Knowledgebase

500 Errors: What is it, and why am I getting one?

A 500 Server Error is basically the servers way of saying something went wrong, but it doesn't know what exactly. In the case of CloudCommerce, there are a few situations in which you may run into this error from time to time. 

The most common reason a 500 error may happen, is because of a server timeout. Basically what this means, is that you asked the server to do a lot of work at one time, and it just can not complete the task within the time limit allotted. This will sometimes happen when you are updating prices accross large catalogs, or uploading large .txt files to update mass amounts of products or prices. Essentially, if you have a really big task, like updating 100,000 products at once, you may run into this.

Not to worry, there are a few solutions to this which are easy work arounds.

If you are uploading large amounts of products via a .txt file (.csv, tab delimitd, excel, etc.), try updating smaller amounts of products at once. Split your .txt file into a few files (cut and paste your spreadsheets into multiple spreadsheets and save each one as a different file, then upload). Also, rather than downloading a complete file, editing it, and re-uploading, consider just downloading a group of products that need the edit. Also, if you are just changing prices, there is no need to download the complete catalog, just download and edit prices, etc. This way you are lessening the load of data that needs to be processed at one time, speeding up the processing, and lessening the chance the server will hit its time limit. 

If you are adjusting prices via the Quick Price Updater feature, and you have it set to adjust all prices through the catalog, you may also run into this. There are a few solutions for this. The first would be to break up your markups among different categories and manufacturers. If you split a 300,000 product catalog into 10 main categories to mark up, you are only updating 30k products a per update now. Even better, split it up a bit further into 30 seperate updates, and not you are only at 10k per update. This will make your price updates run very quickly. It is also good retail merchandising strategy to be able to adjust your pricing by category or manufacturer quickly, so you can easily adjust for factors such as your competitors price changes, sales, or manufacturer price increases, etc.

Lastly, if you are getting this error, and you feel like you just don't want to go through the work to split things up a bit, contact our support team. We have a few tricks up our sleeves that allow us to make some behind the scenes magic happen for you. If you are getting a 500 error in CloudCommerce, and it does not have to do with a large task running in the background, then surely contact our support team and we can look into it for you. It is rare that that would happen, however computers, servers, and the internet in general can be fickle at times, and its those times that we are here for you.