product description not showing

I have a product description on my store that shows up fine in the store, however when I log onto the backend and go to that product page, the description is blank! Any ideas on what's going on?

Thanks.

betheone:

I have a product description on my store that shows up fine in the store, however when I log onto the backend and go to that product page, the description is blank! Any ideas on what's going on?

Thanks.

This particular issue has been popping up recently. That said, we can not really help much if we don't have more detail(s). Please provide the information identified in the posting tips that appear above the text entry area for posts. Suggest also looking in the applicable cache (<= ZC1.5.0) or logs (>=ZC1.5.1) folder for error logs. Please post the content of the most recent. If the filename includes adm then be sure to obfuscate the actual admin directory name.if/where shown.

I'm using zencart 1.5.0. I've been using this version for over a year without this issue. No new plug-ins except the USPS shipping module recent update.
Website is: http://processcoaching.com/store.

Can you please tell me how to access the cache?

Thanks.

betheone:

I'm using zencart 1.5.0. I've been using this version for over a year without this issue. No new plug-ins except the USPS shipping module recent update.
Website is: http://processcoaching.com/store.

Can you please tell me how to access the cache?

Thanks.

ftp to your ZC store's directory where you have folders like includes, images, and the start of your admin directory. In that area is a cache folder that contains logs associated with errors.

mc12345678:

ftp to your ZC store's directory where you have folders like includes, images, and the start of your admin directory. In that area is a cache folder that contains logs associated with errors.

I found the cache folder. Inside are files such as:
myDEBUG-1398353747-407633.log

The latest one is dated 4-24-14. There are 3 on that date.

Is that the file I should be looking at?

betheone:

I found the cache folder. Inside are files such as:
myDEBUG-1398353747-407633.log

The latest one is dated 4-24-14. There are 3 on that date.

Is that the file I should be looking at?

Those are the files to look at, if there are errors in the files, then want to address/correct the errors. Thing is that is 4 days before your first post in this thread, so is that when this issue was last observed? By posting the contents of those files may be able to better assist.

mc12345678:

Those are the files to look at, if there are errors in the files, then want to address/correct the errors. Thing is that is 4 days before your first post in this thread, so is that when this issue was last observed? By posting the contents of those files may be able to better assist.

The issue had been going on for months. Can you tell me how to insert a link in the description that is not in the store, without it adding the store folder name in front of the href? That just takes you to a 404 page.

betheone:

The issue had been going on for months. Can you tell me how to insert a link in the description that is not in the store, without it adding the store folder name in front of the href? That just takes you to a 404 page.

Would use a reference to an ezpage that goes to the outside world.

mc12345678:

Would use a reference to an ezpage that goes to the outside world.

I used to be able to add an 'a href' link. In fact the product that I'm not able to access the description of has a few of them that work. How can one program have such an inconsistency?

betheone:

I'm using zencart 1.5.0. I've been using this version for over a year without this issue. No new plug-ins except the USPS shipping module recent update.

betheone:

I used to be able to add an 'a href' link. In fact the product that I'm not able to access the description of has a few of them that work. How can one program have such an inconsistency?

Without seeing what's in those logs, we really can't give you any meaningful help.

Guesses:

• you've got mismatched character-set data in those products that won't display
• if ZC hasn't changed then maybe your host changed the server software and that's causing quirks that weren't known when v1.5.0 was published in 2011.

DrByte:

Without seeing what's in those logs, we really can't give you any meaningful help.

Guesses:

• you've got mismatched character-set data in those products that won't display
• if ZC hasn't changed then maybe your host changed the server software and that's causing quirks that weren't known when v1.5.0 was published in 2011.

Since I don't know exactly when the issue began, as I haven't tried to make changes in the store for quite awhile, I don't know which logs to look at. There are do many logs! Not sure what to do now.

Can you tell me how to add an external link to a product description, so it doesn't add the store folder name? That would be a helpful place to start.

1. Start by looking at the latest myDebug-xxxxxx.log files. The most recent ones contain the errors that are happening presently. Deal with those first.
   If there are "so many" then that strongly indicates you've got issues in your customizations that need attention.

2. If by "how to add a link" you're asking how to insert a URL using some sort of rich-text editor, and you don't like the URLs it's generating, then you'll need to flip the editor into "source" or "text-only" mode and edit the URL to what you want it to be.

DrByte:

1. Start by looking at the latest myDebug-xxxxxx.log files. The most recent ones contain the errors that are happening presently. Deal with those first.
   If there are "so many" then that strongly indicates you've got issues in your customizations that need attention.

2. If by "how to add a link" you're asking how to insert a URL using some sort of rich-text editor, and you don't like the URLs it's generating, then you'll need to flip the editor into "source" or "text-only" mode and edit the URL to what you want it to be.

Where do I go to flip the editor into "source" or "text-only?" Pages editor only gives me the choice of "plain text" or "CKEditor."

Two options:
a) use that pulldown and select Plain Text Editor
or
b) If you've got CKEditor open, click the "Source" button in the button bar to look at the plain text version of the HTML code, directly in CKEditor

DrByte:

Two options:
a) use that pulldown and select Plain Text Editor
or
b) If you've got CKEditor open, click the "Source" button in the button bar to look at the plain text version of the HTML code, directly in CKEditor

I went to 'My Store' 'HTML editor' and 'plain text' is chosen. I'm still not able to insert a url that is not in the store. What am I missing in your instructions?

betheone:

I went to 'My Store' 'HTML editor' and 'plain text' is chosen. I'm still not able to insert a url that is not in the store. What am I missing in your instructions?

Using the code tag on this site (starts with a aquare parentheses and ends with the same but all capital word of code) ```
text that is added

Show us what it is that you are adding that is off site. Also may want to add spaces between each letter of the url so that it is not linked when posted.

shows up as h t t p : / / w e b s i t e n a m e . c o m / s t o r e f o l d e r n a m e / b e c o m e - a - c o a c h . h t m l

I don't want 's t o r e f o l d e r n a m e' showing up in the url as that goes to 404 page.

I put spaces in as you suggested (if I understood you correctly).

betheone:

<a href="b e c o m e - a - c o a c h . h t m l">

shows up as h t t p : / / w e b s i t e n a m e . c o m / s t o r e f o l d e r n a m e / b e c o m e - a - c o a c h . h t m l

I don't want 's t o r e f o l d e r n a m e' showing up in the url as that goes to 404 page.

I put spaces in as you suggested (if I understood you correctly).

You understood enough :)

So, there are still two things about that. Yes, as written it will prefix your store's info. At least I think you need to add http:// or possibly just //. That said, though, uri's should really not be hard-coded like that and should use the zen_href_link code. But that code if I remember correctly is still going to create a reference to your local store (hence the suggestion to use an ez-page), but will help things out when using say a uri rewriter and make it easier to modify in the future as you can have one link in the ezpage that you can change rather than changing it on each and every page that uses that same. External reference.

Make sense now?

mc12345678:

You understood enough :)

So, there are still two things about that. Yes, as written it will prefix your store's info. At least I think you need to add http:// or possibly just //. That said, though, uri's should really not be hard-coded like that and should use the zen_href_link code. But that code if I remember correctly is still going to create a reference to your local store (hence the suggestion to use an ez-page), but will help things out when using say a uri rewriter and make it easier to modify in the future as you can have one link in the ezpage that you can change rather than changing it on each and every page that uses that same. External reference.

Make sense now?

Okay, it works now when I added the entire url with h t t p : / / w e b s i t e . c o m / e t c. So glad because I would have had a learning curve with ezpages!

Thanks for the help.

mc12345678:

You understood enough :)

So, there are still two things about that. Yes, as written it will prefix your store's info. At least I think you need to add http:// or possibly just //. That said, though, uri's should really not be hard-coded like that and should use the zen_href_link code. But that code if I remember correctly is still going to create a reference to your local store (hence the suggestion to use an ez-page), but will help things out when using say a uri rewriter and make it easier to modify in the future as you can have one link in the ezpage that you can change rather than changing it on each and every page that uses that same. External reference.

Make sense now?

betheone:

Okay, it works now when I added the entire url with h t t p : / / w e b s i t e . c o m / e t c. So glad because I would have had a learning curve with ezpages!

Thanks for the help.

Okay, I owe a correction to what I stated above. Sorry, I had forgotten where the link was being put. The zen_href_link code can not be directly activated in the description. (There are some "work arounds" to activate it, but that's a different story. So, really the link in the description should be to an ez-page, and somewhat contrary to what some may say, it reallyis easy to use. At the moment, I am not sure what the actual ez-page uri would be for a standard ezpage because I use a uri rewriter that allows me to assign the uri. That said, an external uri could be created by something like the following:
Goto ezpages under tools in the admin.
Create a new ezpage.
Enter a title for the page (this I believe is what is displayed on the top of the webpage when this ezpage is displayed).
Identify where the ezpage link is to show (if anywhere), for example header, footer, sidebox, etc. The ezpage will show in the respective ezpages header, footer, sidebox, etc.)
Identify a sort order for the item if you want it to show up in each of those locations.
Identify if the page is supposed to beopened under https or not.
Identify if the page is to be opened in a new page. (Realize that by going offsite, that if a new page is not opened, then when they are done looking at thatpage and close the tab, then they have also closed their window to your site.)
Then towards the bottom is an area where you can enter an external address. Include the applicable http:// or https://

Then, if lucky more than one of the descriptions will point to one ezpage, and if that link for that ezpage ever changes, only have to change the one ezpage external link location and not try to identify in which product(s) to update the description. Just one more case of how ZC compartmentalizes information to simplify use and modification.

Sorry again for not remembering what the format of the ezpage address is and not being able to look up the expected info associated. Shouldn't be too hard to find at a desktop or laptop.