I can't make Categories

Everytime I try to make a category, I go through the necessary steps and when I press save the Category doesn't Come up. I've saved 4 or 5 categories and on the categories/products page it says I have none.

What is wrong?

What version of Zen Cart?

Clean install or an Upgrade?

Have you ever been able to make Categories?

If so, what has changed since then on either the server, by changes your hosting site may have made, or by add-ons that you may have added?

It is a clean install.

I've never used Zen-cart before this is my initial set-up.

I don't think that anything changed in either my set-up or the hosting companies setup.

It shows me everything I need, all the files are CHMOD 777 It goes through all the necessary steps then just doesn't allow me to save any of the categories.

No error messages

How did you install, from our download or through Fantastico? What version of PHP and MYSQL is on your server?

I downloaded from this site.

My PHP on the server is 4.3.8 (updating within a couple of weeks)

The MySql is Client API version 4.0.18

Is there any idea what could be wrong here?

It will allow me to list products, but not categories to organize the products....

Is there a particular file that I can remove and re-install?

Or what should be my next step?

I can create products, but can't catagorize them....

It will not let me build a category

Not sure if this is your issue, but try removing all of the products, then adding categories. You can't mix products and categories in the same level. So if right now you have products in the top level, they need to be removed. Add your categories, then select the category, and either add a sub-category, then add products, or add the products to that new category.

I don't have any products presently installed I removed them all. It still will not allow me to save any categories. there is no error message just says 0 categories as soon as I finish asking it to save.

Technically speaking ... do you have 0 Products and 0 Categories?

As in ... can we clean up the tables without losing anything to fix this problem?

Yes, 0 Products & 0 Categories.

What can I do to fix this?

Okay the thing to do here is rebuild the tables that are causing problems ...

Let's take a few slow looks at your database in phpMyAdmin ...

Find the table:
products_to_categories

Since you have no Products and no Categories ... this table should be empty ...

If it is not empty, you want to empty it ...

If you click on your database name on the left column ... then mark the checkbox next to the table products_to_categories and then down at the bottom select from the dropdown Empty ... this will clear out all records as any in there are bad right now ...

Can I get to my database through my FTP? For some reason that I won't find out until some point tomorrow. MyPHPAdmin shows no databases....

Do I have to wait until this issue is resolved before I can go any further??

phpMyAdmin should be able to see your database otherwise, you need to contact your hosting site and find out what is wrong with your control panel etc.

Yeah, I contacted them on Friday, but they said that all the people that could help me with this will be back in the office on Monday.

When I ask it to show databases... it shows it under my hosting page, but when I go over to myPHPAdmin it says there are NO databases.

Well poopie ...

Let's try an experimental guess on what is causing this problem ...

In the Tools ... Insert SQL Patches ... of your Admin run these two commands and see if this breaks the curse:

delete from products_to_categories where products_id = 0;
delete from products_to_categories where categories_id = 0;

I tried that, but nothing changed.

I've spoken with my hosting company and they are supposed to be working on my PHP issue this morning.

One other silly question, When making a category what should the sort order be? numerical, alphabetical

The Sort Order is for your display order of the Categories in the Categories Sidebox ...

Alright, finally got into my PHP My Admin.

Now what are my first steps to fix this "Curse"

Select your proper database on the left ...

On the right you will see the list of all the tables with checkboxes next to them ...

Check the following tables:
categories
categories_description
products
products_description
products_to_categories

Assuming that you had no specials, featured, sales, reviews and the like ...

Select from the dropdown at the bottom of the list of tables:
Empty

And click Go ...

This will empty or truncate these tables for you so that you start out clean ...

Next, go to your Admin ... Catalog ... Categories/Products ...

You should see two buttons:
New Product
New Category

and a dropdown for the Product Type ...

NOTE: the dropdown should have 5 kinds of Product Types in it ...

Unless you know why you are using a different Product Type than the:
Product - General

Leave it set to this ...

Can you now add Categories?