Items in cart don't last as long as they used to. Cookie related?

[mkp007]

I process orders for customers and I add items to the cart. It used to last for days, but now it doesn't last overnight. What has changed? Is that a browser/computer thing, or is it a cookie expiration thing?

[E-junkie_Guru]

To track the contents of each buyer's cart, we set a cookie in their browser which expires 24 hours after their last cart view. This has not changed since E-junkie began, so the only way a pending cart order might have persisted for days for you would be if you'd at least viewed that cart in the interim frequently enough that the full 24 hours never elapsed between your cart views. If your cart is resetting sooner than 24 hours, you might check whether your browser settings (or any custom extensions you've installed) may be removing or expiring cookies whenever you close your browser.

[mkp007]

something has changed. I don't think its me. Regardless, why have it expire after 24hrs? Is there some benefit in the customer coming back to their cart and having all the items disappear? What if it was 72hrs, what would happen??



whatever, E-junkie has been ok for 6+ yrs but we launch our new site soon so I really don't care.

[E-junkie_Guru]

It's possible to override the default 24 hour cart cookie expiration by using our cart customization code documented here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.custom-cart.htm



E.g., using function EJEJC_config() {} with the parameter EJEJC_CDAYS = 6; would have the cart cookie set to expire in 6 days (72 hours). Cart customization is specific to each page where it's used, and only works with our standard cart display that appears as an overlay "inside" your own page, so if you have multiple sales pages and always want all buyer carts to persist for up to 6 days after their last cart view, every sales page would need to include your standard View Cart code (this loads some javascript into your page to manage the overlay-style cart display) along with the cart customization code necessary to override the default cookie duration.