log in time out looses me my listing - thanks for that !

[sparkylabs]

So I'm updating a product and it takes some time because I'm copying out info from technical sheets and next thing i know i click on save, it asks me to log in again and i do anx I find myself with a blank listing ! Who thought that one up ?

 

Is there any way to recover a listing or put in something to save it as a draft if I'm logged out automatically ?

[MrPhil]

I don't know if there's any way to "save a draft" in the editor, but if you're so slow that your login is timing out, I can suggest a few solutions:

• is there any place to set/control your session expiration time when you log in?
  
• periodically mark and copy what you're working on (copy to clipboard, and possibly save it to a separate file somewhere if you're really paranoid about losing it)
  
• prepare the copy in advance using Notepad or some other editor, and cut and paste it into osC in one fell swoop
  
• do your updates in a spreadsheet, export as a CSV file, and install and use Easy Populate to bulk upload the changes
  

[germ]

If it was me I'd gather all the data beforehand into a single text document so when you enter it into your osC DB you just copy/paste from one document.

[MrPhil]

One thought on that... avoid using Word as the "consolidation point" text document. It will turn various punctuation characters (especially apostrophes and single and double quotation marks) into typographically elegant "Smart Quotes" that will not transfer nicely to a web page like osC! Always use a plain text flat file editor -- even Notepad will do nicely for this.

 

N.B.: if you have lived a Clean Life, and your osC page is UTF-8, and you use the right browser; you might get lucky pasting from Word (or Outlook) and the funny Smart Quotes will be correctly translated into standard UTF-8 characters. But don't count on it.

[Bob Terveuren]

Try this: http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/5899

[clippers]

happens quite often with me, my internet cuts out a lot or if i leave the edit product open to long,

 

What i find helps if you loose connection or leave it to long, dont touch the page but right click a admin link in the side panel to open in new tab and then it asks for you to log in, do that and then you can go back to the other tab and click save and all your infomation is still there, this wont work if you allready clicked save when it times out.

[clippers]

i forgot to mention this happens on exsiting products too, yesterday i edited one completed product i have had for months and the internet disconnected (it wasnt a time out), i forgot to use the above trick and pressed saved and the whole listing was wiped, its was like a sql product wipe.

[npn2531]

i click on save, it asks me to log in again and i do anx I find myself with a blank listing

 

It does this on the newsletter manager and anyplace else in the admin where you can type stuff in. Start typing, then answer the phone, finish that beer, or get distracted, and you go back to your entry, hit save or update, and you find you have been timed out and your work is gone. Worse, it happens to me so infrequently, I forget this is an issue until I lose what I was working on an hour or so ago.

 

When I remember this is a problem, I just copy everything in the entry window, before I pick back up again on my work so I can just paste it all back into the resulting blank entry window.

 

Adding a 'save draft' feature would be nice but would increase the complexity of the programming, I think needlessly for little gain. I prefer the lean and mean aspect of OSCommerce, and just consider this one of the minor tradeoffs.

[npn2531]

What i find helps if you loose connection or leave it to long, dont touch the page but right click a admin link in the side panel to open in new tab and then it asks for you to log in, do that and then you can go back to the other tab and click save and all your infomation is still there, this wont work if you allready clicked save when it times out.

 

I'm going to try this, Thanks Clippers!

[♥kymation]

Find this code in admin/functions/sessions.php:

 

 if (STORE_SESSIONS == 'mysql') {
   if (!$SESS_LIFE = get_cfg_var('session.gc_maxlifetime')) {
  $SESS_LIFE = 1440;
   }

 

Change that to

 

 if (STORE_SESSIONS == 'mysql') {
//    if (!$SESS_LIFE = get_cfg_var('session.gc_maxlifetime')) {
  $SESS_LIFE = 3600;
//    }

 

That 3600 gives a timeout of one hour (it's the time in seconds). Change it to whatever you want.

 

Regards

Jim

[sparkylabs]

Thanks all.

[sparkylabs]

Find this code in admin/functions/sessions.php:

 

if (STORE_SESSIONS == 'mysql') {
if (!$SESS_LIFE = get_cfg_var('session.gc_maxlifetime')) {
 $SESS_LIFE = 1440;
}

 

Change that to

 

if (STORE_SESSIONS == 'mysql') {
// if (!$SESS_LIFE = get_cfg_var('session.gc_maxlifetime')) {
 $SESS_LIFE = 3600;
// }

 

That 3600 gives a timeout of one hour (it's the time in seconds). Change it to whatever you want.

 

Regards

Jim

 

There is no such file, there is no functions folder in the admin folder

[♥kymation]

admin/includes/functions/sessions.php. Sorry for the typo.

 

Regards

Jim