FATAL ERROR PAGES AND MESSAGES - MIVA MERCHANT

Did you know that there are over 900 Miva Merchant fatal error page with horrible message listings from different stores in Google? 

Click the above image to see the resulting page.

This could mean several things:

1. Someone's Miva Merchant store no longer exists.
2. A product or category code has been deactivated, deleted, or renamed, but a link still exists to it either on the site where it originally existed or on another website.
3. No link still exists on other websites, but Google has not removed the listing yet.
4. The wrong url was accidentally typed when creating a link.
5. A store has upgraded to compiled Miva Merchant, so links to *.mv files do not work.

What happens when Miva Merchant's standard fatal error page and message is presented?

1. If a person receives a fatal error page with an unsightly message after clicking on a search engine listing or a link from another website, they may assume your store is not functional and leave indefinitely.
2. If a search engine is crawling your store and encounters fatal error pages, they are left with nowhere to go.

Free Solutions to this problem:

1. Follow our tutorial on modifying the util.mv file of non-compiled Miva Merchant, which was the first of its kind available on the web  You can customize the fatal error pages Miva Merchant displays for all errors and not just product and categories not being found. (non-compiled only)
2. Follow the tutorial at Mivahelp.com which calls a custom html file to be displayed in case of an error. (non-compiled only)
3. To make links to *.mv files work when you go compiled, add this code to your existing .htaccess file on your server.  If you don't have an .htaccess file, create one and include this code.  This solution was provided by James Harrell of Copernicus.
   
   
   #REWRITE .mv to .mvc when .mvc file exists RewriteEngine on RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^(.*)\.mv$ $1 [C,E=WasMV:yes] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.mvc -f RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.mvc [S=1] RewriteCond %{ENV:WasMV} ^yes$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.mv

   If you already have a .htaccess file, copy and paste the above code on a new line at the end of your file.  If you need to create a .htaccess file, use your favorite text editor and create a new file.  Cut and paste the above code into the file.  Save as .htaccess and upload to your root directory (http://www.domain.com/.htaccess)  Yes, that is a period in the file name.

*Paid Solutions to this problem:

1. Pay a Miva Merchant developer like JMH Web Services to customize util.mv for you (non-compiled only).
2. Purchase the Fatal Error Plus module by Sebenza Studios (non-compiled and compiled).

*There is no paid or free solution for compiled Miva Merchant stores that do not use the latest OpenUI Look & Feel layout module.

REVIEW OF FATAL ERROR PLUS

This module is a lifesaver for Miva Merchant store owners.  You don't have to worry about deleting or renaming codes for categories, products, and stores.  Instead of the standard fatal error pages with the horrible message, you can provide a custom message letting the customer know what went wrong and even direct them to your storefront.  Your customers don't think your store is completely broken and search engines have more links to crawl.

Below is a screenshot of the first part of the configuration screen in Miva Merchant administration.

As you can see, the content of the screen is completely customizable.  You can even target a different key phrase in the title tags via the page title input field. You can put a search box, links to your top selling products, images, and much more for the page content.  Notice the last option.  If you don't feel like messing with anything, you can just redirect shoppers and search engines to your storefront.

One might think that the above features were enough, but Sebenza Studios added one more important feature.

When someone clicks on a link to your store that is no longer available, you can be notified via email.  An awesome new feature is a referring url token.  You can then fix the link or notify whoever is responsible for the referring url to fix it.  If you pay someone a monthly maintenance fee, you can have them receive an email as well.

Our current rating of Fatal Error Plus is 5 out of 5 bananas.  We highly recommend it.

PURCHASE NOW! Fatal Error Plus Requires the latest versions of the OpenUI, comes in non-compiled and compiled versions, and is only $29.95. 

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