Products not showing up in SOME categories

Hi all!

I'm very much a newbie to Zen Cart so please don't assume I have any idea what you're talking about, but can anyone think of a reason why SOME of my categories aren't showing products, even though the products are showing in the "all products" and "new products" link? I am using an attributes controller and a Lightbox add-on and have Googled lots but found nothing!

:frusty:

http://www.iconicityfashion.com

Could you offer an example of a couple of the products in question ? I'm not seeing anything in the product listing for your top two categories. You don't have subcategories in those categories, do you ?

Check your /cache folder on the server for error log files.

Turn of products_id 13 ... I think that is in categories_id 11 ...

Does categories_id 11 start working on the previous/next all the way through?

I turned off 13. Category 11 will go all the way through but only with refreshes and only if accessed via the new products link. I'm utterly mystified!

This seems to happen on a lot of your pages, even just going through the Information box links ...

You might try switching to the Classic Template and see if this stops happening, otherwise, I would look at the data on your Products ... do you have anything besides text in your Product descriptions?

There's an email address in the listings. I am quite reluctant to switch the template as it was all working absolutely fine with the test products I put up which I've now made inactive. The need to refresh is very odd and very new! :dontgetit

Thank you SO much for looking and trying to help me. It's just all a total nightmare!

Look in the directory:
/cache

and see what your current debug logs are ...

NOTE: you should not have any logs in this directory unless there is a problem ...

iconicity:

I am quite reluctant to switch the template as it was all working absolutely fine

The operative word here is "was". Clearly something has changed since 'was' and 'now', and unless you know what that 'something' was you have little other option than to follow standard fault finding practices. This simple act of switching back to the classic template eliminates a multitude of possibilities and will let us (and you) know which path to follow next.

It only takes a couple of keypresses to switch templates, so its not like you've been asked to re-install the store or anything equally drastic, and after you have confirmed that using the classic Template fixes the problem (or not) you can just as quickly revert back to your preferred template.

This test is designed to let us know if you have something amiss with the core system, or whether it is related to your template files only.

iconicity:

There's an email address in the listings

I doubt that this will cause your problem, BUT, placing email addresses in product listings is a great way to get those addresses in a spammers database. Unless there is a real need for the addresses it would be wise to remove them, or, at the very least obfuscate them in some way that makes them harder to be harvested by Robots. EG, instead of "[email protected]" use "name at domain.com"

Cheers
Rod

Ajeh, thank you again so much. There are files in there but only dating back to June 16th when everything was completely fine. The latest one reads:

16-Jun-2012 05:27:40] PHP Warning: reset() [<a href='function.reset'>function.reset</a>]: Passed variable is not an array or object in includes/classes/object_info.php on line 29
[16-Jun-2012 05:27:40] PHP Warning: Variable passed to each() is not an array or object in includes/classes/object_info.php on line 30

RodG, thank you!! I've changed the template (it's still on the default green one as I type) and it still has similar problems, although now the products DO now show up in the Colour Your World category and the pages don't need refreshing all the time (previously the categories list was moving into the centre of the page occasionally). Argh! :(

iconicity:

I've changed the template (it's still on the default green one as I type) and it still has similar problems, although now the products DO now show up in the Colour Your World category and the pages don't need refreshing all the time (previously the categories list was moving into the centre of the page occasionally). Argh! :(

Arrg! indeed. This isn't exactly the definitive answer we were looking/hoping for. Time for a different approach.

The need to refresh is because for some reason or other the entire page isn't coming in the first time. I've confirmed this by comparing the source code from both before and after the refresh.

I'm going to take a punt, and suggest that since the symptoms change depending on the template being used, but the classic green template doesn't actually solve the problem, there is some other difference between a stock installation and your installation. The source code from your site is informing me that you have the 'image handler' addon module installed, and that some of your images are being retrieved from the IH cache, but others are not. This could be an indication that there is something amiss with IH or its cache files, so the next thing I'd be doing if I were you would be to navigate your way to the admin->tools->image_handler settings and select 'clear the cache'. If that doesn't solve the problem I'd then try removing it (just a keypress) to see if that has any effect. If these tests don't provide a fix (or further clues) just re-enable it again and report any findings, 'cos it means my punt is wrong.

Sadly, due to the lack of clues and the 'unusual' nature of the problem, it this doesn't help your next steps will be to disable whatever add-ons you have ONE AT A TIME until the problem resolves itself.

Perhaps someone else may have other/better ideas, but frankly, I'm a little stumped over this one at the moment.

Cheers
Rod

Oh gosh, Rod, it was IH that was causing the problem! I owe you a HUGE debt of gratitude! I'm going to try and reinstall IH and see if I can get it working, as the images alone are absolutely huge and would all need manual resizing, but if the problem doesn't resolve then I will remove it entirely. I am so delighted that it is actually working though! THANK YOU!!! <3

Just wanted to let you all know that removing Image Handler solved the problem. I tried reinstalling it except version 3 instead of 2, but it still had the same problem so I added Image Manager instead which has pixelated and watermarked all of the images, so I've had to remove that too. Starting from scratch with all of the images now but at least they show in the categories! Such a shame about IH though as it's such a great little thing, when it works. :lookaroun

So thanks everyone for your time!

iconicity:

Just wanted to let you all know that removing Image Handler solved the problem. I tried reinstalling it except version 3 instead of 2, but it still had the same problem

That means there is probably more to this than meets the eye.

iconicity:

Such a shame about IH though as it's such a great little thing, when it works. :lookaroun

Although IH was one of my first guesses (based on the information available), I must admit that I didn't actually expect to be correct. Primarily because my experience with IH (all versions) have all been very positive, and I've never known it to exhibit the behaviour that it was showing on your site.

In other words, although removing/disabling IH has resolved the symptoms I don't really think it is the cause of the problem. However, I don't have any other ideas as to what would cause it either.

Perhaps the root cause of the problem is something like a 'bad' image file that is causing IH to fail?

Cheers
Rod