Shopping Cart Empty at check out

[malcolmk]

I have just started using the eStore plugin. I am using mostly default settings. Everything is working correctly in Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, BUT NOT on Internet Explorer. When I proceed to check out I either receive this error message:

Either your shopping cart is empty or the PHP session on your server is not working correctly. Please check this article.

OR

I am redirected to a pay pal site that says the we can not complete your request. When you click on the recommended link on that page, you are redirected to the Pay pal home page.

I have read the available documentation on this topic in the Forums but they all relate to problems in Firefox not IE. Also, I don’t think it is a configuring issue my server (hosted by Go Daddy) as everything is fine in other browsers.

Any suggestions?

[amin007]

Please post a link to your products page so I can take a look.

[malcolmk]

Sorry. Here is a link

http://www.speakeasytokyo.net/downtobusinessenglish/wordpress/year-in-review-2010/

Cheers

[amin007]

I just tested your link in IE and it works fine for me (I get sent to PayPal’s payment page). Can you please check this from another computer? Try clearing your browser cache and stuff?

[malcolmk]

Thanks for checking.

I have 5 PCs and 2 Macs in the office. Everything works well on each machine in the FF, Chroome and Safari browsers. But not IE.

I have cleared browser caches, cookies, et all. Still getting the error message.

I have just noticed this though: when I access the wp page using

http://www.speakeasytokyo.net/downtobusinessenglish/wordpress/year-in-review-2010/

it takes me to the Payment page successfully.

BUT when I access my wordpress page in the manner most of my customers would:

Step 1)

http://www.downtobusinessenglish.com

Step 2)

click on the Year in Review 2010 tab in the header

It is under this situation that I am getting an error message.

Could I get you to take a look at it again but this time accessing the page as following step 1 and 2.

Thanks

[amin007]

Its a server setup issue. You are actually on the site “http://www.downtobusinessenglish.com” which is mapped to “http://www.speakeasytokyo.net/”

When I click on the “Year in Review 2010 tab” in the header you will notice that the URL doesn’t actually change (it remains the same as a root domain!). Please read this article and it will shed some light on this topic:

Incorrect Server Setup related to URL ReWriting – Cause and Effect

IE is not as smart as the other browsers so you gotta follow the protocol correctly.

[malcolmk]

Thanks for the information.

“you gotta follow the protocol correctly.”

Sorry, I really don’t know what that means. I am not well versed in “under the hood” tech issues and one of the reasons I purchased this plugin was that it appeared very UI friendly.

I have looked at the documentation you provided and can understand that I have a complicated URL structure on my site.

My root URL is http://www.speakeasytokyo.net

My wordpress site is located at http://www.speakeasytokyo.net/downtobusinessenglish/wordpress

I have the http://www.downtobusinessenglish pointed to the later URL put all the pages and posts generated through my WP theme have the wp generated url http://www.speakeasytokyo.net/downtobusinessenglish/wordpress/post-or-page-name-year-month-date

I read the document http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/misc/rewriteguide.html about Apache rewriting but it is way beyond me.

If you have any advice as to what I should do to resolve this situation I would sincerely appreciate it.

[amin007]

This is the issue…

1. Your wordpress is installed on domain A:

http://www.speakeasytokyo.net/downtobusinessenglish/wordpress

2. You have domain B which is pulling all the HTML content from domain A using an iFrame. So your PHP session values are not actually available in domain B. Internet explorer doesn’t work good with iFrame and session cookies. Just do a Google search with “internet explorer, iFrame and session cookie issues”.

In your case you should consider using “Buy Now” type buttons instead of “Add to Cart” buttons. “Buy Now” type buttons will take the customer directly to the checkout page rather than adding items to a cart (this will bypass this issue). The shortcode to use a “Buy Now” button can be found here:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-shortcodes-and-functions-reference-460

[malcolmk]

Thanks so much.

I will look at changing to the buy now button.

I did resolve the problem by turning the masking feature of my Domain B off so that my Domain A url is being read.

Thanks again.

[Author]

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