We are glad to announce the release of CS-Cart Multi-Store Edition Beta.
First of all, we would like to apologize for the repeated delays. Unfortunately, software development is usually attended by unforeseen circumstances and estimated risks are not always true to facts.
[size=“5”]Main features[/size]
The major feature of CS-Cart Multi-Store Edition is the ability to create several storefronts and manage them all via a common admin panel. Each store can have its own domain and/or a subdirectory on a domain, but all the storefront URLs must point to the same physical location (server) where CS-Cart Multi-Store is installed (because one software installation serves all the storefronts).
[color=“#ff0000”][size=“3”]This edition does not allow you to manage stand-alone CS-Cart Community, Professional or Multi-Vendor installations.[/size][/color]
The other software features are as follows:
[size=“3”][list]
[] Share products among your stores and set different product prices/descriptions depending on the store;
[] Configure look-n-feel of each storefront (blocks, top menu, sitemap, language variables, etc) individually;
[] The ability to act as a main administrator who can manage all the objects in the database or a store owner who can manage only the objects belonging to his store;
[] Customer accounts can be common for all stores (once registered, a customer can log in to any store with the same login and password) or unique for each store (a customer needs to register in each store separately if required);
[] Create regions for which a store is available;
[] Share such objects as pages, languages, currencies, product filters, etc among your stores.
Please note, that the software is still in beta, so it should be used only for testing purposes and is not intended for production use!
If you find any bugs, please post them in the special [size=“3”]bug tracker[/size]. Note: This is the same bug tracker used for Multi-Vendor Beta, so if you have created an account earlier, you can use it.
Have an idea about a new nice feature for CS-Cart Multi-Store? Please share it at our [size=“3”]UserVoice[/size].
Below you can find some additional information about this new CS-Cart edition.
[size=“5”]Terms used in CS-Cart Multi-Store[/size]
Root admin means a main administrator who can manage the objects of all stores. An administrator acts as a root admin if “All stores” is selected in the store selector in the admin panel header.
Store means a separate storefront that is managed only from a common admin panel. An administrator can act as a store owner by selecting a store in the store selector.
Shared object means an object that can be used in other stores. A shared object can have properties that can be individual for each store (for example, a product price). A shared object has the “Share” tab on its details pages.
[size=“6”]General access rules[/size]
Root objects (can be modified only by a root admin and viewed under a selected store):
[list]
[] Countries
[] Order Statuses
[] States
[] Profile Fields
[] User groups
[/list]
Shared objects (these objects can be shared among stores)
[list]
[] Products [color=“#708090”][size=“2”](by assigning to a category belonging to a required store. There is no the “Share” tab on the edit product page)[/size][/color]
[] Languages
[] Currencies
[] Pages
[] Global options
[] Promotions
[/list]
Separate objects (these objects cannot be shared among stores. You can only copy them when creating a store)
[list]
[] Categories
[/list]
When a store is selected, you do not have access to:
For testing purposes we recommend to select the “Install demo data” check box during the installation. You will have two configured stores as a result:
The storefront URLs of these demo stores can be changed on the “Stores” page when you act as a root admin:
In order to open a storefront in your browser from the admin panel, select the required store from the stores list [1] and click the View Storefront button [2]:
[color=“#000080”][size=“5”]2) Creating a new store[/size][/color]
[list]
[]Unselect all stores (the “All Stores” value should be selected).
[]Go to Stores → Stores and click the “Add store” button.
[]Select the store which settings and objects you want to copy to a new one. This can be done under the “Copy existing store configuration” section.
[]Enter a store name and specify its URL under the “Information” section.
[]Fill out the Company settings: emails and address.
[]In the “Regions” tab, you can enable the entry page. It is for the cases when you have different stores for different regions.
The entry page has three available options:
None: no entry page will be displayed.
Home page: the entry page will be displayed when a customer opens the home page of the store.
All pages: the entry page will be displayed when a customer opens any page of the store for the fist time.
[*]Configure hosts/dirs for the storefronts. The main idea is that your storefront URL must point to the web directory where CS-Cart Multi-Store is installed. We recommend to do it via your website control panel. Here are the detailed instructions:
[color=“#000080”][size=“5”]3) Share products among stores[/size][/color]
The main point when you share a product among stores is that products are not linked directly to stores, but to categories while each category has its store owner. As you can see, all categories have a store name as a root level.
So the steps are as follows:
Open the edit product page and select categories in which this product must be displayed. You will see an icon that means that the product is shared and you can either edit its properties for all stores [1] or for the store owner only [2].
The following properties of a product can be set individually for each store:
Product name
Product price
Product Description
Page title
Meta description
Meta keywords
Search words
Option price modifiers
All the other properties can be changed by the root admin or the product owner only and will take effect in all shared stores.
To change a product owner, it is required to change the value of the “Store” field on the edit product page.
You can set a default value for the “Update for all stores” icon on the “Settings → Stores” page.
[color=“#000080”][size=“5”]4) Share users among stores[/size][/color]
You can select one of these possibilities (by changing the “Share users among stores” value on the “Settings” → “Stores” page):
Yes: Enable customers to use one account to log in to any of your stores
No: Customers have separate accounts in each store
Please note that if you share users among stores, they will not be logged in automatically when going to another store.
When user accounts are not shared, customers can use the same email address for different stores during registration.
[color=“#000080”][size=“5”]5) Settings in the Multi-Store edition[/size][/color]
Not all settings are available to a root admin in CS-Cart Multi-Store Edition:
Some settings like Appearance for the customer area are not applicable for a root admin who actually does not have a storefront assigned. So, a root admin can only overwrite all store values on such settings pages. For example, if you want to set the same order department email for all stores, you should do the following:
Unselect all stores (the “All Stores” value should be selected).
Go to Company settings. All values are disabled by default.
Enable the “Update for all stores” icon for the “Order department e-mail address” setting.
Change its value and click “Save”.
In order to change a setting for a particular store, it is required to select it first in the store selector in the page header.
***
We hope you will enjoy this beta release. You can ask your questions about this CS-Cart edition in this thread.
Short question: what if I already have 2 shops live (3rd one coming soon) and want to manage them through one admin? How would we accomplish this?
[/quote]
Unfortunately, at this moment you cannot use CS-Cart Multi-Store for that. There was the information about this case in the initial post:
[quote]
This edition does not allow you to manage stand-alone CS-Cart Community, Professional or Multi-Vendor installations.
[/quote]
UPDATE: In the future, it will be possible to exchange your CS-Cart Professional licenses to Multi-Store ones and transfer the data from all your existing CS-Cart Professional installations to a CS-Cart Multi-Store one, so that you will be able to manage all your stores via a common admin panel. No doubt, it is very convenient to have everything in one place.
Just let us know what other features you would like to see in CS-Cart Multi-Store.
Unfortunately, you cannot use CS-Cart Multi-Vendor for that. There was the information about this case in the initial post:
[/quote]
Multi-vendor? We are talking about Multi-Store right?
I understand you're saying it is impossible.
But I thought - and I think with me a lot of users - that this feature would allow me to manage my existing shops from one admin, sharing the inventory, etc.
But now I see, it's a completely different product?
Anyway, the question remains one way or the other: will we be able to convert our existing shops into online multi-store?
Multi-vendor? We are talking about Multi-Store right?
I understand you're saying it is impossible.
But I thought - and I think with me a lot of users - that this feature would allow me to manage my existing shops from one admin, sharing the inventory, etc.
But now I see, it's a completely different product?
Anyway, the question remains one way or the other: will we be able to convert our existing shops into online multi-store?
Thanks for your answer!
[/quote]
If Multi-Store is a different product what will the pricing be for this product? Also… how long till available as an active release? We are preparing to launch 2-4 pro shops but might wait for multi-store
But I thought - and I think with me a lot of users - that this feature would allow me to manage my existing shops from one admin, sharing the inventory, etc.
But now I see, it's a completely different product?
[/quote]
Well, it is still CS-Cart that now can create additional storefronts that work as separate stores (at least, it looks so for a customer when they see stores with absolutely different look-n-feel, on different domains, etc), but it is a single Multi-Store installation (physically).
As for managing separate CS-Cart Community and Professional installations from one admin panel, yes, we understand it is on demand, but this is not an easy task (if we are not talking just about a store switcher, but collecting necessary data from all stores in one place), though it is in our plans.
As for managing separate CS-Cart Community and Professional installations from one admin panel, yes, we understand it is on demand, but this is not an easy task (if we are not talking just about a store switcher, but collecting necessary data from all stores in one place), though it is in our plans.
Yes, we are going to create the required tools for that. Also, it will be possible to convert a CS-Cart Professional license to a Multi-Store one.
1- im looking for CS-Cart Multi-Store but with multi admin as well or i can assagin stuff for each store !! something like i can rent stores to people
2- i spent some money to have my own local payment gateway integration , the bank accept payments coming only from my domain , how will that work with Multi-Store ??
Allow to activate “catalog mode” on the “main” store.
So the main manufacturer or wholesaler could use cs-cart and the same database to create a site not to pickup orders but to show reviews and more detail information on their products or services.
In case there is not “main” store, allow any other be configured for this purpose.
If Multi-Store is a different product what will the pricing be for this product? Also… how long till available as an active release? We are preparing to launch 2-4 pro shops but might wait for multi-store
if it will be soon.
[/quote]
We will announce the pricing some time before the stable release (it will come out not sooner than in 1.5 month).
At this moment, I can let you know that it will cost about $600 for a CS-Cart Multi-Store installation with up to 3 storefronts. Each additional storefront license (not a separate Multi-Store license for creating another set of storefronts) will cost about $200. In other words, if you launch a multi-store with 4 storefronts (about $800), you will save $200 comparing with purchasing 4 CS-Cart Professional licenses ($295 + $235 * 3 = $1000).
In addition to the money saving, managing 4 storefronts from one admin panel will save you some free time every day.
1- im looking for CS-Cart Multi-Store but with multi admin as well or i can assagin stuff for each store !! something like i can rent stores to people
[/quote]
Right, adding the ability to assign administrators to particular storefronts to the Multi-Store edition will make CS-Cart software as powerful as the one on eBay.com. Yes, we have this feature in mind, but I cannot let you know at this moment if we add it to the Multi-Store edition or to our next flagship edition.
2- i spent some money to have my own local payment gateway integration , the bank accept payments coming only from my domain , how will that work with Multi-Store ??
[/quote]
I think, your payment module will work in Multi-Store without a problem. I do not know how your custom module works exactly, so I recommend you should just download the Multi-Store Beta and check if everything works smoothly with your payment gateway integration.
Allow to activate “catalog mode” on the “main” store.
So the main manufacturer or wholesaler could use cs-cart and the same database to create a site not to pickup orders but to show reviews and more detail information on their products or services.
In case there is not “main” store, allow any other be configured for this purpose.
[/quote]
There is no so-called 'main' store in the CS-Cart Multi-Store Edition. All storefronts have the same privileges.
If the catalog mode is enabled, it affects all the storefronts that you have in your multi-store installation. In order to enable it, select 'All stores' in the store selector in the top left corner of your Multi-Store admin panel (to act as a root admin) and follow these instructions:
So I just want to make sure I read all this correctly:
If I have one store on a Pro license and I want to upgrade it to Multi-Store when it's released, everything that I have setup in my current Pro install can be moved or converted to work exactly the same in Multi-Store and then I can add more stores that share all the data I brought in from my original Pro install, correct?
If I have one store on a Pro license and I want to upgrade it to Multi-Store when it's released, everything that I have setup in my current Pro install can be moved or converted to work exactly the same in Multi-Store and then I can add more stores that share all the data I brought in from my original Pro install, correct?
[/quote]
Yes, exactly. We are going to create a tool that will copy everything (including settings) from your CS-Cart Professional installation to a Multi-Store one. As a result, you will have one storefront in your MSE installation that you will be able to use as a base for creating new storefronts (thanks to the built-in store clone tool).
Unfortunately, this upgrade tool will be available a bit later after the stable Multi-Store Edition release.
Please feel free to post your other questions, if any.
Great news. I have installed the Beta but I need some clarification regarding the process of adding a new store to the multi-store. Lets say I have installed the CS-Cart multi-store under the domain: www.domain1.com/store/ and I want to add a new store to www.domain2.com. (on the same webserver)
Besides enabling the www.domain2.com store in the CS-Cart admin, what do I need to do in the webfolder of www.domain2.com? Is it the .htaccess file that redirects the content from domain1.com? If so, what is the actual RewriteRule? I have tried the following without success:
Great news. I have installed the Beta but I need some clarification regarding the process of adding a new store to the multi-store. Lets say I have installed the CS-Cart multi-store under the domain: www.domain1.com/store/ and I want to add a new store to www.domain2.com. (on the same webserver)
Besides enabling the www.domain2.com store in the CS-Cart admin, what do I need to do in the webfolder of www.domain2.com? Is it the .htaccess file that redirects the content from domain1.com? If so, what is the actual RewriteRule? I have tried the following without success:
There might be URL formatting that is wrong, but does the approach look correct?
[/quote]
Dear Ranger-1,
All you should do is to point domain2.com to the folder where CS-Cart Multi-Store is installed. In other words both domain1.com/store & domain2.com should direct to same folder.
In your case if you have the following DocumentRoot for the domain1.com (see Apache configs):
DocumentRoot /var/www/
you should create another virtual host for domain2.com, something like:
I have read to different threads about the Multi-Store edition, and would love to get up-to date info that I may have missed.
With the Multi-Store addition, is is basically being able to run multiple Professional editions on the backend correct?
Will there be an option for each store to have their own admin user account and multiple user accounts?
Will there be an option for a superadmin to be able to login to each store also? → This would primarily be a benefit for web designers, who manage multiple client e-commerce sites. This way, I can login through the MAIN admin area, and select which client's website I need to update/change.
Can each store have their own products/customer list, and for the other stores to not be able to view that information? (Assuming each store is not related to one another, and are separate businesses.
Can each store have their own vendor accounts?
I apologize for so many questions - I would like to make the change to a new e-commerce platform, but this would be the third platform I am switching to and the 5th one I am testing out.
I have downloaded the beta, and would be grateful to give any feedback on the testing.
I also forgot to ask, if each site will have their own different domain URL, they each will need their own SSL correct? Or will it be linked back to the MAIN backend URL managing each store?
Congratulations on making this a reality thus far but can I just clarify ;
Say I am running 3 pro store fronts at the moment. when you have finished I will be able to…
1; Purchase the multi store licence for $600
2; change my 4 Pro Store licences to Multi store( what if any charges are there for this)
Thanks
John
[/quote]
John, it will be possible to convert a CS-Cart Professional license to a Multi-Store one so there might not be a need to purchase the multi store license for you.
This is great. I installed the beta, but I need some additional information to better understand how this works.
If I want to create a product that shows up in both stores, I need to put it in a category that is assigned to both stores, correct?
If that is the case, how do I assign a category to multiple stores? Let's say I add a new category “Test Category”. How do I get this category to show up in many stores?
I am very excited for this as I have three websites that I would finally like to have one back-end for. They all share similar products.
Great work and I look forward to helping test this.
