Orders completing but not showing up in admin after upgrade

After upgrade from v1.3.7 most everything seems fine, except new orders are not visible in admin section - new registrations seem to be working - client is seeing new orders come in via confirmations of payment from Paypal

Any help anyone? TIA

Details as per 'Posting Tips'

Version 1.3.9h
Upgraded from 1.3.7 to 1.3.9h
Install and upgrade were both performed by automated script in Cpanel, Fantastico
Add-ons installed for admin: 'Sales Report', 'USPS Auto-Fill', 'View Stuck Paypal Orders' (all manually installed - others include an Attribute manager, a currency toggler for EUR, don't remember any others)
Host: Crucial Paradigm
Yes, I have searched the FAQ and the fora
The problem started with the upgrade to 1.3.9h
The debug logs have nothing new except a few of these '[24-Feb-2012 19:05:14] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/nilajah/public_html/includes/languages/english/index.php on line 52' and line 52 reads

define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Congratulations! You have found the premier online location for Rastafarian needs.');
``` - this error is apparently not recurring any more
Yes, this is my first and only ZC install which I have hosted since 2006 (I have some lightweight experience with Agora, OSC and ASPX sites)


Additional details:
- the problem in question appears via both the new 'zc_admin' directory and the old renamed admin directory, so the add-ons may not be the problem in this case
- the issue does not relate to Paypal only as the latest order came through Linkpoint gateway; other payment modules active are MO and Paypal IPN which I have now switched to Paypal Express based upon forum advice
- I uploaded 'zc_install' and ran the 'Database Upgrade' script, in which first the "sniffer" said upgrade was not required, and then returned a 'duplicate entry' error from mySQL
- I am not a "paid developer", I provide 'look and feel' customizations only, clearly telling the customer I am not responsible for solving software issues; I get paid for domain registration and hosting, so in this particular case I am helping because the client is a personal friend and member of my religious organization - I will NOT be paid for fixing ZC issues, but I may be able to persuade the client to pay a fee (not large!) for professional help so long as we don't also have to jump through hoops to do it

Hoping for a reply and a solution. TIA

Update:

the Paypal orders are now fine, using the Paypal Express module, and Paypal IPN turned off

Linkpoint remains a problem, orders don't show up either in database or in admin interface

Thanks for the help

Turn on debug logging in the Linkpoint payment module, and review the logs to see what is happening correctly. And review the error logs to determine what's breaking.

One very telling approach is to do a fresh clean install of an uncustomized Zen Cart, then enable the payment module that you say is failing, and do a test transaction with a dummy product. See that it does indeed work properly. THEN when you see that the transaction can indeed work correctly with uncustomized code, begin narrowing your investigation with emphasis on the alterations you've made to the code, since that's where the problem exists.

Linkpoint is working correctly now. I deleted a file in /includes/modules/payment/linkpoint_api/ named

REPLACE_THIS_FILE_WITH_YOUR_KEY_FILE.pem

I may be nuts but it does not seem to be a very Zen piece of work to place a file with a .pem extension here!

Suggestion to ZC team:

PLACE_YOUR_DOT_PEM_KEY_FILE_HERE.txt

Good luck to all Zenners!

Thanks, Dr. Byte, I didn't see your reply before I typed my last reply - I did turn on debug mode, but the problem is solved now, so I am going to turn it off again. It is not a heavy selling site so the client had to retrieve order info by phone from only 2 linkpoint customers within the duration before debug was turned on

Thanks again, and I hope you will take my suggestion in the previous reply into consideration. Other bugs/ errors are tolerable but anything that messes up the sales process is critical, don't you think?

E.g. in the shopping cart there is no space between 'Weight' data and 'Amount' data, as there is between the 'Item' data and the 'Weight' data - it showed Qty:1 Item:name Weight:0.3lbsAmount:$7.99 instead of Qty:1 Item:name Weight:0.3lbs Amount:$7.99 - minor things like that are not critical, although I am going to try and find it and fix it, because display errors tend to annoy me more than most perhaps

isaiah36:

I deleted a file in /includes/modules/payment/linkpoint_api/ named

REPLACE_THIS_FILE_WITH_YOUR_KEY_FILE.pem

I may be nuts but it does not seem to be a very Zen piece of work to place a file with a .pem extension here!

Suggestion to ZC team:

PLACE_YOUR_DOT_PEM_KEY_FILE_HERE.txt

isaiah36:

I hope you will take my suggestion in the previous reply into consideration.
I don't understand the reasoning behind your suggestion. Doesn't make any sense to me.

The reason behind the suggestion is that if you have a dummy file named with the .pem extension, then in an upgrade scenario like mine the linkpoint functionality breaks

there was already the correct .pem file there in the directory, so deleting the dummy .pem file restored full functionality of linkpoint immediately, whereas if the dummy file had been named with a .txt extension my client would not have experienced the problem with sales, the whole upgrade would have been flawless --- as it turned out a couple of customers got bad first impressions of my client's site, and may have lost some of the trust that we try to build

The existence of a dummy .pem file has no bearing on the module's functionality, according to the way the code is written. The code specifically only looks for .pem files named exactly the same as the account number you specify when configuring the module.
So, for REPLACE_THIS_FILE_WITH_YOUR_KEY_FILE.pem to be a problem, you would have had to configure your module in your admin to be using REPLACE_THIS_FILE_WITH_YOUR_KEY_FILE as the key name. That's not automatic, so you would have had to do that manually.

I would suggest that future implementations you do should include actual testing of a real purchase, to be sure that checkout and payment are indeed working properly, before handing it over to your client and assuming everything's ready. That would eliminate the bad first impressions of the site.

Nevertheless, I'm glad you were able to resolve the problems causing the site to not work properly.

That may be so, Doc, but what I know is

1. with dummy file, Linkpoint not working fully - cards being charged but database not recording the sale
2. deletion of dummy file results in Linkpoint working fully, without any other changes

So I shared the experience with users

Thanks for the help! I apologize for the impudence of making a suggestion that would have made things 'very zen' for me, I'm sure you're quite right about whatever the code is.