$Id: FAQ,v 1.10 2003/02/17 16:37:17 hpdl Exp $

osCommerce Frequently Asked Questions
Copyright (c) osCommerce 2003

*** The information presented here is old. It will be updated throughout   ***
*** the osCommerce 2.2 Milestone path.                                     ***

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Questions
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01. How can I check my php configuration?

02. How does the versioning of this project work?

03. How can I extract the project tar.gz package under a windows environment?

04. Why can't I get variables to be parsed among pages?

05. Why is the session-ID screwing up my urls in href links?

06. I receive an error of not being able to write to the parse_time_log file.

07. I get one of these errors: Fatal error: Call to undefined function:
    count_contents(), Fatal error: Call to undefined function: restore_cart(),
    etc.

08. How do I install a snapshot on top of an exisiting distribution?

09. Will a snapshot overwrite my existing (modified) application_top.php?

10. How do I remove one of the boxes on the left hand side, or the right hand
    side?

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q. How can I check my php configuration?
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a. Call phpinfo() in a script:

   <? phpinfo(); ?>

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q. How does the versioning of this project work?
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a. Preview Release 1.0   - initial release.
   Preview Release 1.1   - bugfixes and updates.
   Preview Release <=2.1 - stablizing framework releases.
   >=2.2                 - stable releases.

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q. How can I extract the project tar.gz package under a windows environment?
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a. WinZIP is able to extract gzip/tar archives. Download it at www.winzip.com

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q. Why can't I get variables to be parsed among pages?
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a. Your PHP is not compiled to track variables.

   Compile PHP with --enable-track-vars

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q. Why is the session-ID screwing up my urls in href links?
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a. This project uses a custom function for all href links, called
   tep_href_link(). This function is used for normal href links, forms, and
   header redirects. The best way to avoid this problem is to use the function
   as:

<?php
  echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link('index.php', 'a=b') . '">my link</a>';
?>

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q. I receive an error of not being able to write to the parse_time_log file.
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a. This file needs to have the correct write permissions for the apache user
   to be able to write to it. If you continue to get this error, create a 0
   byte file with the right permissions.

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q. I get one of these errors: Fatal error: Call to undefined function:
   count_contents(), Fatal error: Call to undefined function: restore_cart(),
   etc.
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a. PHP3 and some PHP4 betas dont unserialize objects properly. To get it to
   work, edit the file application_top.php and enable the following setting:
   
   define('REPAIR_BROKEN_CART', '1');

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q. How do I install a snapshot on top of an exisiting distribution?
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a. You just untar it and copy it out like you would have for the initail
   install.

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q. Will a snapshot overwrite my existing (modified) application_top.php?
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a. Yes it will overwrite applcation_top.php since that file exists in the
   distribution. You will have to 'diff' the files to see all the changes that
   have been made.

   You may take your changes and put them in
   catalog/includes/local/configure.php and then use the application_top.php
   unmodified. This way, next time you download a new snapshot, you will have
   all your changes in one file that will not be over-written by the
   distrbution.

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q. How do I remove one of the boxes on the left hand side, or the right hand
   side?
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a. Each box is defined in a file for that column. All boxes on the left hand
   side is defined in catalog/includes/column_left.php, and all boxes on the
   right hand side is defined in catalog/includes/column_right.php.

   To remove a box, you can simple comment out the 'include' line, or remove
   it totally.