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   I suggest you post a link to your site.  Your problem is very likely related to an incorrect setup rather than a justifiable configuration.

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Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13-February-2010 at 12:07pm
	I suggest you post a link to your site. Your problem is very likely related to an incorrect setup rather than a justifiable configuration.

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13-February-2010 at 2:15pm
	Let me reword the above. I have lost count of the number of stores I have built or worked on. After all of those stores, and unless you have an unconventional server setup or something otherwise unpredictable, I can imagine NO reason to run a store in HTTPS. None... Shoot us a link to your site so we can see what you are up to. That may lead to additional questions.

Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Guest	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13-February-2010 at 4:32pm
	I agree with Greg -- a link to your site would be helpful. The issue you are describing sounds exactly like a loss of session state -- typically because of switching back and forth to URLs with and without www. -- both locations have difference session states. However, switching back and forth between http and https does not cause different session states, so that shouldn't be your problem (unless you're running a "shared" SSL).

cognecy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 18-March-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote cognecy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13-February-2010 at 4:53pm
	Greg has the lead on this forum inquiry but I just wanted to "chime-in" as another developer to say that I concur 100% of what Greg is telling you and with what Sean has reiterated ... there is absolutely no reason to run your store in full time https. It is just not done! The only time you need to switch to HTTPS is during the checkout. Preferably you have a dedicated SSL and you have ProductCart set to switch at user registration. If the customer decides to go back to the store you (if you are using absolute links for your menu's) they would switch out of https mode and then back in when checking out. As Sean stated, this has Zero affect on session state. SSL is in place so that when you input or transmit personal or financial information over the Internet, it is encrypted.
	Mark Shipp Cognecy Solutions, LLC Hosting/Design/Customization/Database Migration www.cognecy.com www.cognecy.co.uk

eeversole Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14-May-2009 Location: Lawrence, KS Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote eeversole Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02-March-2010 at 11:54am
	Was there any resolution to this issue? I don't know if it is ok to piggyback on this topic, but I too am experiencing the exact same problem as the first poster. When a customer loads items into their cart from a http and then heads over to checkout on the https page, they receive a message indicating their cart is empty. Our temporary solution was also to make our entire site https, but after reading the responses to this I see that is not the correct way to go. If you want to experience it go to http://www.landmarklightingkc.com/shop/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=16 and add an item from one of those pages. Please note you have to do it from here because we have hard-coded the rest of the site to https to avoid the empty cart message. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02-March-2010 at 12:14pm
	It is absolutely unnecessary for your left nav to be forced to HTTPS. If you are losing cart contents it is due to something else that is wrong and not the need for HTTPS. If you don't mind, please adjust your left nav to point only to HTTP and let us know that this is done. Also, the HTTP references to Welcome Guest! \| Login / Register should be adjusted to HTTPS please. Let us see this once you have the above complete and we will try to guide you to the next step. thanks.

ProductCart Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group ProductCart Team Joined: 01-October-2003 Status: Offline Points: 135	Post Options Post Reply Quote ProductCart Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02-March-2010 at 12:45pm
	We cannot replicate the behavior. We added products to the cart as you indicated, clicked on "Checkout", ProductCart switches to HTTPS (https://www.landmarklightingkc.com/shop/pc/onepagecheckout.asp), and everything works just fine. We tested with IE 8, FireFox, and Google Chrome. Please provide a series of steps to replicate the problem. If the issue is intermittent, then it could signal a problem on the server side. For example, the Web server might be overloaded and "dumping" the storefront session unexpectedly.
	The ProductCart Team Home of ProductCart shopping cart software

cognecy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 18-March-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote cognecy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02-March-2010 at 12:56pm
	eeversole, Ahh the 'empty cart syndrome', eh? Greg, Sean, and myself are all correct in that you do not need https. On specifics, I have seen this happen for a number of reasons but the most prominent are: 1) Multiple Worker processes 2) Dropped sessions do to a wrong setting on the server 3) Application Pool being set into 'Web Garden' mode. ----- ----- ----- #1) Multiple Worker processes. If you have set your site into a Dedicated Application Pool you need to ensure that you are only allowing 1 worker process. ProductCart is not compatible with Multiple Worker Processes. This can sometimes be set in your Hosting Control Panel (depending on which one you use) or in IIS directly. Another thing I see quite often and this is IMPORTANT to note ... is sites that use a combination of [http://thedomain.com] and [http://www.thedomain.com]. What many do not realize is that when you add something to the cart with the URL lacking the "www" and click on an internal link that does have the "www" included in the link, you are actually creating two completely independent sessions. This will often give the appearance of seeing your cart items disappear. All users need to ensure you are using a standardized format of your URL through your site and web store (preferably, use the fully qualified domain URL with the "www"). #2) Dropped Sessions Session dropping happens for a number of reasons ranging from inadequate resource allocation to the shared or dedicated application pools, to having "too low" setting on your session timeouts set in IIS. This is something you will have to talk with your particular host with to determine if they are able to increase allocations. If your site is in a Shared Application Pool, you definitely need to switch it to a dedicated pool. A Note on Dedicate Pools: Many, many, hosts, although permitting dedicate pools, will have their resource allocation for the pools set too low. The norm is about 120MB but I have seen much lower numbers. In my opinion, even 120MB is too low for a ProductCart site. In a perfect world it would be very nice if you were able to set your dedicated pools to 256MB but many hosts will be unwilling to go that high. If you can haggle with them I have seen 160-180MB be more than adequate to prevent app pool recycling. If you have a very High Traffic site, you will definitely need a pool with more allocated resources. NOTE: these numbers are not arbitrary but rather are set to a level that will prevent the very quick resource spikes from hitting the top of the limit and resetting your pool (which will cause your cart item to disappear) ... Liken it to hitting your head on the ceiling ... if it keeps happening, it is time to raise the ceiling! #3) Web Garden Mode This one is a 'silent killer of online stores'. Web Garden mode is basically the same as setting multiple worker processes. Occasionally, and I have not figured out the "why", when setting up a new website in IIS, or when establishing the application pools, Microsoft IIS will default the Pool to 'Web Garden" mode. I am not going to go into detail on this (that is what google is for) but suffice it to say this is VERY BAD for ProductCart Sites. If you see strange behavior like empty carts, not being able to log in to the admin, or other weird things while browsing your online store, it is worth a call to your host to ask them if your site is in "Web Garden" mode. A Final Word: If your host does not know what a session timeout is, how to set up a dedicated application pool, or claims then have never heard the term "Web Garden", my advice would be to run for the hills and find a new host as soon as possible. I hope some of these suggestions help and good luck.
	Mark Shipp Cognecy Solutions, LLC Hosting/Design/Customization/Database Migration www.cognecy.com www.cognecy.co.uk

eeversole Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14-May-2009 Location: Lawrence, KS Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote eeversole Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02-March-2010 at 1:43pm
	Thank you for all of your responses. We went ahead and changed all of our hard-coding back so the links point to http addresses rather than https. I'm still experiencing the issue on my computer on IE8 (even after clearing my cache), but we have tested it on other computers and it seems to be working fine now so I'm not going to worry about it further. There just must be something wonky with my IE8 that causes the issue to occur. Thank you again for all your help.

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02-March-2010 at 1:56pm
	eeversole, I think I see the problem. It appears you are hosted at Godaddy. In my opinion, and that opinion is shared by many on the forum, they are not a suitable host for a store. I recommend you move to a better host. That will cure this and likely other problems, some that you may not have yet but you likely will.