MultiSite Module Support Thread

Chrome Orange:

hi

this looks like a great mod, perfect for my needs but I have one question

how do I 'point' my domains?

What do I do DNS wise?

Lets say I have

site1.domain.com and site2.domain.com

what do I do in my dns to get site2 to work?

I've read this thread and the install stuff but I am not clear at all.

It's my server so I have full dns access but there are several other domains on the server all dong different things

Thanks

Andy
All you have to do is to settup your server in order to have http://site1.domain.com/index.php and http://site2.domain.com/index.php being the same file.

I know that the host configuration can be really different from one host to another, so you should better try to find that in the documentation of your host...

As for DNS, you only have to put the same IP address to the DNS site1.domain.com and site2.domain.com.

At the end of includes/languages/english/meta_tags.php, you will find this line:

define('FAVICON','favicon.ico');

You will certainly have to overide this file for your template like that:

In the file includes/languages/english/your_template/meta_tags.php

define('FAVICON','your_template.ico');

You can do that for every template you have since you are supose to use different template for each site...

glemigh:

Is there a sane way to deal with the SSL problem where SSL is used and on the primary domain, and not on the additional domains, and checkout must occure within the SSL under the primary domain?

George

SSL can be an issue, especially if you use the same IP for all your domain because SSL need an unique IP for each domains. It means that your server seting has to even more complicated...

Another solution can be to use common DNS for all the SLLs and to use a different subfolder in order to change them.

As for the MultiSite configuration, it requires a bit of extra code.

Just take the case of the use of https://www.secure-payment.com as DNS ...

includes/config_sites/www.secure-payment.com_config.php has to contain:

<?php
$location = explode('/',$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
switch($location[1]) {
    case 'site1':
        include('includes/config_sites/www.site1.com_config.php');
        break;
    case 'site2':
        include('includes/config_sites/www.site2.com_config.php');
        break;
    case 'site3':
        include('includes/config_sites/www.site3.com_config.php');
        break;
}
unset($location);
?>

Then in the config files of each site, you have to write:

define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG','/site1/');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', "https://www.secure-payment.com");

Code to add in the beginning of .htaccess:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.secure-payment.com$
RewriteRule ^site1/(.*)$ /zencart_folder/$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.secure-payment.com$
RewriteRule ^site2/(.*)$ /zencart_folder/$1 [L]

This will make the SLL of all your sites like:
https://www.secure-payment.com/site1/
https://www.secure-payment.com/site2/

Like that, you can get away with only one IP ! :)

Warning, be really careful with the cookies that and not cross-domain !

Hope this helps !

All you have to do is to settup your server in order to have http://site1.domain.com/index.php and http://site2.domain.com/index.php being the same file.

I know that the host configuration can be really different from one host to another, so you should better try to find that in the documentation of your host...

As for DNS, you only have to put the same IP address to the DNS site1.domain.com and site2.domain.com.

could you perhaps show your method as an example?

Any details about your server configuration would help, like are you using a dedicated server, a dedicated server with virtual hosts, is there a control panel like plesk or cpanel? DNS / Hostname issues with Zen can be fixed with either Apache directives like mod_rewrite or just editing the apache configs, like the VirtualHost directives.

Chrome Orange:

could you perhaps show your method as an example?

Live shops that use Multisite Module:
www.bigdepot.co.uk
navnav.co.uk

by the way, if any of you have live shops that uses this module too, could you please let us know ?

Thanks.

Quick question Gerome,

When you go into the "Contact us" page, we get the same company name...no matter which site you're in. Is there a way to over ride this?

Thanks ~ this isn't a big enough deal so we're live now. Check it out at www.catholiclifebooks.onlinecatholicstore.com and www.onlinecatholicstore.com

We'll be adding another one of our sites in a few days...will let you know how it goes!

Thanks again for all your work!
Patti

pfabrick:

Quick question Gerome,

When you go into the "Contact us" page, we get the same company name...no matter which site you're in. Is there a way to over ride this?

Thanks ~ this isn't a big enough deal so we're live now. Check it out at www.catholiclifebooks.onlinecatholicstore.com and www.onlinecatholicstore.com

We'll be adding another one of our sites in a few days...will let you know how it goes!

Thanks again for all your work!
Patti
you can set the config of a specific shop by defining the constants in the yourshop_config.php file:

As for the contact page, you have to define these 3 constants:

define('STORE_NAME_ADDRESS','the address of the store');
define('CONTACT_US_LIST','contact1,contact2,...');
define('STORE_OWNER_EMAIL_ADDRESS','[email protected]');

I remind that if you are wondering what is the constant key of a configuration setting, this query will display the constant key at the end of all the description:

UPDATE configuration
  SET configuration_description = CONCAT(configuration_description,"<br /> ",configuration_key)
  WHERE configuration_description NOT LIKE CONCAT("%<br /> ",configuration_key);

Hope it helps !

Gerome.

Thank you Gerome - You have been most helpful!

I did have one more question regarding the SaleMaker function in ZenCart:

Can you use the Salemaker function and have different sales in different stores. For example, on Site1 I would like to offer a 10% discount on products in a certain category and on Site2 a 15% discount on the same category?

Thank you again for your help!
Patti

Gerome:

SSL can be an issue, especially if you use the same IP for all your domain because SSL need an unique IP for each domains. It means that your server seting has to even more complicated...

I fear the answer is not simple, and we are using Cpanel, so adding domains via the parking feature is easy, and setting up the multisite module is straight forward, but we have a domain with SSL on one IP, and the other domains are parked on it.

We wanted to process the orders for all the domains on the SSL site.

we have https://www.domain1.com, https://www.domain2.com etc, they are not sub domains or subdirectories under one domain, we have many carts, many domains and products related to the domain in which they reside with.

The only option that is starting to surface is to duplicate all the files in all the sites and maintain separate SSL certs and IP's for each site this making the multisite module a wasted effort since all files have to be copied to each site.

Ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance.

George

glemigh:

I fear the answer is not simple, and we are using Cpanel, so adding domains via the parking feature is easy, and setting up the multisite module is straight forward, but we have a domain with SSL on one IP, and the other domains are parked on it.

We wanted to process the orders for all the domains on the SSL site.

we have https://www.domain1.com, https://www.domain2.com etc, they are not sub domains or subdirectories under one domain, we have many carts, many domains and products related to the domain in which they reside with.

The only option that is starting to surface is to duplicate all the files in all the sites and maintain separate SSL certs and IP's for each site this making the multisite module a wasted effort since all files have to be copied to each site.

Ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance.

George
Don't do that !

Instead, put two IPs to your server and one DNS on each IP, so you can have 2 SSL on the same server. And also one admin section...

Anyway, people uses the Multisite with two copy of the files, it still make sense as you get all the orders in the same admin section.

pfabrick:

Thank you Gerome - You have been most helpful!

I did have one more question regarding the SaleMaker function in ZenCart:

Can you use the Salemaker function and have different sales in different stores. For example, on Site1 I would like to offer a 10% discount on products in a certain category and on Site2 a 15% discount on the same category?

Thank you again for your help!
Patti

I have to admit that I have never investigated yet this problem. Maynly because I don't have much time to do it now.

The discount might be setup by constant ( I presume...) so, hopefully, you could define these constant in your different sites and then get different discounts... However, I am not sure that it is working like that...

I currently have 4 subdomains set up using the multi-site / multicart setup and it seems to be working great for the cart functionality. The sessions are being retained throughout the order and browsing process as they should.

My question is with some troubles I am having with the "Featured Products" module in the site. I am unable to see any of the 3 Featured Products I have added via the Admin interface.

When I edit /includes/modules/featured_products.php and remove the cat_filter function, then I am able to see all of the products I set up to be "Featured". Any idea why I would be having an issue with the "Featured Products" area? All of the Category filtering for the category sidebox and linkage works perfectly but I am unable to figure out what is causing the "Featured Products" module to not work properly. Quite possibly I am missing something obvious...

Thanks for any and all help / advice,

phishee (Brandon)

phishee:

I currently have 4 subdomains set up using the multi-site / multicart setup and it seems to be working great for the cart functionality. The sessions are being retained throughout the order and browsing process as they should.

My question is with some troubles I am having with the "Featured Products" module in the site. I am unable to see any of the 3 Featured Products I have added via the Admin interface.

When I edit /includes/modules/featured_products.php and remove the cat_filter function, then I am able to see all of the products I set up to be "Featured". Any idea why I would be having an issue with the "Featured Products" area? All of the Category filtering for the category sidebox and linkage works perfectly but I am unable to figure out what is causing the "Featured Products" module to not work properly. Quite possibly I am missing something obvious...

Thanks for any and all help / advice,

phishee (Brandon)
I not antirely sur why could be the reason of this problem. First, can you see the featured products in one of the categories of your shops ?

It could be caused by having an "unknown" master_categories for your featured products.

Are you speaking of the sidebox, or the page featured_products ?

Gerome,

Thanks for your reply. Actually, I have set up three products as "Featured". Two are from one site and the third is from a separate site. The first two should show up but only one is being displayed. Even if I add three from the same site, the first one is only displayed. I've scoured the Admin > Configuration setting and it is set up properly to show up to 3 products.

The page I am referring to is the "featured_products" page, not the sidebox.

Where would I look for the 'master_category" for the featured products to determine if it is "unknown" or not?

Thanks again for any and all help - I will also keep poking around and see if I come up with anything else.

phishee (Brandon)

when you open a product from the admin section, the first line is:
"Product Master Category"
It should usually be the Category where the product is. If it is "0", then it won't show with the caqtegory filter of Multisite. You can have such problems when using Easy Populate...

If it doesn't work, could you send me a link of your test shop in private ? I will try to have a look and see what doesn't work correctly...

Gerome,

Thank you very much for your help. I was able to get my Zen multisite instances working properly. The "Master Categories" fields in the DB were null and thus the products were not being categorized entirely.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!

phishee (Brandon)

Hi Gerome,

I was just wondering if this wonderful mod of yours will work with the Super Orders mod??

meatball:

Hi Gerome,

I was just wondering if this wonderful mod of yours will work with the Super Orders mod??
I never tried "Super Order". It should hopfully work. If it doesn't, it shouldn't too hard to patch it.

I know this has been briefly touched on earlier, not to the muddied extent with which I will confuse everyone.

Right now both stores share a common customer database, however, is it possible to add something in the database to share only certain customers, and not others?

What I'm looking for is one site with a complete category listing, and one with a restricted number. But I do not want all customers able to view the complete site.