One Site / Two Stores ??? How? - A "store within a store"

Ok, I a Main website titled NothingButRomance.com for our old book business which will be starting up again in the near future, but in that allotted space, I also have my website LilleyPadGifts.com. Its been up and running for awhile now....so of course I want to mess with it :blush:. I know, if its not broke why fix it. Well, its because I want to pull out one catagories and let it have its own store... that being Comics.
I have roughly 40,000 titles. Most will be in the store at some point in time (I pray!) Here is what I would like for it to look like and work like, but not sure if its possible.
If someone goes to LilleyPadGifts, I would like for the main home page to show two options

1. For Collectibles & Gifts ENTER HERE
2. For Comics ENTER HERE
   Something along those lines.
   Clicking on 1 will take you to the store that is actually seen now when accessing the site.
   Clicking on 2 will take you to another Zen setup with a store for just comics.
   Can I do this?
   Would the sales still come thru LilleyPadGifts? it would still be a LPG website, but it would have its own look and catagories pertaining to comics.
   Where would I put these to get them to work in regards to my hosting site? :huh:
   Thanks

Well, I had a thought after posting and I'm trying it .....hope nothing blows up!

I created a folder under my LilleyPadGifts folder titled comicshop
now I'm coping all of the files from LilleyPadGifts to this folder exactly like they are now...and hoping to edit what I need to, but the basics will still be the same.

Am I WAYYYYYYYYYY off base here?
Totally going about this wrong?:lookaroun

Have a look at the Multisite Module.

Hope that helps.

Brent

Thanks, but I've looked over that thread and it confuses me even more !

I figured that when I click on LilleyPadGifts.com, I would get the first store and then when I click on LilleyPadGifts.com/comicshop, I would get the copy of LPG and then edit it to just the comics with only comic catagories and publishers instead of manufacturers......but of course, it ain't that easy. I get errors now when I try to load lilleypadgifts/comicshop

I am not sure of the exact terms to use, but my LPG is (I think) a sub-domain of my NothingButRomance space. I "bought" the NBR url as well as the LPG URL, but I don't want to buy another for the comics.... just make the site LPG/comicshop. So would it still be considered a sub-domain OF A sub-domain? is that even possible?

For example... that module says :
Do you want to manage multiple shops with only one install of zencart ?
make a unique zen-cart shop running on different domain names (sites)

I don't think I want to do either one of those..... I just wanted to copy my LPG store and place the copy within the LPG store and call it ComicShop and let it have its own categories.

I don't know, maybe its not possible.

Are there any other mods that would allow creating this to be easy?
I'm afraid the one isn't what I'm looking for.

Is there a better area of this board where I should be asking about this?

Not getting any help on the General board, so hoping this might be a better place to ask this.
I have my LilleyPadGifts.com website up and running.
I would now like to have a seperate area accessable thru LPG for my ComicShop...so that it would be located lilleypadgifts.com/comicshop
Would like a Enter Here home page for LilleyPadGifts so that when you first access the site, you get the following options

For Collectibles & Gifts ENTER HERE
For Comics ENTER HERE

The reason for this is the number of comics we have and they overwhelm the Category box. It needs a "area" of its own with just the Cats pertaining to comics and the Manufacturer pertaining to Publishers.

Is this possible?

I thought all i would have to do is create a comicshop folder under my LPG folder and copy all of my LPG files to that and then it would make a duplicate of my LPG store which I could then just edit for comics.
Ain't that easy I found out :no:.

IS there a easy way of doing this? :cry:
(and no, the Multiple Module does not seem to offer what I'm looking for)

OR

is there a way to turn off all other categories once someone has clicked on the Comics cat from the home page? and could that then have its own Manufacturer/Publisher list just in that area?

This can be done without too much difficulty.

Just make a new directory and database for the comics section. Import the SQL database and files to the new site. Then edit to suit your needs.

The 2 threads have been merged into one. DO NOT start a new thread if you are not getting the answers you want to hear. If you have to - reply to your own thread with more details or clarification of the need or problem.

But I didn't want to post more to this thread on this particular board. I posted the other thread on a different board where I thought I might reach someone that has done this.... I also added a totally different aspect.

I also resent the "not getting answers you want to hear" !

I posted to what I thought might be a more appropriate place to ask and elaborate on what I'm trying to do ... on this first thread I was not receiving ANY answers. The only one received turn out not to have anything to do with the issue I'm asking about.

If you want to stay within the LPG store (probably a good idea), it would be possible to edit tpl_categories.php to only display comics subcats when the comics top cat has been selected. You would want a "return to main store" button in that case.

I don't know about the manufacturers/publishers box; it may well be possible to select the subset of publishers to display based on the active category.

You can make other changes to your template based on the current category (cPath), like the header display (search on "women's kilts" for an example).

Hi Glenn :smile:
I think I might need to explain myself a little better as far as the catagories go. It isn't that I just want the sub-cats to show AFTER someone clicks on the Main cat from the home menu, its that I want all other cats to disappear.
For example if I click on Comics from the home page...
I only want Comics and its sub-cats to show in that box that shows on the home page lists ALL cats.
does that make sense?

I've had so much go on since I created this shop, that I'm concerned I can't bring it all back into my mind to remember how to work on it ... so please bear with me.:blush:

LilleyPadGifts,

First, Kim was correct in merging your posts/threads and asking you not to start new threads based on the same question. Things get too confusing that way.

Replies at Forums are on a Voluntary basis and, if you don't get any or ones your not happy with, there is probably a good reason.

That brings us to the second point and specifically your question.

What you are wanting to do can be done but cannot be easily explained in a Forum post. Too many details and a somewhat, high level of Zen Cart knowledge is required to accomplish what you ask. Sometimes people don't know the answer or they do know but don't want to write very long posts and thus, no relevant replies are made. This reply alone took about 15 minutes, to compose and post.

You are best off submitting your request in the Commercial section of the Forum. Although true, that we can usually learn how to do what we want done, it is also true that hiring someone with knowledge & experience can be the better solution.

LOL... and let me guess... you work the Commercial section?:D

I still disagree with what Kim did....or at least the way she handled it. It came off as being rude more then anything else. Especially with the capitals. A simple comment would have been fine, but being "scolded" is not as far as I'm concerned. I didn't know I was doing something wrong or I would not have done it. After doing more research. I figured i had listed the question to the wrong area and so asked somewhere else along with asking a different question. I still think its in the wrong area...and now they both are.

Oh well.... life goes on :smile:

The ambiguity in the English language strikes again!
By "only display comics subcats when the comics top cat has been selected", I meant that nothing but comics subcats (and possibly the comics top cat) would show in the categories box. I worked out the same kind of functionality for another member a few months ago. It would take a bit of research to find it because I have made a few posts since then:)

Yeah, that sounds like what I'm looking for! :)
Is it difficult to do?
Maybe I should be looking at it from that angle instead of 2 seperate stores.

Thanks!

It is not all that involved as far as coding, but will certainly be easier to copy from the old thread than to figure out from scratch again. I'll have to think a bit to remember keywords to dig it up with, as I don't fancy sifting through 500 posts.

That was easier than I thought! My memory of the member's name was correct, and Only shoe current category subcategories is the thread.

You would want a variation on the code posted there. I'll look at it tomorrow.

Great! Looks like I might just want THAT code....don't you think? I might be misunderstanding him, but I think he wanted what I'm looking for. I won't be able to work on it until a little later today, so I'll try what you showed there.

Really appreciate your help ! :smile:

What that code does is display nothing but the current top cat's subcats for every category. You want that function only for the comics category. It will be a minor tweak.