What Unique Name Did You Name Your Cart? www.MyDomain.com/??

I just upgraded from 1.38a to 1.51 and am about to rename my test site. Currently it is in folder ZenCartUpgrade. Of course I don't want customers to go to my site and see https://www.MyDomainName.com/ZenCartUpgrade/ when they visit the store. So I'm trying to come up with a catchy, clever name to use for the URL of my store. I think most people probably use zencart, as in www.MyDomain.com./zencart/

What unique name did you name the zen cart shopping cart?

Your site root isn't the zencart folder itself? So, your homepage is https://www.example.com/zencart instead of https://www.example.com?

Anyway, why aren't you doing this on a development server, or a test server, or somewhere that cannot potentially mess with your website?

I suppose I would name it "willnevertypethisin" because I suppose no one will ever type that in.

allthingsidLeroy:

Your site root isn't the zencart folder itself? So, your homepage is https://www.example.com/zencart instead of https://www.example.com?

Anyway, why aren't you doing this on a development server, or a test server, or somewhere that cannot potentially mess with your website?

I suppose I would name it "willnevertypethisin" because I suppose no one will ever type that in.

My home page is https://www.MyDomain.com. My store is at MyDomain.com/zencart

I am doing it on a test server. My live site cart is at MyDomain.com/zencart. My test site cart is at MyDomain.com/ZenCartUpgrade.

So, I'm going to have to swap out the URL where my website points to the shopping cart. Which means (I think) I'm going to have to rename some folders. So I might name my shopping cart:

MyDomain.com/shop
or
MyDomain.com/store
or
MyDomain.com/cart
or
MyDomain.com/ShopTilDrop
or
MyDomain.com/bargains

etc.

In other words, it need not be
MyDomain.com/zencart
does it?

No it doesn't, but many here, including me, believe that your store should be in the root (mydomain.com) of your site and not in a subdirectory.

http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?160-i-have-installed-zen-cart-to-a-directory-how-do-i-rename-or-move-that-directory

stevesh:

No it doesn't, but many here, including me, believe that your store should be in the root (mydomain.com) of your site and not in a subdirectory.

http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?160-i-have-installed-zen-cart-to-a-directory-how-do-i-rename-or-move-that-directory

I'm such a rookie. Upon further review my store is in my root directory, not in a subdirectory. I just assumed when I type https://www.mydomain.com/ZenCartUpgrade in my browser's address bar that it meant ZenCartUpgrade was a subdirectory.

powrwrap:

I'm such a rookie. Upon further review my store is in my root directory, not in a subdirectory. I just assumed when I type https://www.mydomain.com/ZenCartUpgrade in my browser's address bar that it meant ZenCartUpgrade was a subdirectory.
That's exactly what it means, unless you have some sort of redirect set up. When you look at your folders and files with your FTP program, what directory (folder) are your Zencart files in ?

stevesh:

That's exactly what it means, unless you have some sort of redirect set up. When you look at your folders and files with your FTP program, what directory (folder) are your Zencart files in ?

My live site is in a folder named zencart
My test site is in a folder named ZenCartUpgrade

These folders are on the same level as these folders
hcc.thumbs
db_backups
assets
cgi
images
local
manager
slides
stats
templates

the next level up is simply /

Why change it at all?

The best way to do it is to keep it in whatever location it's been at for the past several years. Otherwise you lose search-engine rankings, and break peoples' bookmarks etc.

Related: http://www.zen-cart.com/entry.php?3-How-do-I-rebuild-my-site-on-the-new-version-instead-of-upgrading

Are these folders in a server folder named /public_html/ or /www/ or /htdocs/, or the like? That would indicate that your live store and your test store are both in subfolders of your main domain. The question is, why do you think it is better for your business to be insulated from visitors by another layer of web pages? Would your business benefit from being the first thing visitors to your domain see?

Of course, existing search engine rankings are a real factor to consider. If your store is now at /Zencart/, perhaps best to keep it there even if that is not the finest possible part of your address.

DrByte:

Why change it at all?

The best way to do it is to keep it in whatever location it's been at for the past several years. Otherwise you lose search-engine rankings, and break peoples' bookmarks etc.

This is a compelling argument. If I go this route, and I think I will, this means that I will need to take down my live site currently in folder /zencart, rename that folder zencart_old (or something similar) rename my test site's ZenCartUpgrade folder to zencart and then find every instance of ZenCartUpgrade in the test site and rename it zencart (as in /includes/configure.php and others). Is this correct?

If this is the correct way to proceed, I can use the Developers Tool Kit in the admin area to search for usages of ZenCartUpgrade. Is there a FAQ on globally renaming folders?

gjh42:

Are these folders in a server folder named /public_html/ or /www/ or /htdocs/, or the like? That would indicate that your live store and your test store are both in subfolders of your main domain.

I don't think the live and test stores are in subfolders. Here is my root folder of my website, as seen in FileZilla:

/zencart is my live store
/ZenCartDemo is v1.51 with demo files which I used to play around with (I will delete that)
/ZenCartUpgradeTest is my test store that is ready to go live.

They are definitely in subfolders. If one were in the domain root, you would get to it just by entering https://www.mydomain.com.

You should not need to change any links or folder names aside from the two configure.php files, unless you have improperly hard-coded complete URLs in custom text/code.

gjh42:

They are definitely in subfolders. If one were in the domain root, you would get to it just by entering https://www.mydomain.com.

You should not need to change any links or folder names aside from the two configure.php files, unless you have improperly hard-coded complete URLs in custom text/code.

The way it's set up now if I go to my web site, MyDomain.com and surf around there and then decide I want to buy something I click on the Shop Now button or the various Buy Now buttons. That takes me to the Zen shopping cart. The URL in the address bar now shows MyDomain.com/zencart/.

If I want to replace my live site (which is in folder /zencart) with my test site (which is in folder /ZenCartUpgradeTest) AND once completed I want the URL to show MyDomain.com/zencart/ how do I accomplish this? Don't I need to rename these two folders and alter the configure.php files?

powrwrap:

If I want to replace my live site (which is in folder /zencart) with my test site (which is in folder /ZenCartUpgradeTest) AND once completed I want the URL to show MyDomain.com/zencart/ how do I accomplish this? Don't I need to rename these two folders and alter the configure.php files?

Assuming everything is setup correctly and you are absolutely sure you want this to go 'live', then, yes, that's what you need to do.