Order empty - shipping + total price ok

Hi,

2 weeks ago, my customers started to have strange problem,

some of them (not all) freeze during checkout process, they can´t finish the order,

I recieve their order with all details except for products bought,

I don´t know where the problem might be. Few weeks ago I changed servers (same company, they moved my VPS from London to Chicago), I don´t know if php configuration is the same, but after last order I have enabled php functions which were disabled on server (show_source, system, shell_exec, passthru, exec, phpinfo, popen, proc_open, allow_url_fopen, ini_set)

I tried upgrade (2.5.4 to 2.5.5a), php upgrade (to 5.6), now I´m pretty much stuck :-(

Have you ever experienced this kind of problem? Recieving empty orders? Where could be the problem?

Thanks for any ideas.

Doomm:

Hi,

2 weeks ago, my customers started to have strange problem,

**some of them (not all) **freeze during checkout process, they can´t finish the order,

I recieve their order with all details except for products bought,

I don´t know where the problem might be. Few weeks ago I changed servers (same company, they moved my VPS from London to Chicago), I don´t know if php configuration is the same, but after last order I have enabled php functions which were disabled on server (show_source, system, shell_exec, passthru, exec, phpinfo, popen, proc_open, allow_url_fopen, ini_set)

I tried upgrade (2.5.4 to 2.5.5a), php upgrade (to 5.6), now I´m pretty much stuck :-(

Have you ever experienced this kind of problem? Recieving empty orders? Where could be the problem?

Thanks for any ideas.

If the issue only appeared after the server move and it happens intermittently (not always) it appears to be a server issue.

Do you have access to the server logs (most likely in var/log) ? If so, check for any clues and let us know what you find.

That´s another strange problem,

I do not have any error logs in my logs folder (www/logs)

in var folder (var/...) I can see only cpanel, no logs folder, so I guess I don´t have any server logs either,

all in all, I have no clue at all what´s going on, and what has changed,

plus, the problem appeared only 3 weeks after my move which was very smooth...

Doomm:

That´s another strange problem,

I do not have any error logs in my logs folder (www/logs)

in var folder (var/...) I can see only cpanel, no logs folder, so I guess I don´t have any server logs either,

all in all, I have no clue at all what´s going on, and what has changed,

plus, the problem appeared only 3 weeks after my move which was very smooth...

Hmmm... anything in the yourshop.com/logs folder?

nothing at all,

although it should be flooded after upgrade to 1.5.5a...

Doomm:

nothing at all,

although it should be flooded after upgrade to 1.5.5a...

Not necessarily, I just did an upgrade from 1.5.4 to 1.5.5a for a client and the /logs folder has been clean since the upgrade was completed. A clean /logs folder is a good sign that the upgrade went well. One exception: the /logs folder has become not writable. If that was the case during the upgrade, the installer would have prompted you to make it writable.

Could you ask your host for the location of the server logs on your VPS?

Thanks,

I´ll certainly do that right away and hope will come back with some results to start with...

A problem like this has been identified to possibly be related to the email process. Also something related can occur depending on the payment process.

Suggest identifying what email protocol and payment method(s) are being used when this has occurred.

mc12345678:

A problem like this has been identified to possibly be related to the email process. Also something related can occur depending on the payment process.

Suggest identifying what email protocol and payment method(s) are being used when this has occurred.

Yeah, just strange that nothing shows in the /logs folder.

frank18:

Yeah, just strange that nothing shows in the /logs folder.
True, though in the transition from one server to another and depending on how the configure.php files were modified/recreated, the DIR_FS_LOGS path may not have been updated. If DIR_FS_LOGS is not in includes/configure.php, then yes would point towards an issue with the logs folder as 1.5.5 uses other already defined information (that is working) to define that path.

Would maybe help if the includes/configure.php file is posted here. Please obscure DB_ constant credentials before posting.

After that, can also generate a file that won't impact current site operation to cause it to generate an error to validate the error logging process.

mc12345678:

True, though in the transition from one server to another and depending on how the configure.php files were modified/recreated, the DIR_FS_LOGS path may not have been updated........

Don't think so, let's remember that the issue is intermittent and not persisting with every single order

frank18:

Don't think so, let's remember that the issue is intermittent and not persisting with every single order

Not forgotten. :)

The payment issue is intermittent, the lack of logged errors doesn't strongly relate that, but could be a separate issue since no confirmed/forced error has been made, although the install process should have logged files if zc_install had been run. That said, the ability to log would have no impact on the ability to process a payment, but could impact understanding why it doesn't / wouldn't go through.

Further the process used to do the upgrade hasn't been described and if the old configure.php file(s) were brought over with an unchanged DIR_FS_LOGS path, then that additional assistance would be lost if the path was not updated. Two different things, may only have one problem, may have two, but not necessarily directly related.

I´m still waiting for my server logs, I´ll update you later on this,

so here are just a few thoughts to your remarks:

configure.php was not touched at all during server migration, in fact, I just changed hardware and IP, everything else including DNS stayed intact. I can post configure.php here, when I´ll return home from work,

upgrade from 1.5.4 to 1.5.5a was made only after these problems appeared, in fact, I hoped that this could solve the problem, but it doesn´t happen.

meanwhile, I also upgraded php to 5.6.22, also with no impact on empty orders problem - happened before, happened after too

problem with missing logs could be actually separate issue, because I have realised error logs were not appearing from january (and they certainly should appear)

• empty orders appeared with almost every single payment and delivery option, I tried to recreate the error myself as a customer but with no luck. I tried different payment options, different delivery options, everytime I made an order without problem.

Ok, guys, I have finally found server logs,

In the attachment, you´ll find logs belonging to last empty order I have recieved, it occured 3 times (customer was dedicated one), last one came on 8.55.42

I have also included my configure.php (without passwords and stuff, of course),

today, I have recieved first debug log in my logs folder and all orders where fine,

not sure, if it is because of php functions which I have enabled (mentioned them in my first post), or I was just lucky...

never before has experienced anything like this and I run zencart for a good 7 years (store was originally built on 1.3.8 version)

mc12345678:

A problem like this has been identified to possibly be related to the email process. Also something related can occur depending on the payment process.

Suggest identifying what email protocol and payment method(s) are being used when this has occurred.

Good advice. It wasn't all that long ago that I was having a similar problem as the OP. It took weeks before I finally identified the cause as being email related rather than Zen-cart related, with the 'red herring' being that the emails themselves were actually being sent (just not in a timely manner).
Like the OP, this problem only seemed to rear its head a few weeks after a site migration. It is/was one of the rare cases where I needed to disregard logic before I semi-blindly stumbled on the cause..... Alas, I can't offhand remember exactly what I needed to do to fix the problem, but I'm pretty sure that it was related to SSL ... I'm also pretty sure that I provided more info in the forums when I'd found the cause/fix. In my case, none of the log files provided any clues.

Anyway, from the OP's description, this could easily be the same problem - The reported symptoms and scenario certainly fit the bill.

Cheers
RodG

Update @Doomm

If the assumption is correct and that your problem is, as mine was, email related, the way I fixed it was to create and install a self-signed certificate and that solved the problem. Alas, doing this can be quite a daunting process, so you may want to consider seeking help from your host - OR, if you are lucky, you can try this to see if it works.

In the /etc/mail/access file, add the line:
Try_TLS:broken.server NO

Ref: http://serverfault.com/questions/159712/how-to-tell-sendmail-to-explicitly-not-try-tls-for-a-domain

Note: I've never seen or used this option before now so it may do even do what I think it is doing. - Nonetheless, it looks like it may be an easy fix, again, assuming that your problem is email related as mine was.

Cheers
RodG

Thanks RodG for sharing valuable experience,

in my case, it seems that the problem was in disabled php functions,

after enabling them (it seesm they were not disabled in prior server, and my host provider disabled them by default on the new one) I didn´t experience so far any problem with the orders.

I hope it will stay this way :-)

Thanks to all for trying to help me, the community here is one of the main reasons why I enjoy using zencart for 8 years now :-)

Which PHP functions were "automatically disabled"?