Checkout problem with IE9 / VM 2.0.20b / J2.5.11 [Solved]

[wizardofaus]

My boss uncovered an odd bug on our website, and I can't figure out how to fix it. It crops up on our checkout page when you're using Internet Explorer (it doesn't appear in Chrome), and have already entered your billing address; if you click on 'choose shipping method', it instead asks for your billing address again, whereas if you click Check Out Now it moves on to the next step of the checkout process normally (and asks you which shipping method you want to use.)

Anyone have any idea what's causing this (and more importantly, how to stop it?)

[Edit: Solved - problem derives from JotCache not getting along quite properly with the checkout system when SEF is turned on, even when it is told to ignore 'cart'. May need to add other segments to its ignore list, or come up with better solution.]

[Maxim Pishnyak]

Nobody could help you without link.

[wizardofaus]

Terribly sorry - http://www.anchortex.com/ is the place.

[Maxim Pishnyak]

Hmm.. could you change your joomla template to standard (for example to Beez5) and check your issue again?

[jenkinhill]

IE10 gives me a JS erro:
Line: 18
Error: Object doesn't support property or method 'hotvmscroller'

So as well as testing with  Beez, try disabling that scroller.

[wizardofaus]

Briefly switched back to Beez5 -- problem continues. IE9 still sends me back to the 'fill in your info' screen. (Did shut off that scroller, too; while it isn't the cause, I'm not terribly fond of it, so I'm leaving it off.)



[attachment cleanup by admin]

[Maxim Pishnyak]

Did you test with seo links (both in Joomla and VM ofc) turned off?

[wizardofaus]

Hmmmm. I hadn't, to be honest, and having tested, it does work without SEF turned on without complaints. On a side note, with SEF disabled, the 'Check Out Now' option goes through the steps individually - address, shipment, payment - before returning to the cart screen to confirm and finalize, whereas with SEF turned on, it basically goes back to the shopping cart after each step - I'd thought that the 'sends you back to the cart after each step' thing was the natural order of things, but now that I've found that Virtuemart's check-out-now button is actually useful for step-by-step checkout progress, I'd like to make it work in the 'with SEF enabled' mode.

So, that answers one question, in a way, and raises two more:

1) Since it works in SEF-off mode, and doesn't work in SEF-on mode, it's probably pointing to a bad URL (I think?) - so any ideas on where this pointer might be so I can manually train it to find the friendly URL if necessary?

2) Now that I've discovered that Check Out Now walks you through the steps properly when it knows what it's doing, any ideas on fixing that to work properly in SEF-active mode as well?

TMI in case it might be helpful in answering the question: I'm using Joomla's integral SEF-friendly URLs/URL rewriting on on the live server, as well as ReDJ to do additional redirect work for broken links and such, and JotCache is installed and currently trained to ignore Virtuemart's cart view (I'm not using Joomla's default cache system because Cherrypicker, the filter display system I'm using, abhors it).

[WebStuff]

JotCache is known to have issues with VM2 add to cart and cart pages even if VM cart view is "ignored" in the JotCache settings.
Have you tried it with JotCache disabled completely just to remove that as a cause?

Have you checked the Redirect Component for any cart entries?

[wizardofaus]

Disabling JotCache outright (and re-enabling SEF), I get the following results:

1) The original problem - 'Select Shipment Method' bouncing me back to the input address data screen - goes away, which means disabling Jotcache outright does solve this problem.

2) The 'Check Out Now sends you back to the cart after each step' quirk, which honestly I'd just discovered wasn't part of intended design, still remains. If I can get that to work while using SEF, it would be a Very Good Thing.

Since JotCache may have to go, although this is probably at the fringes of 'relevant to the board topic', another question:

What caching solutions / plugins / mods are recommended for a Virtuemart install to avoid breaking the cart system while still boosting site speed?

(Am digging through Redirects - didn't find anything that looked related to the cart, but am mucking it out anyhow.)

[Maxim Pishnyak]

Probably you need to uninstall JotCache fully, and test again.

Also cleaning records in Joomla redirects component could help.

JotCache is looking the most promising as cache solution, but it's necessary to keep JotCache support busy to make this product really good.

[WebStuff]

Not much help I'm afraid but I have not found any caching solution that works with VM2 at all, and I've tried several including server process stuff.

Either the add to cart functionality goes completely or you get "cross posting" of items into other peoples carts or other peoples user details and addresses show up on checkout.
Even excluding virtuemart and user from caching at the url and template level seems to not work 100% and I still find one page or step of the checkout which goes wrong or goes to a cached page (either from another user or a previous step) so customers end up in a hopeless loop trying to checkout or with the wrong items or the wrong customfield options.

I have come to the conclusion that any VM2 system cannot be cached at all. If you want your customers to stay with you and have a smooth ordering experience turn all cache OFF.

Try some speed tests on your site with the cache on and with it off. You may be surprised at the results. For most people the difference is not that much, in my case 2-5 seconds loading the cart page.

On point 2, make sure your browser and site caches are both completely clear and you have cleared all cookies before testing changes.

Sorry I can't be of any further help.

[wizardofaus]

Bah -- sounds like I'm in a Cache-22, pardon the horrible pun, then. Unfortunately, I have to go with <u>something</u> as a caching solution -- a quick salvo using tools.pingdom.com to test the same page (http://www.anchortex.com/security-equipment-tactical-gear/tactical-helmets) generates a page load time of 7.21 seconds without Jotcache and 1.74 seconds with Jotcache -- so it's a matter of figuring out how to fix the checkout, or losing customers before they ever get there due to page load times.

Thank you all very much -- since this does answer the original question, at least, I'm marking this as solved and going after Jotcache to see if they can do something productive about solving it (and asking for advice on general speed improvement and other topics in more appropriate sections of the forum.)

[Maxim Pishnyak]

Basically improving page load speed is an ART and it could go alone even without standard caching from Joomla.

The key word is "standard" - in built technique in our CMS is NOT answer to all performance issues.

[WebStuff]

going after Jotcache to see if they can do something productive about solving it.

I must admit that JotCache was the closest I've come to a cache solution, I even put it into operation on a live site after much testing when I thought I'd got it sorted.
It ran for about two weeks then I noticed a spike in phone calls from customers struggling with checkout and asking if they could place orders over the phone.
It was a bit hit and miss as lots of customers still ordered fine but depending on browser/OS/(and seemingly)Time of day pages would go haywire on them so I turned it off again.
Unfortunately, unless customers are prepared to phone you or let you know that they can't order or are having other problems caching errors can be a "silent killer" as you slowly lose sales without realising why.

If they get JotCache sorted for VM2 then I will be eager to install it again.