"Your shopping cart has expired" error - did anyone ever find a fix?

[tintin99]

Every so often our customers report getting an error page on checking out which tells them "Your shopping cart has expired". This is very worrying because for the 2 or 3 people who tell us about it there may be many more who just go elsewhere.

From searching the forums this seems to be a very common problem but almost impossible to fix due to the fact that it only happens intermittently. We've tried all the simple fixes that have been suggested such as extending the time before carts are deleted.

Can anyone tell me if there was ever a solution found, or if there is a single definitive list of things to try anywhere? There are so many threads discussing this problem but no-one seems to have come up with the answer.

Perhaps someone from Actinic could comment?

Thanks in anticipation.

[parklifeclothes]

Have a look in Web, Configure Expiry Periods and maybe look at extending the time allowed before the cart expires

[tintin99]

Hi - thanks, but we tried that - it didn't work.

I forgot to mention in my original post that we are using 1and1 with shared SSL and Protx.

[Darren B]

and have you increased the time in actinic and checked the server time

[tintin99]

Yes, we increased the Cart Expiry Period to 12 hours.

But people were getting the error even when checking out immediately after placing the order, so there was no way their carts could really have expired.

Please could you explain the bit about checking server time in case I've missed something there...thanks!

[parklifeclothes]

and have you increased the time in actinic and checked the server time

Have a look on your stats and make a note of visitors time and compare to real time, we have had times years ago when we were 6 hours behind so our expiry time was already out when cutomers entered our site, might be worth extending the expiry to something silly to see if it is that

[Darren B]

Yes, we increased the Cart Expiry Period to 12 hours.

But people were getting the error even when checking out immediately after placing the order, so there was no way their carts could really have expired.

Please could you explain the bit about checking server time in case I've missed something there...thanks!

sometimes people dont notice that the year is wrong, not the hours and mins.

the best way to check server time is to check the file time and dates of the files on your server. the actinic sessions ones would be good

[pinbrook]

theres a simple pl script you can get from www called something like getservertime.pl

upload this, and run it whenever you want to know the time ;)

[tintin99]

Thanks for the replies. I've checked the server time and it's an hour ahead of UK time. The cart expiry time was 12 hours and we're upping it to 36 hours. Also we're just setting up dedicated SSL - we've been using shared up to now. Will let you know what happens!

[tintin99]

Well, we increased the expiry time to 36 hours and installed dedicated SSL and according to the error log we have just had another Cart Expiry Error!

Does anyone have any suggestions for what we should try next?

[leehack]

Does anyone have any suggestions for what we should try next?
Gotta be the pub, sounds a nightmare.

[tintin99]

Not a bad idea! Seriously thinking about moving to a different cart though...

[leehack]

Understand your frustration Bob, but there is 10k+ sites out there using this cart without this problem. It's either your site or your hosting, it is not software specific IMO. Did you find out the server time?

[tintin99]

Yes I ran a script on the server and the actual server time is an hour ahead of UK time but the time as recorded in the error logs is UK time.

Our website is heavily customised in terms of its appearance but when I set it up I was very careful not to disturb any Actinic code that handled the functionality - but...is it possible I might have done something that could cause this problem? If so is there anything obvious I should check?

[Rich Brady]

If it's not happening on every order, it's unlike to be anything you've done to the code.

Are you able to test the site on another server?

[leehack]

I'd have to question the frequency and whether that points to your users more than the site itself. Can we take a look at the site?

[grantglendinnin]

Within Actinic, Click Help then Troubleshooting

Click the 'Get Server Time' button, this will find the actual server time. Doubt this will differ from the time found by the script you ran, but you never know.

If you're sat adamant that the software is at fault, install Actinic from scratch on another machine if possible (or license a new site if using Actinic Business) and give the new site the same FTP details. Switch to Test Mode and play around with the site to see if you can re-create the issue with the test site. Presumably this would let you identify if the issue is with your server or within Actinic itself. That's how I'd diagnose the problem anyway.

For what it's worth, my money is on the web host.

[tintin99]

According to the logs it happens pretty much every day. The website is www.cameraclean.co.uk (am I allowed to post urls? - I guess I'll find out!)

Thanks for your help!

[grantglendinnin]

<Actinic:TEMPLATE type="begin" filename="C:\Program Files\Actinic v7\Sites\Site1\Act_PrimaryCheckout.html"/>


This is referenced just after the <body> tag on your checkout pages. Perhaps not the reason for the errors, but certainly can't be helping your cause.


---EDIT---

In fact, this seems to be quite common throughout your code. Personally I've not played around with V7 code, so wouldn't be able to offer much advice on this. Referencing files on c:\ doesn't make sense, regardless if this is default Actinic v7 behaviour or not(?)

[tintin99]

Yes I guess testing the site on another server/host would be an option. We're using 1and1 at the moment.

[Rich Brady]

I just went to all three of your payment options without any trouble. Could see any out of the ordinary, but what do you look for :confused: LOL.

Does this happen at any particular time of day?

[tintin99]

grant - Re: the code...yes you get that if you don't Compact HTML/CGI on uploading the site. I seem to remember when I did compact it caused other problems though.

webD - the error file is here http://www.cameraclean.co.uk/acatalog/error.err so you can see the grim details for yourself!

[grantglendinnin]

I've been sitting on checkout page 1 for about 15 minutes now, I will leave it for another half hour or so and see what happens. Just checked your error log and it does make for depressing reading. These errors are being logged on a virtually constant daily basis since approx April 2008. Have you spoken to your host to see if they have implemented any security features in April 2008 which may be causing this?

Having said that, the error log shows this has happened quite often before this point for 2 years prior to 2008. Seems strange that it is only this error that is being logged, there is virtually no other errors being logged for an entire year.

I am assuming you still get orders downloading through Actinic, or does everyone that orders run into this, after informing you when they order by other means?

grant - Re: the code...yes you get that if you don't Compact HTML/CGI on uploading the site. I seem to remember when I did compact it caused other problems though.
Lol, I knew V7 produced some nasty stuff but I didn't realise it was this nasty. Why it references files on the C drive is beyond me.

[Rich Brady]

Christ :eek:

Lee that as to be too frequent for user error?

It's definitely begining to smell of a server problem IMO as I suggested earlier, I think you should try it on a different server.

[tintin99]

We get the odd customer contacting us to report the problem, but of course there must be many who just go elsewhere and don't tell us. To be honest I haven't really studied the logs until this latest spate of occurrences...it's a bit of a shock.

Yes v7 code isn't very nice!

[leehack]

My guess is the hosting.

[grantglendinnin]

Which 1+1 package are you on and is your server Linux or Windows?

[tintin99]

Linux. What sort of questions should I ask 1and1? I think I need to be specific as they will obviously claim that it's not their problem!

EDIT...

Linux Business

[grantglendinnin]

Should be OK.

Seems from past reporting of this issue is problems with your network settings.

If you open your Network Settings and export them to a text file, paste the contents of this ensuring you remove username and password references.

[grantglendinnin]

I have been going back and forth between PSP and your site (Sorry about all the PSP pending orders, lol!) and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. One thing I did notice though, is selecting Paypal - the transfer between your site and Paypal look around 20-30 seconds. On the Paypal server, the details which had been carried over seemed to have messed up. On your site I entered my telephone number, but on the Paypal page it shows a completely different 6-digit number in Home Telephone. I know that's another story altogether but just letting you know the issue exists. Protx was fast as usual, no problems there.

Clicking 'Cancel' to return from PSP to your site was no problem.

Another niggle is the Receipt page - you are showing a different e-mail address, be careful not to confuse customers with that :)

Would 100% lead me to believe you have Hosting issues. 1+1 seem to be quite problematic IMO.

[tintin99]

Thanks for the info Grant - it's very helpful. I'll post the Network Settings asap. Any ideas what sort of thing at 1+1 could cause the problem?

[grantglendinnin]

Thanks for the info Grant - it's very helpful. I'll post the Network Settings asap. Any ideas what sort of thing at 1+1 could cause the problem?

Could be numerous things - most likely security settings. That seems to be one of the most common issues with low-cost servers - since they are so popular due to the low cost, they are often targeted and therefore have stricter than usual settings, in my experience anyway.

[leehack]

Lots of people use 1+1, i think the issue with them is that your package must be a certain package or higher. Info on this in the forum already, may be worth digging out and checking yours against this.

[tintin99]

Network settings as follows:

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST auth.smtp.oneandone.co.uk
WEBSITEURL http://www.cameraclean.co.uk/
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
USEENHANCEFTP true
FTPCLIENTTIMEOUT 15000
FTPRETRYDELAY 3000
FTPSILENT false
FTPMAXRETRIES 3
FTPCONNECTTIMEOUT 25000
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED false
SMTPUSERNAME
SMTPPASSWORD
SSLCATALOGURL https://www.cameraclean.co.uk/acatalog/
SSLCGIBINURL https://www.cameraclean.co.uk/cgi-bin/
SSLPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../acatalog/
SSLCODEBASE ./
SSLFTPHOST ftp.cameraclean.co.uk
SSLFTPUSERNAME
SSLFTPPASSWORD
SSLPATHTOCGIBIN /CameraClean/cgi-bin/
SSLUSEPASSIVEFTP false
CATALOGURL http://www.cameraclean.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.cameraclean.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST ftp.cameraclean.co.uk
FTPUSERNAME
FTPPASSWORD
PATHTOCGIBIN /CameraClean/cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP false
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG /CameraClean/acatalog/

[Rich Brady]

FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG /CameraClean/acatalog/

Is this right? Is it like public_html you see on some sever set ups?

[tintin99]

ummm...not quite sure what you mean, but CameraClean is the name of the directory on the server which acts as the root directory for the website. Presumably if there was anything wrong with this setting nothing would work at all....?

[tintin99]

Well, I contacted 1and1 support about it and got the following reply (surprise, surprise!):

With regard to that issue, I think it's a problem with the application
that you use. I also want to inform you that you are in the Shared
Hosting Server in which we can not change the security settings since
there are lot of customers will be affected. The security measures of
your application might be too high & this is why sometimes it time out.
So, you have to check the application that you use as we can not double
check it since third party applications is already beyond the scope of
our support.

[malbro]

grant - Re: the code...yes you get that if you don't Compact HTML/CGI on uploading the site. I seem to remember when I did compact it caused other problems though.

webD - the error file is here http://www.cameraclean.co.uk/acatalog/error.err so you can see the grim details for yourself!
I see from the log that the script is version 490, that is a very early script so would have been written for an early version of perl. The current version of perl on 1and1 servers may not be suitable for such an old script, possibly someone who had more experience with the early versions of Actinic could comment on this.

The error is generated by the script os000001.pl (number may vary), I do not have a copy of the script you are using as on Actinic 8.5.3 the script is at version 20697, so it is difficult to give any more details.

[malbro]

Is this right? Is it like public_html you see on some sever set ups?1and1 allow multiple web sites on your server package, part of the admin allows you to select a folder on the server as the root for a specific domain name. I have several domains hosted on one server at 1and1 each in its own folder. The actinic sites I have on 1and1 are test sites, so I do not have any experience with this cart problem.

[tintin99]

I see from the log that the script is version 490, that is a very early script so would have been written for an early version of perl. The current version of perl on 1and1 servers may not be suitable for such an old script, possibly someone who had more experience with the early versions of Actinic could comment on this.

Sounds possible - I don't know anything about perl but maybe someone else can tell us.

[Duncan Rounding]

Sounds possible - I don't know anything about perl but maybe someone else can tell us.

I don't think that thiat is related. I have v7 sites runnging ORDERSCR v487 without any issue on 1and1.

[Rich Brady]

1and1 allow multiple web sites on your server package, part of the admin allows you to select a folder on the server as the root for a specific domain name. I have several domains hosted on one server at 1and1 each in its own folder. The actinic sites I have on 1and1 are test sites, so I do not have any experience with this cart problem.

Cheers for that Malcolm.

Bob, do you have more than one site on the server? It may not even be relevent, but I thought it help build the complete picture...

[tintin99]

Cheers for that Malcolm.

Bob, do you have more than one site on the server? It may not even be relevent, but I thought it help build the complete picture...

I think there are a couple of other sites under the same user account but nothing of any significance.

[tintin99]

I don't think that thiat is related. I have v7 sites runnging ORDERSCR v487 without any issue on 1and1.

Thanks for that Duncan. If it's possible to run v7 on 1and1 without this problem then I'd have thought it must be something to do with our website - either the Actinic settings or the page code...

[Rich Brady]

I think there are a couple of other sites under the same user account but nothing of any significance.

Are they actinic sites?

[tintin99]

Are they actinic sites?

No they're just static html, not e-commerce.

[Rich Brady]

Lots of people use 1+1, i think the issue with them is that your package must be a certain package or higher. Info on this in the forum already, may be worth digging out and checking yours against this.

Perhaps you need to follow this advice and see what's said about 1 and 1 and which packages work with Actinic and which don't. Sorry I've not been much help!

[tintin99]

I did a check and it seems to be that 1and1 Business is OK. Thanks for your input Rich, and everyone else too...at least now I feel that I've exhausted all the avenues.

Cheers!

[tintin99]

If you're sat adamant that the software is at fault, install Actinic from scratch on another machine if possible (or license a new site if using Actinic Business) and give the new site the same FTP details. Switch to Test Mode and play around with the site to see if you can re-create the issue with the test site. Presumably this would let you identify if the issue is with your server or within Actinic itself. That's how I'd diagnose the problem anyway.

For what it's worth, my money is on the web host.

Grant - I think I'll give this a try. Is there any way I can run Actinic in Test Mode without setting up the SSL? It's just that I only have access to SSL on 1and1. Thanks.

[leehack]

If the SSL is for taking payment info on your site, you are 10 months out of date for PCI compliance and counting. Maybe this is a nudge in the right direction to get things sorted properly?

[tintin99]

If the SSL is for taking payment info on your site, you are 10 months out of date for PCI compliance and counting. Maybe this is a nudge in the right direction to get things sorted properly?

Not sure I understand Lee...or maybe I should clarify what I'm trying to do...

It's been suggested that I set up Actinic on another server (ie with another ISP) in Test Mode to see if I can replicate the fault. I can easily upload the site to another ISP that I use but they don't offer SSL facilities. What I'm asking is whether it's possible to run Actinic *in Test Mode only* on a server that doesn't have SSL.

[leehack]

I understand what you are trying to do Bob, i'm asking why you need SSL. If it's for the reason I think it is, then maybe it is a blessing in disguise because your method of taking payments is out of date by almost a year now and you should ideally be looking to sort that area out ASAP.

[tintin99]

I understand what you are trying to do Bob, i'm asking why you need SSL. If it's for the reason I think it is, then maybe it is a blessing in disguise because your method of taking payments is out of date by almost a year now and you should ideally be looking to sort that area out ASAP.

Not sure what you're getting at Lee - could you elaborate?

[leehack]

What are you using the SSL to do? Why do you want it on your site? What is it to achieve or do for you?

If it is being used to take payment information securely, then you are 10 months out of date, because of new rules that came into place in April last year called "PCI-DSS Compliance". If you don't know what that is and you are currently using SSL to take payment information, then search the web or this forum on that phrase for more information on what you need to do. In short, bin SSL and get a PSP.

[Darren B]

Bob

untick ssl in your buisiness settings, then change your network settings to the other hosting area then switch to test mode.

[tintin99]

What are you using the SSL to do? Why do you want it on your site? What is it to achieve or do for you?

If it is being used to take payment information securely, then you are 10 months out of date, because of new rules that came into place in April last year called "PCI-DSS Compliance". If you don't know what that is and you are currently using SSL to take payment information, then search the web or this forum on that phrase for more information on what you need to do. In short, bin SSL and get a PSP.

I think a light's starting to come on...do you mean that as we use a PSP (Protx) we don't need to use SSL at all on the site...?

---EDIT---

Not using SSL would mean that the customer details entry screen wasn't secure...

[tintin99]

Bob

untick ssl in your buisiness settings, then change your network settings to the other hosting area then switch to test mode.

Thanks Darren!

[Mike Hughes]

There are a few causes of the 'cart expired error'. The wrong server time is one, but this is pretty rare and easily checked.

Other things that might cause this include:

1. The PC being set to the wrong time zone.

- This looks too common to be the case here. Unless it's the same customer trying lots of times.

2. Checkout links problems. Hardcoded checkout links carried over from earlier versions of Actinic have caused problems in V7. I can't see this problem here but it's worth checking yourself.

3. Domain problems.

a) the wrong settings (minus www.) in network setup. Doesn't look like the case here.

b) SSL bouncing to the wrong domain. Typically without www. or where someone tries to use a single certificate on multiple domains.

c) Mixing www. and non-www. urls. Although the network setup is all www. you may have external links to the non-www. url and this operates as a separate domain with cookie problems. I can see that you haven't already forwarded all non-www. urls to the www. equivalent and would suggest you do this now. This might be the cause of your problem although I haven't been able to recreate it.

This thread explains how to do the redirect. http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=24066

Mike

[TraceyHand]

that summary ought to be made a sticky or, at the very least, put into the KB!

[pinbrook]

I think a light's starting to come on...do you mean that as we use a PSP (Protx) we don't need to use SSL at all on the site...?

---EDIT---

Not using SSL would mean that the customer details entry screen wasn't secure...

True and True

the 2nd statement has always been a point for discussion, most people who have run sites with PSP and then experimented with SSL additionally have tended to report very little difference in converted sales.

Thus its really up to you. Some sites still run with PSP and SSL in order to secure customer login.

IMO PSP and shared SSL is a waste of effort.

[Darren B]

I have been running and experiment on a site using my shared ssl cert and it has made no difference in sales, possibly even less than normal over the last few months.

Credit crunch maybe but my other sites seem about the same as before. Perhaps its the shared SSL that makes the difference as its not a dedicated SSL. The site is http://www.rawair.co.uk

D