to follow for easiest upgrade?
Thanks. :yes:

Dr. Byte,
Thanks again and again.
You last stated, Besides, the upgrade from v1.3.9f to v1.3.9g and then to v1.3.9h is just a matter of replacing a handful of files.

Question: do you have to go from 1.3.9f first to g, or can I just go directly to upgrade h? How do I determine which files relevant to "replacing a handful of files"?
Thanks.

I've explained this hundreds of times elsewhere on the forum, so please forgive me if my tone here is "short" in any way.

1. Download the v1.3.9h zip file.

2. Unzip it.

3. Open these 2 files in your browser and print them:
   /docs/changelog-v1-3-9g.html
   /docs/changelog-v1-3-9h.html

4. Those two documents show you the list of files that changed between versions.

You need to do the 1.3.9g list of files FIRST.
And THEN do the 1.3.9h files afterward.

(Yes, some files are listed in BOTH documents. For the sake of making sure you don't miss any, do the repeats anyway.)

So ... for each file listed on each of those documents:
a) Is the file that's on your site an original? or has it been changed by you? either by making edits of your own or by replacing/merging it with an addon?
b) If you never changed that file, just upload the new one over it.
c) If you DID change that file in any way, re-do your change in the NEW version of the file, and upload the new one.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

The last one I did took about 25 minutes.

Thanks, DrByte,
I understand your impatience with me, sorry.
I went to Pay Pal Express in my existing version.
Uninstalled PayPal Standard, installed Express.
Got API stuff, directly from PayPal, pasted into the set up in ZC

Attempted and order.
Got error, "An error occurred when we tried to contact the payment processor. Please try again, select an alternate payment method, or contact the store owner for assistance. () - (7) couldn't connect to host"

If it fails here, won't it fail in version h as well?

Why would Express fail?