nicksoftsol:

Writing on behalf of a client running ZenCart v1.5.0 and moze.n template. When adding the Ultimate SEO URLs module, the category and product pages are being broken. After much searching, I still cannot pinpoint what is causing it to throw off the layout.

Example can be found at devstore7.ldsstores.com. Click on any product or category page to see what is happening. It seems to be completely disregarding all CSS for menus, sidebars, footer and just about everything else.

I have compared source code between working page and broken page and found no differences of any consequence. Please advise on what more information is needed or how the issue can be resolved. Thank you.

I sincerely doubt this is an issue cause by Ultimate SEO..

I have a small store, so I am wondering if I can do this:

Instead of:
'http://www.mysite.com/my-category-c-2/my-product-p-7.html

to:
'http://www.mysite.com/my-category/my-product.html

nicksoftsol:

... When adding the Ultimate SEO URLs module, the category and product pages are being broken. After much searching, I still cannot pinpoint what is causing it to throw off the layout. ...
This is not an issue caused by "Ultimate SEO URLs". This does not occur with a stock installation of Zen Cart using the default template. The problems you are experiencing are caused by other modifications which have been made to your Zen Cart installation.

Some notable issues with your site:

• The custom code used to generate the "category menu" on the left is not the standard Zen Cart categories code. The custom code appears to not be using the Zen Cart zen_href_link function. The custom code is generating invalid links and injecting invalid category names into the HTML. All internal Zen Cart links should be created using the built-in Zen Cart function zen_href_link (handles session params, escaping entites such as &, etc).
• Broken javascript code in the template. Getting reported errors in FireBug including "function not found".
• Poorly generated / coded HTML including duplicate attribute ids, failure to escape required characters, improperly nested elements, common optimizations missing, and the list goes on...
• Seeing some "HTTP 406" errors... Often this can be caused by mod_security restrictions... But can also be caused by other issues with "content negotiation". You will want to track down the culprits.
• Alterations have been made to the HTML head section (either the Zen Cart code or the installed template). There are a number of problems with the HTML being generated inside the head element... Most importantly you are defining "relative linked" resources BEFORE the base element. This will cause those resources to be loaded relative to the URL in the browser window instead of relative to the BASE element. Either make those references absolute or move them below the BASE element.
• Many missing / broken images. This slows down accessing the page and will make debugging more painful. Please copy over the images from the live store.
  That is just the short list and other issues may be present in your Zen Cart installation...

Note: See http://validator.w3.org/ for a list of errors found in the HTML generated by your theme.

How do I enable the manufacturers to show up with the manufacturersname instead of id.
I am getting this : index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=46
Using version 2.212 and zc 1.51

manage-it:

How do I enable the manufacturers to show up with the manufacturer's name instead of id. ...
Adding the manufacturers name (page=index) to the URL is enabled by default. Double check your installation and configuration.

Some basic troubleshooting steps and questions to answer:

1. When installing were there any warning or error messages? If so what? If unsure, redo the installation and note any and all messages displayed by Zen Cart. If you did not see any messages... Re-read and follow the installation instructions.
2. Is the module enabled? If not may indicate installation failed or the module has not been configured / enabled. Make sure in the configuration menu this module is enabled.
3. Are other generated links using the alternate URLs? Are category and product links using the alternate URLs? If not, make sure in the configuration menu 'index' is in the list of pages to alter (rewrite).
4. Is there anything in the Zen Cart debug files? Is there anything in the webserver or php error logs (may need to enable depending on where Zen Cart is hosted)?
5. What other modifications have been made to Zen Cart? Do they correctly use zen_href_link to generate URLs?
6. URL to example website displaying the noted issue(s)?

manage-it:

How do I enable the manufacturers to show up with the manufacturers name instead of id. ...
If this is the site in your profile... I do not see ANY alternate URLs being generated (not in the HTML or in the canonical links). This indicates #1 or #2 from above are the most likely candidates.

lhungil:

You might need to "repair" the database table (if damaged can cause issues with entries being added / removed from the table). You can usually "repair" the table from within phpmyadmin. Another alternative (the repair would be better in most cases) is to "drop" the table (remove) and re-install this module (will add the missing table). With a fast database server (without any database consistency errors) this message should be rare.

The "seo_cache" table is only used at this time if one has the individual persistent caches (category, product, ez-pages, manufacturer, etc) turned on. One can always try turning off the persistent caches (the responses will still be cached in non-persistent memory if one has global caching enabled). One may see a performance boost or drop depending upon the hosting environment (web server, PHP, MySQL, etc).

Thank you very much for your suggestion. If I've truncated this table based from the prior suggestion I received, can I still repair it? I believe after I truncated the zen_seo_cache table it seems the table also changed...if that makes sense. Thank you.

Hi,

just had an unsuccessful installation of v212 - I think it is possibly (read likely) my fault so I am not upset - I just need some help. I now cannot get to my admin - mydomain/admin/login.php just comes up as a blank page. So I am really stuck here (H-E-L-P)

prior to installing I did a database backup and have restored that original database but still no login page.

Here was my mistake - I manage a number of sites and this particular site I didn't realize I had previously installed this plugin, earlier version, but had disabled it in admin - my stupid fault for not checking first.

Anyway I have now lost access to getting into admin - I tried to do the removal but not being php cluey I didn't know how to comment out so I just deleted that install block - note that I had lost admin access prior to this, just had a page with a database error which I did not copy but it went something like this 'TABLE_ADMIN_PAGES' not found; page key = 'configureSEO' bla bla

REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS

1. Edit "new_files/your_admin_folder/includes/init_includes/init_seo_config.php" commenting out the install block and uncommenting the
   uninstall block.

So I am currently up the proverbial creek without a paddle - any ideas on how I can retrieve admin access?

cheers,
Mike

shags38:

...
Anyway I have now lost access to getting into admin - I tried to do the removal but not being php cluey I didn't know how to comment out so I just deleted that install block - note that I had lost admin access prior to this, just had a page with a database error which I did not copy but it went something like this 'TABLE_ADMIN_PAGES' not found; page key = 'configureSEO'...
To comment out the install block: around line 10 you would add a /* to the start of the line and around line 31 you would add a /.
To uncomment the uninstall block: around line 33 remove the / from the start of the line and around line 50 remove the */.

If this was another Zen Cart 1.3.9x, it will probably be faster and easier to refer to the notes from the PM I sent back in February (I've resent the PM). Let me know how everything goes :)

lhungil:

This is not an issue caused by "Ultimate SEO URLs". This does not occur with a stock installation of Zen Cart using the default template. The problems you are experiencing are caused by other modifications which have been made to your Zen Cart installation.

Some notable issues with your site:

• The custom code used to generate the "category menu" on the left is not the standard Zen Cart categories code. The custom code appears to not be using the Zen Cart zen_href_link function. The custom code is generating invalid links and injecting invalid category names into the HTML. All internal Zen Cart links should be created using the built-in Zen Cart function zen_href_link (handles session params, escaping entites such as &, etc).

• Broken javascript code in the template. Getting reported errors in FireBug including "function not found".

• Poorly generated / coded HTML including duplicate attribute ids, failure to escape required characters, improperly nested elements, common optimizations missing, and the list goes on...

• Seeing some "HTTP 406" errors... Often this can be caused by mod_security restrictions... But can also be caused by other issues with "content negotiation". You will want to track down the culprits.

• Alterations have been made to the HTML head section (either the Zen Cart code or the installed template). There are a number of problems with the HTML being generated inside the head element... Most importantly you are defining "relative linked" resources BEFORE the base element. This will cause those resources to be loaded relative to the URL in the browser window instead of relative to the BASE element. Either make those references absolute or move them below the BASE element.

• Many missing / broken images. This slows down accessing the page and will make debugging more painful. Please copy over the images from the live store.

That is just the short list and other issues may be present in your Zen Cart installation...

Note: See http://validator.w3.org/ for a list of errors found in the HTML generated by your theme.

Thank you for the response. The creators of the template haven't been very good at responding to support questions. We had the module working on a different template, but my client insists on this one. I didn't realize how many issues it has.

Thanks again.

nicksoftsol:

Thank you for the response. ...
No problem. Hopefully the information gives you a good starting point.

I'd probably tackle things in this order...

1. Fix the location of <base href="" />. Should be before any reference to an external CSS or JScript file - but after then language / content type declarations. This will fix things so the page displays.
2. Update the custom category box to use zen_href_link or replace with a plugin (or the stock Zen Cart sidebox) which already uses the function. Without this change unnecessary 301 redirect may take place.
3. If after fixing the above you still see any HTTP 406 errors (FireBug or similiar comes in handy here), contact the hosting provider and see if they will look into the errors.
4. Time permitting look into fixing the more cosmetic HTML errors (modern browsers can handle most of the other issues without loss of functionality).

Hello,

I'm about to install this on a 1.5 installation that has a non-default them, couple addons, etc.

One newbie question before I go through with it: what's the difference between 'merge' and 'overwrite', as per the install instructions in the readme?

"1a. If you haven't made changes to Zen Cart. Overwrite the files..."
"1b. If you have made changes to your Zen Cart. Merge the files..."

Since I'm running a non-default theme and have some other add-ons installed, I'm assuming I qualify for 1b...

I've compared files/folders between what's on my server and what's in affected_files and there's a handful of existing files...do I overwrite these? e.g. includes > functions > html_output.php already exists on the server, adminfolder > categories.php and product.php, adminfolder > includes > functions > general.php and html_output.php, all exist on the server. Overwrite these with the files from the add-on? Or am I missing something with the reference to 'merge' the files?

Thanks, looking forward to getting this up and running!

Kind regards,

Nathan

asdowser:

... One newbie question before I go through with it: what's the difference between 'merge' and 'overwrite', as per the install instructions in the readme? ...
"1a. If you haven't made changes to Zen Cart. Overwrite the files..."
"1b. If you have made changes to your Zen Cart. Merge the files..."
...
Definition of merge. Definition of overwrite.

Basically the files in "affected_files_xxx" are core Zen Cart files (with path) already modified to work with their respective version of Zen Cart. If you have made any changes to these files (and uploaded the changes to your production server), you will need to "merge" your changes with the changes found in these files (best done on a local copy of the site). Once done with any needed file merging, you can simply upload the files (which overwrites the files on the server).

Note: Don't forget to BACKUP your production site before making any modifications. This includes both the database and files.

lhungil:

Definition of merge. Definition of overwrite.

Basically the files in "affected_files_xxx" are core Zen Cart files (with path) already modified to work with their respective version of Zen Cart. If you have made any changes to these files (and uploaded the changes to your production server), you will need to "merge" your changes with the changes found in these files (best done on a local copy of the site). Once done with any needed file merging, you can simply upload the files (which overwrites the files on the server).

Note: Don't forget to BACKUP your production site before making any modifications. This includes both the database and files.

Groovy, that's what I figured. Thanks!

Hi,

I recently installed the plugin and think I have an issue with configuration as I have received a WMT warning about excessive 'not followed pages', some 214. This is how it is currently configured, straight out of the box - what do I need to change, if anything, or do I ignore the WMT warning?
[Attachment no longer available]

many thanks,
Mike

shags38:

... I have received a WMT warning about excessive 'not followed pages' ...
Alot depends upon what exactly WMT is telling you (and what you find when checking the links). It may also just be false positives from WMT and the warnings may go away after the next crawl). Without being able to see the website (or WMT), here are some things to check...

First, do the URLs being reported by WMT look like they were generated correctly? Can you access the URLs? Was the .htaccess file upgraded with the latest rules (the .htaccess file in the distribution zip)?

This plugin does not affect / alter / create "no follow" tags on pages... Kinda "doubt" this is the issue, but you can check the URLs indicated by WMT for "nofollow" (in the HTML source / HTML headers).

Double check the "canonical" link in the affected page(s). Is there a canonical (if not your theme may be removing it)? Does this match the URL (with automatic redirects on it should match)? If you type in the canonical link are you redirected (should not happen)? If the generated canonical is not correct, make sure the init_canonical override file was installed.

Next thing to check is for a redirection chain. Make sure a request to your site does not incur more than a single 301 redirect. Having more than one can be problematic. If you are seeing two or more... Time to look at the ".htaccess" files and server configurations to ensure they are not adding any "redirect" or "R" flags (this plugin does not add any).

I've also seen some redirect loops in the past (misconfiguration of Zen Cart). These are usually caused by adding a "hostname redirect" inside a ".htaccess" file which does not match the value of "HTTP_SERVER" in "configure.php". So for example when "HTTP_SERVER" is set to "http://domain.com" and in the ".htaccess" file someone has added a redirect to force all traffic to "http://www.domain.com".

If none of these apply, and the site was active for a long time at different URLs... I'd suspect WMT may be warning many URLs are showing a 301 redirect (have changed). Another (rare) possibility would be you are somehow exceeding the 2048 character limit for URLs (unless one has VERY verbose titles with a LARGE number of sub categories, one should not be able reach this length in a stock Zen Cart installation due to database imposed limitations).

Hi

thanks for the detailed response. I marked the not followed urls as 'fixed' in WMT so I can't now check if they could be accessed however there are no more urls reported as not followed yet but it may be too early to call.

I've also seen some redirect loops in the past (misconfiguration of Zen Cart). These are usually caused by adding a "hostname redirect" inside a ".htaccess" file which does not match the value of "HTTP_SERVER" in "configure.php". So for example when "HTTP_SERVER" is set to "http://domain.com" and in the ".htaccess" file someone has added a redirect to force all traffic to "http://www.domain.com".

I in fact had this exact situation - have now deleted the redirect from http mysite to www mysite. I had it set up initially by my host as I could not access the www. version of the site via the browser for some reason or other - the fix was to use the 301 redirect. I must also admit to being confused about this statement in WMT at the bottom of their information page on 'preferred domain' settings in WMT

Note: Once you've set your preferred domain, you may want to use a 301 redirect to redirect traffic from your non-preferred domain, so that other search engines and visitors know which version you prefer.
not sure how advantageous that is given the dominance of Google - your thoughts on this? - in any case I have now deleted the 301 redirect and will monitor any developments.

So many thanks again for your assistance - if the problem persists (see a doctor :smile:) I will check the things you have mentioned before I mark the urls as fixed - hopefully it will all just settle down.

cheers,
Mike

Spoke too soon - latest crawl has 178 urls not followed. I have given some examples below. WMT says "Google couldn't follow your URL because it redirected too many times." - the urls cannot be accessed - the browser gives following error message "The page isn't redirecting properly - Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete. - This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies."

sample urls - response code is 301 in all cases;

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=116&sort=20a

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=116

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=528&sort=20a&page=12

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=528&sort=2d&page=17&language=en

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=528&sort=2d&page=17

the .htaccess file is as per the .zip file - it did have the following additional script but I have deleted this as per my previous post;

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^dazzlers.net.au$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://www.dazzlers.net.au/" [R=301,L]

the same redirect was at the host also in cPanel but that is now deleted also

Ultimate SEO configuration is as per my first post above (untouched)

Double check the "canonical" link in the affected page(s). Is there a canonical (if not your theme may be removing it)? Does this match the URL (with automatic redirects on it should match)? If you type in the canonical link are you redirected (should not happen)? If the generated canonical is not correct, make sure the init_canonical override file was installed.

this I do not understand - what would the canonical link be? configure.php is set to http://mysite . com - * the init_canonical override file IS installed

The site is working properly and site navigation is fine. So not sure what else you would need to know.

cheers, Mike

shags38:

I in fact had this exact situation - have now deleted the redirect from http mysite to www mysite. ...your thoughts on this?
Pick which one you prefer. with or without the www prefix. Then be consistent. If you want the prefix make sure it is added to the Zen Cart configuration. If you don't make sure it is not in the Zen Cart configuration. Zen Cart automatically adds the HTTP_SERVER to the start of generated URLs, so SEs will always see the one you set :)

If you really want you can have a "canonical redirect" in the ".htaccess"... But will probably want to exempt "post" requests, pass query terms and the URI, and make sure it redirects to host specified in Zen Cart's "configure.php" files.

shags38:

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=116
Looks like some bad links coming in from somewhere... best to figure out where :)
In WMT when you click on a link in the error list, it pops up a dialog. In the dialog there are some tabs. Click on the "sitemaps" and "linked from" tabs and see if you can narrow down the cause.

Speaking of sitemaps.... The one listed for your site in the "robots.txt"... Does not appear to exist... May want to fix this :)

shags38:

... this I do not understand - what would the canonical link be? ...
The canonical links appear to be correct on your site. These are automatically generated by Zen Cart (and USU includes some minor changes so they work with USU). Google WMT has an okay article on the subject. Zen Cart currently generates canonical links for EVERY page. Recommendation from Google (and Bing) is to only set this if the URL differs from the canonical URL (but Google at least seems okay with it being on every page).

hello,

I have a problem with the function in the shoppingcart "Continu shopping". When someone put something in the cart from a categorypage and the clicks the button "continu shopping" and add another product in the cart, the firtst product is now twice in the cart and the last one isn't.

I think it has to do something with the url created after "continu shopping"....the url looks like this http://www.domain.com/onecat/?products_id=12431&sort=20a

What can be the problem?