Multiple stores with one checkout ?

Hi,
Thanks for the update. You're obviously not in the UK or topping up the tan would be impossible - we're having a terrible August; more autumnal than August.
Cheers,
Eddie

Check my conditions:

• I have 3 different stores, all in same server,

• I have 1 merchant account, with 1 SSL, and want it to administer payment for all 3 stores.

How it would be possible to have all stores checkout using the 1 ssl, and then return to their sites?

Would SSL warnings popup?

This was the direction in the beggining of the topic, but it changed towards other requests.

Can this be done? Since having three different SSLs would cost much more, it´s way more cost-effective.

Thanks in advance,

Groowine.

I have about 25 shops all running through one main zencart store that I can access the admin of to process orders from any of the shops.

Here is an example of how I did it

Setup hosting for a domain and set the username to shop1
Install a zencart site on it and populate it with all of your products
Setup another domain with the user set as shop2

Then ssh onto your server

cp -R /home/shop1/public_html/* /home/shop2/public_html/

When asked to overwrite files choose yes for all
Next symlink the images folders

ln -s /home/shop1/public_html/images/* /home/shop1/public_html/images

Then change the ownership on the shop2 files

chown -R shop2 /home/shop2/public_html/*

Now ftp into the shop2 domain and change the paths in includes/configure.php
Make any changes to your language files or graphics that are nescessary
Edit the categories sidebox SQL Select to only pull the categories you want.

To make a new shop all be it uncustomised will only take you about 5 minutes.
Remember not to make any changes to the database as this will effect all shops

The main shop uses Secure Hosting (3rd party) to process the credit cards

This may all sound a bit straight forward but you have to understand that my system has to get all of the data for the zencart database from an Actinic Ecommerce Access database and that all product images must be uploaded to the server from Actinic daily. There are in excess of 12,000 products.

Anything is possible.

longstockings:

I have about 25 shops all running through one main zencart store that I can access the admin of to process orders from any of the shops.

Here is an example of how I did it

Setup hosting for a domain and set the username to shop1
Install a zencart site on it and populate it with all of your products
Setup another domain with the user set as shop2

Then ssh onto your server

cp -R /home/shop1/public_html/* /home/shop2/public_html/

When asked to overwrite files choose yes for all
Next symlink the images folders

ln -s /home/shop1/public_html/images/* /home/shop1/public_html/images

Then change the ownership on the shop2 files

chown -R shop2 /home/shop2/public_html/*

Now ftp into the shop2 domain and change the paths in includes/configure.php
Make any changes to your language files or graphics that are nescessary
Edit the categories sidebox SQL Select to only pull the categories you want.

To make a new shop all be it uncustomised will only take you about 5 minutes.
Remember not to make any changes to the database as this will effect all shops

The main shop uses Secure Hosting (3rd party) to process the credit cards

This may all sound a bit straight forward but you have to understand that my system has to get all of the data for the zencart database from an Actinic Ecommerce Access database and that all product images must be uploaded to the server from Actinic daily. There are in excess of 12,000 products.

Anything is possible.

Wow ! That's impressive ! A few questions here :

ln -s /home/shop1/public_html/images/* /home/shop1/public_html/images

Did you mean :

ln -s /home/shop1/public_html/images/* /home/shop2/public_html/images ?

Would you mind to tell us more about this step :

Edit the categories sidebox SQL Select to only pull the categories you want

Lastly, do I have to use Actinic Ecommerce Access database to achieve this?

Thanks in advance !

Actinic is not needed but the customer is still using this Ecommerce system. Really it's just an extra step I needed to work around which took ages.

To achieve a custom category list I edited category_tree.php in includes/classes/

I changed the original sql query by adding this

and cd.categories_name LIKE '%KEYWORD%'

where KEYWORD is the word that appears in your category names that you want to show on your shop

Like this

class category_tree {

function zen_category_tree($product_type = "all") {
  global $db, $cPath, $cPath_array;
  if ($product_type != 'all') {
    $sql = "select type_master_type from " . TABLE_PRODUCT_TYPES . "
            where type_master_type = '" . $product_type . "'";
    $master_type_result = $db->Execute($sql);
    $master_type = $master_type_result->fields['type_master_type'];
  }
  $this->tree = array();
  if ($product_type == 'all') {
    $categories_query = "select c.categories_id, cd.categories_name, c.parent_id
                         from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " cd
                         where c.parent_id = '0'
                         and c.categories_id = cd.categories_id
                         and cd.language_id='" . (int)$_SESSION['languages_id'] . "'
                         and c.categories_status= '1'
						 and cd.categories_name LIKE '%KEYWORD%'
                         order by sort_order, cd.categories_name";
  } else {
    $categories_query = "select ptc.category_id as categories_id, cd.categories_name, c.parent_id
                         from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " cd, " . TABLE_PRODUCT_TYPES_TO_CATEGORY . " ptc
                         where c.parent_id = '0'
                         and ptc.category_id = cd.categories_id
                         and ptc.product_type_id = '" . $master_type . "'
                         and c.categories_id = ptc.category_id
                         and cd.language_id='" . (int)$_SESSION['languages_id'] ."'
                         and c.categories_status= '1'
                         order by sort_order, cd.categories_name";

This is just an example of one way you could accomplish this.

Hope the info is of use

Absolute! You are 'absolutely!' amazing. This is exactly what I am looking for! (How many times have you heard that?). Is this mod available for use/testing yet? I have a real dilemma on my hands with 8 stores and I've been researching mall software but I love Zen cart.

You are creating a great Zen Mall here! Can't wait to hear the latest.

Lorissia
(btw...nice tan!)

Ah, Lorissia, flattery will get you everywhere!

I've been slightly bogged down with other work recently, and this mod has gone undeveloped for about a month. It is currently being used in a test environment, without any issues, but there are still a few extras that need to be coded. Plus with the recent release of 1.3.5, I need to make sure its cross-Zen compatible.

Hopefully this will be released within the next couple of weeks. Sorry for the delay, I promise it'll be soon.

Absolute

hi
could anyone tell me where to download this contribution?

i am really new to ZC.

thanks!

jacopo

I don't believe this contribution is done yet. I am also waiting with baited breath! This is the perfect solution to what I need right now.

Maybe if we send him some home-baked chocolate chip cookies?

L.

hey absolute , how is this mod going ?

I will soon be at the stage where I have to do exactly the same thing as your coding , so dont mind beta testing it for you if you need it.

Ok - so my testing is going well. I've tested and implemented this on 3 beta sites so far. Unfortunately, one supporter offered a small donation for me to finish the project for him. I did, and then he disappeared. YOU know who you are.

The next supporter offered "other incentives", and I gave her my details. Where is she now? No sign no a week or more.

I have the details of three other testers, and I hope one of you will be able to see this testing from start to finish.

I'll be in touch, but in the meantime, hang in there - its coming.

Absolute

I hope this isn't considered innappropriate for the discussion, but where might one send a paypal donation for Absolute efforts? :cool:

Holgate - of course I wasn't refering to you. Only donate something if you use the project, and find it useful. There are details of how to donate included in all the modules I provide.

I hope to get this little project wrapped up within the next week or so, and then you can all have a look, and post ideas for improvements etc.

Absolute

This sounds great! I think this would work for what I am doing.

Here is what I am looking to do:

I have a main site that has all the products, etc.

I have distributors who have their own sites (design etc) but all orders are processes by the owner of the main site - so all payments have to go through the main part of the site. I am planning on limiting the distributors access with Admin Access with Levels.

Thanks,
Philip

Also, I would love to be a beta tester and can provide you with a domain for testing it on with ssl. I have my own servers. You can send a instant message to me for more info. (my user names are in my profile - remove NOSPAM first) or send me a PM.

Thanks,
Philip

I'd be happy to beta test this as well, since I have a client who wants to have multiple stores like this. Feel free to PM me.

Absolute:

I hope to get this little project wrapped up within the next week or so, and then you can all have a look, and post ideas for improvements etc.
AbsoluteLet us know when you're ready for testing... I bet plenty of volunteers will surface when this module goes beta.

Thanks Absolute! Wow! I need this bad............. :) I have 6 stores to develop right now and I could save a lot of time and $$$ if this were available. Any news yet? I would be willing to take a beta copy now if I could.

Thanks
Rod

Another testing volunteer here.

Me too, I'm very interested. How much of a donation would help you get this finished?