Empty Baskets? Logged Out Admin?

[bsmither]

FYI:

 

CubeCart uses cookies to keep track of sessions. Data about your session is stored in a PHP session file. The cookie value is equal to the filename of the session file.

 

A session could be you, as a guest, viewing the store front. The same session is used when you log in as a customer. The same session is used when you log in on the store back as the admin.

 

However, any log out event will destroy that session.

 

What does this mean?

 

You are testing out your store. You log in to be a regular customer (or newly register). You add products to your shopping basket. You begin to check out.

 

You now need to make a change in admin, maybe to enable one more shipping method, or change the skin. So, you log in. CubeCart uses the existing session to keep track of you, as an admin. Knowing that the store may behave slightly differently when being viewed by an admin, you log out.

 

Then, you click to go to the next step in checking out. But....

 

You find yourself with an empty basket and being logged out as a customer. What happened?

 

Any log out event will destroy the session, both for the admin, and for anyone else using that session.

 

This isn't usually a problem. But if you need to see the store's behavior as a typical customer would see it, you should be using different 'instances' of a web browser - at least some way to keep two cookies to the same domain separate. That may mean using Chrome and Firefox in parallel. Or the installed Firefox and the Portable Firefox. Or maybe Internet Explorer if you have to. Or there may be a Firefox add-on that can keep cookies assigned to specific tabs.

 

Again, this tip only pertains to you as a logged-in admin and a logged-in customer using the same session.