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Server Issues

NT Setup Links

Windows NT Common Problems

The most common problem by far is the proper configuration of Windows NT so that the database can be both read and written.

In 99% of all cases we have analyzed for our customers, the problem has been the permissions of the anonymous user IUSR.

We have listed below most of these problems and point back to Microsoft Knowledgebase to help you get more information.

Personal Web Server

Personal web Server is primarily used to test our VP-ASP demonstration and to build a test shopping system before uploading to your Web Host or Windows NT Server.
By far the most common problem is that PWS is not installed on your computer and the ASP pages display on the browser or start some strange program instead of running the shopping cart.

The second most common problem is that PWS is not told where you installed the VP-ASP software.

Windows XP Home

Microsoft is not supporting Personal Web Server on Windows XP Home You must using Windows XP Professional. XP Professional requires IIS which not installed by default

See

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/howto/gettingstarted/guide/setupqanda.asp

Error Msg: Application Variables can only be set in the Application_OnStart event within global.asa

Error Message: Application Variables can only be set in the Application_OnStart event within global.asa

Application object error:
Dissallowed object use
shopinitapplication.asp, line 16
Application variables can only be set in the Application_OnStart event within global.asa

Solution: This error message is caused by a restriction imposed by the webserver.

VP-ASP (like 99% of other asp web applications) sets application variables outside of the global.asa file and needs this restriction removed.

You need to contact their webhosting company and ask them to remove this restriction from your site.

Permissions

The most common problem for Microsoft Access database is setting correct database permissions for Access database.

Microsoft has strict rules for database permissions. If using a web hosting company, there is normally nothing you need to do. Most reputable web hosting companies, provide a separate folder for you to use that has both the correct permissions and is safe from hackers.

Using a Web Hosting Company
If you are using a web hosting company, and cannot write to the database, please run our diagnostic tool diag_dbtest.asp (or shopdbtest.asp for VP-ASP 3.x and 4.x). And then contact your web hosting company and ask them to either tell you where to put the database or ask them to fix the permissions for the FOLDER where the database is located. We cannot help with this.

On your own PC
Examples for Windows XP and NT of these can be found at:

Windows ME

Windows Millennium Edition

Microsoft is not supporting Personal Web Server on Windows Me but see below for hints on using PWS and Windows Me..

See Knowledge Base article

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q266/4/56.ASP?LN=EN-US

Installing PWS on Windows ME

This information was taken verbatim from http://www.aspmessageboard.com/forum/showMessage.asp?F=30&M=290061&P=1

and we have not tested it ourselves and therefore cannot assure you that it is perfectly safe.

For installing PWS on Win ME

1) Download the newest version of PWS from
   http://download.microsoft.com/msdownload/ntoptionpack/en/x86/win.95/download.exe.
   Yes, this is the NT 4.0 Option Pack, but it includes the version of PWS for
   Win95 which can be used on WinMe with the following tweaks. After
   downloading Download.exe, run it and select the option to download PWS for
   Win95.

2) See http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q246/0/81.asp.
Download the patch and implement per the instruction in this KB article.

3) Important! Do a Custom install of PWS, installing only the Transaction
   Server component. To do this, uncheck all the options, then check
   Transaction Server - it will add checks to the other components needed for
   it, but not the Personal Web Server option.

4) After Setup completes and a reboot, re-run Setup and add PWS. Reboot after
Setup completes.

5) PWS should now work. Easiest way to implement using it for local copies of
   your web pages is to copy the contents of the entire local folder structure
   of your web site to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot (or the folder you selected during
   PWS setup). To clarify, if the local copy of your web site is in
   D:\MyWebSite, with the default start page and all sub-folders located
   there, you copy all the files and sub-folders, but not the D:\MyWebSite
   folder itself.

6) If you are using ASP and your start page is default.asp, allow your file to
   overwrite the default.asp file already in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot. If you are
   using index.htm or some other start page, you need to rename the PWS
   default.asp file so it is not the default page for the local site.

7) In your web browser address bar, type...

Http://127.0.0.1/
...to bring up your start page.

Error writing to database using MySQL

Error Message:[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Invalid string or buffer length when writing to the database

Error Type:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers (0x80004005)
[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Invalid string or buffer length
/shop/shopa_addproduct.asp, line 2054

Solution: This error message is rare, but can occur on some installations running a mySQL database.

It is is caused by a restriction imposed by the webserver and mySQL.

The following code can be added to shop$db.asp to solve this issue.

Open shop$db.asp in any text/html editor, and locate the sub processmysqlserver.Change the connection string to:

mysqlconn=mysqlconn & " Server=" & varServerIP & "; Database=" & varDataBaseName & "; UID=" & varUserName & "; PWD=" & varPassword & "; OPTION=3"

Option=3 tells myODBC that the client is not 100% compliant so it should not optimize column widths, and also to return "found rows" instead of the true value of affected rows.

Error when uploading images

Error:
Request object error 'ASP 0104 : 80004005'
Operation not Allowed

Solution: Windows 2003 servers running IIS6.0 prevent the upload of files more than +200Kb.

If you are running VP-ASP on a web host, please contact the host and ask them to increase the file size limit in IIS.

If you are running your own server, you will need to make some changes in IIS.

1: Stop the IIS service.
2: Open the file metabase.xml in the c:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv folder.
3. Find the line " AspMaxRequestEntityAllowed "
4. Change it to whatever size you need in bytes (eg. "1073741824" is 1GB).
5. Save the file.
6. Restart IIS.

PWS Setup

Introduction

Microsoft Personal Web Server can be configured very simply. The first step is to start Personal Web Manager. It can be be started by clicking the icon on the task base or using start/programs/Personal Web Server/Personal Web Manager. The following dialog should appear.

If you do not see this, dialog, you do not have Personal Web Server installed.

Now click the advanced icon on the lower left

Advanced Screen

This screen tells you what web directories have already been defined for PWS. The only thing you need to do here is click the Add Button at the top right

Now click the ADD button

Defining the VP-ASP alias

Two fields need to be filled in.

Setting Up Windows NT/IIS

1.1 Creating Web Site's Directories

For this example we will look at setting up a site called webwizard.com.au which has a customer number 100 allocated to it. This site will have FTP access with NO Front Page Ext's. I use FTP-Servu as the FTP Daemon due to the added security and functions it has over the standard Microsoft FTP Server.

The following directories are created using windows explorer.

e:\domains\100\webwizard.com.au\wwwroot
e:\domains\100\webwizard.com.au\databases
e:\domains\100\webwizard.com.au\logs

The directory wwwroot is to be set as the root directory for the web site. The databases directory is a secure directory only accessible by FTP where you place all the databases for the site and the logs directory is where a compressed copy of the sites logs are placed at the end of the month.

A FTP user name and password is created in FTP Serv-U allowing the user to log into the directory e:\domains\100

The following permission's need to be set for the wwwroot directory.

In Windows Explorer right click on the directory wwwroot and select Properties. When the Properties window pops up check to make sure that the Read-Only box is NOT ticked. After checking that select the Security Tab and check to see the settings. You need to make sure that the IUSR_COMPUTERNAME user (Internet Guest Account) has the following settings. The Administrator account has all the Permission's enabled. Click Apply then Ok.

With the directory databases open the Properties window and check to make sure that the Read-Only box is NOT ticked. Select the Security Tab and set it to the image below. This directory is secure and can not be directly accessed using a web browser.

1.2 IIS Setup

Open up the IIS MMC and start to setup the website. Make sure that you set the Home Directory path for this site to e:\domains\100\webwizard.com.au\wwwroot . The next screen make sure you have Read and Run scripts (such as ASP) ticked. Proceed through the next couple of screens and click Finished.

In the IIS MMC right click on the domain name webwizard.com.au and select Properties. Select the Home Directory Tab and check to see that Execute Permission's is set to Scripts Only and Application Protection is set to Medium. Click on OK and then you are done

1.3 Database Link.

For the user to access the VPASP database they can either access it with a DSN (Which you will need to create) or they can edit the file shop$config.asp to look like this.

const xDatabase="shopping" (if the database file is called shopping.mdb then leave this as is, else it needs to be changed to the name of the DB file)
const xdblocation="../databases" If all the VPASP files are placed in the wwwroot dir then set it to this. If they have VPASP in a dir off wwwroot say shop then another "../ needs to be added at the front)

This set-up above is based on a Windows 2000 Advance Server running IIS5 and using FTP Serv-U as the FTP server Software. Front Page Ext's are not used on the above example.

Error when deleting or adding menu item

PROBLEM:
When deleting or adding a menu item, the following error message is displayed:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0046'
Permission denied
/myshop/shopa_navigation_create.asp, line 293

SOLUTION:
The new menu system requires that read/write permissions be applied to the Editor folder.

If using a web host like CrystalTech who provide a Control Panel where you can set your own permissions you will be able to set the Editor folder to have read/write permissions yourself.

If not contact your web host and request they set read/write on the Editor folder.

At the same time you can also request they set this for the following folders:

all image sub folders
export
lang
stylesheets

This will allow you access to all of VPASP's functionality.

Also ask your host to ensure that the database folder is fully protected and has had http access blocked so your database cannot be accessed.

Provider not specified error on 64 bit systems

ISSUE:
I receive the following error on our Win2003 64 bit and SQL Server 2005 64 bit system:

ADODB.Connection error '800a0ea9'
"Provider not specified and there is no designated default provider"

CAUSE:
This occurs because there is no 64 bit version of MSDASQL.DLL which is the OLEDB provider for ODBC drivers. If you want to to connect using a 64 bit system you need to use an OLEDB provider, in SQL server case it will be SQLOLEDB.

SOLUTION:
You will need to modify shop$db.asp.

Around line 20 locate:

const xsqloledb="No" ' use SQL Server standard

Change this to:

const xsqloledb="Yes" ' use SQL Server standard

Note: "Yes" must appear in that exact case fashion with the first letter capitalized.

ALSO:

If the above does not work, it is possible to run IIS in 32 bit mode. So it can use all the database drivers

Please see:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;894435

says to execute:

cscript %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 1

Strange characters " ï»¿ "

You have strange characters, such as "ï»¿" appearing on top of your pages

This issue is caused by having your template files in UTF-8 format rather than ANSI.

When using the templates, you'll need to ensure that the files are saved in ANSI format otherwise the header that is included in a UTF-8 file is rendered to the page.

All of the tmp_*****.htm files should be saved in ANSI format to avoid this issue.

To change the file formatting you will need to perform the steps below:

1. Open your tmp_***.htm on note pad
2. Go to File --> Save as
3. Make sure that it is save using ANSI encoding.

Double Byte Characters are not displaying properly

You might need to add a session code page on your shop$db.asp when you are trying to display double byte characters, such as Chinese, Hebrew, etc

To do so please follow the steps below:
1. On your shop$db.asp file locate the following:

%Response.buffer=TRUE%>

2. Modify the line above to

% Response.buffer=TRUE
session.CodePage = 1255 'Session code for Hebrew %>

You can refer to the following article for other session code page

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/unicode/cscp.htm

3.If you are using MSSQL database, you will need to modify the Collation type to Hebrew_CI_AS and change the data type of your fields.
Below are the steps to modify collation type:

a. From your MS SQL Management windows, highlight your database and right click

b. Go to Options from the Collation drop down box select Hebrew_CI_AS and press Ok.

c. You will also need to manually modify your database and change varchar and text data type to nvarchar and ntext data type. The reason is because varchar and text are not able to save double byte characters. You will need to use unicode data type if you wish to save double byte characters, i.e. nvarchar, ntext

4. If you have any mailing issues where the email was sent as ???? marks. You may need to add the charset code on the mailer body.
Depending on the email type you are using (CDOSYS, ASPMAIL, ASPEMAIL, etc), on your shopmail, you need to locate the following

If htmlformat="HTML" then
Mailer.HTMLBody = body
Else
Mailer.TextBody = body
End if

modify to

If htmlformat="HTML" then
Mailer.bodypart.charset = "insertcharsethere"
Mailer.HTMLBody = body
Else
Mailer.bodypart.charset = "insertcharsethere"
Mailer.TextBody = body

For example, you are using CDOSYS and trying to set Hebrew charset, then on your shopmail.asp file, around line 334-338 locate the code we specified above

If htmlformat="HTML" then
Mailer.HTMLBody = body
Else
Mailer.TextBody = body
End if

modify to

If htmlformat="HTML" then
Mailer.bodypart.charset = "iso-8859-8-i"
Mailer.HTMLBody = body
Else
Mailer.bodypart.charset = "iso-8859-8-i"
Mailer.TextBody = body

End if

Some sites like Hebrew needs to be displayed from right to left, to do that you will need to add to modify your shoppage_header.htm. On shoppage_header.htm locate

!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

below that line add

html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="RTL">

IIS Setup

Here are pointers to some articles on configuring Microsoft Internet Information Server

http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=3681

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa737439.aspx

Cart is empty after being transferred from HTTP to HTTPS part of the shopping cart

If you notice the following issues on your shopping cart:

Cart is empty after being transferred from HTTP to HTTPS part of the site.
Item added while on HTTP part of the site will not appear on the HTTPS page and vice-versa.
For example : Item XYZ added while on http://www.myshoppingcart.com will not appear on https://www.myshoppingcart but will continue to appear on the http part of the page.

There are 2 possibilities that may cause these issues. Below are the explanation and also the workaround.

1) Shared SSL

The easy way to see if you are running shared SSL is to check the domain name of the HTTPS page. If the full domain name is different from your shopping cart domain, your are almost certainly running on Shared SSL certificate.

For example : :

http://www.myshoppingcart.com -> https://secure.mywebhost.com/myaccount (This is SHARED SSL)

http://www.myshoppingcart.com -> https://www.myshoppingcart.com (This is DEDICATED SSL)

VP-ASP does not support shared SSL and will not work properly with it. When the customer is being transferred to the secure area, the web browser will use a new session ID due to the different domain name and thus the references to the previous session will be lost.

If you do require an SSL certificate, we highly recommend you to use a dedicated SSL certificate. You may need to check with your hosting to provider to ensure they allow dedicated SSL on your account.

2) IIS setting "New ID on Secure Connection (keepSessionIdSecure)" is enabled.

If you have a dedicated SSL installed but still having the same issue, your sever may have the IIS option "New ID on Secure Connection (keepSessionIdSecure)" enabled.

If this is the case, a separate session ID will be used for the HTTPS page and the cart will not be able to access the old session that hold the content and the cart and thus you will experience "Cart is empty" issue.

To resolve this, you will need to disable the option "New ID on Secure Connection (keepSessionIdSecure)" which can be found on IIS -> ASP -> Session State configuration folder.

XP Authentication

If you try to run VP-ASP on your system and get a pop-op requiring userid/password, then the authentication setup is wrong but easily fixed.

When you are attempting to browse a Web page, the following error is displayed:

You are not authorized to view this page
You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied.

HTTP 401.2 - Unauthorized: Logon failed due to server configuration
Internet Information Services

Solution

The Solution is to start Internet Information Services, select the directory and allow anonymous access. Use

Start/control Panel/Performance and Maintenance/Administrative Tools/Internet Information Services.

Then click to you see webs structure

Right Click on the Directory in this case VPASP, select Properties

Click Edit

Check Anonymous Access

Setting Up XP Professional

There are two steps in setting up Windows XP Professional after you have unzipped VP-ASP software into some directory.

Make sure the directories below have the correct read/write permissions :
- admin (required)
- admin/config (required)
- config (required)
- database (required)
- installation (required)
- admin/export (optional)
- admin/import (optional)
- html (optional)
- images (optional)
- stylesheets (optional)
- templates (optional)
- upload (optional)
Updating VP-ASP Configuration file shop$config.asp located in the folder "config" and "admin/config".

Setting Up Folder Permission

1. Right click on the directories mentioned above.

2. Click on 'Properties'.

3. Choose the 'Security' tab in the dialog box window.
Note :
If you're running XP Pro, you must open Windows Explorer, go to Tools, Folder Options, View and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing.

If you're running XP Home, Simple File Sharing is enforced by default and cannot be disabled. You must boot the computer into Safe Mode and log in with the Administrator account, in order to see the Security tab.

4. Uncheck the 'Allow inheritable permissions from parent to propagate to this object' from the bottom of the dialog box.

5. Then click on the 'Add' button at the top left of the window.

6. Next the 'Select Users or Groups' dialog box will open, please highlight 'IUSR_MyComputer' account from the list by clicking on it.
Note:
'MyComputer' will be the name of your computer.
'IUSER' is the Internet Guest Account setup by default when IIS is installed on the operating system.

If the IUSR_MyComputer already exist in the bottom of selected user, then you can skip to step 10.

7. Next click on the 'Add' button in the middle left of the dialog box. You will then see 'MyComputer\IUSER_MyComputer' appear in the box in the bottom half of the dialog box. Note:
'MyComputer' will be the name of your computer.

9. Next click on the 'OK' button at the bottom right of the 'Select Users or Groups' dialog box.

10. You should now be back at the 'Security Properties' dialog box where the top box should now contain the 'Internet Guest Account (MyComputer\IUSER_MyComputer)'.

11. Highlight the 'Internet Guest Account (MyComputer\IUSER_MyComputer)' by clicking on it in the top box.

12. Select 'Read' and 'Write' permissions for the account by checking the boxes at the bottom of the window. (you can check all the boxes to make sure that you have no problems with permissions).

13. Next repeat all the steps above on the other directories so that they are all have the correct read/write permissions.

Possible Errors

When you are attempting to browse a Web page, the following error is displayed:
You are not authorized to view this page
You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied.

HTTP 401.2 - Unauthorized: Logon failed due to server configuration
Internet Information Services

Click here for a solution
or see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q253667