Salemaker won't assign start, end dates

Hello, I've got a problem with Salemaker, in that it won't accept the start and end dates of a sale (I'm using mm/dd/yyyy).

If I am trying to set up a new sale and fill in the start/end fields, the dates default to immediately/never regardless of what I've entered.

I have a couple of old expired sales, which display proper start and end dates as I set them up, but if I try to edit those dates they too revert to immediately start and never end.

I've got version 1.3.9h. Only modifications I've made lately were related to Facebook like buttons on product pages.

Grateful for suggestions where to start troubleshooting,

thanks,
s

My problem is not just a SaleMaker problem it turns out. If I try to edit a special, those no longer accept start and end dates. I don't use SaleMaker much but I do run specials and haven't encountered this before.

Let me rephrase the question a little: I have made some modification to my store recently which seems to have broken SaleMaker and Specials. I can make sales and specials but cannot set dates for them (they revert to running instantly and ending never).

Files I have modified recently, which I suspect must contain an error:

includes/templates/common/html_header.php
includes/modules/meta_tags.php
includes/templates/template_default/common/tpl_main_page.php
includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_product_display.php

Can someone help me zero in a little better?

I'll add:

I can edit the starting and ending dates of a sale through my database, but not from the admin panel.

What are the settings in your english.php for these:

setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%m/%d/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y'); // this is used for date()
define('PHP_DATE_TIME_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y H:i:s'); // this is used for date()
define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');
define('DATE_FORMAT_SPIFFYCAL', 'MM/dd/yyyy');  //Use only 'dd', 'MM' and 'yyyy' here in any order

those settings:

@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
  define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%m/%d/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
  define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
  define('DATE_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y'); // this is used for date()
  define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');

Thank you for assisting me; I have to be out of town for about four hours now but will return to the topic. I notice it looks like I may be missing a couple of lines from that code........(somehow)

Look in the english.php file for the Admin in the:
/your_secret_admin/includes/languages/english.php

that code:

setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%m/%d/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y'); // this is used for date()
define('PHP_DATE_TIME_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y H:i:s'); // this is used for date()
define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');
define('DATE_FORMAT_SPIFFYCAL', 'MM/dd/yyyy');  //Use only 'dd', 'MM' and 'yyyy' here in any order

Can you give an example of the dates you are trying to set?

For Example if the Sale runs from October 30, 2011 thru October 31, 2011 ...

The Start Date would be: 10/30/2011 (Midnight)

End Date would be: 11/1/2011 (Midnight)

as the times starts and stops at Midnight ...

NOTE: these dates are based on Server Time ...

Also note that the Categories that are marked for the Sale are based on the Products master_categories_id ...

If you do not use Linked Products, then this should not be a problem ... unless you import Products and then you do not have master_categories_id on most import tools ...

Plus, if you import you will want to ensure that you have products_price_sorter ...

NOTE: These can easily be fixed if you do import and do NOT use Linked Products ...

Dates I intended to use:

11/28/2011
11/29/2011

No linked products, no imported data.

Does this happen if you manually type in the dates or just if you use the calendars to set the date?

(I think we're zeroing in on it now)

As a matter of fact, if I try to use the calendars, they don't seem to cooperate, so I've been entering the dates manually.

Could you reload, from a clean Zen Cart v1.3.9h, via FTP, to your server all the files for:
/your_secret_admin/includes/javascript/

sure, will get on it, thank you, will let you know (local demands for my attention might take an hour).

Unfortunately, having uploaded new /your_secret_admin/includes/javascript/, there was no new result.

The calendars do pop up for me, I can scroll through them, but can't select dates (however that is accomplished).

Could you check the file, on the server, for the:
/your_secret_admin/includes/languages/english.php

and ensure those settings are the same as what you posted earlier? :unsure:

yes, they are (now):

setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%m/%d/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
define('DATE_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y'); // this is used for date()
define('PHP_DATE_TIME_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y H:i:s'); // this is used for date()
define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');
define('DATE_FORMAT_SPIFFYCAL', 'MM/dd/yyyy');  //Use only 'dd', 'MM' and 'yyyy' here in any order

If it helps, to the best of my recollection, the only recent modifications I've made to the cart were these:

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=471724284352