URGENT: No product information displays in website & http:500 error at admin area

I noticed there are some cache folders still, as opposed to log files. I suspect this is what is causing the problem, since we had an upgrade of Zen Cart not too long ago. Log files were only introduced from V1.5.0 onwards, am I right?
DO NOT remove the cache folders

Cache folders and log folders serve distinct separate purposes

DrByte:

What's the MySQL error shown in your logs?
(if your logs folder isn't getting any new entries, then perhaps it's read-only and needs a permissions change)

How do I change the permissions in my cache folder?

kobra:

DO NOT remove the cache folders

Cache folders and log folders serve distinct separate purposes

OK I won't. But at one point I seem to remember having both a logs and a cache file, and all seemed to be working fine? If you upgrade, or revert back to an older back-up of files, does the index or htc access files in those logs (or cache) get affected? Could it be that the reason why my admin area doesn't work now is because the cache/log files were not up to date?

Thank you all so much for your continued help and support

If you upgrade, or revert back to an older back-up of files
Have you upgraded and then reverted back??

From what to what??

kobra:

Have you upgraded and then reverted back??

From what to what??

Yes. It was all the same version (1.5.0), just an older copy of the files.....

It was all the same version (1.5.0), just an older copy of the files.....
What version were these "Older copy of the files"

But the SQL file was always the latest one. Don't know if that makes a difference....

kobra:

What version were these "Older copy of the files"

V 1.5.0 but from January

V 1.5.0 but from January
Why did you revert back to those files??

Did this issue start when you did?

aish:

If you upgrade, or revert back to an older back-up of files, does the index or htc access files in those logs (or cache) get affected? Could it be that the reason why my admin area doesn't work now is because the cache/log files were not up to date?

1. Well, first, you should never be "reverting back", since you should never be doing upgrades directly to a live site without first doing a complete dry-run of the upgrade in a safe place so that when you do the actual upgrade to the live site there won't be any problems to ever have to rollback from.

2. The cache and logs folders have no bearing on the actual live operation. So makes no difference what their content is between versions. At least as far as core Zen Cart is concerned. (Addons which put other things in those folders might operate differently, but I can't speak for them here.)
   The cache and logs folders have a .htaccess and (basically blank) index.php file in them. Everything else is fluff and can be deleted since it will automatically rebuild itself if needed.
   So ... delete all the old *.log files in those folders since it seems like they're causing you confusion.

No the issue started before I reverted back. I think it was due to some syntax errors in a couple of files I had fiddled around with.

So instead I wanted to revert back to the last working file set of the site. I also re-uploaded a copy of my SQL database. However now the site is working fine, but the admin isn't. Any ideas what I can do?

DrByte:

1. Well, first, you should never be "reverting back", since you should never be doing upgrades directly to a live site without first doing a complete dry-run of the upgrade in a safe place so that when you do the actual upgrade to the live site there won't be any problems to ever have to rollback from.

2. The cache and logs folders have no bearing on the actual live operation. So makes no difference what their content is between versions. At least as far as core Zen Cart is concerned. (Addons which put other things in those folders might operate differently, but I can't speak for them here.)
   The cache and logs folders have a .htaccess and (basically blank) index.php file in them. Everything else is fluff and can be deleted since it will automatically rebuild itself if needed.
   So ... delete all the old *.log files in those folders since it seems like they're causing you confusion.

Thanks for your reply.
So shall I delete just the debug files and see what happens?

aish:

However now the site is working fine, but the admin isn't. Any ideas what I can do?
You said "the admin isn't"

I'm sure somewhere in the last 30 posts you've said what your latest admin symptoms are, but I'm having trouble narrowing that down, so I can't respond with specifics.

Instead I will tell you:
a) if it's a blank page, then there's an error occuring. Errors are logged as described earlier. Use the logs to assess the problem.
b) if your files aren't the same as original ZC files, then that's usually where the problem stems from. Compare your files against originals and fix all discrepancies. http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Diagnosing_Obscure_Issues
c) and don't be restoring from backups without being sure that you're restoring FILES AND DATABASE in tandem. If you're mixing it all up and restoring outdated database backups you could be forcing yourself into compatibility issues if those backups were from different version of Zen Cart than what you're using in your PHP files.

aish:

DrByte:

So ... delete all the old *.log files in those folders since it seems like they're causing you confusion.
So shall I delete just the debug files and see what happens?
I thought I already answered that question.

DrByte:

I'm sure somewhere in the last 30 posts you've said what your latest admin symptoms are, but I'm having trouble narrowing that down, so I can't respond with specifics.

Instead I will tell you:
a) if it's a blank page, then there's an error occuring. Errors are logged as described earlier. Use the logs to assess the problem.
b) if your files aren't the same as original ZC files, then that's usually where the problem stems from. Compare your files against originals and fix all discrepancies. http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Diagnosing_Obscure_Issues
c) and don't be restoring from backups without being sure that you're restoring FILES AND DATABASE in tandem. If you're mixing it all up and restoring outdated database backups you could be forcing yourself into compatibility issues if those backups were from different version of Zen Cart than what you're using in your PHP files.

Well the problem is that it's just a blank screen. No error code. And the log files I am looking at do not have information up to today, the last logs are from November. The error logs from my server do not really show any "errors" as such.

However I think the problem is with the database file I uploaded. I restored a database file from early February, with the latest customer details. But the versions of Zen Cart where the same for both file sets. And add-ons where uploaded, but they were since un-installed.

Yes, you did answer the question about deleting cache files. Sorry, I was just making double-sure

DrByte:

b) if your files aren't the same as original ZC files, then that's usually where the problem stems from. Compare your files against originals and fix all discrepancies. http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Diagnosing_Obscure_Issues
c) and don't be restoring from backups without being sure that you're restoring FILES AND DATABASE in tandem. If you're mixing it all up and restoring outdated database backups you could be forcing yourself into compatibility issues if those backups were from different version of Zen Cart than what you're using in your PHP files.

Thanks for the link, I will have to have a look at those files and the plugin origional files too. That's been so much help!

Finally found out how to get the error displayed on the site (yes, I will change the setting once I can fix the problem)

The error is an undefined index path, in my admin/includes/config.php file (line 34)

Which is....

$t1 = parse_url(HTTP_SERVER);$p1 = $t1['path'];$t2 = parse_url(HTTPS_SERVER);$p2 = $t2['path'];

The error goes on to quote my file path (set to 664). So I assume there is something not in sync with the variables and my file path. Can anyone tell me what I can do to fix it please? The same file path is declared in the includes/config file and my main site is working fine.

Yes, I have been trying to fix this problem for 3 days! Very new to php and Zen Cart! Thank you so much in advance!

aish:

Finally found out how to get the error displayed on the site (yes, I will change the setting once I can fix the problem)

The error is an undefined index path, in my admin/includes/config.php file (line 34)

Which is....

$t1 = parse_url(HTTP_SERVER);$p1 = $t1['path'];$t2 = parse_url(HTTPS_SERVER);$p2 = $t2['path'];

The error goes on to quote my file path (set to 664).
parse_url() takes the URL from HTTP_SERVER (and HTTPS_SERVER in the second case) and splits it into its components, like this for http://www.zen-cart.com/ ...:```
[scheme] => http
[host] => www.zen-cart.com
[path] => /

However, if you leave out the closing / (ie: <http://www.zen-cart.com> ) then you will get this instead:```
     [scheme] => http
     [host] => www.zen-cart.com

(Notice that [path] is missing)

However, unless you've got your PHP configuration set to an extremely strict mode to croak on even minor notices, that will not cause a fatal 500 error.