cart timeout and inventory management

[b_white]

I understand (from reading one of the other posts) that when a cart times out the items in the cart will be returned to inventory.

I also understand that this action does not take place upon the actual timeout, but rather the first time the storefront page is hit after the timeout.

Question:

Is there a way to "kick" the process of returning the stock to inventory programatically (say from a cron)?

We have found that at low traffic periods (and because of our manual cart processing) items can get stuck in an expired cart for quite a while before someone "goes to checkout" and forces the stock refresh.

Thanks

[b_white]

Sorry to repost this, but I wasn't sure if Jamie reviewed posts that did not show the "question" icon:

I know that when a cart times out the items in the cart will be returned to inventory.

BUT, I also understand that this action does not take place upon the actual timeout, but rather the first time the storefront page is hit after the timeout. (Jamie, I think this was something you mentioned in another post)

Question:

Is there a way to "kick" the process of returning the stock to inventory programatically (say from a cron), as though someone has visited the index page?

We have found that at low traffic periods (and because of our manual cart processing) items can get stuck in an expired cart for quite a while before someone "goes to checkout" and forces the stock refresh.

Thanks

[Beery_Asst]

I would also ask the original poster what version of Squirrelcart he was using. There have been some updates to the inventory control system of Squirrelcart and if he hasn't picked those updates up, or he is not using one of the latest versions of Squirrelcart, he may need to update either the whole system or some files.

[b_white]

We are on 2.6.5. We will be going to 3, but not any time soon.

Why, does 3 handle the cart timeout differently - no longer requiring that the index page be hit?

[Beery_Asst]

Here is one link on the subject:

http://www.ldev.com/forums/showthrea...entory+timeout

Seems like there were some other fixes as well that Jamie reported for the V3 series of Squirrelcart with some of the search engine bots going through the webstore.

With you using 2.6.5, not sure if those fixes applied. I would suggest you look at the bug fixes Jamie has issued if you haven't done so and see if any of them apply to your version of Squirrelcart.

[Jamie]

Sorry to repost this, but I wasn't sure if Jamie reviewed posts that did not show the "question" icon:

The icon on a thread has no bearing on whether or not I read a post. This is a user to user community that I also participate in. I do not read or reply to all posts.

I know that when a cart times out the items in the cart will be returned to inventory.

BUT, I also understand that this action does not take place upon the actual timeout, but rather the first time the storefront page is hit after the timeout. (Jamie, I think this was something you mentioned in another post)

Correct

Question:

Is there a way to "kick" the process of returning the stock to inventory programatically (say from a cron), as though someone has visited the index page?

If the index page is requested via HTTP, the restock routine will run and will restock all items from carts with expired sessions. If you can write a cron job that will request your storefront page that should happen.

We have found that at low traffic periods (and because of our manual cart processing) items can get stuck in an expired cart for quite a while before someone "goes to checkout" and forces the stock refresh.

If the store isn't being accessed, it shouldn't matter how long it takes for items to be restocked unless you are accessing Squirrelcart's stock in the database from some other script.

[Jamie]

We are on 2.6.5. We will be going to 3, but not any time soon.

Why, does 3 handle the cart timeout differently - no longer requiring that the index page be hit?

No. In order to do that, we'd have to require that you setup a cron job.

[b_white]

Thank you Jamie,

That's is exactly what I needed. I figured a cron hitting the storefront page would work, but I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a more elegant solution (some function call perhaps).

The reason this is critical is because this cart is using manual add-to-cart, so the customer doesn't hit the storefront until they go to check out.

Thanks again