Question

Our magento 1.6.2 cant not reindex product flat data. It also sometimes shows ‘There was a problem with reindexing process.’

I tried many solutions from the experience of other users. No result. We imported bulk products but we are not sure it’s the cause of reindexing problem.

What could be the ideal solutions?

This is the command i used in shell:

php /usr/local/lsws/fcgi-bin/lsphp5 /home/user/domains/my domain../public_html/shell/indexer.php 

This is the error from exception.log

2012-08-09T14:55:43+00:00 DEBUG (7): Exception message: SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1452 Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails (`galagearbox/#sql-1662_1fc419`, CONSTRAINT `FK_CAT_PRD_FLAT_4_ENTT_ID_CAT_PRD_ENTT_ENTT_ID` FOREIGN KEY (`entity_id`) REFERENCES `catalog_product_entity` (`entity_id`) ON DELETE CASCA)
Trace: #0 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Zend/Db/Statement/Pdo.php(228): PDOStatement->execute(Array)
#1 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Varien/Db/Statement/Pdo/Mysql.php(110): Zend_Db_Statement_Pdo->_execute(Array)
#2 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Zend/Db/Statement.php(300): Varien_Db_Statement_Pdo_Mysql->_execute(Array)
#3 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php(479): Zend_Db_Statement->execute(Array)
#4 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Zend/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Abstract.php(238): Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query('ALTER TABLE `ca...', Array)
#5 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php(389): Zend_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Abstract->query('ALTER TABLE `ca...', Array)
#6 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php(327): Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql->query('ALTER TABLE `ca...')
#7 /home/corecolu/public_html/lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php(2548): Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql->raw_query('ALTER TABLE `ca...')
#8 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Resource/Product/Flat/Indexer.php(816): Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql->addForeignKey('FK_CAT_PRD_FLAT...', 'catalog_product...', 'entity_id', 'catalog_product...', 'entity_id', 'CASCADE', 'CASCADE')
#9 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Resource/Product/Flat/Indexer.php(1390): Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Product_Flat_Indexer->prepareFlatTable(4)
#10 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Product/Flat/Indexer.php(296): Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Product_Flat_Indexer->reindexAll()
#11 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Product/Indexer/Flat.php(336): Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Flat_Indexer->reindexAll()
#12 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Index/Model/Process.php(207): Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Indexer_Flat->reindexAll()
#13 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Index/Model/Process.php(253): Mage_Index_Model_Process->reindexAll()
#14 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Index/controllers/Adminhtml/ProcessController.php(124): Mage_Index_Model_Process->reindexEverything()
#15 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Action.php(420): Mage_Index_Adminhtml_ProcessController->reindexProcessAction()
#16 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Router/Standard.php(250): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action->dispatch('reindexProcess')
#17 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Front.php(176): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Standard->match(Object(Mage_Core_Controller_Request_Http))
#18 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/App.php(349): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Front->dispatch()
#19 /home/corecolu/public_html/app/Mage.php(640): Mage_Core_Model_App->run(Array)
#20 /home/corecolu/public_html/index.php(83): Mage::run('', 'store')
#21 {main}

Answer 1

Reindexing errors in Magento can have many reasons, so I’m afraid there never will be an “ideal” solution covering all possible errors.

Since you’ve posted a non-technical error message, I guess you’ve tried to reindex the product flat data using the admin backend and saw the error message there.

I’d recommend to try to reindex again, but using the shell/indexer.php this time:

/usr/bin/php -f /abs/path/to/shell/indexer.php -- --reindex catalog_product_flat

This way you’ll get more meaningful technical error messages, if reindexing fails.

Here’s a list that shows which parameter to use for which index:

catalog_product_attribute     Product Attributes
catalog_product_price         Product Prices
catalog_url                   Catalog URL Rewrites
catalog_product_flat          Product Flat Data
catalog_category_flat         Category Flat Data
catalog_category_product      Category Products
catalogsearch_fulltext        Catalog Search Index
cataloginventory_stock        Stock Status
tag_summary                   Tag Aggregation Data

UPDATE

The exception you’ve added to your post tells, that the referential integrity between

catalog_product_flat_4.entity_id

and

catalog_product_entity.entity_id

was found being corrupted.

Usually this means some record(s) contain(s) null in the field catalog_product_entity.entity_id, where they are expected to contain existing entity_ids.

Before trying to fix this, please backup your database first.

Now, to find the corrupted record(s), query your database with:

SELECT
    a.entity_id
FROM
    catalog_product_flat_4 AS a
LEFT JOIN
    catalog_product_entity AS b ON a.entity_id = b.entity_id
WHERE
    ISNULL(b.entity_id)

The entity_ids found by this query are entity_ids in the table catalog_product_flat_4, which are corrupted and need to be deleted.

Delete the appropriate records in catalog_product_flat_4, and then try to reindex again.