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Setting up multiple stores in one database |
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pzula 
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Joined: 21-July-2010 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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 Topic: Setting up multiple stores in one databasePosted: 21-July-2010 at 1:57pm |
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Is it possible to set up mutiple stores on one domain, such as example.com/store1 and example.com/store2, and only use 1 MS SQL database? The company has multiple store divisions and we have a limited amount of SQL accounts with our hosting company.
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks!
P
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Hamish
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Joined: 12-October-2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 56 |
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Posted: 21-July-2010 at 2:15pm |
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Apart from the technical dificulties you are limited by the ProductCart licencing - See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/licensing
However, you are allowed to have multiple different looks to the one store, perhaps by separating the divisions into categories : See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/how_to/display_different_content_category This approach does leave all the products etc accessible under the one admin set of admin pages. |
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cognecy
Certified ProductCart Developers 
Joined: 18-March-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8 |
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Posted: 21-July-2010 at 3:39pm |
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If I can add in a bit to this ...
The main problem with this scenario really comes down to the fact that ProductCart is simply not designed for the "multi-store-single-DB' set up. I do know there are platforms out there that are designed for this function but they are also very, very expensive and you are typically paying quite up front for the license or or you end up shelling it out on a month-to-month basis.
Aside from the licensing aspect that Hamish pointed out, in order for productcart to be able to handle multiple stores would be a monumental design effort in my view both on the coding and Database side of things. This would require the ability to segregate billing, multiple merchant accounts, and multiple shipping accounts to name just a few.
We have been able to achieve something that is about 50% to what you are looking for by linking inventory and pricing between multiple PC stores (separate DB's) but not multiple stores on a single DB. Even linking the inventory is pretty tricky as the product numbers and SKU's must be identical between both stores and since PC assigns the product numbers internally .... like I said very tricky!
Sorry to sound like a kill-joy here but I think the best option would be to set up multiple stores separately. Many of our customers are doing this now and it works well for them. It also allows them to cross link sites and come up with different looks for each site.
It may still be possible to link products and inventory (if you track that internally) so you can update products in one master store and push those changes to the other databases (recall above where I said that is pretty tricky as product numbers and SKU's need to be identical).
Just a few extra thoughts for what it is worth.
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Mark Shipp
Cognecy Solutions, LLC Hosting/Design/Customization/Database Migration www.cognecy.com www.cognecy.co.uk |
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annabie
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Joined: 23-July-2010 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Posted: 23-July-2010 at 3:38am |
What if I don't want to divide them into categories? Aren't there any other way? |
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netprofits
Certified ProductCart Developers
Joined: 05-January-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 22 |
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Posted: 23-July-2010 at 6:08am |
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No, there are licensing issues and even if there weren't, as Mark explained above, it would take a major custom programming project to get the application to work like that. It would be much less expensive and much faster to just buy multiple licenses and web hosting accounts. In addition, if you customize the software that much, you can't upgrade to new versions without re-applying all of the customizations.
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pzula
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Joined: 21-July-2010 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Posted: 23-July-2010 at 2:51pm |
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Thank you, I decided that this would not be the way to go and appreciate everyone's input!
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Hamish wrote: