Search has stopped working

[Paddington Bear]

Hi there,

We have just discovered that our website functionality has stopped working. The search and any ordering will not work. I don't know if this is something to do with the recent alert regarding IONOS, as we do use them.

Can anyone advise anything please?

You can test it here: www.ursulajamesstore.com

Thanks,
Phil

[NormanRouxel]

It's not just Search. Anything that relies on a Perl script running (View Cart, Checkout, etc.) is failing.

Go to Web / Network Setup / Test and report what happens.

[Paddington Bear]

Hello Norman,

Thanks for the reply - when I said ordering, I meant ordering goods and processing them through the cart. Sorry for the confusion.

Anyway, the network test says the following:

SellerDeck received a server error from the web server. The CGI scripts are not executing properly on the server. The error could be caused by several things. Check:
- the 'Path to the Perl shell'
- the 'CGI script extension'
- the 'Path to CGI-BIN'
- the 'CGI-BIN URL.
- the amount of web space left on your server
- if your server is configured to accept POSTs to CGI scripts
- the permissions on the server:

On Linux/Unix based servers the permissions should be:
cgi-bin (755) – drwxr-xr-x
Online Store Folder (777) – drwxrwxrwx
On Windows based servers (need to be checked with the hosting company):
IIS
cgi-bin = read/execute
Online Store Folder = read/write/execute
NTFS
cgi-bin = Catalog's FTP account needs 'Change' permissions on the directory
Online Store Folder = Catalog's FTP account needs 'Change' permissions on the directory AND the IUSR_<servername> account needs to have 'Change' permissions on the directory

Run Web | Configure Web Site Details... to review your web site configuration.

I have checked the permissions and they had changed so I have made the acatalog folder 777. The cgi-bin is 775, which I assume is good enough when it requires 755. However, the test results remain the same. I also cannot currently do a restore.

When I try a restore I get this message:

The web server returned an unknown response.

Possible Cause:
You are attempting to download orders
before uploading to the web site
Incorrect CGI-BIN URL in the web site details
Incorrect permissions on the CGI script on
the server (UNIX servers only)
Script corruption - Could be caused by:
Binary ftp transfer during manual installation
Incomplete transfer
Garbled transfer
etc.
Old or bad version of Perl running on server
Http server error
Wrong Path to Perl specified in the
web site details
Unknown
Recommendation:
Abort
Resolution:
Check cgi-bin script permissions
Compare cgi-bin script against local script to
check for corruption
Upgrade Perl on server (needs at least 5.002)
Run the Web | Configure Web Site Details command to verify your setup
Re-install the web site
Review server response for hints

The response was:
60016


Command: Filename:

I've highlighted a line that I think is relevant. I've had an email from IONOS saying that they are upgrading various components of their infrastructure, including Perl, so I probably need to talk to them.

What do you think?

[Goz]

Are you using 1&1 / Ionos as a web host?

[Mike Hughes]

It does look from your error log as if you have perl problems.

V18 on 1and1 / ionos seems to be OK and 1and1 seem to be able to get the scripts working OK so it would be nice if we got a list of the changes that were needed to fix them. Sellerdeck might then be able to do a compatibility build.

[Paddington Bear]

Yes, we are using Ionos.
Yes, it would be nice - we'll have to wait and see.
No, I have never got v18 to work with Ionos, which is why I am still using v16. I will try it again though, as Ionos say they have made some changes so maybe it will work now. That will take a while so I'll report back when I have further news.

PB

[Paddington Bear]

I see on the Ionos website that they say:

Scheduled - Starting on 22nd July and until 29th July, we will update the operating system on our shared hosting Linux servers. This allows you to benefit from better resource utilization, higher system security and the use of current security protocols. With the update, new script language versions as well as new database libraries are used.

It could be that normal service will resume on the 29th. Fingers crossed.

[Paddington Bear]

Nope. I've spoken to them now. They have updated Perl to v5.28.1 which I assume is now incompatible with v16.

The bugger is that I cannot get v18 to work either, due to an email problem. I've tried the help elsewhere and had no joy, so my shop is currently shut down.

[PC Int]

Phil,

ionos are upgrading all their shared servers and part of the upgrade is to Perl v5.28 . The 29th July is just their chosen date to finish the upgrade roll-out and unfortunately doesn't imply or guarantee full service.

We are also one of the many affected and I got this from SellerDeck last week:

A slight adjustment to my unofficial list of Perl and Sellerdeck desktop versions is below:-

Perl v5.8 to v5.22
Sellerdeck Desktop v7 to v16.0.3

Perl v5.24 to v5.28
Sellerdeck Desktop v16.0.4 to v18.0.4

For your notes one of the reasons your hosts may have upgraded to 5.28 is for continued TLS 1.2 support as this is a requirement for many payment service providers however, this is not necessarily the case.

I believe your safest bet is to upgrade to sellerdeck desktop v18.0.4

So it might be worth upgrading to at least v16.0.4 (if not already on it) if you want to avoid SD v.18. We were advised to upgrade to v18 (from SD2014) and did so. The SD desktop upgrade was relatively painless and we can take most orders (using PayPal) but trying to get the SD email to work is proving a real pain.

Paul

[Paddington Bear]

I don't think v18 has this problem and I am pleased to report that I have finally got Sendgrid to work on it, so I can at last roll it out, and - so far - it seems to be working. As you are on Ionis, you will probably have had the same problems as me, so I recommend you upgrade to v18 when you can.

If I can help, let me know.

[PC Int]

Glad you're up and running Phil. We upgraded to v18.0.4 on Saturday and the PayPal Express checkout is working fine and PayPal Website Payments Pro (for taking card payments) mostly works but I'm still struggling to get the SD SMTP settings to work. By all accounts, like many before me, I've tried endless permutations of the ionos smtp server permutations (different servers, ports, authentication, encryption ,etc) without success. Looking at the SD error logs, I'm pretty sure the SD 'Sendmail' script needs a bit of 'adjusting' to get it to work with ionos and have raised a ticket with SD. Will let you know if anything comes of it.

So I am now trying SendGrid but they have given me a 67 character long SMTP password and SD's SMTP Password field is max 64 characters! Did this happen to you?!

[Paddington Bear]

For once I am pleased to be able to help somebody else!

Yes, you cannot put your 67 character API Key in the box provided. What you have to do is - once you have created your key - put your Sendgrid login and password in those boxes. Note that the password box is not smart so will put in special characters if you copy from, say, Excel. Make sure you put the password in correctly. Also, the login is the email for your account, not the email that you have set up in Sendgrid for emails (unless of course, they're the same).

Here are the correct settings that work for me:

SMTP Server: smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP Port: 587
Timeout: 15
Use Secure SMTP: No
Use Authentication: Yes
Username: Your Sendgrid account login email address
Password: Your Sendgrid account login password

Good luck!

[PC Int]

Muchas gracias Phil. This confirms what I eventually surmised and prised and teased out of the SendGrid website. So SendGrid is working and customers are now receiving their order confirmation emails <faint> after 5 days!

One thing, SendGrid replaces any URL links within our email with it's own (extremely long) link. Is this because we're using the free version or is there something else obvious that I've missed?!

Kind Regards

Paul

[Paddington Bear]

That's very interesting as I hadn't noticed that.

The only links in my emails are to the digital download files and you are correct - mine have been changed to SendGrid links, but they still work and I don't think anybody will be bothered by it. However, we have a small, non-technical clientele. I imagine if you have a large, IT-aware clientele then they may be concerned about the strange links.

I'm afraid I don't know how to change it. May I suggest you log it as a new topic and somebody might know.

Phil

[Mike Hughes]

It's not obvious but you can set up link branding in Sendgrid.

See https://sendgrid.com/docs/ui/account...link-branding/

I've just done this on sendgrid. My DNS is hosted on 1and1 and it only took 10 minutes to set it up and verify it.