Symbolic Link to cart not working

Hi folks,

Have added a symbolic link from my public_html folder to my zencart folder/index.php file. This is so I don't have to commingle files from the previous build (also in public_html) with the current build.

Problem is that I am getting a 404 error that looks like this:

Not Found
The requested URL /zc_install/index.php was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/1.3.37 Server at https://www.limoleds.com Port 80

In the URL of the browser, it looks like the installer is being called, but that shouldn't be necessary: > http://limoleds.com/zc_install/index.php

The website is at: http://limoleds.com

Client waiting patiently for me to "turn on the site" and I expected this symbolic link to turn the trick. What went wrong and how can I fix it?

Regards,

Mark Harrison

The installer is being called because Zen Cart is unable to find valid configure.php files or the data within those files is not valid. It therefore assumes that this is a fresh install and tries to offer you the installer, but can't find that either.

The problem is about how you have set up your redirection. It is finding Zen Cart, but Zen Cart is then trying to find other files based on an address relative to the store root, but I suspect that you have not actually changing the base address so it's looking relative to the site root.

Thanks kuroi,

I hear what you are saying. Are you suggesting the addition of symbolic link(s) to the configure.php file(s) will be enough to get the cart working or do I need an entirely different approach?

If adding links, I would prefer NOT adding one for the Admin files. We know the direct URL and don't need the added exposure if avoidable.

Regards,

Mark Harrison

Sorry Mark

I know of symlinks, but have never used them myself and so have no first hand experience of their benefits and limitations. I'm therefore only able to try to explain what Zen Cart is doing and why. Hopefully somebody else will be able to jump in with relevant experience to help from the other end.

Hi folks,

Adding the symbolic link to configure.php produced the following errors:

Warning: main(includes/auto_loaders/config.core.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/limoleds/public_html/zc1370/includes/application_top.php on line 90

Warning: main(includes/auto_loaders/config.core.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/limoleds/public_html/zc1370/includes/application_top.php on line 90

Warning: main(includes/auto_loaders/config.core.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/limoleds/public_html/zc1370/includes/application_top.php on line 90

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'includes/auto_loaders/config.core.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/limoleds/public_html/zc1370/includes/application_top.php on line 90

Warning: dir(includes/auto_loaders) [function.dir]: failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /home/limoleds/public_html/zc1370/includes/application_top.php on line 91

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/limoleds/public_html/zc1370/includes/application_top.php:90) in /home/limoleds/public_html/zc1370/includes/application_top.php on line 112

Adding a symbolic link for application_top.php did not resolve the issue. Any more ideas greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Mark Harrison

It may not feel much like it, but this is progress. You've gotten further before running into the same problem again.

However, unless somebody has a quick solution, I rather suspect that you may have a long job and a lot of testing to root out of of Zen Cart's links, adapt them in this way and make sure that they all work.

Hi kurio,

I found my solution by simplifying things.

1. I kept the index.php symlink.

2. I replaced the configure.php symlink with a symlink to the includes directory within the cart folder. I also removed the application_top.php symlink.

3. No symlinks to the Admin were necessary.

Site seems to be working as expected.

Thanks for your insight. Just knowing you were there helped propel me down the path to a solution. Have a great day.

Regards,

Mark Harrison

Glad you found the straightforward solution yourself. Good luck with the site launch.

Hi kuroi,

Yes, I am glad for a simple solution too. After all, that is why we decided to go with Zen-Cart, right?

Was also wondering if you could help me with some garbled character showing up on my ez-pages. For instance, on our LED FAQs page, groups of "rn" characters are showing up and quotation marks are cahnging, i.e. "“voltage spikes”."

I know I can cut and paste clean text through the Admin, but every time I backup my database and reimport it local to remote or vice versa, this garbage shows up. It seems like the editor in the admin must be doing something to my text.

Any ideas?

Regards,

Mark Harrison

This is another where I have not personally had to solve the problem before, but can tell you what is happening and hopefully therefore point you in the right direction.

The r and n are cutdown versions of the \r and \n that Windows uses to represent a carriage return so they're normally invisible. However, when present out of context and in particular as part of HTML or in a database, your EZ-Pages struggle to interpret them. These need to be edited out in favor of HTML equivalents such as <p></p> and <br />.

Your apostrophes may well the result of curly apostrophes being treated as special characters as opposed to their more widely accepted straight siblings. If you're copying between databases, you may also want to check that they have the same default language encoding.

Thanks kuroi,

What you say makes sense. Will have to comb through the text and make the changes.

My client is off to a trade show on Sunday. Will find out how the cart is working real soon.

Many thanks. Have a great weekend.

Regards,

Mark Harrison