I’m trying to understand Products, Categories and Collections.
I created one Collection (no contents) and four Categories (two fake products in one of them).
I deleted the ’ New Products’ Category. Hopefully that didn’t cause this problem…
I was watching a YouTube vid on Categories and Collections, trying to follow along. Was adding a few stand-in (fake) products and randomly applying the few images I’ve uploaded to Z as Category thumbnails, just trying to get things to appear so I can figure out next moves.
Attempts to view my Public Storefront resulted multiple times in the message, " Whoops! Something went wrong." Frustrated, I finally logged out, cleared my browser cache and logged back in. No more Store. It’s gone. All I see is my Profile, and I don’t even see an option for creating a Store.
If you know your store number, try substituting that number here for yourstorenumber and then click. It MAY get you to your settings. You may have arranged your settings to show no stores, is all I can think. Change that, and you might see your stores again.
By store number, I probably meant to say profile number. This would be a string of numbers you see in the webaddress of your profile, as in my first message.
@Windy Thank you, Windy. Last week I copied my complete Store URL into a wordprocessor file, just because “stuff goes wrong” so often. Per your instructions, I pasted that URL into my browser, and sure enough, the store does display.
I’ll have to log back in tomorrow and try to figure out what setting I changed to “Show no stores.” I hope it’s something as simple as that. Just knowing the Store still exists is helpful, and a step in the right direction.
If anybody knows what setting would cause all references to my Store to disappear, please let me know. You’ll probably save me hours of thrashing tomorrow. And BTW, it has to be something I can access from my Account or my Profile. The Store does not appear…at all.
THANK YOU, WINDY.
I think you have just hidden your store (i.e. made your store private).
It’s not possible to delete a store (or rename it), once you’ve created it (you can, however, delete the products within it).
So when you went to view the public storefront, that’s why you did not see your store.
To restore the visibility of your store, first go to the tab in your backend called _ Settings _
Under these tabs are six links to the left. Click on the link called _ Store Information. _
Under this link you’ll find the heading _ Edit Store Information _, where you’ll see an option to make this store private.
If you have the checkbox next to this option clicked, your store is not publicly viewable (even by you, if you click on the View Public Storefront option). It should be visible to you, _ but ONLY in the backend. _
Unclick the checkbox and hit the _ Submit _ button at the bottom of this page.
You have now made your store (publicly) visible again.
From the four links on the left, select the one called Advanced Settings.
Under the first heading called “Customize Home Page”, make sure “Stores” is not in the Hidden Sections column.
If it is, click on the Add link to the right of it. This will move it to the Visible Sections column on the right.
Click on the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
Note: don’t panic if you don’t see the change right away after making it – it may take a few minutes before this change takes affect in the Public View.
If this is a new store it will NOT show in public view for a few days, maybe even longer presently due to various site delays in updating new products.
You CANNOT delete a store accidentally or even purposefully!
Nuclear option in case none of the above solutions work: make a new store. You are allowed to have multiple stores. If it comes to that, don’t delete the New Products category. It’s the default that all new products are put into unless you put them somewhere else. It is possible (although not likely) that deleting it caused a problem. But first try the solutions listed by others.
Bear in mind currently, that the site is lagging. New products posted since February 8th have not gone live on the front end yet. They are stuck.
So, if you made products on the 8th/9th/10th/11th they’re not posting live, so there is nothing to show on the front end and that’s also why you can’t see your store. Hopefully the delay isn’t going to be for much longer. But once the delay is over, and the products show up again (they USUALLY show up live on the front end after 24 hours, but there have been delays. About a month ago exactly it took almost a week for products to show up again. So that is the other reason you are probably not seeing anything because no products have gone LIVE yet so there’s nothing to show.
Make new CATEGORIES before you delete the new products category, or rename it if you’d like. You don’t have to keep it.
@WHS_Designs
W.H. ==
Thank you very much for the detailed step-by-step. I don’t deserve it, but am GLAD to have it! =D I’m not really a klutz or a dufus, but you wouldn’t know from my thrashing about here at Zazzle. I’ll “settle down” soon. =O
I understood (and appreciated) every syllable of your instructions, and followed them easily. When I logged in this evening, my Store was BACK(!) like nothing had happened. Hmmm… By following your instructions I determined that my Store was not hidden (but I have hidden it now because it’s better to “thrash” behind closed doors, ha). Whatever happened last night remains a mystery for now.
I see you posted another suggestion, as did @CreativeDesign and @KeegansCreation and @Shakenbake . I’ll read them now and perhaps solve this mystery (or at least avoid a relapse). Thank you, W.H., as always.
The image below is what I see per your instructions. It’s not exactly as described, but I get the gist. I think the important point is that the Store does not appear to be hidden (anywhere in my pages).
I was working through a YouTube video tutorial last night when things went wrong. I was indeed in the Advanced Settings, so you’re on the right track, W.H. =]
As a noob, I (and other noobs) much appreciate the way you post an actual URL along with a Page name, as you did for your reference to the Profile Page in your post above. That’s a lot of extra work for you, and I thank you on behalf all Z neophytes.
Zeophytes? =D
At first (and even now) I get confused about which page or tab I’m on, or how to get to some other page. I’m building my own website, so I’m not entirely clueless, but sometimes my unfamiliarity with this Zazzle UI stumps me.
And thanks for cluing me about the potential LAG TIME. That could be part of what was happening last night. I much appreciate the expanded perspective.
@CreativeLeahG
Thanks, Leah! “Do NOT panic!” was exactly what I needed to hear last night. I’ve only uploaded a few photos for my experiments, and had been using them indescriminately as Category and/or Collection thumbnails…AND as product photos, etc. So I worried that perhaps doing that had crossed some line and incurred some unexpected, unintended Zazzle Sanction (OhNo!) And in “the fog of war” I also wondered if I had BROKEN my little corner of the Zazzle website. HA!
I’m glad to know that I cannot delete a store under any circumstances. Thanks for making that clear. Apparently I can hide a store, and hide products in that store. And I’m pretty sure I can move all products out of that store, but cannot actually delete the store.
And thank you for the link / URL for how to hide/unhide the Store.
Clearly you sensed my “concern” (guys never admit ‘PANIC’ ha).
Thanks for helping me out, Leah.
@KeegansCreation Thanks for discussing the potential problem created by my deleting the New Products Category. The first time I tried to delete it, I could not. I think after I removed a test product from that Category, I was able to delete the Category. Only afterward (duh) did I wonder if that Category wase a required “default catch all” for products not assigned to some other category. Just as you said. Yep, it’s a Learning Curve. =]
I’ll try to go back and create a NEW New Products Category for my Store. If that Category is required and I cannot reestablish it, have I crippled my Store…forever? Gulp. It’s the only Store name I want to use, so I’d better find a way to set things straight.
Last night I encountered what appeared to be a System Warning several times when attempting to view my Store’s public front end (I think…) “WHOOPS! Something went wrong!”
It looked to me as though the Zazzle site was experiencing a system glitch, but I thought, “Naw, it must be mistakes I’m making.” I’m glad (in this instance) to know that the problems I had might have been just a case of unfortunate timing. 'Not glad to know new products are not showing up as expected, but it does explain why I couldn’t get new products to appear in my Store. I MUCH APPRECIATE THIS CONTEXT.
I’m also very glad to know that I do NOT need to keep the New Product Category. Mine’s gone, and if it’s required as the Default, I’m not sure a new one that I make would be accepted as the Default. (?) But if I don’t need it, no worries. And I intend to assign each new product to a Category when I create the product, so again, no worries.
You’re welcome! When I was working in the tech industry as a graphic designer, I also wrote manuals, topcards, and tutorials, so being sufficiently descriptive for the intended audience isn’t as mentally intensive for me as you might think. 😊
I also had to build a few websites, making often reluctant acquaintances with JavaScripts, DHTML, and Flash. Having to pop in and adapt sometimes nightmarishly long and complex lines of code is no picnic, so I can empathize if you have to deal with the nasty backend of website building/maintenance. Today’s [free] website builders, like Wix and Adobe Spark, do away with having to figure out if I have errors in my HTML coding, and how to fix them. I sure wish these time savers had existed a long time ago!
The learning curve is steeper at Zazzle than at any of the other PODs because it has so many moving parts. But I think it is ultimately worth it. Flexibility requires complexity because many different variables have to be juggled. But flexibility means that you can do far more with your designs than you could at other PODs. The design tool is superior to the design tool of literally every other POD. It even has a clipping mask.
Agreed. Despite the steep curve, once I do understand a process, I usually am pleased at how easy and logical it is. But the fact that new users find it difficult to accomplish things suggests that more work is needed on the Zazzle UI.
Are you following this, @WHS_Designs ? Might be a win/win for you to offer your expertise to Zazzle on a consultancy basis… =]
My contributions to this Stone Soup will likely come under the heading “what not to do” for the foreseeable future. =] If knowledgeable contributors post helpful solutions in response to my…er…predicaments, that enlightens the community at large (and ME in particular), and I call that Progress!
I followed the three links to your stores. I see you’re a Zazzle PRO BRONZE, which explains, at least in part, your Zexpertise. Thanks for expending some of that for the benefit of new users.
I looked through some of your products, too. CLEVER. =]
Stone Soup … now that’s an interesting parable! Never heard of that one before. You are quite correct. Knowledge shared is enlightenment for all. Very utilitarian. I’m of the “give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and feed him forever” mindset. Which I suppose is similar.
You’re welcome. One hopes that wisdom is something that comes with experience! 😉
Thanks for visiting my stores! I certainly hope some of my designs rub off on customers, because my style (and humor) can be quite esoteric at times!
