Hello, haven't posted in awhile. Here's a REAL big problem...

Hello, Happy New To Everybody,

I start describing my problem in the 6th paragraph. You might want to skip this and the next four paragraphs.......

Over a year ago I downloaded and installed version 1.39A. I spent hours and hours putting in products, attributes, etc. I finished with a pretty good site. I was promptly hacked via SQL injection, and I had problems with my Credit card processors, yadda yadda yadda.

I new version came out after 1.39A, and while I was trying to do the update, more versions came out, and then 1.39h came out.

I decided I do not like this upgrade stuff. It takes hours and hours and hours. I decided that whenever ZC updates I would just erase everything and start over from scratch.

But I took advice from you guys, and switched to HostMonster. I THEN discovered that they have these scripts that you can execute and automatically install and/or update ZC ! This is great! So ZC can update twice a year, or more (every day, if you want), and I can just click some buttons and update. I certainly hope that this is the case (I see version 1.5 is out. When Hostmonster updates their installation scripts, I will test this out.

Anyway, enough of all that talk. Here is my problem: I installed 1.39h on my new server, and then imported my original 1.39A SQL database file into my new database. I already adjusted my includes/configure and my admin/includes/configure files.

Everything is screwed up. I took the site off maintenance mode, and reloaded it. Still screwed up. YES, I dropped all the tables on the new database, and I download and ran the fix_cache_key.php program; when I did, it showed a blank page.
What's wrong?

Thanks for your help. Now that I'm back on my original venture, I won't be a stranger!

1. A quick search for "blank page" in the Tutorials section brings up this article: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82

2. DO NOT TRUST ANY one-click "automated update" tool provided by your hosting company!!!!!! That will wipe out all your addons and customizations, and will NOT properly update any override files you've made. It's only suitable for someone who's never customized ANYTHING on their site.

3. ALWAYS make COMPLETE backups of your site BEFORE attempting ANY upgrade or customization activities.

4. NEVER do a direct upgrade to your LIVE site without first making a complete copy of the site and TESTING the upgrade on that COPY first. ONLY AFTER COMPLETE TESTING would you proceed to actually touch the live site in any way.

DrByte:

1. A quick search for "blank page" in the Tutorials section brings up this article: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82

2. DO NOT TRUST ANY one-click "automated update" tool provided by your hosting company!!!!!! That will wipe out all your addons and customizations, and will NOT properly update any override files you've made. It's only suitable for someone who's never customized ANYTHING on their site.

3. ALWAYS make COMPLETE backups of your site BEFORE attempting ANY upgrade or customization activities.

4. NEVER do a direct upgrade to your LIVE site without first making a complete copy of the site and TESTING the upgrade on that COPY first. ONLY AFTER COMPLETE TESTING would you proceed to actually touch the live site in any way.

Ok, starting with #2: I don't know what else to do. Perhaps when I get 1.5 (or 1.39h) I can "stick" with this awhile. Updating takes too much time.

3 and 4: I always make make backups. That's no problem. Besides, my original 1.39A site is still on my GoDaddy server. I'm switching to Hostmonster..... this IS a test. My site is offline, because I have not been able to upgrade (I start WinMerge and don't even know where to start)- it's been on maintenance mode since the original hack last year.

back to 1: so could there be a syntax issue with the fix_cache_key utility? Could the mess I presently see be because this utility is not working? I uploaded a new copy, and indeed there was a difference (in bytes) between the two. But when I ran it (by going to http://mysite/fix_cache_key.php ) I get a blank page......

So what do I do? Should I erase everything and start over? This seems rather extreme. I do want to sell my products. Now that I have returned to this web site project I am BLUNTLY reminded why I left it in the first place.

In my experience, upgrading from 1.3.8 or earlier to 1.3.9 or 1.5 is a chore. Upgrading from one version of 1.3.9 to another or from 1.3.9 to 1.5 has been pretty easy.

Maybe more information would help. What does 'screwed up' mean, exactly ? If it's just a blank page, there's a tutorial that addresses that.

JDog21:

back to 1: so could there be a syntax issueThe article points to the existence of debug logs, which contain PHP error messages which explain the causes of blank pages.
stevesh:

Maybe more information would help. What does 'screwed up' mean, exactly ? If it's just a blank page, there's a tutorial that addresses that.
stevesh's point is very valid: what exactly did you mean when you said "screwed up"? Does your monitor do fancy tricks and blow puffs of smoke? Or does something else happen?

Hi,

Sorry I wasn't specific..... the page is screwed up in that it is showing a different address other than the one I put the site on. The other address is to a domain I own; it is not a virus or redirect. The only explanation I can think of is that since the "primary" domain of my GoDaddy account is affiliated with the name that shows in the address bar, there is some kind of cache issue or something in the configuration that messes things up.

In my new Hostmonster hosting account, I have put my site (which was a subdirectory of the primary domain on my GD account) as the "primary" domain on this new account.

Thinking about it, I think it has to be a cache issue of some kind. I know little about cache stuff on ZC, but irrespective of that, I thought the fix_cache_key utility that Dr. Byte provided would synchronize things. Maybe I should download it again, as it did not work (blank page, I mentioned).

Alternatively, I might have missed something in the config files. I don't know. What do you guys/gals think?

Zen Cart's builtin "caching" primarily deals with admin configuration switch settings. The fix-cache-key utility simply updates the admin configuration switch to point to whatever folder you've specified in your configure.php file as being the DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE location. The utility is only needed when people copy their database from and old server to a new server because the new server's path to that /cache/ folder is different.
NONE of that has anything to do with showing a different "address" or "domain name" on your site.

If you've got addons which you installed to cache pages or url-rewriting or other things, perhaps disabling those might be a good choice, at least to rule them out as possibly causing your problems.

But "showing a different address other than the one I put the site on" sounds like you're referring to URLs, and since Zen Cart ONLY stores URLs in the configure.php files, that tells me you've overwritten the new server's configure.php files with those files from the old server. That won't work. That's why it's mentioned in the tutorial on how to change servers: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=100

Ok, I solved that problem. As with many of my problems involving ZC, it was a stupid thing that I am too embarrassed to disclose. But yes, it was a config.php issue.......

Now that my new prototype site is sort of running (and it is showing where it is supposed to be), I tried to login to my admin.

As I learned long ago, changing the name of your admin page is a good idea. I changed it awhile ago (and changed the config.php files accordingly). When I try to go to my admin login panel, I get this:

1146 Table 'reckles5_znc1.znc_project_version' doesn't exist
in:
[select * from znc_project_version WHERE project_version_key = 'Zen-Cart Database' ]
If you were entering information, press the BACK button in your browser and re-check the information you had entered to be sure you left no blank fields.

I suspect this is a config issue, too, but the reference to tables makes me unsure........

I added a module to my 1.39A version. One (fast and easy checkout) also required the installation of some other application, which, as I recall, did something to the database configuration.

I am going to back up and re-read the info. Dr. Byte advised me to read......

Sounds like your DB_XXXXXXX settings are wrong in your configure.php file.