HELP!! needed urgently please - unable to download orders

[worthydealer]

I have an urgent problem I am hoping somebody can help me with please.

I am suddenly unable to download my orders from my website (www.worthydeal.co.uk). Everything was fine up to and including last night. Orders downloaded fine (as they have for month after month). This morning, I click on 'Retrieve Orders' but an Actinic error message appears:-

"Actinic Ecommerce is not able to run the CGI scripts on the server. It appears as if the scripts are not installed. Run Web|Configure Web Site Details... to review you web site configuration "

There is a 'View Response' button on this Actinic error dialog box, which when I click it shows me a 404 - Page not Found message.

I have .ord files on the server. I definitely have orders to download.

I did not make any changes to the server or Catalog etc. or my pc between last night and this morning.

The Actinic error message does not seem to be correct, as when I go onto the website itself at www.worthydeal.co.uk everything seems fine, shopping cart, checkout, search, etc. so the cgi scripts must be running. Orders are coming in while I have this problem!

I have gone to Advanced | Network Setup and run Test, but this shows no problems - the Actinic message back from this was "The network settings test was successful. If the email address you specified is correct, you should receive a confirmation message shortly" (I did).

I also ran through Web | Configure Website, but again, the Wizard did not suggest any changes to the setup.

I then did an Update of the website from Web | Update Website, but I am still unable to retrieve the orders (same error message).

I have rebooted the pc I am using a few times, and I have purged and compacted the Actinic database, and also tried downloading with the firewall switched off, but still no joy. The copy of Actinic on my pc shows no problems - everything there seems to be functioning as it should.

Can anybody PLEASE shed any light on this problem - I can't find any reference to this error message and possible causes in the Forums. I am contemplating doing a complete refresh of the website from Web | Refresh Website to see if this fixes the problem, but I am not sure what effect this would have on the orders currently on the server - would a complete refresh destroy them, or would they still be there after the Refresh?

Also, what is the name of the downloading file that Actinic thinks it cannot run? - perhaps I could look on the server via FTP to see if it is actually there, maybe just upload that file via FTP even if it is there ...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[worthydealer]

More information on this problem from the rrror.err log??

I have just been looking at the error.err file on the server ...

I notice the very last entry in this file has been created since my last successful orders download, and refers to a 'Permission denied' error trying to open a particular file, a .chk file - what is unusual about this error entry is that it refers to 'HTTP Server=[Secure NsHosts]' whereas all the previous error messages in the file refer to 'HTTP Server=Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) PHP/4.3.1' - does this seem to indicate something has changed on the server?

I have included the last 6 entries from my error.err file as an attachment.


Many thanks

[Mike Hughes]

My suspicion, based on half remembered threads from the past, is that this might be caused by a permissions problem on the order files. This is the kind of thing that can get mucked up when your host alters the server software (for security updates etc).

As a short term workaround, try ftp'ing in your website, change the order file permissions to 777 and then try downloading them.

If this works someone else will need to tell you how to fix the problem but at least you'll be able to get at your orders.

Mike

[worthydealer]

Thank you

Hi Mike -

Thank you for taking the trouble to reply. I take your point about posting in one place - won't happen again (desperation clouding clear thinking!).

I have now contacted my ISP to see if they can throw any light on this issue.

I am not overly familiar with Unix - is 777 setting all permissions (Read, Write, Execute) across all 3 levels? And when you say on the order files, do you mean specifically set permissions to 777 on the .ord files, one by one?

I only have FTP access at the moment as I write this via a client called WS_FTP32 and I can't see how to change permissions with that. I have selected one of the .ord files, and when I click on 'View' I get '550 Can't open [order file] - permission denied' - does this indicate the presence of the permissions problem you suspect might be the problem, or would be this be normal when trying to view an .ord file via an FTP client?

Thanks so much for your help.

[Mike Hughes]

You should be able to do it one by one, or select them all and do it at the same time.

To do this:

- Select all the ord files.
- right click on them in ws_ftp
- select the 'chmod-unix' option
- tick all the boxes.

I don't use ws_ftp myself but that should do it.

Mike