Very slow checkout

[jonwilliams]

You do know that a lot of Actinic variables are missing from the site?

See, I knew it was me who had screwed up and not Bill Java Gates Unix giving me the run around. Sorry Gary, which variables are they and where should they be?

Jon

[harlequin]

have you tried from home yet or are you still at work..

also, what version of windows you on? go to Start Menu>Run and type winver and click ok

what version browser you on? in a browser go to help>about explorer


i am looking at your front page now, and of ALL the links on your front page, it is ONLY the actinic generated ones that ARE working for me..your hand coded contact us and tell a friend links arent working...

it gets stranger eh?

inside the site it all orders fine and i really wouldnt know anything was wrong except for the couple of hardcoded links we already know about..

can everyone else see johns front page now and use all the links except for the ones mentioned? can you all get into the site from the section links from the front page, or from the drop-down on the front page..

really, as far as i can see you only need to fix the hard links(minor), and the annoying java and you should be hot to trot..

steve

[harlequin]

i saw the variables and i didnt think there was anything to worry about, they have simply been removed to give johns preferred display..from a few templates..if its one of these causing any error it would be good to know..

screenshot of errors attached

[garyhay]

my post of the site is here http://www.e-commerce-aberdeen.com and it does more or less look okay and is functioning.

I will say that images seem to disappear then reappear and the hard coded links are suspect as you know.

One of our clients site has being having problems with the browser showing the same page differently to you when you first visit. If you refresh or click a link then the back button it is okay?

I have attached the Actinic message regarding missing variables but like Steve I dont think these should make a difference (but they might)

[wfl]

Yep most things seem to work OK but there do seem to be some random glitches.

There is a lot of customisation and scripting going on and it is beginning to look like that could be causing some of the problems. Perhaps there are some conflicts or poor consructs.

I always get an Error on Page message and looking through the source code I can see a lot of oddities.

As I said before it looks like Jon needs to take a step back and look at what he has done. Was there a point in time in the design process where it worked fine?

[jonwilliams]

I am home now on Windows XP ver 5.1 and IE6.0 and still the same problems.

However.....Gary, looking at the site on your server, the brochure fragment image links (i.e. the images down the left hand side) do work, although the drop-down menu links don't.

Wierd, huh?

I know I have done a lot of customisation and as a non-professional have probably been very untidy about it. However, yes it was all working on the windows server, and the problems only strated when I moved to Unix (to solve the speed problem apparently) not having changed anything at all to the best of my knowledge.

Perhaps Steve is right, I need to start over with a simple site and add the various twiddly bits back in one by one testing along the way.

Jon

[Jenny]

if you add an item to the basket, got to checkout then cancel it then fails on gary's site and Jon's.. by the way.
Jenny

[garyhay]

The drop downs worked okay on my office PC Win98 IE5.

If you JON are saying it worked before you moved server then have you recoded the links for the new cgi-bin URL??

[jonwilliams]

I shouldn't have to recode any links for the new cgi-bin url should I, well not the actinic-generated ones anyway?

Gary suggested by email using a normal hard-coded html page (i.e not an actinic brochure page) for the home page as a way around the problems. This sounds like a good idea even as a temporary fix as all my problems (well the critical ones anyway) are associated with this page.

Going to be out now for most of the rest of the day, but any more comments/suggestions gratefully received as ever. (We haven't got to 100 replies yet!)

Cheers
Jon

[Jenny]

Having had a look around, the worst of it just seems to be the links that are hardcoded. When I fiddled around with the links, it started to take shape with no real problems. Catch up with you later Jon.
Jenny

[harlequin]

hey john, if you are going to re-do how you have laid out your sections, and want to use a fantastic drop down system that happily works on your brochure pages then see norman's page at www.rouxel.cwc.net/actinicstuff

the drop downs on there are excellent and well within your capabilities to add them to your site.. theres some other really clever things there and im sure you will probably use a couple...

if you are going to end up with quite a few replicated products accross sections, then Jan @ www.mole-end.biz has a great product that enables this for you...especially as you have developer and may end up (and should really) building multiple sites with the same products (just laid out differently for S.Engine purposes)...

and yes, i would (not saying you should) but i would probably start from scratch with an Actinic Business Layout (the cleanest one of the bunch) and be completely methodical about your approach to it... to be honest, thats what i actually do, create a site which cant help but be a bit all over the place because of so many changes whilst building it, and then i look at finished result, and build again from clean, it shouldn't take you a tenth of the time it did to build....

something else whilst you build, where you have deleted netquotevars from templates it is better to comment them out with

<!-- commented out stuff here -->

you then wont get missing netquotevar errors.

i would offer you a free test webspace account because i have enjoyed this post but as we already know, you are now on unix and i am on windows..

please continue to post your questions whilst you build/rebuild...i am sure you will..

steve

[wfl]

Jon

If you are thinking about starting again don't be disheartened. What you have done is a lot of good work but perhaps you were doing some learning while you did it. As Steve says we all do it and the second attempt should take a fraction of the time.

If you do go for a rebuild then here are some things I do to keep track;

As Steve says use comments to retain the NETQUOTVARS on the page, at least until it is finished and after to stop the can't find messages.

Use comments to make note your changes and additions.

Keep regular copies of the site so that you can easily get back to a point.

Wherever possible don't overwrire ACT_ files. Create your own JW_ versions or whatever.

Make sure compress html is off until you are finished. That way you cand see what you fave done when you look at the preveiw or site html.

Do a live test the starting point theme that you use and then and then try to test each major step one at a time on your web server to make sure it works.

That way you should have no bad links, no errors on page and a slick site.