Order received from deleted page.

[mje]

This morning we downloaded an order (from a very regular customer) and within it was an item that was deleted from our "shop" sometime ago.

I called him and asked how he managed this - Peter said that he just used a search engine, just entering the product name and from this went to our page.

Now I am assuming this is a cached paged still sitting on our server, but what I don't understand is why an order could be made using it.

I tried using the method he described (Google) but could not duplicate the process.

Anyhow, how do I prevent this from happening again?

Obliged

[leehack]

Remove the page from the server. If still on the server, nothing to stop it working. At a quiet time after you've downloaded all orders, wipe the server and do a refresh, only current pages get uploaded then. Well worth doing as a clean up exercise once every 6 months or so.

[Air-Tech]

At a quiet time after you've downloaded all orders, wipe the server and do a refresh

Sorry to hijack, but it's on the same subject;

Will a "Purge & refresh" do this, or does the server need to be manually cleaned out?

[leehack]

Purge and refresh will only go so far, i find name changes particularly get missed and thus left on there. Personally for me, much as when doing a spring clean, get everything out and clean it up properly and to the best it can be.

[Air-Tech]

Thanks, would you be able to advise on the following;

I assume that FTP'ing into the site, deleting the content & running either publish or refresh (?) will do the job?

Am I correct in thinking that I can delete everything in acatalog before uploading?

Are images in my local site folder which aren't associated with anything get uploaded?

[leehack]

When i do this, i first of all choose a quiet time, there's an argument that you should suspend ordering for half hour, then download orders, then do it. I can agree with that during the day, at night time though, i generally just go for it.

After downloading all orders, i FTP into the site, remove all files from the acatalog folder, all files from the cgi-bin and the index.html (home page) from the site root. Once that has completed (i do cgi-bin first so site does not work). I then do a website refresh.

Actinic only uploads pages and resources that it is using, so you can be assured that after this process, the server is as clean as it could be.

[Air-Tech]

Appreciated!

[fergusw]

Another method, which can be quicker/easier, is to FTP into the website and order all the files in the "acatalog" folder by date/time modified, with the oldest first.
If you know the last date/time of the most recent refresh you should be able to identify all the HTML pages that Actinic has uploaded at that refresh point and therefore safely assume that all the older HTML pages are now no longer used by Actinic and therefore can be deleted (unless you manually control HTML pages in the acatalog folder outside of Actinic!).
Hope this helps.

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

When i do this, i first of all choose a quiet time, there's an argument that you should suspend ordering for half hour, then download orders, then do it. I can agree with that during the day, at night time though, i generally just go for it.

Checking on Google Analytics new 'Real-Time' (Beta) feature can help choose a quiet time to delete everything as is shows you how many active visitors you have online in real time (asuming it is accurate).

[leehack]

Good point Darren, a lot of the sites i work on have live chat, so the back office of that can be used to give a definitive position also.