MultiSite Module Support Thread

[balihr]

@all, @balihr
ONE
...cut...

we have to discount the products for members 20% in 2 of the sites and 10% in the 3rd site.

How about using Dual Pricing mod? It lets you set up a discounted price for EACH product. So, you can have a category with 10 products, but only five are 20% discounted for members. It can be setup so it automatically applies wholesale prices to every registered customer or you can manually assign that "privilege" to customers you want. I'm using that module on my webshop and i think it's perfect. I've set it up so that you get wholesale status immediately after you register. I believe this mod could solve all your problems. Takes a little time to figure out all it's possibilities, but it's worthy...

TWO

After that, have to work on the shipping module. Another big topic! But one thing at a time.

Is it directly related to multisite? If not, you should post in the appropriate section, you'll get better answers and will not spam this topic.

THREE

Lastly, is it true that if I use subdomains I have to pay for 2 more unique IP addresses and 2 more SSL certificates? If so, maybe I can get around that by setting up the whole thing in sub-folders instead? Whee!!! Now we can do it again...

I don't know about certificates cause i don't use it, but i do know that you can't use multisite with folders, only subdomains.
There was, however, roylen1's post where he claims he had made a hack and got it working with folders, but I don't know much about it. You can take a look at his post here and try it, but then you're on your own, I can't help you with something i've never used...

Great, have to stay on the zen train now...

I've tried osc, virtuemart, magento and interspire (yes, i know it's commercial). Personally, i think Zencart is 10 times better than any of those. Don't forget it's free and has a lot of free mods. I'm sure there are commercial scripts that are better than zc, but are you ready to pay at least a few hundred bucks for your platform and then 5 times more for various addons?
Keep riding this train I don't think you'll ever regret it...

[glogo]

@balihr,

How about using Dual Pricing mod? It lets you set up a discounted price for EACH product. So, you can have a category with 10 products, but only five are 20% discounted for members. <snip>...

Thanks, yes, I had seen that yesterday, but have not had a chance to try it out. will try it. I don't know whether it will work with multi-site? or perhaps if I use it I won't need multi-site.

Is it directly related to multisite? If not, you should post in the appropriate section, you'll get better answers and will not spam this topic.

Well, I am not sure. Of course, you are correct. If it is not directly related, it is OT here, but I am also looking for a way to addressed a shipping problem. The products need to be shipped based either on how many items or on weight, or also on price, and that depends on the product. So, I don't know if zen cart natively supports switching shipping calculation methods for each product, that is why I was interested in multisite mod. Perhaps there is a better module for that, also.

I don't know about certificates cause i don't use it, but i do know that you can't use multisite with folders, only subdomains.
There was, however, roylen1's post where he claims he had made a hack and got it working with folders, but I don't know much about it. You can take a look at his post here and try it, but then you're on your own, I can't help you with something i've never used...

Ok, well, I saw someone mention this somewhere. So, maybe I still have to check out if I can solve these two main problems without a multiple site. Client is very shy about spending any money at all on this (it's a not-for-profit group after all).

I've tried osc, virtuemart, magento and interspire (yes, i know it's commercial). Personally, i think Zencart is 10 times better than any of those. Don't forget it's free and has a lot of free mods. I'm sure there are commercial scripts that are better than zc, but are you ready to pay at least a few hundred bucks for your platform and then 5 times more for various addons?
Keep riding this train I don't think you'll ever regret it...

I agree, and with help from friendly zenners, it's a great experience to boot! I have also tried osc (hacked after only 3 days), and drupal has such a steep learning curve. Magento looked very daunting to me, it's also hard on memory, etc. So, I do also really like zc, but am a bit concerned because I wonder if it is really being actively developed. Anyway, it still has a solid user base!

Thanks again!
G

[riverlife]

I've been working with this mod for days now, and reading this forum and thread religiously. I've held back on posting for help, because I don't want to bother you with trivial questiions, yet I really am stuck.

Using 1.3.8, and having added and modified the files I need to for multisite mod to work, I feel like I'm getting deeper into the rabbit hole, not closer to a working store/s. Currently I'm bedeviled by this error when I load the main page:

1054 Unknown column 'CATEGORIES_ROOT' in 'where clause'
in:
[select cd.categories_name from categories c, categories_description cd where cd.categories_description LIKE '%-SITE_NAME-%' AND cd.language_id=1 AND c.parent_id = CATEGORIES_ROOT and c.categories_id = cd.categories_id and cd.language_id='1' and c.categories_status=1]

I honestly don't know where that's coming from. Any ideas? Buehler? Anyone?

As background, I've "adopted" a ZC that sat idle for a year and a half, and that was worrisomely bloated with non-ZC .php and other baggage. I'm trying to get a mainpage that links to other pages each of which contain store1, store2, store3, etc., each of which also has its own referring domain.

Please forgive my naivite--I've been trudging through PHP, CSS, and HTML for quite some time, and this forum and this thread with due diligence. It just seems like I'm overlooking the sun or something.

[glogo]

@riverlife,

just don't despair. See my post http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddd8x4x4_117fn26fnfn there.

see if you can navigate it.

beyond that, I would say, don't struggle with an old install.

install a clean version in a new folder and try to get that working first, then you can always download from phpmyadmin an .sql file, if you have access to that, and upload data to the new install, once it's working. zc has a wonderful developer's tool for figuring out where everything is. it's in the admin section.

It may take a bit of doing to get used to doing it that way, but it is much safer and more effective in the long run. Take it from someone who has been both routes.

Be patient, it's a good platform and the help forum is great. People are always ready to lend a hand, if you ask nicely. I was stumped, just as you are and someone helped me!


Love, Gargi

[balihr]

1054 Unknown column 'CATEGORIES_ROOT' in 'where clause'
in:
[select cd.categories_name from categories c, categories_description cd where cd.categories_description LIKE '%-SITE_NAME-%' AND cd.language_id=1 AND c.parent_id = CATEGORIES_ROOT and c.categories_id = cd.categories_id and cd.language_id='1' and c.categories_status=1]

I honestly don't know where that's coming from. Any ideas? Buehler? Anyone?

This is a very common error and you could have found it on this topic if only a certain someone didn't spam it over 15 pages... It's on page 109, post #1086.

Is it just my imagination, or did you try to ask me? Buehler?

[riverlife]

@Gloglo

Thank you so much for the amazing documentation. I take it that the old install.txt file I have suggesting to hand-modify many of the PHP files (e.g. to include the cat_filter function, etc.) is out-of-date info. I may have to jump right in with a clean install. I can always go back to this one if I have to.

This is a very common error and you could have found it on this topic if only a certain someone didn't spam it over 15 pages... It's on page 109, post #1086.

I can't believe there was the answer to my question in that mess. I even thought I'd slogged through that unfortunateness and didn't want to become the next spammer! loox like I did anyway. Also, I could have sworn I'd added that to my config.php, but a quick look now tells me I didn't. I really appreciate your guys' help seeing the forest for the trees.

Is it just my imagination, or did you try to ask me? Buehler?

That's hilarious! No, I was just sitting here feeling like I was editing into the wind a little, feeling like that teacher in Ferris Buehler's Day OFf. Thank you for responding so quickly and helping to make me feel human again!

[riverlife]

Gargi,

How does replacing, and not modifying, the files over a fresh install get the ZC to take account of the multisite module, i.e., the cat_filter.php?

Also, in reading your google post incorporating balhir's cpanel screenshots, I wonder: do I set my site2 site3 sit4 toplevel domains to point to subdomains of site1 toplevel domain?

Again, thank you for kind humanity! It goes a long, long way.

[riverlife]

Allrighty then!

My mainpage is back up and running, as you can see here: http://www.dmrmarketinggroup.com. The idea was to make this an about-the-company page with very little if anything for sale, and to put in the footer three links to the three shops/stores, which are http://www.pearlzplus.com, http://www.birddropinns.com, and a third which apparently in 18 months my client hasn't yet secured the domain for. As you can see before doing things semi-right I had hard-modified all kinds of stuff in PHP and CSS to get this...http://www.dmrmarketinggroup.com as my main page.

When I go to, e.g., http://www.pearlzplus.com in my browser, I don't get much but the very beginnings of a different template (i.e., background color). The www.birddropinns.com doesn't even give me that much, though I can see in the HTML of each page that they are reading the proper template.

So, what file/s have I failed to configure/reconfigure properly? What fundamental concept am I missing to get three stores running, one main page that may have some featured products from the three other stores, all while using the same database and being able to track the orders from the Admin home? I fear that the Multisite Tools option therein has me flummoxed, because I'm not making heads nor tails of the "Display Configuration for a new site" output. The values it pulls up are way many more than any of my *_config.php files in the /config_sites folder, and I see no way to edit in this part of the Multisite Tools?

I'm close, I can feel it. I'm sure the makers of the Betamax felt like this, too.... And thank you in advance. You rock!

[balihr]

First of all, you are not spamming this topic. This forum's purpose is to ask a question and get an answer. But when you start with question like "ok, i clicked my left mouse button, what's next", then 5 minutes later a new post with "i have this, what's next?" and 15 minutes later "hey, still no answer???" - now, that is spamming. So, feel free to ask a question and i'm sure someone here will answer it if he/she knows the answer. But, it's always better to use the search button before posting because probably 90% or more of your questions had already been answered for/by someone else.

So, what file/s have I failed to configure/reconfigure properly? What fundamental concept am I missing to get three stores running, one main page that may have some featured products from the three other stores, all while using the same database and being able to track the orders from the Admin home? I fear that the Multisite Tools option therein has me flummoxed, because I'm not making heads nor tails of the "Display Configuration for a new site" output. The values it pulls up are way many more than any of my *_config.php files in the /config_sites folder, and I see no way to edit in this part of the Multisite Tools?

I would say you've misconfigured for config files. Where is your ZC installation? Is it in the root of www.dmrmar..... domain? If so, did you point your dns for the other domains to this domain? Does your config_sites folder have www.pearlzplus.com_config.php , www.dmrmar....com_config.php and www.bird...com_config.php files? I'd go for a mistake with dns records...

How does replacing, and not modifying, the files over a fresh install get the ZC to take account of the multisite module, i.e., the cat_filter.php?

It's your choice whether to replace or modify all the files. The addon contains all the files that need to be modified and can be replaced. You will simply replace it all if you have a fresh ZC installation. But, if have done some changes to ZC, installed modules, or any other stuff, just replacing those files could result in some function loss or even site crash. Why? Let's say you've installed some module that changed your includes/modules/pages/featured_products/header_php.php and now you just replace it with this new one. Now it doesn't contain the changes made by that previous module and it will not work anymore. Simple.
My suggestion is to fully configure your site, install all the modules you plan on installing and then go for the multisite module. Use the add_files without restrictions and then manually change all the files that need to be modified (by following the install.txt included in the module's package).

I fear that the Multisite Tools option therein has me flummoxed, because I'm not making heads nor tails of the "Display Configuration for a new site" output. The values it pulls up are way many more than any of my *_config.php files in the /config_sites folder, and I see no way to edit in this part of the Multisite Tools?

This shows you almost all commands you can use. Notice the "can". Therefore, if you want your shop1 to use a different setting than the one you see in admin, find the right line here, copy it to your targeted _config.php and change the value. It's actually some kind of an override. If you don't use it, all shops will use the same configuration parameters set up in the admin.

[staft]

I am trying to establish if it is possible to have SSL on the parked domain. I have asked my host if it is possible to have a cert installed on a new port. This may allow for the parked domain to have its own SSL. I have to achieve https://www.domain1.com and https://www.domain2.com without folders or subdomains because https://comany2.company1.com will not work for me. I will update the thread later today if this works.