Can I have different payment addresses for each Category?

[rarpsl]

I hope this is the right section. If not, where should I post this help query?

I have assumed responsibility for ZenCart from the person who originally set it up and who is no longer available to query about the initial setup. Until now I have had minimal problems maintaining the site but I have now run into something that needs knowledge about the settings to handle.

I have just added two more categories to my original one category ZenCart. At the current time all the payments go to the original PayPal payment account. I have been requested to have each of the new categories go to separate accounts. Can this be done and if so, what settings/modifications do I need to do to make this happen?

Complicating the problem is a desire for one of the items in each of the new categories to go to the original PayPal account. If this is possible (assuming the separate per-category account definition is possible), please tell me how to set up that one item's information. While this is something that would be useful, I can live with all the items going to the category account and then offline doing a bookkeeping transfer for our records.

Thank You.

[fairestcape]

This is not possible - not only for many technical reasons to do with sessions, etc, but also because of security reasons.

A single Zencart site cannot be configured to pay into different paypal accounts.

[DrByte]

If you were to choose to take on the security and programming responsibilities of coding your own custom implementation and alter the core code for your unique needs, you would soon also find yourself needing to handle purchases where customers purchased from more than one category in a single purchase, and then needing to back-calculate taxes between accounts, and would end up having fractions of pennies and the corresponding related complications that brings.

While it "could" be done with custom coding, you would need to work out a way for it to change credentials for each separate "payment" and re-submit additional transactions for each one.

Alternatively you could wipe out the whole thing and write entirely new payment code using PayPal's Adaptive Payments technology where it handles split destinations more easily.

But writing the logic to split up the actual amounts correctly, especially when considering shipping and taxes too, as well as coupons/discounts/gift certificates, will consume a lot of your development time.

[rarpsl]

Thank You for your replies.

I will pass these replies on to the PHB who requested it. She is non-tech and thinks that if she can come up with a requirement, it can be implemented.

It looks like my only viable option is to create 3 separate ZenCart Directories and point at the correct one based on which category I want (and live with the inability to have an item in the category that goes to a different PayPal account). Since I select the category via the cPath= parm and I use dedicated links, this will solve the issue since I only select the correct ZenCart once per purchase (while selecting multiple items from that category in that session).

This would require me to clone the Zencart folder twice and clone the databases twice to populate them. I know that I can edit the 2 configure.php files to point at the correct cloned zencart directory and database. My only gotcha for doing this is the content of the DB_SERVER_PASSWORD parm. If I backup the current database and restore it to a new database I'd assume that this parm would need to be altered to match that new database's password. Since I use an automated install/create method (Fantastico), can I just use it to create the new database and folder and grab the content of the configure.php parm from there (and restore my current Zencart folder with that parm changed to match)? I'd of course need to edit the payment method info in each database but that should not, I'd think, be a problem.

Since the current carts are only needed for another 2 months (it is selling Memberships, Dealers and Artist Space for a Mid-March Event) I do not know if this effort is worth it even if I can do it (ie: It can wait until we set up the carts for the March 2013 event).

Again thanks for shooting down the simple per-category method query.

[DrByte]

Oy! cloning carts for this is another tangled bowl of spaghetti. I don't recommend mixing up your products and categories in multiple carts. If you're going to go the route of making multiple stores, make them COMPLETELY SEPARATE. Nothing shared. And DO NOT share the database between them.

And don't use fantastico, else it will wipe out your existing store.

[rarpsl]

My use of fantastico was to create new empty databases and zencart folders. It does not touch existent folders and databases.

As to mixing categories and items, my proposed plan was to do a database backup and restore it over the new empty databases. At that time all 3 databases would be the same. I also overlay the new folders with a copy of my current one with an edited copy of the 2 configure.php files (editing the folder and database references). I can then use each zencart directory (thus opening a different database and cart) and remove two of the categories so there are no more duplicates. They would thus be the separate stores you suggest.

As I noted to attempt this I need to know what DB_SERVER_PASSWORD to use - The original one or the one that was placed into the configure.php when I created the new databases and folders via fantastico.

[DrByte]

You will need to use the DB_XXXXXXX settings which apply to each store. So if Store A has Database A then it needs Password A. And Store B uses Database B and Password B.

[rarpsl]

That is what I assumed. Thus the password is external to the data in the database so restoring a copy of Store A's database and zencart folder to the another database and folder will work so long as I edit the copied configure.php files to use the DB_SERVER_PASSWORD from when the configure.php files created when I auto defined the ZenCart and Database I will be using for Store B.

I will test this process and depending on my instructions will go live with it. At a minimum it will allow me to upgrade a copy to 1.5.0 from my current 1.3.9 level so I can see if I will get into problems if I try this to my live system.

[DrByte]

Concept is described here: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/i...hp?article=100 Same steps as if you're moving to another server.

[rarpsl]

Thank You VERY MUCH DrByte - That was EXACTLY what I was looking for and had figured out as a possible method to clone the cart - Except for the important Step 6. Since I am using Database not Cache I think that Step 6 would not be needed in my case but I did it anyway and can report that I now have duplicate working copies of my Cart to test with.

I plan to try to upgrade one from 1.3.9 to 1.5 to see if it still works or if I should stay at 1.3.9 until the end of my event (this coming Mid-March).

I have to get the needed PayPal logon information before I can try to go live with the separated Carts. I will put the current cart into maintenance mode and do the backup/restore again, remove two categories from each cart (so there is a different category in each), do the Payment updates, and then go live by going out of maintenance mode with all 3 carts.

Again thank you for the help and the pointer to the article.