You need to paste html into the source of the page instead of the actual view of the page. To do this click the <> on the top bar of the html editor. Click the button and paste the html where you would like it displayed on the page.

You've probably seen posts mentioning the firewall had been triggered, or have been told you had accidentally triggered it and had been blocked from accessing any part of your site, as well as any other sites on the server, making you think that the server is down.

We thought we'd explain how and why that happens a little bit so it doesn't sound like such a
mysterious thing.

Merchantmoms servers use a firewall for all of our protection.   It may seem aggressive at times, but the alternative would be worse.  Although it may seem annoying and inconvenient, it is for your protection and helps to keep your site safe from being exploited or hacked. The most common way sites get exploited is through insecure passwords - attempts at guessing it either manually or by using a script.

 If you are uneasy about your current passwords and would like them changed (perhaps after a designer is through with your site, after a partner and/or spouse has moved on, etc) let us know that you would like it changed via the support desk.  You won't get to choose it, it will be a totally random secure password.

Our accounts use various checkpoints.  cPanel for it's control panel, which also has built in login checkers. These two together monitor login points ( cPanel, ftp, webmail/email, .htaccess password set ups..etc ) and when they detect too many incorrect attempts at logging in it tells the system, hmmm, this is most unusual, better stop it and they block that IP. Everything will be shut down to that IP - email, viewing your site, storeadmin, cpanel.

Unfortunately, you can also get locked out of your site for failed attempts. Sometimes ISPs reassign a new IP when you reboot the router/modem which is why we often suggest doing this.  Rebooting both your computer and router can help. If that doesn't work, then we will remove your IP from the "blocked" list and reset the firewall.



BEST PRACTICES:

 Use the MerchantMom's Client Area to log in to Webmail and Cpanel; this means one less password for you to remember!  Once you're in there, you're in.

SUGGESTIONS:

Choose to let your browser (if Firefox, Opera, and some others) remember your password for you

Try a password keeper/filler such as Roboform (http://roboform.com)

Get a small Rolodex to put all of your passwords in, just like a bunch of business contacts


We hope that helps in clearing up what happens and why If you forget a password - ask! you can try it three/four times and then wait a bit, do something else for 5-10-15 minutes or so, and try again.  But if you can't access anything now you'll know why and can let us know (preferably at the support desk where I am most often).

 

Sorry, but there are no products matching this criteria. Please try again" and a search box

If you have version 7 of MM you may see this error in your partent categories. This is because of the new unlimited category tree, the 2.71 version now allows items to be listed under parent categories as well as sub categories. You can easily eliminate this message by changing the 'Main Categories' setting in the 'Catalog Setup' to 'Categories' so it only displays the subcategories if no products exist. That would just show the category tree without showing the error message and search box.

This is because Mal's shopping cart is set to a fixed width. Set it to one of the % widths available and it will stretch to fit the screen, rather then try to retain it's specified width in a space smaller then what is needed.

Log into Mal's

Click Cart Setup

Click Customize

Click Font And Alignment

Under the "CART WIDTH AND ALIGNMENT" > Width drop down menu - select either 80%, 90% or 100%

Click "UPDATE"

The Inventory messages will display only if the inventory quantity is less than the value placed in the INV LIMIT field ( in Catalog Setup of storeadmin)

To keep the number of items you have in inventory from showing on the product pages set the number in the INV LIMIT field to 0

A higher number then you have in inventory will insure that the message always shows.

• If you leave it to a higher number than what you have in inventory then the message will always show. 
• If you set it to 3 for example then the message will show when you are down to 3 items. 
• If you set it to zero the message will never show.

If you have the new 2.62 version of Merchantmoms system the wholesale discounts will work a little differently then you're used to. In version 2.55, a wholesale vendor's 'Override Discount' would override *all* items, whether they had an existing wholesale percent or not. So you could not create retail-only items. This has been changed in 2.62 - all items have to have wholesale discounts on the product level if you want to override them with the vendor override.

Basically, in 2.62, the override only applies if there is a wholesale percent for that item.

For instance, say we have two products:

Product A - No Wholesale Percent
Product B - 10% Wholesale Percent

and we have two resellers:

Reseller 1 - No Override
Reseller 2 - Override of 15%

In version 2.55, we'd have:

Reseller 1 - Product A gets no discount, Product B gets 10% discount
Reseller 2 - Product A gets 15% discount, Product B gets 15% discount

In version 2.6+, we'd have:

Reseller 1 - Product A gets no discount, Product B gets 10% discount
Reseller 2 - Product A gets no discount, Product B gets 15% discount

The difference is that in version 2.6+ if the product does not have a wholesale discount, it's not going to be discounted, even if the wholesale vendor has an override percent. That way, Product A can be a 'retail only' product without a wholesale discount.

If you are seeing an unusual page or not finding your site at all, it's very likely that your domain name has expired.

If you did not register your domain with Merchant Moms, check where you registered it and renew it promptly.

If you aren't sure where you're registered, you might try this resource -

http://domaintools.com

Submit your domain name there and it will return the WHOIS information to you.

If you get the following error message when trying to upload your froogle file:

Warning: fopen(/home/yourusername/public_html/storeadmin/files/yourfrooglefile.txt) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/yourusername/public_html/storeadmin/froogle.php on line 265
Could not create froogle file

Try to delete the froogle file you have in the /storeadmin/files/ folder, then reupload using the Upload/Delete selection for status.

Check to make sure you have POST set as the method in the HTTP Remote Call section:

Click the Cart Setup tab
Advanced Settings
Remote Call (IPN). Then in the drop down box select POST. 
Click "Update Record" and save your changes.

Also, if you're seeing this and use Paypal as your payment method you might need to check the Paypal setting in Mals, and choose the first (just the words...)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The cart transfers the customer over to PayPal to pay for the entire cart contents as a single item. You can choose the way the description is set:
Just the words: Order number: XXXX
Try to push all the products into the description. It will be cut off at 127 chars.

Keep in mind that the system sorts in alpha-numeric order (ie. like a library), which means an item called BCI-12M is going to come before BCI-8M because 1 comes before 8. You'd have to do something like BCI-08M to get it to sort before BCI-12M ( inserting however many zeros needed, depending on your numbering system, if you need more spaces for numbers. So in this example you could also have BCI-008M and BCI-012M ) and any items without catalog numbers will show before those with numbers.

• HTTP Call: The HTTP call must be set up in Mals for the inventory control and order tracking to work. Go to Cart Setup, then Remote Calls.
  
  • URL: In the URL field, add yourdomain.com/go/finish.php - Replace yourdomain.com with your site (note: no http://). 
  • Method: Choose POST as the method.
  • Debug: In the HTTP call area of Mals, check the 'debug' box only if you have problems with the inventory control and want to track whether Mals is processing the call.
• PayPal Setup: Make sure that you enter the PayPal email and select the option that returns the customer back to your cart after an order goes through.

1. PayPal: Please note that if you want to use PayPal as a payment type, you must use a business account if you want to automate inventory control or log orders and sales. Personal accounts can be used with the cart, but the inventory control and order tracking will not work!
   
   
   • Auto Return: If you are using PayPal as a payment type, you must turn the 'Auto Return' setting on. This automates the return back to Mals after a customer pays via PayPal. (If this setting is turned off, the cart will require the customer to push a button to go back to the cart, and not all customers will do this.)
   • Thank You Page: The Auto Return setting requires a thank you page to return to after the payment is made. Create the page, following PayPal's thank you page rules (shown on the auto return setting page) and enter the URL in the space provided in PayPal.
     
2. Limitations: Please note that the Merchantmoms system's inventory control system decreases inventory automatically, if set up properly. It will also discourage a customer from ordering more than is available. However, it is not designed as a method to limit quantities for one of a kind items. Because the system uses a third party cart in Mals, we cannot guarantee that a customer will not try to change the quantity within Mals or otherwise try to order more than is available.
   
   In addition, Mals does not support every payment processor, so it is possible that the http call system may not work properly with your payment processor. Please check the processor list at Mals to make sure inventory control will work on your site - if your processor does not have a check under 'HTTP Call', the inventory system will not work with that processor.

You will need to sign up for a forum account at http://merchantmoms.com/forums.  We do have to manually approve all accounts, but you will get an email when this has been done.

Log into your user account.

https://merchantmoms.com/billing/clientarea.php (the Client Login on the left at the MerchantMoms.com site)

Choose My Emails and find the Welcome Email there

You need to go into your Mals account to Cart Setup. There is a link for Link Verification. You want to make certain that the checkbox is UNCHECKED. Then click Update Record.

You get this error if the Mals ID and Mal's Server fields haven't been filled in, or are incorrect, in the Catalog Setup area of your storeadmin.

Once you fill them in ( the info is in the welcome letter you get from Mal's ) remember to click the "UPDATE VARIABLES" button at the bottom of the page.

Things to be aware of:

• It will not reduce the inventory if your product is using options - you'll have to manually update the inventory for these orders
• Google will push the order through your admin and then attempt to charge the card so first make sure the card was actually charged by logging into Google checkout merchants and checking.
• Google will sometimes give random discounts
• When shoppers use one of your discount codes it will put a minus sign in front of it in admin making the customer's total go UP by the discount and not down. They are charged correctly, but their receipt is incorrect