Your Shopping Cart is empty! SSL, Cookies, Config

[Tony]

Hi All

 

I started on this at 1530 its now 2030 and I have read every thread that mentions cookies, empty cart, sessions, ssl, etc.

 

My site has run for over 2 years without any obvious issue using a self-issued certificate.

 

I changed (paid for) a registered ssl certificate about a month ago. My own server, LAMP (Linux, Apache, PHP, mySQL), and everything is fine.

 

The shop site works Period. I have processed over 700 orders and 700 customers, 2500+ products, etc. Its not a volume issue.

 

Added a new account for a customer today, routine.

 

Decided to access his account with master password instead of using manual order. Why ? Dunno, just seemed like a great idea at the time.

 

Add the products he wanted, go to checkout and 'Your Shopping Cart is empty! '

 

Ok, did all the following:

 

Closed & rebooted

Logged in - shopping cart box shows items - so the db is updated ok

Checkout - empty cart - changes from http to https as expected

Back button - still empty

checked admin tool - reports - unsold carts - cart exists

logout & login

cart box shows items

checkout - cart is empty

add items again, ok

checkout - cart is empty

unsold cart report shows multiple (x2) items

logout

login - cart has items

checkout - cart empty

add items

unsold cart report x3 now

tried the session variables and ssl test works fine - not a server / certificate issue

check config file

cookie domains changed to all possible combinations according to all the various threads

still the same

swapped pc's - same

swapped to existing customer

WORKS PREFECTLY !!!!

 

hmmm ... swap to new customer - cart has items, checkout cart empty

 

clear cookies

 

same result

 

tried cart empty modification contrib to product_info.php - session variable error in page - so undid that - I think it was not the same issue in any case

 

Enough already !

 

I've read around 200 threads this arvo and I am sure that the config file is correct, its not a config issue.

 

I suspect that the change of SSL is a red-herring and that this may have been an issue for some time.

 

I recall some customers telling me that they 'lost their carts' around Jan/Feb this year, but I could not replicate. But I am now thinking that they may have experienced the same issue.

 

The problem is that it appears to only affect new customers and then only some of them. I have new orders / customers every day which work fine. Yet, on reviewing the 'unsold carts report' I now realise that there are many (100's) of unsold carts that may well be new customers giving up in disgust.

 

So what is the secret that allows existing customers - that had to be first time customers once - to process a cart and my new customer to not process their cart ?

 

Try it for me and let me know is it working for you. You dont need to actually process the order, just click on check-out, the cart will either be full or empty. I'd appreciate the feedback. Maybe its browser based or system based.

 

I am not a novice and this currently has me beat.

 

http://www.recovertoy.com/shop

 

Thanks all in advance.

[♥Vger]

Make sure that both your http and https cookie domain settings in includes/configure.php say 'www.recovertoy.com' - there's not http:// or https:// in either of them.

 

Vger

[Tony]

Hi

 

Thanks. Done that. Tried every suggested combination for the config. Makes no difference.

 

www.recovertoy.com is the SSL cert name and this is set for both values.

 

Tried also with the leading '.' as a wild card. No difference.

 

Have tried with cookie path as '/' and '/shop/' (as it has been for years) - no difference.

 

Anything else ? Please... its really bugging me. Maybe its just a long day but it should not be this hard.

 

Make sure that both your http and https cookie domain settings in includes/configure.php say 'www.recovertoy.com' - there's not http:// or https:// in either of them.

 

Vger

 

And just to rub salt into the wound - a new customer registered tonight and created a new order with no problem (during the typing of this post)... so it really is intermittent... got to be something unique about the sequence of processing or the selection of products. Hmmm.... too tired.

[Tony]

Hi All

 

Ok, as a final try I have logged in as my new customer and clicked on cart, viewed the contents (from the db, ok) and clicked on check-out resulting in 'empty cart'.

 

Next logged out, logged on again, clicked on cart and the items are there. Next, I selected a new product and added it to the cart, clicked on check-out and it works !..

 

Hmm... went back and removed new item from cart, select check-out and 'empty cart' again.

 

Try again, logout, login, cart has 3 items from db, add new item, remove original three items, add orginal three items back and remove 4th testing item, click on check-out and it works.

 

Ok, so I can work around it, but I am guessing that the initial session is not being correctly saved in the db, and its not until a second session that the db is updated. ie a new account that logs in and takes a certain path will not trigger the session record resulting in failed checkouts until the cart is 'tricked' into recording by adding/removing items in a specific sequence.

 

Enough for tonight for me..... if anyone has a pointer or idea as to how to fix this, please let me know.

 

 

Hi

 

Thanks. Done that. Tried every suggested combination for the config. Makes no difference.

 

www.recovertoy.com is the SSL cert name and this is set for both values.

 

Tried also with the leading '.' as a wild card. No difference.

 

Have tried with cookie path as '/' and '/shop/' (as it has been for years) - no difference.

 

Anything else ? Please... its really bugging me. Maybe its just a long day but it should not be this hard.

And just to rub salt into the wound - a new customer registered tonight and created a new order with no problem (during the typing of this post)... so it really is intermittent... got to be something unique about the sequence of processing or the selection of products. Hmmm.... too tired.