Using Zen 1.3.9h
Godaddy server so PHP version is good
Authorize.net SIM
I am VERY new to zen cart so this is been a steep learning curve for me and something is STILL missing I have spent hours looking and so far found nothing to this...what I believe is a elementary problem.

The details of orders are not being sent to Authorize.net only order totals. There is no customer order history, no orders listed, no purchases nothing to show in the store that a purchase has been made. There has been one purchase and there is nothing to show this was done in the store.
Authorize.net says they did not get a break down only the customer name, address, order total. I do not have add on's
this is a simple site, small inventory.
So could someone give me some direction on where I indicate the order details ALL order details be included in sending to Authorize.net. And why this purchase is not showing at all in the store? Not even with the customer that purchased it. It is as if it never happen. :lookaroun

Zen Cart doesn't send the entire itemized order to Authorize.net. It doesn't need to.
Your problem is that your site isn't receiving confirmation back from your customer's visit to the Authorize.net site when completing the order, and thus the order isn't being saved in your store, which also explains why no emails are getting sent out either.

When you tested your own purchase through your store, what happened? Or did you?

SIM setup instructions: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=403

Yes I did test it out.

Attachment #9533Attached is a receipt I got from a test I did today again, it was in test mode.

The purchase made that was not recorded in the store was by another person and I do not have that receipt. The store was not in test mode and it was considered a "real purchase".

Have you tested a "real purchase" yourself?

No but I will tomorrow. I am concerned that the "real purchase" did not record in the store. And that part you indicated could be that authorize.net is not communicating back to the store. mmm so I will do a "real purchase" myself tomorrow and report back with what I find.
I don't understand how the "real purchase" could have gone through and authorized and charged but not recorded back to the store. This all happens in a short period of time. My thought is if authorize.net is not communicating with the store how did the sale go through? Would it not have been cancelled on the store site because of no authorization?
I may be thinking too hard on this one.

You're just making too many assumptions.

Zen Cart collects shopping cart contents from the customer, then asks for address/shipping info, calculates shipping and taxes, and then since you've elected to use SIM which cannot capture payment directly while on your site, it must redirect the shopper to a completely different website, wait for the customer to do whatever they're asked to do there (ie: enter credit card information) and then return to your site successfully, and only THEN is the order saved in your store and emails sent to confirm the actual purchase details/contents. If they don't return with a "success" code from the offsite gateway, then they're sent back to the checkout-payment page and asked to select another method of payment, and of course no order is stored until they provide a successful payment.

So, since you've said the payment is collected successfully by an external site, but not completed back on your site, then that means something's going wrong at the point of coming back from the other site to yours, and you need to figure out what's going wrong in that stage.

Out of the box, the built-in SIM module works just fine. Maybe you've added addons or customizations that have broken normal operation, or you've not configured the SIM module and your authnet SIM settings correctly as per the tutorial guide I mentioned earlier.

Or, you could simply avoid all these offsite hassles by using the AIM module instead. It's the Advanced Integration Method, which allows customers to enter credit card details directly on your site, without ever having to leave your site to complete payment. It's a much nicer seamless experience for the customer, and not subject to the many complications of waiting for something to happen externally without having any control over what's going on.

I did a purchase as a real sale today. I was returned to the store with a message that there was an error and I needed to re submit the sale.
I looked at Authorize.net and the sale was there. I looked at the store and there was no record of the sale. I did find the below in the log file

Aug-03-2011 04:45:42

Response Code: 1.
Response Text: This transaction has been approved.

Results Received back from Authorizenet: Array

[HashMatchStatus] => FAIL

Is this the problem?
Donna

I will answer my own question. Yes it was the problem.
I really do not think I would have thought of that without reading all the information posted here. Thank you DrByte for your patience and kind explanations. I and am sure many many others appreciate your help. Thanks :bigups:
Donna