Post by GWShop » Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:53 am

My first experience with developers who "claim" to know Opencart is terrible. My shop if typically offline for one week, while I had announced it. And all this because I decided to install a new theme and get away from the default one.

1) First I bought the Electra theme. It looked like it had a nice design and good ratings.
The creator of the theme logged in, installed the theme, then my server went off!
The creator of the themed claimed that it was a resources problem that caused it. Suddently, the resources on the server went crazy due to the theme and the site was off most of the times. For the records, I have very small traffic, like less than 10 people browsing at the same time.

I have a shared hosting package, this one (Greek):
https://www.thcservers.com/web-hosting

Look what happened to the resources after installing the theme
Image

Then I bought the "Nerd" shared hosting package. Still the resources were high. Site could still not load properly (it wasn't loading at 80% of times).
Image

I thought that the problem could be on the theme. Because the default theme was working nice and with 0 loading. So I decided to choose another one.

2) I bought the SpareParts theme. The creator tried to install it. First he put my site in Maintenance mode without asking! Then he saw a bunch of errors that the previous creator left and sent them to me:

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class 'DOMDocument' not found in /home/site/public_html/admin/controller/marketplace/modification.php:141 Stack trace: #0 /home/site/public_html/system/engine/action.php(79): ControllerMarketplaceModification->refresh() #1 /home/site/public_html/admin/controller/startup/router.php(26): Action->execute(Object(Registry), Array) #2 /home/site/public_html/system/engine/action.php(79): ControllerStartupRouter->index() #3 /home/site/public_html/system/engine/router.php(67): Action->execute(Object(Registry)) #4 /home/site/public_html/system/engine/router.php(56): Router->execute(Object(Action)) #5 /home/site/public_html/system/framework.php(165): Router->dispatch(Object(Action), Object(Action)) #6 /home/site/public_html/system/startup.php(104): require_once('/home/site/...') #7 /home/site/public_html/admin/index.php(19): start('admin') #8 {main} thrown in /home/site/public_html/admin/controller/marketplace/modification.php on line 141

About the first row, the creator told me that I should tell my Web Hosting company to enable DOM extension. Is this extension so important?

"You need the dom extension, as you have installed PHP 7.0 from remi-php70 repository, you need to pull this extension from the same repository".

The Web Hosting company said that it's available from Cpanel.
Image
They even sent us a screenshot for MultiPHP Manager so that we can change the Php version to a new one. The developer was insisting that "We can't find the DomExtension". I logged in to Cpanel later and saw that the Php version was still old. So I updated myself to Php 7.3. How is it possible that the theme creator doesn't even update to Php 7.3? He kept claiming that the phpinfo file was not showing the DomExtension.

3)After that I just hired an Opencart developer who has good ratings. Not 100% good but near 100%. He told me that the previous developers (probably the 1st one?) had edited header.php and caused problems, that's why those errors above appeared. He spent too much time, then decided to backup everything and create the site from scratch. Can you imagine? We actually pay for Opencart themes to creators who have NO IDEA on how to use Opencart!

After he spent a lot of time on this and he put the theme back, I realised that more than half of the links of my products and categories do not work!
I renamed a category and created one with the same name (Merchandise) and this worked. Then I thought "Ok, we might have some corrupted sql entries, let's re-create them".
Nope! When I try to create a category or product and it shows up on the main page and I click on it, the link is dead!

Can you tell me what is going on here? The last developer told me that he will look at the issue tomorrow. Are those crazy things have to do with just installing themes? Or I just fall into developers that don't know Opencart? Can you identify how the dead links issue happened? - Site is GWShop.gr

Also, is it logical for someone to just copy-paste the theme files and overwrite the ones from the default theme? Because that is what my developer did and that is what a lot of people recommend on YouTuber. I would think that it's logical that the new SpareParts theme is installed seperately. But right now, my new developer just overwrote the default theme and the previous theme is (falsely) named "SpareParts". Also, the Spare Parts theme is not even available in modules manager (so this means that it's not installed properly?). Can someone explain to me the situation with the themes and how I am going to solve my issues here? It looks like we need a good web developer and not theme creators touching our websites!

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Post by by mona » Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:07 am

I am so very sorry that you have had such a bad experience. Please note this is not a bug and you must always note your OC version.

Themes like the first and second one you chose - yes - they are an issue and that is why they are not supported on here. I am not going to get into the pros and cons - its too late.

The one you have now is a stylesheet theme basically - so there really should be next to no alterations to your files.

The third point you need to clarify. You do not copy and paste theme files over the original default theme. You might copy and paste - edit and create a new theme directory with those files in. You also might - as with the theme you have, not create a theme directory, but add a stylesheet and maybe edit a couple of files using OCMOD / VQMOD. This would not be overriding your default files, this would be a new creating of modified files that would again be in a different directory - your default files would not be touched.

My advice is to reinstall the default theme remove everything else. If you installed using ocmod (check that) you can uninstall using ocmod - presuming you are using OC3 -

Yes you should ask for aged developer to take a look. It is unfair to say that theme developers are poor, that is not the case. There are good developers and not so good developers like everything else in life.

I will recommend in no particular order OSWorX, Straighlight, Sw!tch, ADD Creative, Paul, xxvirusxx, thekrotec and others I have forgotten.

You categories are messed up because the SEO links are not working.
Screen-Shot-2021-06-05-at-01.14.01.jpg

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That will be your .htaccess
First you can turn off your SEO urls to make it work now - that you will find in settings in the server tab.

Then start that again - (they are all the same just said differently)
viewtopic.php?t=173094
viewtopic.php?t=7740
viewtopic.php?t=206057

Good luck and I really hope it gets better for you.
Last edited by by mona on Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:25 am, edited 2 times in total.

DISCLAIMER:
You should not modify core files .. if you would like to donate a cup of coffee I will write it in a modification for you.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXIxDoCRc84


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Post by GWShop » Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:22 am

Ok somebody can move the topic to General Discussion, because I posted it to a wrong subforum.

I purchased the first theme from a third-party website. My mistake.
The 2nd theme, SpareParts, was purchased from Opencart.com and it is really good looking and it has good reviews. It seems to be compatible with Opencart v1 and v2 and it doesn't mention anything about v3, but because of the appearance I thought that a developer could help me set it up.

About theme installing, sorry but I am confused here. The default OpenCart files have the directories
- admin
- catalog
- image
- system

When I download a new theme, I see new files in the above directories. Some of them are new files and some of them have the same filenames as already existing ones. So what am I supposed to do every time? Open the directories one by one, copy the new files via FTP and those that already exist, I should do...what with them? I want to have a theme selector so that I can switch back and for between themes, if one theme has problems. But I can't understand the programs that you mentioned. I am not familiar with any of them. You have to be detailed, with links or videos on how to do it.

Also, can you or somebody else give me the default theme files so that I can overwrite the old ones? How exacty should I proceed? Please be very analytic, step by step.

Thank you.

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Post by by mona » Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:41 am

I am still trying to answer your first post.

1. From a 3rd Party - There is not address for comeback - so that is the risk you take.
2. OC3 is nothing like OC2 and is in fact written in a different language - so no way is that going to work and that MIGHT be the reason the developer has overridden all the files. Yes that would cause a really big mess.
3. Yes those are the directories (some of them anyway) - but that is the same system all themes / modules / extensions follow.
4. Most will have installation via OCMOD - This you will find in admin under extensions => installer (they should be packed up into a zip file called filename.ocmod.zip - you just go to the installer - click install - locate the file and thats it
5. Not necessarily (see point 3) and see this http://docs.opencart.com/en-gb/developer/module/ (not the best documentation but good for the basics)
6. "I can't understand the programs that you mentioned". As above the docs are great but good for you http://docs.opencart.com/en-gb/extension/installer/
7. Default files can be downloaded https://www.opencart.com/index.php?rout ... ad/history - YOU MUST MAKE SURE YOU USE THE SAME VERSION - you will find that at the base of all your admin pages
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- You unpack it - inside there is a folder called upload - inside there is a folder CATALOG and then VIEW
YOU MUST NOT UPLOAD THE WHOLE THING -


BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING
Contact your host and see if they have a backup of FILES AND DATABASE prior to you adding the first theme - they might. Then you say - oh wow, thank you, please would you put it back for me. Oh and do you have any orders since then? make a note because restoring form a back up won’t have them and you will have to add them manually (so get a back up now as well)

Even if they have something from prior to the second theme you are onto a winner.

If not you get a back up of everything now - specifically your database - this you NEED to learn how to do yourself, this is very important.
FYI do not use the one installed in Opencart it doesn’t work so well.
https://support.managed.com/kb/a2034/ho ... admin.aspx
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/art ... e-or-table


So now I have answered all your questions.
You need to do a few things.
1. Please post your OC version
2. A screen shot of your settings the general tab (where themes are shown)
2b. Extensions => Extension => select Themes
3. Please take a screenshot of :-
Extensions => Modifications
3b. Extensions => Installer
3c. and a screen shot of your ftp files - open them all up to the point like you see here http://docs.opencart.com/en-gb/developer/module/
I am interested in the GREEN one ok. Lets see what you first

DISCLAIMER:
You should not modify core files .. if you would like to donate a cup of coffee I will write it in a modification for you.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXIxDoCRc84


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Post by OSWorX » Sat Jun 05, 2021 3:20 pm

GWShop wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:53 am
My first experience with developers who "claim" to know Opencart is terrible. My shop if typically offline for one week, while I had announced it. And all this because I decided to install a new theme and get away from the default one.
In general after reading all previous comments, I feel really sorry with you .. (partly).
But (as always), to say My first experience with developers and Opencart is terrible is not a good entry point!
Your experience with OpenCart is 0%, your experience with OpenCart developers is 0%, while your experience with Theme Creators is now at 70%

You say that OpenCart with the default theme is running as it should.
Would say, score for developers is increasing to 100%.
And OpenCart itself cannot be so terrible because of that.

You decided to use another Theme and bought some.
What you have bought seems to be not a Theme, more a package from somebody who does not know OpenCart.
A package which modifies the core is always a bad decision!

A theme/template which needs someone else to be installed cannot be good (it must be self explained and easy to be installable by yourself)!

If you go throught this forum, read the postings, see the answers - and who is answering here, you should find good developers (finally only a hand full, but they are good).

Final note: someone who knows OpenCart, will bring back your webshop within max. 5 hours.
Does not matter which OpenCart version, which php version.
Which theme/template - if it is correct made!

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Post by GWShop » Sat Jun 05, 2021 4:25 pm

1) Version 3.0.3.7
I created the Opencart around 2 years ago, with 3.0.3.4 something like that. So the developer backed up the database, installed 3.0.3.7 from scratch, then put my products and categories back. Do you think this think caused the dead links in GWShop.gr ? What would you do to fix this issue? Write down all the product info and do a clean installation again? Overwrite some files? Which ones?
Because as you say this is not theme related.

2) I just saw that the SpareParts theme has a v3 theme version so it should be installed properly. My mistake. Their demo page only had v1.5 and v2 versions so I misjudged it. But the file that I downloaded says v3.

Here are the Settings
https://i.imgur.com/bbIMJJQ.jpg
3)Extensions/Modifications : No results.

Extensions/Installer: https://i.imgur.com/fGnpllO.jpg
Should I see my theme here in the installer?

I can't open my FTP files as I see in the screenshot. Can you give specific details?
https://i.imgur.com/rUpWtwR.jpg

4) So OCMOD allows me to have 2 or more themes at a time while If I just install a theme it will overwrite my default theme. Right?

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Post by xxvirusxx » Sat Jun 05, 2021 4:54 pm

GWShop wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 4:25 pm
I created the Opencart around 2 years ago, with 3.0.3.4 something like that. So the developer backed up the database, installed 3.0.3.7 from scratch, then put my products and categories back.
Why installed from scratch?
Upgrade was OK.

Upgrade Service | OC 2.3.0.2 PHP 8 | My Custom OC 3.0.3.8 | Buy me a beer


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Post by by mona » Sat Jun 05, 2021 5:55 pm

You can have many themes and switch between them - that is correct.
No theme should override your Opencart default - no extension should override your Opencart default files - any of them. In the very very very very hardly ever rare cases where it might, a file should be kept as a copy to indicate it has been edited.

You can have many extensions and turn them on and off - that is correct.
However not all themes and extensions are equal and the price is no indication of quality. Not all themes and extensions are built to the standards I personally believe are a minimum.

======================

OCMOD is a built in Opencart installer that allows you to edit files without editing the ‘core’ ie it creates a new file with edits - it does not touch the original files. It also (as of OC V3 - removes all the files on delete).

This is the system
Upload via OCMOD - this adds the new files to your Opencart store [ EXTENSIONS => INSTALLER ]
Build a new set of files [ EXTENSIONS => MODIFICATION ] yellow refresh button
Install the extension - this adds any database requirements [ EXTENSIONS => EXTENSIONS => extension type => INSTALL]

So the reverse is to uninstall
Uninstall the extension - this removes any database requirements [ EXTENSIONS => EXTENSIONS => extension type => UNINSTALL]
Remove the set of new files and their edits [ EXTENSIONS => MODIFICATION ] yellow refresh button

In [ EXTENSIONS => MODIFICATION ] you can also disable - so you do not remove the files - you just stop the edits from being made. It is a type of setting that allows you to easily find modules / extension that are causing you issues.

If the developer has done a clean install / uninstall (the very minimum requirement) - it should remove all traces of the extension / theme / module from the database on uninstall - I see more cases where this is not done than where it is -

By using ftp rather than OCMOD you loose the ability to remove the files.

================

I did not say it was not theme related - there is still some theme remnants appearing on your site - so something is theme related - but the issue with your category links is a different issue (it can still be theme related because some themes override your .htaccess file (which is appalling practice) because their themes are just too heavy (your first two times may well fall into that category). However to know, we would need to see what is going on.

==================

I genuinely believe you are in a bit of a mess and you should ask for some assistance. PM one of these two gentlemen and just get it fixed. We will help you on here, but it is time consuming and we work blind - so anything can happen - it is very quick to do - it takes forever to explain.

DISCLAIMER:
You should not modify core files .. if you would like to donate a cup of coffee I will write it in a modification for you.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXIxDoCRc84


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Post by OSWorX » Sat Jun 05, 2021 7:14 pm

mona answered until now very correct and give you almost everything you need.
Also the comment from xxvirusxx is partly correct, partly because an update leads in 99% of all cases to further "headaches".

In summary, ask one of the gents here to help you - paid, because you can't expect that task to be done for free.

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Post by GWShop » Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:42 pm

Is this the OCMOD? Does this thing have english version as well?

https://i.ibb.co/RypRGQj/OCMOD.jpg

I found it through the Extensions/Marketplace menu. I couldn't find a pre-installed OCMOD thing in my Extensions/Extensions subfolder.

Also I can trust only people that have good reviews in the well-known job searching websites. Just to be 100% safe on who to trust. Because the theory from the code are 2 different things. I've studied Computer Science and I know this well (and of course I failed to be a good developer).

Anyone can send me PMs with portfolio and reviews.

Thank you.

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Post by OSWorX » Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:49 pm

GWShop wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:42 pm
Is this the OCMOD? Does this thing have english version as well?

https://i.ibb.co/RypRGQj/OCMOD.jpg

I found it through the Extensions/Marketplace menu. I couldn't find a pre-installed OCMOD thing in my Extensions/Extensions subfolder.
No!
This extension is "only" a OCMod editor, it can display the content of the .xml-files, you can edit this content.
GWShop wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:42 pm
Also I can trust only people that have good reviews in the well-known job searching websites. Just to be 100% safe on who to trust. Because the theory from the code are 2 different things. I've studied Computer Science and I know this well (and of course I failed to be a good developer).
Nice for you, do whatever you want ..
GWShop wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:42 pm
Anyone can send me PMs with portfolio and reviews.
This here is NOT a "job searching website".
It's up to you to contact.

Just one final note on ".. can trust only people .."
If you do not know after reading and posting in this forum who might be a trusting person, I can not help you anymore.
But you buy useless stuff from somewhere, install it and have only troubles.
Not really trustfully.

As previous written: you really do not know nothing, but try to do something.
The result is a webshop not working since a longer time.
I am out of this discussion.

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Post by Dutch_guy » Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:32 pm

Why don't you have a test website? Yes, your developer should have advised you to use a testing environment, but you are also to blame. Developing on a live website, seriously?

But, what is your biggest problem right now? You only ave a couple of products. Start over with a fresh shop. Get a testing environment and a good developer, or safely change things in the testing environment yourself.

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