duplicate order numbers

[jxm28788]

I had had two instances where customers have contacted me about their order with an order number, but it does not exist in Actinic.

eg. customer says AB12CD10001234 but that is not in the order list, but there is one in the list for another customer with the same order 'number' - eg. XX12YY10001234

I wrote these off as flukes, but now I have found a couple more orders where the same order number DOES exist twice - once in pending and once in the complete list - for different customers.

Any idea how/why this is happening?

[TraceyG]

Hi,

Has your 'acatalog' folder ever been cleared out? There are two files that relate to creating the order number - order.num and backup.num. If these files are deleted the order numbers will start from the beginning again after the next site upload and could cause the duplication of the last part of the order numbers.

To change the order number you can go to the 'Help' menu and select 'Troubleshooting'.

I am unsure as to why there are missing orders from your system, unless you use a payment service provider (PSP) (such as WorldPay) and the missing order numbers are in the 'Pending Payment Service Provider' tab? If this is the case, then for some reason you have not had the 'callback' file from your PSP, but you could check with them if they have received the payment.

[jxm28788]

Has your 'acatalog' folder ever been cleared out?

No

There are two files that relate to creating the order number - order.num and backup.num. If these files are deleted the order numbers will start from the beginning again after the next site upload and could cause the duplication of the last part of the order numbers.

They haven't been deleted, and the duplicates happened in different places, not consecutively.

I am unsure as to why there are missing orders from your system, unless you use a payment service provider (PSP) (such as WorldPay) and the missing order numbers are in the 'Pending Payment Service Provider' tab? If this is the case, then for some reason you have not had the 'callback' file from your PSP, but you could check with them if they have received the payment.

As per my original comments, two occasions where the duplicate orders did not exist in either tab, and a couple of occasions where there was one order in complete and a duplicate in payment pending.

What is the mechanism for handling multiple baskets at the same time and could problems be occuring there?

[TraceyG]

Hi,

What is the mechanism for handling multiple baskets at the same time and could problems be occuring there?

During the order number generation if order.num and backup.num do not exist(ie, the first order placed) then a new Order.num is created and 0 counter is written to this file.

If the files exist then the script tries to rename Order.num to OrderLock.num. This operation can not be done if other instance of the script already working on the lock file (ie someone is placing an order at the same time). Therefore if the rename is not successful then the script repeats it (20 times) with a few delays between the tries. In other words, the script waits while the other instance finishes the work on the lock file and this is renamed back to Order.num. So it should not be possible for two people to place an order at the same time and get the same order number.

I will ask our development team if they can think of a reason for duplicate order numbers to occur.

[jxm28788]

bugger.

I think I just figured out why some were 'missing' and some were duplicates...

Would I be correct in thinking that when actinic displays the list of orders it lists them by the order 'number' rather than the 'order number'?

ie. Order 123, rather than AB12CD00000123?

The thing is, the 'missing' orders were paid for as were the orders that existed under the same number, therefore they should both have been listed in 'complete'. In the 'duplicate' cases one was listed in 'complete' and the 'duplicate' listed in 'payment pending'.

The reason I just figured that out is I just noticed that the 'duplicate' order that was in payment pending appears to have overwritten the other order that was in 'complete' once I manually approved the payment...

Firstly, does this mean that the original order has been overwritten, or just that actinic can't display it because there are 2 with the same number and it is confused?

Secondly, is there a way of manually changing the number of a specific order (ie. the duplicate I *can* see) so that the original can be seen again...?

[TraceyG]

Hi John,

Would I be correct in thinking that when actinic displays the list of orders it lists them by the order 'number' rather than the 'order number'?

ie. Order 123, rather than AB12CD00000123?

When you download the orders it brings them down in numerical order (ie order 'number'). If you click on the 'Order Number' column it sorts them alphabetically using the whole 'order number'

Firstly, does this mean that the original order has been overwritten,

If the first part of the order number is different then nothing should be overwritten as they are considered 'unique' numbers even if the last part is the same.

Secondly, is there a way of manually changing the number of a specific order

We don't recommend this but you can change it directly in the database. The order numbers are kept in the 'Order' table of the 'ActinicCatalog.mdb' file (take a backup before changing anything in here).

The only reasons that our development team can think of for having duplicate order numbers are:
- the *.num files have been deleted from the server
- the order number being changed to an earlier number than the current one via 'Help | Troubleshooting'
- the order numbering sequence has started from the beginning again and all previous orders have not been removed from the database.

If none of the above are the case for your issue, I would suggest that you raise a support query here for further investigation (quote this community thread).

[jxm28788]

When you download the orders it brings them down in numerical order (ie order 'number'). If you click on the 'Order Number' column it sorts them alphabetically using the whole 'order number'

So theoretically, if there were 2 orders 'AB12CD00000123' and 'XY34ZZ00000123' they should both appear in the completed list (assuming they are both complete)? (This does not appear to be happening)

The only reasons that our development team can think of for having duplicate order numbers are:
- the *.num files have been deleted from the server
- the order number being changed to an earlier number than the current one via 'Help | Troubleshooting'
- the order numbering sequence has started from the beginning again and all previous orders have not been removed from the database.

None of those would seem to make sense - if that were the case I would expect sequential duplicates where the old and new overlapped, but I just have a few dupes in random places.

I will put this down as a 'one off' for now, possibly caused by problems with the host moving servers. I will raise a call if it happens again, but for now I will try renaming them in teh DB.