2 sites, same products, different prices

im looking to create another website which will have all the same products as my original site but will be priced different.

so basically im after 2 sites with all the same items but with different prices. whats the best way to do this??

ive looked and the mulitisite modual but seems bugger and is still a beta version, plus doesn't say anything about different priced items for different site.

so then i though about the easy popular modual, ie download a csv from site 1, change the prices, then upload to site 2, how ever i dont know if this will work?? will this create the catogarories and will this have the product images etc??

both sites will be running on the same server.

any help

so then i though about the easy popular modual, ie download a csv from site 1, change the prices, then upload to site 2, how ever i dont know if this will work?? will this create the catogarories and will this have the product images etc??
Create your new shop with a new DB, import your current DB contents into it.
All categories & products will already exist.
Use easy populate to alter prices

so when i add new items to the original site wil i just use the easy populate to add these to the other site, but change the price with excell?? will this get the image from the original site?

so when i add new items to the original site wil i just use the easy populate to add these to the other site, but change the price with excell??
You can add to both via EP...
will this get the image from the original site?
the image name but not the file You will have to FTP the image files

is there a way i could mod EP so that i gets the image file from site 1?? ie add https://www.site1.co.uk/images/ before the image name in EP so all the images are on site one??

both site will use the exact same image as both site will look the same other than a colour change and logo change via style sheet...... site one is my instore price site to is buy online price

basically i dont want to have to enter everything twices and the whole ftp files every day and copy DB everyday is a pain .... even more so when i dont want to do it and to let the girl on my reception do it for me then all i have to do is add the files to my site 2 online site and change the prices.

As you mentioned in your first post you are after 2 different websites which makes me thing, what is needed to have a website?
The answer is you will need the php files and images and you will need database. The images are stored in the image folder. So the way to do this is by copying over the website from the website 1 to website 2 exactly that same files and database. (change the configurations).

This way you will have an exact copy of website 1 on website 2.

If you are not familiar with EP I suggest you do get familiar with it as it is a big time saver. you can use easy populate to export the prices in excel (website 2) edit whatever prices you want to edit then import the new prices to the database. Now your website 2 will have different prices. You can also edit the CSS and template files as you wish.

yeah ive used EP for a small time but then found it easyer just to add every product 1 by 1, it was quicker fo a small time when my supplier gave me a price list on an excell file and i just added that to the download CSV file from EP but it didn't really save me any time as i still ahd to go through and upload an image and change add a product number etc.

how ever i can see how EP would speed this up if i for example exported full CSV from EP on site 1 then changed the prices on excell or access then uploaded to site to, this would add all my items from site 1 to site 2.

but then going into ftp and copying all the files from one image folder to another would be a pain...... but if they could use the same images from site 1 that would be even better

I guess you are not following what we are trying to tell you or we don't understand what you are saying.

You can dump the database from one website (1) to website (2), this meaning you will have all the products, categories, customers, orders, prices and all the configuration from website 1 on website 2. So you would have an exact mirror of website 1 on website 2.

If you think that using an ftp program to copy the files from one website to another is a lot of work then you can hire someone to do the job for you. It would take 5 minute of work to copy one website to another (you don't have to sit and watch while the ftp program copy over the files this might take hours but you don't have to be there watching over it) I usually do such things over night when I am sleeping.

I am looking at your website which only have about a 1000 products. Imagine if you had 20000 products then EP would only make sense to you.

That's all the help I can provide to you. If you don't find the information helpful then I would suggest getting someone to do the job for you.

yeah i understand what you are saying.... but one site 1 i want my customer who come into my store to buy/pickup and site 2 to have its own customers, so dumping the whole database wouldn't be the key.

unless you can dump the only the products and catogories which i could then upload to site 2??

also if there was a way to get site 2 to share the image folder from site 1 even better. if i have to FTP the image file over then ill have to unless there is aa way of making a button in admin to upload them from one site to another?

both sites on the same server and 1 will be in a subdomain, not sure which yet

There is no need to link images, just copy the image folder from one site to another. The image name is stored in database so once you get the database transferred you should have the pulled from the image folder of the new website.

You can dump the database then use myphpadmin to remove empty the customer, orders and all the other tables that are affected. REmeber if you have any mod installed on the site, most likely they also have database tables associated with them.

OR you can create new database and copy the categories, categories description and all the other files that control the product from site 1 to site 2

OR you can use EP to export the products from site one, then edit the prices and import the file into site 2.

There are more than one way to do what you are trying to do. It all depends what you are comfortable with as far as software go.

think the bast way is going to be to add products to site1 then export with EP and upload to site 2 then copy images from site1 to site2

could there be a button made for site2 admin that would copy the image folder from site1 to site2 automatically??

Please don't forget that Google and other search engines will hammer you for Duplicate Content (two sites, same content).

Vger

What has been explained by others is the only practical way of duplicating a zenshop. Automation may be possible, but what you want to automate (loading images to two sites at one go) is not a zencart issue.

We "clone" sites often and this is how we do it:-

1. Backup the original site - files and database.

2. FTP the entire site (folders and files) to a local machine.

3. Using phpMyAdmin, we EXPORT all the database tables and content, so we actually have a SQL file of everything. (This can be very large, so we sometimes split up the export of tables into more manageable sizes).

4. We also store this .sql file on the local drive. We then use notepad++ to go through all the sql, to look for hard-coded references to the original site. Sometimes paths to images and other links are hard-coded in ezpages data. We make a note of all these hard-coded references because later (on the new site) we don't want the new site calling resources off the first site! The same is true of data in the configuration tables - such as company info and email addresses - though a lot of this can later be corrected in the new site's admin panel.

5. We set up a domain on another server that is properly configured for ZC in the same way as the first site's server is configured. (so we generally use the same host).

6. We use Cpanel to create a new database on the new account.

7. We use phpMyAdmin and the SQL feature to "populate" the database. We do this by "pasting in" the sql stuff that we exported from the original database. You have to be meticulous here - doing the sql writing in "manageable" amounts. Again, if the database was very large, we usually "populate" the database in sections - 10 to 15 tables at a time - both "create table" and "insert into" commands. Some tables and their data can be huge - so the PRODUCTS table we usually import as a single pass.

Other people do a dbase backup of the original database, then restore it on the new server. It amounts to the same thing.

8. When the database is fully populated, we TRUNCATE certain tables (empty them) - depending on what data we want to retain. Most often, all tables relating to customers, orders and payments are TRUNCATED (emptied).

9. We then FTP the folders and files that we brought to our local machine, to the new server.

10. We then edit the two configure.php files so that all the defines point to the new domain, host, and database.

11. We then FTP fix_cache_key.php to the root of the zc installation.

12. from a browser, we run fix_cache_key.php

13. After cache is successfully "fixed" we delete fix_cache_key.php from the server.

14. We then have a "clone" of the original site (minus any data we removed from the sql in step 4 above.

15 we spend a few hours checking EVERY admin panel setting / data changing these to suit the new site.

16. We fully test all operations of the new site.

17. Whatever elements of the new site need to be "mirrored" from the original site, we have to "duplicate" - generally using FTP and also by making duplicate edits in the admin panel.

right well this is what ive done so far and now im getting problems.

i have 2 sites running. i added all the items to site 1 then copied the items and catogories from site 1 into site 2 using a database dump. I then edited the prices using EP to change the prices on site 2.

now i have 2 site running the same items and different prices.

then i run into problems.......

ive just added 10 new items to site 1 and these need adding to site 2. so i download the full csv from easy populare and upload to site 2 to add the items. This however changes all the prices of the items that are already on the site....... So i may have to delete all the original items from EP CSV and upload just the new items???

second problem....

no images are copied so i ahve to upload all the images again via FTP. id like a php code to copy all images from site 1 folder to site 2 folder at a click. This would help me loads. im looking into the file_put_contents() but im a little lost at the moment.

Third problem..... idem become discontinued and need removing from my sites.... EP doesn't delete items so i have to go through and change both site 1 and site and delete iems 1 at a time....

ive looked at the multisite modual which is available.... but the support forum seems to be dead on there and my questions have not been anwsered so ive not used this yet.

kitcorsa,
Have you sought commercial assistance for your "custom" wants?

nope... trying my self first with advice before i start to spend even more money.