recommendations for developers please :(

The only way to describe my issues without going into great details is that i trusted a well known firm to do some work to my site, the developer who is there resident zen guy appears to have done the job in a manner (that without mentioning company names) has genuinely and can only be described as "#uminixed"

Core files have been edited instead of modules it seems, maybe my site is only half upgraded but registering as upgraded, the edits i'm told are that stupid it seems not a far stretch.

Despite obvious serious issues in my site I have been left to attempt to fix myself they claim there actions are not responsible although these issues only arose from there work to integrate easy populate 4 which is now heavily modified (with annotations apparently) with functions that don't work as intended.

I just wanted to add a dropshippers feed to my site, i ended up paying almost 1k usd and have a sorry state of a site that has left me debating even moving to a new cms even though i love zen i am really struggling to find someone who will do what they say at a reasonable price in the time quoted without causing my checkout to break with me completely unaware for 2 weeks for example! or some other major headache ect.

I asked for help in the help wanted section and only seemed to get responses from people i couldn't really verify, ideally i'm looking for people to recommend there trusted developers they believe would be able to restore my faith in the prospect of using a cms that can still be maintained easily as at the moment i've even had a shipping module deduct £5 from some lucky customers order instead of charge them £4.99!

and well yeah... slowly loosing the plot here if anyone can point me to a great developer :frusty: where's dr byte at? can i hire the a team at mates rates as this is messed up and needs someone that eats zen for breakfast, plenty work for customising if i find the perfect match on a developer but id rather approach those recommended in a thread than ask in the help section for it to sit there forever awaiting deletion 12 months after it closing with no responses

I'm sure you will get some replies by PM as that is the procedure in the forum.

Meanwhile, have you considered setting up a test site with the latest version and quickly getting it to bare-bones operational? You could tidy it up later but, in fixing your current site, you would have to find out what was done, undo what was done wrong, verify operation after removal of the bad, and THEN start trying to make the site work like you want.

If you have cPanel and enough capability on your server, https://myzencarthost.com/index.php?rp=/knowledgebase/1/Creating-a-Test-Site-with-cPanel.html is the way I would do it.

Add in some shipping and payment mods and you can have the store working. It won't be fininished but customers can shop and purchase where they are having problems now.

HTH

dbltoe:

I'm sure you will get some replies by PM as that is the procedure in the forum.

Meanwhile, have you considered setting up a test site with the latest version and quickly getting it to bare-bones operational? You could tidy it up later but, in fixing your current site, you would have to find out what was done, undo what was done wrong, verify operation after removal of the bad, and THEN start trying to make the site work like you want.

If you have cPanel and enough capability on your server, https://myzencarthost.com/index.php?rp=/knowledgebase/1/Creating-a-Test-Site-with-cPanel.html is the way I would do it.

Add in some shipping and payment mods and you can have the store working. It won't be fininished but customers can shop and purchase where they are having problems now.

HTH

I missed the notification for this reply sorry bud. Ive got "hpanel" i can 1 click install but my template doesnt like it hence why i think so many core edits have been done. I've had checkout issues with 3d secure over certain amounts failing with the card processors saying my zencart hasnt been upgraded but admin panel says it has?

flappingfish:

I missed the notification for this reply sorry bud. Ive got "hpanel" i can 1 click install but my template doesnt like it hence why i think so many core edits have been done. I've had checkout issues with 3d secure over certain amounts failing with the card processors saying my zencart hasnt been upgraded but admin panel says it has?
Don't 1 click your live site... You can, as suggested, MAYBE do so to get a "second" one up and going, but likely will still have to bring in original files (and associated database information) and then as also suggested bring in the other things needed. The "report" of version information is really just that, a report. Its the files and "compatible" database information that really identifies the incorporation of what makes that version.

As for notification, hopefully you have setup/adjusted your forum settings so that you subscribe to threads to which you have posted, that you receive notifications on some "routine" basis, though it is also always possible that it was simply overlooked...

I've had checkout issues with 3d secure over certain amounts failing with the card processors saying my zencart hasnt been upgraded but admin panel says it has?

The version check you see that shows you your database version and the migrations that have been done doesn't guarantee that your files are up to date as well. The only way to determine that is to do the file-by-file check that should have been done when your site was upgraded.

I forgot to click email subscription to this thread thats why im missing the notifications :s

Ok so i had takepayments look into this and they are saying the cause could be this following error...

[17-Dec-2021 23:19:46 UTC] Request URI: /index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2405, IP address: xxx.37.121.167
#1  trigger_error() called at [/home/uxxx21074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php:170]
#2  queryFactory->show_error() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php:142]
#3  queryFactory->set_error() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php:226]
#4  queryFactory->Execute() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/usu.php:761]
#5  usu->get_category_name() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/usu.php:678]
#6  usu->get_product_canonical() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/usu.php:1456]
#7  usu->canonical() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/observers/UsuObserver.php:64]
#8  UsuObserver->update() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/class.base.php:118]
#9  base->notify() called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/init_includes/init_canonical.php:42]
#10 require_once(/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/init_includes/init_canonical.php) called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/autoload_func.php:37]
#11 require(/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/autoload_func.php) called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/application_top.php:222]
#12 require(/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/application_top.php) called at [/home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/index.php:25]
--> PHP Fatal error: 1064:You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 'AND language_id = 1
                          LIMIT 1' at line 4 :: SELECT categories_name AS cName
                           FROM categories_description
                          WHERE categories_id = 
                            AND language_id = 1
                          LIMIT 1 ==> (as called by) /home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/usu.php on line 761 <== in /home/uxxx521074/domains/crazygamer.uk/public_html/includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php on line 170.

I know enough to know its also referencing ultimate seo urls module. This error was first seen around the 10th november as far as i can tell...

long story cut short there during the last dose of work on my site by the people mentioned in post 1 I actually backed up my log folder to delete it on the server, in a .rar it was a total of 7.24mb's! - I've searched those files trying to match what seem to be numbers that relate to certain types of errors in the file name as the last edited dates had been reset by windows conveniently :/

I get 3 lots of error codes maybe a few times a day but this is the one that is being pointed out as the potential issue due to it only appearing when someone has potentially tried to checkout, confirmed only a few times when ive been able to see the customers actions in who's online as they failed to checkout with high value orders and google has reported 144 pages with errors that seemed to grow since i added the suppliers items to my computing section for dropshipping with the modified easy populate 4 setup.

Ultimate seo was installed about june but seems the errors have been worsening since early november onwards on googles url inspection tool, with one company saying its the others and the other company trying to help in a sense recently i thought progress would be made but my checkout is still broke heading into the final days of xmas sale season in the uk for online only retailers like myself :/

what is line 714 of:

includes/classes/usu.php

in addition, what category is product 2405 in?

i'm guessing you may have a master category issue with some products (including 2405). purely a guess.

item 2405 is in computing>monitors. The entire computing category is populated by the modified easy populate 4 item 2405 is here..

https://crazygamer.uk/monitors-c-306_330/viewsonic-va2405h-236-full-hd-led-widescreen-vga-hdmi-monitor-p-7379.html

At one point I did have "ghost items" in "ghost categories" i found these with a database search in php admin and deleted anything showing as category id of 0 or below, there was some 1600 items, deleting these restored mobile template appearance. i don't think it was recognising mobile devices with those items present. This was result of experimentation to get the appendage of "computing^" to category names with easy populate, an edit that is now successfully working to place all my suppliers dropshipped items into computing. A later removed edit was meant to catch items that had no category name in the .csv file. Feed processing would just cease without any error moment it hit one leaving 1.6 thousand of items not updated so it was decided to remove and let them be skipped over having to manually remove these lines first to get it fully process the file.

Line 714 of usu.php is as follows...

      $single_cID = (int)$cID;

I'm guessing that you're running USU v3.0.9. If that's the case, you'll need to compare your current version of /includes/classes/usu.php to see how it's different from the released version.

I've reviewed the processing for that class' get_category_name method (where you're receiving those errors) and don't see how that $single_cID value to be anything other than an integer value. That log indicates that the value is either an empty string or a boolean-false.

You hit the nail on the head there bud, v 3.0.9, so i basically need to update this module as it is the issue potentially with 3d secure failing?

in regards to this integer/boolean you mention, could this be the manifestation of said issue on the following page where you see "min:0" on virtually all items in the computing section?

https://crazygamer.uk/accessories-c-306_307/akasa-4-mini-usb-desktop-fan-p-6785.html

according to win merge my usu.php matches the one from the github repository that you submitted lat?

edited to add:

double checked to see if changes had been made since i uploaded from my desktop by comparing those, identical but using different carriages whatever that means im not entirely sure, sounds like it means its using old ways of ending lines?

flappingfish:

You hit the nail on the head there bud, v 3.0.9, so i basically need to update this module as it is the issue potentially with 3d secure failing?

in regards to this integer/boolean you mention, could this be the manifestation of said issue on the following page where you see "min:0" on virtually all items in the computing section?

https://crazygamer.uk/accessories-c-306_307/akasa-4-mini-usb-desktop-fan-p-6785.html

Nothing to do with USU.
> **flappingfish:**
>
> according to win merge my usu.php matches the one from the github repository that you submitted lat?
> 
> edited to add:
> 
> double checked to see if changes had been made since i uploaded from my desktop by comparing those, identical but using different carriages whatever that means im not entirely sure, sounds like it means its using old ways of ending lines?
This makes no sense to me.  If the currently-installed version of USU is v3.0.9 and the class-file matches that on the GitHub repository, that log should not be generated.

Did you, perhaps, have an older version of USU (or SEO-URLs) installed prior to your upgrade?

negative on that one bud, usu i installed myself, was the only thing i did do, all seemed fine after it, its only since easy populate was installed and messed around with that this error has been occuring it seems.

take payments seemed more interested in the mariadb error as the checkout error cause but i think it may be a bit of everything :/

My site launched on 1.57b and needed a bit of tweaking for latest upgrade. all seemed fine so didnt look into the log folder. orders where flowing nicely for all values, now i get many created accounts and these errors that coincide roughly the time it would take to get through checkout the first time later with no record of these transactions being attempted on the mms dashboard for the card processors. interestingly though mms dashboard does take about half an hour to show successful orders ie those where 3d secure i've assumed isn't important to the banks to bother checking hence some people sailing through checkout.

Most orders since november have been below 100 with ones before mid november mainly being for one product at 114.99 that month. suddenly around the 14th no orders over £100 but ive watched people attempt checkout on £600 items ect multiple times with no communication seemed to be passed over to barclaycard via take payments

unsure if this relates to checkout issue but definetly an indication of usu playing up i assume, if you follow the link i just copied from a facebook post direct to a product category that has items in it look what happens, weird eh?

https://crazygamer.uk/gift-ideas-c-201/?fbclid=IwAR2ZcxI_BKgJxlnyVqK1x0huJfArB7dkFZY6OfrCosBm1b-V_SNDHKnH0Wg

also instead of showing images of products like it does in the previews it loads like this...

a few observations:

• 3d and payment checkout problems have nothing to do with usu or this posted error log.
• i agree with lat9; following the usu class file, it makes no sense that this error log is getting generated.
• as usu is turned on, i am not sure how someone got that url and accesses that directly. unless that url is cached somewhere.
• it looks like you might be using cloudfare. if so, have you tried turning that off?
• i am 99% convinced this is a data problem. initially i thought a problem when using straight URLs (ie not friendly), but this works (https://crazygamer.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7230) and this does not (https://crazygamer.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2405).

ok, this is definitely a data/redirect problem. i should pay more attention. looking back up the thread:

flappingfish:

item 2405 is in computing>monitors. The entire computing category is populated by the modified easy populate 4 item 2405 is here..

https://crazygamer.uk/monitors-c-306_330/viewsonic-va2405h-236-full-hd-led-widescreen-vga-hdmi-monitor-p-7379.html

i asked what category item 2405 is in.  why are you providing me information on 7379?

what does this return if you run in sql:

SELECT master_categories_id, products_id
FROM products
WHERE products_id = '2405'

item 2405 isnt a valid product id apparently? had to search in the php my admin so took a while there

flappingfish:

item 2405 isnt a valid product id apparently? had to search in the php my admin so took a while there

i'm not so sure. for example, this works:

https://crazygamer.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2555885

but this does not:

https://crazygamer.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2405

the first one if not a valid products_id. the 2nd one might be a deleted product that has some remnants there that is causing an error.

there is something different going on there.

There isnt any sign in the databse within my php admin for that item number, sadly the plot also thickens....

I thought i would try and use some facebook ad credits i got through a recent promotion, these credits ran an advert out of them ive just had to suspend, the link i set for an xbox x console was malformed with a fb click id ending and my website has being very nicely throwing users that clicked to a 404 error page.

303 link clicks on that advert and nobody made an account, my site appears fine to anyone browsing but following links shared anywhere seems to cause redirect issues. my thought is usu is definitely interrupting the checkout process somehow? strange it only occured around the time easy populate was installed this checkout issue. Definitely something has been changed thats not agreeing with usu during that project and its been costing me so many lost sales, mid year i thought i was on track to opening a store just before christmas but that's now looking to be next years goal :/

any suggestions of where i can look to try and resolve this or at least something i can point out and hope warranty on work kicks in? seems the original firm are willing to accept responsibility and fix things but they cant work it out and want me to pay "diagnostics" they will refund if they find its them to blame, i find it hard to believe anyone would admit fault if they was rewarded with money for lying.

One thing that did concern me was the crafty maneuver of disabling 3d secure option for cards apart from when only when absolutely necessary, luckily i get emails saying what happens and i knew the module settings had been changed! Disabling 3d secure to give the illusion things are resolved seems to indicate how fed up they are off this issue like myself :/

https://crazygamer.uk/gift-ideas-c-201/?fbclid=IwAR2ZcxI_BKgJxlnyVqK1x0huJfArB7dkFZY6OfrCosBm1b-V_SNDHKnH0Wg

i disabled and shared the link on facebook for my gift ideas section and im still seeing the empty category issue. anything that could go wrong is doing it seems, looking at the link it still looks like its set that way

brain fart to look in my htaccess file, not like id have any luck spotting anything i thought. Well i think i've found something....

My site is forced https so shouldnt the second line in my htaccess file be set as on too?

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

# AddHandler application/x-httpd-php74 .php


RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on

tell me it ain't that simple? lol