Customer Still Able to Order Deleted Item

[Mel]

We are currently running ShopSite version SC Pro 4.3. Our problem is this:
At times customers are still able to order an item that has been removed
from our store. (The item has been removed from all pages but is not
deleted from the list of products.) When we look for it using our computer,
the item is not there. Yet more than once a customer has been able to order
the item. This has happened with more than one item. The order shows up
with all the correct information listed on the form. If this were a problem
with cached pages, wouldn't it straighten itself out when going through the
actual order process? (Assuming the order form wasn't cached as well.) It
has nothing to do with regenerating the site when uploading. We do this
every time we upload. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[Nikolaus Gruchot]

Hi Mel,

Shopsite generates an individual html page for each product that you have in
the database. When you delete the product from the database, this page is
NOT deleted. It is simply not updated any longer when you generate the shop.
You need to FTP to your server and delete the page of the product manually.

The customer can order the item as long as the page is existing (he does
find the product probably through a search engine that gives him the direct
link to the page).

We do assign the name for each product-page in our shop by calling it
SKUnumber.html. So when we delete a product, we simply look for the
SKUnumber.html page and can find and delete it easily.

One more practical hint: If you delete a product and the page from you
store: Do not annoy your customer with a 404 error code. Have a custom 404
error page explaning to the customer that the product he is looking for is
discontinued, but offer a link to your stores index page and invite him to
take a look.

Best regards from Germany,
Niko


"Mel" <melfrank@melfrank.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:9uiq2d$j0q$1@support.shopsite.com...

We are currently running ShopSite version SC Pro 4.3. Our problem is this:
At times customers are still able to order an item that has been removed
from our store. (The item has been removed from all pages but is not
deleted from the list of products.) When we look for it using our
computer,
the item is not there. Yet more than once a customer has been able to
order
the item. This has happened with more than one item. The order shows up
with all the correct information listed on the form. If this were a
problem
with cached pages, wouldn't it straighten itself out when going through
the
actual order process? (Assuming the order form wasn't cached as well.)
It
has nothing to do with regenerating the site when uploading. We do this
every time we upload. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[loren_d_c]

Actually, the reason the product can be ordered is because you haven't hit the
Publish button yet. The products are placed in a 'to-be-deleted' state in the
products database when you delete them, but they are actually completely removed
when you Publish. This is so that shoppers can order the items off of
ShopSite-generated pages until the pages are re-published without the product on
them.

If you are not using ShopSite-generated pages or the particular item is not on a
ShopSite-generated page, you should still Publish, and even if it said no
changes were made to your store, the database was still cleaned up so that
to-be-deleted records were actually deleted and could no longer be ordered.

What Nikolaus said about the HTML pages is partly true, if you are using
ShopSite-generated pages you can use the ShopSite-generated More Info page for
each product as well. Or you can just have one product on a ShopSite page.

But if a ShopSite-generated page is deleted, the corresponding HTML page should
be deleted as well (at least in newer versions of ShopSite). I am not so sure
about the More Info pages for products.

-Loren


Nikolaus Gruchot wrote:

Hi Mel,

Shopsite generates an individual html page for each product that you have in
the database. When you delete the product from the database, this page is
NOT deleted. It is simply not updated any longer when you generate the shop.
You need to FTP to your server and delete the page of the product manually.

The customer can order the item as long as the page is existing (he does
find the product probably through a search engine that gives him the direct
link to the page).

We do assign the name for each product-page in our shop by calling it
SKUnumber.html. So when we delete a product, we simply look for the
SKUnumber.html page and can find and delete it easily.

One more practical hint: If you delete a product and the page from you
store: Do not annoy your customer with a 404 error code. Have a custom 404
error page explaning to the customer that the product he is looking for is
discontinued, but offer a link to your stores index page and invite him to
take a look.

Best regards from Germany,
Niko

"Mel" <melfrank@melfrank.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:9uiq2d$j0q$1@support.shopsite.com...
We are currently running ShopSite version SC Pro 4.3. Our problem is this:
At times customers are still able to order an item that has been removed
from our store. (The item has been removed from all pages but is not
deleted from the list of products.) When we look for it using our
computer,
the item is not there. Yet more than once a customer has been able to
order
the item. This has happened with more than one item. The order shows up
with all the correct information listed on the form. If this were a
problem
with cached pages, wouldn't it straighten itself out when going through
the
actual order process? (Assuming the order form wasn't cached as well.)
It
has nothing to do with regenerating the site when uploading. We do this
every time we upload. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[Mel]

When this has happened, the pages have been published for days. (Sometimes
several times.) We do have some problems when publishing our pages however.
We have to publish 2-3 times before the process is complete and the store
ready to be viewed. Could this be contributing to the problem? We also
manage our products and pages with StoneEdge. This shouldn't affect the
procedure, should it?

"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3C0D086A.48263608@yahoo.com...

Actually, the reason the product can be ordered is because you haven't hit
the
Publish button yet. The products are placed in a 'to-be-deleted' state in
the
products database when you delete them, but they are actually completely
removed
when you Publish. This is so that shoppers can order the items off of
ShopSite-generated pages until the pages are re-published without the
product on
them.

If you are not using ShopSite-generated pages or the particular item is
not on a
ShopSite-generated page, you should still Publish, and even if it said no
changes were made to your store, the database was still cleaned up so that
to-be-deleted records were actually deleted and could no longer be
ordered.

What Nikolaus said about the HTML pages is partly true, if you are using
ShopSite-generated pages you can use the ShopSite-generated More Info page
for
each product as well. Or you can just have one product on a ShopSite page.

But if a ShopSite-generated page is deleted, the corresponding HTML page
should
be deleted as well (at least in newer versions of ShopSite). I am not so
sure
about the More Info pages for products.

-Loren


Nikolaus Gruchot wrote:

Hi Mel,

Shopsite generates an individual html page for each product that you
have in
the database. When you delete the product from the database, this page
is
NOT deleted. It is simply not updated any longer when you generate the
shop.
You need to FTP to your server and delete the page of the product
manually.

The customer can order the item as long as the page is existing (he does
find the product probably through a search engine that gives him the
direct
link to the page).

We do assign the name for each product-page in our shop by calling it
SKUnumber.html. So when we delete a product, we simply look for the
SKUnumber.html page and can find and delete it easily.

One more practical hint: If you delete a product and the page from you
store: Do not annoy your customer with a 404 error code. Have a custom
404
error page explaning to the customer that the product he is looking for
is
discontinued, but offer a link to your stores index page and invite him
to
take a look.

Best regards from Germany,
Niko

"Mel" <melfrank@melfrank.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:9uiq2d$j0q$1@support.shopsite.com...
We are currently running ShopSite version SC Pro 4.3. Our problem is
this:
At times customers are still able to order an item that has been
removed
from our store. (The item has been removed from all pages but is not
deleted from the list of products.) When we look for it using our
computer,
the item is not there. Yet more than once a customer has been able to
order
the item. This has happened with more than one item. The order shows
up
with all the correct information listed on the form. If this were a
problem
with cached pages, wouldn't it straighten itself out when going
through
the
actual order process? (Assuming the order form wasn't cached as
well.)
It
has nothing to do with regenerating the site when uploading. We do
this
every time we upload. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[Isaac Vollaire]

Your problem might be with Google.

When Google spiders a web page it takes a "picture" of your page and stores
it in it's database. So if Google has taken a "picture" of the page you
deleted they still have a copy of that page. Even though it no longer exists
on your server, they have it on theirs, complete with links to old products.
This has happened to our site many times. The only way we "fixed" the
problem was to just put DISCONTINUED in the product description so that when
people do find an old product at least they get a hint that it's not
available any more.

To see what Google has cached for your site just search for your domain
name, or some search term that would bring you up. Then on the results page
next to where they show the URL of the page you will see the text "Cached -
Similar Pages" . Click on cached and you will see what they have for your
site.

I hope this helps. If this is way off, then I apologize for giving everyone
a lesson on Google. But I'm pretty sure thats what the problem is.

Isaac
http://www.AtDiscount.com

"Mel" <melfrank@melfrank.com> wrote in message
news:9uiq2d$j0q$1@support.shopsite.com...

We are currently running ShopSite version SC Pro 4.3. Our problem is this:
At times customers are still able to order an item that has been removed
from our store. (The item has been removed from all pages but is not
deleted from the list of products.) When we look for it using our
computer,
the item is not there. Yet more than once a customer has been able to
order
the item. This has happened with more than one item. The order shows up
with all the correct information listed on the form. If this were a
problem
with cached pages, wouldn't it straighten itself out when going through
the
actual order process? (Assuming the order form wasn't cached as well.)
It
has nothing to do with regenerating the site when uploading. We do this
every time we upload. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.