Empty base href in cgi-bin

[lizzymace]

Hi there,

I'm developing http://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/acatalog/ for a client with Developer v6. It required lots of customisation of the templates to get it to match the main site I designed, and some of the code is still a bit ropey, but anyway...

My problem is that the base href in the cgi-bin (so for the trolley, the checkout pages and the search results pages) is completely blank. This doesn't cause any problems in the lovely Mozilla, but it means that in Internet Explorer none of the images or stylesheets are loading in these pages.

I have been scouring these forums and found lots of potential fixes. Most of the other threads related to the base href being set wrongly, but the problem I have is that it's not being set at all - it just comes out as '<BASE HREF="">'. I have tried the fixes suggested anyway, but none of them have solved the problem. The fixes I've tried are:

- ensuring the stylesheet is called "actinic.css"
- placing copies of stylesheets and images in the cgi-bin
- purging all session files in Help | Troubleshooting | Purge Files
- checking Act_Primary.html uses '<Actinic:BASEHREF value="NETQUOTEVAR:BASEHREF"/>

I read about adding ACTINIC_REFERRER to the querystring of links, but that question was referring to the base href being set wrong when visitors are following links into a product from an entirely different site. Surely I don't have to add the ACTINIC_REFERRER to the links from the Catalog pages to the Checkout pages, and all the "Add to trolley" buttons, etc?

I would be really grateful if someone could tell me what I'm missing!

Thank you,

Lizzy

[s-j-r]

I think these all get initialised depending upon the "network setup" values that you have specified - are these all as you expect?

Steve

[lizzymace]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for being so quick!

The site is hosted with 4surehosting, who have been amazing with their technical support and the speed of their help. They provided me with a text file with all the network settings in, which I just imported into Developer, so I assume they're all as they should be.

Actually, you've just given me a thought - the text file did not contain the settings for the SSL sections, and I assumed they would be the same as the regular bits so just filled them in. Perhaps this is the problem - I will contact 4sure to see if they can provide me with the correct settings. This might reveal the cause, if they are supposed to be different from the others.

Thanks for the idea - hope it works!

Lizzy

[pinbrook]

I think s-j-r is on the right lines to ask about your network settings.

could you post them?

[NormanRouxel]

Go into Design / Options / Layouts and check which template you're actually using for the checkout pages. It may not be Act_Primary.html.

Norman

[lizzymace]

Hi there,

Thanks for your messages.

You're right, I'm not using Act_Primary for the Checkout pages, I'm using Act_PrimaryCheckout. That was another thing I already checked - I compared the base href tag in my customised template to the one in the original Actinic template to make sure I hadn't accidentally altered it, and it was the same too.

I think it must be to do with the network settings - I contacted 4sure yesterday and they suggested that I export them and mail the text file so they can check it out for me.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get to the office where Developer is installed today, as I planned, so it'll have to wait another day!

Again, thank you for all your help. I'll let you know if we manage to fix it - if not I'll be looking for more ideas!

Lizzy

[lizzymace]

Hi,

I mailed my network settings to 4sure and they said everything's fine. They suggested changing the setting of "Use Relative CGI URLs" to Enabled. I tried this today and this made the checkout pages work, but the search results and "View Shopping Cart" pages still have the same problem.

Any other ideas would be very much appreciated!

I could always revert back to previous verisons of the template files and re-trace all the changes I made, but that would have to be the last resort...

Let me know if anything (even something which seems really small) strikes you as being a possible cause! Thanks very much,

Lizzy

[cdicken]

OK - in a default overall layout template, the value for the 'base HREF' is:

<Actinic:BASEHREF VALUE="NETQUOTEVAR:BASEHREF"/>

In your store pages you have:

<Actinic:BASEHREF value="http://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/acatalog/" />

This looks correct. However, in your checkout you have

<base href="http://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/acatalog" /> (note the missing '/' at the end).

I'm guessing you have manually set the base href value in the checkout template to work properly - and putting the final '/' in should fix the javascript errors you are getting.

With regards to the cart, all I can suggest is posting your network settings up here (removing username and password) and we can see whether there is anything obviously wrong.

[lizzymace]

Hi there,

Yeah, I tried manually coding the base href in the checkout template - I didn't notice the missing / after acatalog, though - thanks for pointing it out. This fixed the checkout pages, but not the search results or trolley page. I haven't had a proper look yet at the files to see which ones to change to code it in for the search and trolley, but I may well do it in the end if it doesn't cause any other problems.

My hosts, 4sure, couldn't see anything wrong with the network settings, but here's the file anyway, in case anyone has any ideas:

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST localhost
WEBSITEURL http://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
SSLCATALOGURL https://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/acatalog/
SSLCGIBINURL https://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/cgi-bin/
SSLPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../acatalog/
SSLCODEBASE ./
SSLFTPHOST ftp.soroptimist-gbi.org
SSLFTPUSERNAME [hidden]
SSLFTPPASSWORD [hidden]
SSLPATHTOCGIBIN /documents/cgi-bin/
SSLUSEPASSIVEFTP false
CATALOGURL http://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST ftp.soroptimist-gbi.org
FTPUSERNAME [hidden]
FTPPASSWORD [hidden]
PATHTOCGIBIN /documents/cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP false
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG /documents/acatalog/

Cheers!

Lizzy

[cdicken]

Lizzy,

You have two options.

You can hard-code the base href in the default overall layout template. That should work fine - although you will need to create a different one for the brochure page you are using as a home page.

Alternatively, register an email support request at http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm and the team there will look at your snapshot and try and figure out what is happening.