Shopping cart failure 
Author: Mark M.Just after posting on another thread that it would be nice to have the orders linked to a backup database for when things go wrong, one of our sites ordering system has gone wrong again. A customer has placed an order and paid via PayPal and we have not got the order details. This is now the fifth time this has happened and each time we have had to contact the customer via the email on the PayPal payment confirmation to ask what they have ordered as our order system has failed... I went straight on both sites and placed some test orders but cannot duplicate the error.
The implementation of the shopping cart is the main problem I have with websiteX5, in particular the correct emailing of the orders; I have had one time that the emailing from the site completely failed and to restore it I had to delete and remake the order system in the program, delete the site off the server and replace the entire site to restore the emailing of the orders. I also experienced some email problems when I first built the sites that turned out to be due to extra line spaces in the shipping types email message, but I removed the spaces and the emails worked correctly. But the error I am experiencing now seems to be random rather than a complete failure.
We have a small company and cannot justify getting professionally designed sites, and we would be very satisfied with the sites we have got if only we could rely on the shopping cart working every time, or be able to refer to a backup data base on the site to look up and recover the order details.
Any thoughts on how I can rectify the problem I am experiencing would be greatly appreciated as having to ask a customer what they have paid for does not look very professional or inspire repeat orders.
Regards,
Mark.
Sorry to hear about your problem.. I hope you find a solution!I don't know this bug, but it's not the only one in the cart, like I said in the other post
Regards
Hello Mark,
Can you please give me the link to your website?
We need to find a way to duplicate the issue to see how we can fix it. It would be perfect if you could make some fake orders with different emails to see if this casues the issue. It could be also a solution to change in the preferences on the startup screen the email script type to "low quality server scrypt" and export the project again.
Many thanks!
Author
Hi Claudio,
I have done all you suggest and last time I even deleted the site completly off the server before re-exporting. I have done lots of fake orders with all the permutations I can think of every time I have experienced the problem to try and reproduce it. This time I tried to reproduce it within half an hour of the problem occuring as I was at my desk when the payment came in without the order.
The loss of order details has happened with both of my e-commerce websites (www.ravensystem.com and www.moducarry.com) though this time it was the Moducarry site that lost the order. Bizarrely this time the order turned up two days later with another order number assosiated with it (correct date but different unique number). We checked with the customer and they had not resubmitted the order on the day in response to our e-mail about the missing details...
Any fix for this reoccurring problem would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark.
Hello Mark,
Since this happens that orders arrive with delay or with modified content it can be also that on the server the php mail() function is not corrected interpreted. Can you please check which version of php is supported and if there is some configuration that alters the mail() function?
Many thanks!
Author
Claudio,
The php is now version 5.4, it was 5.3 so I'll have to wait and see if the change has any effect. I don't know what I can change on the mail system other than the site settings which I changed some time ago to the low quality script to see if that helped any with the problem.
I think that the best fix for me would be a backup data base that was written as the order was placed, that way I could go to the site and find the details even if the email doesn't appear as has happened on a few occasions.
Mark.
Hello Mark,
Please let me know if with the update your issue is still present.
Many thanks!
Author
Claudio,
We haven't had a repeat of the problem, but then again the problem is intermittent and I haven't ever been able to reproduce the problem. That said, a strange thing happend this time - the original order turned up in the emails a couple of days later, with the original date but a different random number in the order number. I checked with the customer who confirmed that they hadn't re-entered the order when I contacted them on the same date as the problem occured. Any thoughts on this?
Mark.
Hello Mark,
If this happens then it could depend on the php or the smtp server of the hosting provider because if it happens randomly it's not related to the program but on the service your are using because the program sends the e-mail immediately and then the smtp server of the hosting provider has to send them to you and the customer. If it arrived days later probably it was stuck in the server. I would suggest you to try the different script types in the preferences in the main screen and export again everytime you change script type to test it.
If you require any further information, please feel free to write back.