Since the update last night i have been unable to view my off-line storefront using the View Storefront button in the CP. When I click the button, it get my Store offline static page. I was able to view the storefront after i put the store on-line but when i returned it to off-line... same problem.
This button worked properly yesterday.

Anyone else see this problem with an off-line store?

It is a known issue that we realized last night at about 2:30 AM. It is logged and slated to be fixed in the very next maintenace release, along with any other minor issues that we discover this week.

With all due respect, isn't this a CRITICAL feature that deserves an IMMEDIATE update? In my case my store is not open yet so all I do is design. You've effectively put my work at a standstill until your next update. Not good when I'm due to open in a couple weeks. How was such a basic feature missed?

Anyone agree here? Thx.

-gary kratzer

Gary, I went to you site, as I can see the index.aspx part of your site, I cannot get anywhere else in your site. I get the offline message. FYI

Right. My store's not open for business yet, but because of this bug I have to keep opening/closing it to see any of my design changes. Sounds like you slipped into the /index.aspx while it was open, then when you tried to navigate around I had subsequently closed it again. Hence the reason I believe this bug should be fixed ASAP.

Thx for your feedback.

-gary

A fast track issue generally involves something critical for business that has no workaround. A workaround just came to me, and there are a few other easier options as well.

Quick workaround #1 - When logged into your MCP, use this link to set the cookie and view your offline storefront. Change "mydomain.com" to your 3rd level domain (xxxx.netsolstores.com) or regular domain, and set it as a bookmark in your browser for ease of use:



Quick workaround #2 - You can also upload an index.htm file and design it just like the offline.aspx file, it will be rendered first when the domain is accessed. People could still get around it to see the storefront if they physically type in "index.aspx" to the URL, but it will block 99% of traffic. This is probably overall easier than quick workaround #1.

In conjunction with the index.htm splash page, you can create a storefront customer on the back end, require login to access the storefront, and log in using the customer you have created. The worst that can happen is that they see the login.aspx page, and you can hide the body tag if you are worried about that.

I am having the exact same issue. Our store is not yet open, but we are working hard to get it designed and launched. I cannot preview the pages anymore and it is a HUGE issue for us that we need fixed as soon as possible.

Read the post directly above yours, it describes a workaround.

When is the next maintenance release? How long will that be?

The latter part of next week, barring any delays.

Thank you for the update. Now as far as the workarounds. I seem to have tried workaround 1 and it does not want to connect to my store front using that link with my Network Solutions store number. It gives me an error message in the browser. Any suggestions on that? Thank you.

What is the error message?

After logging in, you should use this link:

https://02b4358.netsolstores.com/mcp/index....&redirect=/

I get this message: (I have internet access so it's not my network connection)

The connection was reset

The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.

* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.

* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

I'm having a similar problem and can't get either workaround to work.

My experience of this problem is a little different and it might help with debugging.

I was starting to build our site, adding products, categories and all that and happily previewing from time to time. At some point in the process of adding payment methods, the preview stopped working. I went to another computer and logged into the control panel and guess what? Preview worked! (IMG:http://forums.networksolutions.com/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

So now I was figuring that something was stuck in IE (MS-IE 7) cache or cookies or something on the first computer. I deleted temporary Internet files and cookies to no avail. I'm still only slightly better off. I can continue to preview as long as the trick of going to another computer continues to work... until I run out of computers. (IMG:http://forums.networksolutions.com/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

The previewing of an offline store was resolved in the 7.3 release that went out earlier this month. You should no longer need to use either of the workaround Andy provided.

Huh?

Whatever was fixed in 7.3 was apparently not the complete fix that was expected since I did in fact experience a similar problem today.

If I had not experienced the problem today, I would not have searched for this thread, posted a message on it and we would not be having this conversation.

What is your domain name? There is a related issue that you may be experiencing.

Hi Dave,

The domain is hmxtdemo.com.

Thanks!

It wasn't the issue I suspected. Can you explain exactly what you mean when you say the preview stopped working? Do you mean that when you go to the storefront now in the affected browser you just see the offline page, or is something else happening?


Thanks

I was the original post on this issue and I used the work around with the index.html page. This issue seems to be resolved now for me, BUT if you used the same work around, you do have to remember to go back and remove the index.html page, else the problem does not appear to be solved.

Thank for the quick fix.