Product Description Turns Blank in Admin

Zencart Version: 1.5.1
PHP Version: 5.2.17 (Zend: 2.2.0)

This issue started occurring recently, eventhough I had the same version of Zencart 1.5.1 for a long time.

Issue

Edit any product in admin, click 'preview', and the product-description goes empty. Click save, and the description in the front-end is also has gone empty.
Descriptions for un-edited products show fine until I goto edit the product though admin.

• Tried turning off CKEditor and using simple text. No change.
• Tried looking at the Zencart error logs, nothing there.
• Character set for main and admin are both 'iso-8859-1'

What other steps can I take to diagnose this?

Thanks in advance.

Did anything else change or got changed? What happens when you use a different browser?

twitchtoo:

Did anything else change or got changed? What happens when you use a different browser?

I had my hosting company go in and install a ssl. But they are opposing to take any responsibility for it. Could be them, could not be.

sle39lvr:

I had my hosting company go in and install a ssl. But they are opposing to take any responsibility for it. Could be them, could not be.

Other than you (or an authorized person) making adjustments to your 2 configure.php files the installation of an SSL cert has no effect on the ZC file system. So, I have to agree with your host.

Did you do any other modifications to your cart?

If not, did the PHP version change on your server?

Is this 1.5.1 install an upgrade from a previous version? How was it installed (one-click? Following the install instructions either posted here or provided in the ZC package?)

Does it matter what product type is used?
When was the last time a new product was added without error?
The php version, is that as reported from admin->version?

mc12345678:

Is this 1.5.1 install an upgrade from a previous version? How was it installed (one-click? Following the install instructions either posted here or provided in the ZC package?)

Does it matter what product type is used?
When was the last time a new product was added without error?
The php version, is that as reported from admin->version?

1. Same for all the product types.
2. It was before SSL was installed. Back in December.
3. Php was taken from Zencart admin

What files can I inspect for this? Seems to be just the product description related.

I seem to recall running into this on a client's site. Unfortunately I don't remember which one and a quick look through my mail folders didn't produce anything. So that said I'm going to toss out a few things for you to look at. Did you copy/paste the product description from another program like word? Does the product description contain any special characters like trademark symbols?

badarac:

I seem to recall running into this on a client's site. Unfortunately I don't remember which one and a quick look through my mail folders didn't produce anything. So that said I'm going to toss out a few things for you to look at. Did you copy/paste the product description from another program like word? Does the product description contain any special characters like trademark symbols?

I tried even basic text, without any formatting or any HTML. Same issue.

What is the charset on the database, versus what is listed in the english.php files?

php files include iso-8859-1 on both front.

How do I check the character set for the database?

Open up phpmyadmin in the hosting control panel and you will be able to see if its latin1_swedish_ci or utf8_unicode_ci

barco57:

Open up phpmyadmin in the hosting control panel and you will be able to see if its latin1_swedish_ci or utf8_unicode_ci

I have:

latin1_swedish_ci

I am guessing it shouldn't be this?

sle39lvr:

I have:

latin1_swedish_ci

I am guessing it shouldn't be this?

Backup your database and try:
http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1318

This is expected to convert your database to utf8. There are instructions associated. Be sure to read and follow.

What's the setting for DB_CHARSET in your /includes/configure.php and /YOUR_ADMIN/includes/configure.php? Based on your database settings, those values should be set to 'latin1', not 'utf8'.

barco57:

Open up phpmyadmin in the hosting control panel and you will be able to see if its latin1_swedish_ci or utf8_unicode_ci

Looks like we have a similar problem with a client site. Although the front end is fine, all the product descriptions have gone blank in the admin. I checked the charset in phpMyadmin and it's UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) which is correct, yes? I suspect the webhost upgraded to a new version of PHP recently. What can we do???

jenpen:

Looks like we have a similar problem with a client site. Although the front end is fine, all the product descriptions have gone blank in the admin. I checked the charset in phpMyadmin and it's UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) which is correct, yes? I suspect the webhost upgraded to a new version of PHP recently. What can we do???

Can upgrade to the latest version of ZC for one. The other thing is to confirm that the files of the current site are all of the same level which in this thread is ZC 1.5.1.
For upgrade see: http://www.zen-cart.com/entry.php?3-How-do-I-rebuild-my-site-on-the-new-version-instead-of-upgrading

mc12345678:

Can upgrade to the latest version of ZC for one. The other thing is to confirm that the files of the current site are all of the same level which in this thread is ZC 1.5.1.
For upgrade see: http://www.zen-cart.com/entry.php?3-How-do-I-rebuild-my-site-on-the-new-version-instead-of-upgrading

We're on the latest version 1.5.4.
How do I "confirm that the files of the current site are all of the same level"?

Was the site upgraded from a previous version of Zen Cart?

jenpen:

... I checked the charset in phpMyadmin and it's UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) ...
Just to clarify, are you stating:

PhpMyAdmin's connection is UTF-8 (shown to right in phpMyAdmin under "MySQL")?

The Zen Cart database collation is UTF-8 (select the database, click operations)?

All tables in the Zen Cart database are UTF-8 (select the database, will show collation next to each table)?

Or a combination of the above?

ok the things that need to line up

collation of the tables in the database - utf8_general_ci
collation of the entire database - utf8_general_ci
includes/configure.php and admin/includes/configure.php in the database connection section - define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
includes/languages/english.php and or the override for the english.php - ~line 46-47
// charset for web pages and emails
define('CHARSET', 'utf-8');

admin/includes/languages/english.php - ~ line 63-64
// charset for web pages and emails
define('CHARSET', 'utf-8');

If all of those things are good, check the logs folder for myDEBUG-adm- logs, you should be throwing unicode errors if the product descriptions are blank but show on the frontside. Did this client write the product descriptions in another piece of software (word, etc.) and drop them in?