website doesn't work (500 internal server error) but admin panel works fine?(GoDaddy)

I have zc1.3.9h on a xampp local test server. Things worked fine. I transfered everthing over to go daddy. The mysql dbase is there, files are all uploaded, etc. I edited both the admin/includes/configure.php and the includes/configure.php

I can get into the admin panel fine, but I can't say the same for the website. I get a 500- Internal server error. Is it safe to assume I've done something wrong in the includes/configure.php and that this is not a go daddy or a windows/linux issue? I know another user said linux resolved her problem, but wouldn't my admin panel have a failure as well if this were the issue? Just reaching out after racking my brains for a few hours trying different scenarios. :frusty:

Have you read the FAQ entry for this type of error?

On a local installation such as you're describing, I'd recommend starting by looking for PHP errors in the logs as recommended by the FAQ.

You are on a GoDaddy Windows server?

Ah yes, I misread the direction of your transfer. As your problem is on your remote web server, I'd look first at the file permissions with which your uploaded files landed.

Kim:

You are on a GoDaddy Windows server?

Yes I'm on a GoDaddy Windows server

kuroi:

Ah yes, I misread the direction of your transfer. As your problem is on your remote web server, I'd look first at the file permissions with which your uploaded files landed.

I will try to find and check which files may have issues with their permissions.

Yes I'm on a GoDaddy Windows server

Stop wasting time trying to get that to work - move to a Linux server at the very least and a different host would be even better.

So here are the steps I took and what I have found out so far:

1. Copied my local test site to GoDaddy (named: Zenoriginal)

2. Things did not work so I also did the GoDaddy install which led to me having a 2nd ZenCart under my domain (named: GoDaddyZen)

3. I replicated the GoDaddyZen configure.php files with appropriate changes in my Zenoriginal folder.

4. Admin panel worked, but not the website.

5. Through trial and error, i found that Zenoriginal/includes/configure.php lines of code point to where I think they logically should with the exception of 1 line. For example:
   Most point to something along the lines of
   define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/Zenoriginal/');
   define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/Zenoriginal/');

However I have to point this line to the folder created by GoDaddy.

define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', 'D:\Hosting\8258716\html\GoDaddyZen/');

All the add-ons & mods in my Zenoriginal appear to work fine but I feel as though it should not be pointed to GoDaddyZen. Rather it should point to Zenoriginal. Any ideas as to why this is?

It needs to point to where your files are actually located.

You would be better off following the tutorial which explains how to move from one server to another, instead of blindly messing with configure.php entries. See https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=100

DrByte:

It needs to point to where your files are actually located.

You would be better off following the tutorial which explains how to move from one server to another, instead of blindly messing with configure.php entries. See https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=100

Tried this but I can't get past the "hello. thank you for loading zen cart" please click here to begin installation. click here leads to an internal server error.

idc1:

So here are the steps I took and what I have found out so far:

1. Copied my local test site to GoDaddy (named: Zenoriginal)

2. Things did not work so I also did the GoDaddy install which led to me having a 2nd ZenCart under my domain (named: GoDaddyZen)

3. I replicated the GoDaddyZen configure.php files with appropriate changes in my Zenoriginal folder.

4. Admin panel worked, but not the website.

5. Through trial and error, i found that Zenoriginal/includes/configure.php lines of code point to where I think they logically should with the exception of 1 line. For example:
   Most point to something along the lines of
   define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/Zenoriginal/');
   define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/Zenoriginal/');

However I have to point this line to the folder created by GoDaddy.

define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', 'D:\Hosting\8258716\html\GoDaddyZen/');

All the add-ons & mods in my Zenoriginal appear to work fine but I feel as though it should not be pointed to GoDaddyZen. Rather it should point to Zenoriginal. Any ideas as to why this is?

Also as part of my education process, I would like to know what is wrong with the file system directory so that it won't function with my uploaded files, but it will with the GoDaddy ZenCart addon.

I also tried to point the GoDaddy installation includes/configure.php to my files but it seems GoDaddy does something so that I can't change the file permissions and in turn change the define('Dir_fs_catalog......) statement.

There are MANY reasons why we don't recommend using GoDaddy for hosting, especially for database-driven sites such as an online store. The usability challenges you're facing are just one such reason.
Further, hosting on their Windows servers is yet another complicated challenge especially when it comes to changing file permissions.
If you want help with problems you're having while hosted with GoDaddy, contact GoDaddy. They're the experts on the odd things they've done with their servers and can teach you how to use the tools they've given you for managing the services you've purchased from them. That's part of what you're paying them for, so use it well.

As for the "500" errors, if you read the FAQ article which kuroi pointed you to several days ago, it explains the kinds of things that can cause such an error, and also tells you that it's your hosting company who will have to diagnose the specific incompatibility of their hosting service which is causing their server to trigger the error. Again, they're the experts on their servers, so escalate the matter with them directly.

As for your education process about what's "wrong", ask GoDaddy ... cuz your problem is largely unique to the server you're hosted on.
You will certainly find that relocating to a more conventional hosting service will work far more readily out-of-the-box and be much simpler to configure and manage and support.

There is a tutorial on diagnosing Internal Server Errors. However some of those causes may not apply to Windows servers and the idiosyncratic setups that GoDaddy seems to favor may have their own unique causes.

However, the long and short of it is that these are errors that should normally be logged by the server and so the best people to tell you what's actually triggering them is GoDaddy, But don't be fobbed off with general assertions that it's the application. That would mean that they haven't actually looked. Insist that they give you the specific, unabridged error messages that are being logged.

OK, I'm going to state the obvious to you pro's.

I updated over the weekend to a linux server on GoDaddy. It seems as though most everything is working fine. The only issue I see is that some images are not displaying due to case sensitivity. Linux must not be able handle both uppercase .JPG and lowercase .jpg This was not a problem on my local windows server. Time to get consistent and rename all to lowercase.

Thanks for entertaining my questions earlier.

Actually, I think it's the other way around, and Linux does handle them, recognising the difference, instead of just mashing 'em together as though they were the same thing. So consistency is a good idea. Also if you have any spaces in your image names, I recommend taking them out at the same time, as that could cause problems. Best to replace them with hyphens.