CS-Cart Multi-Store Beta is ready for testing

Dear Adam,


[quote name='jegesmaci' timestamp='1316552640' post='122009']

alexions,



For some of us that know a little less about the technical part of website setup, can you possibly show screenshots of what areas need to be changed when you have multiple domains?

[/quote]



Thank you for your feedback. Currently I am working on the documentation on how to install CS-Cart Multi-Store Edition on a server using cPanel.



And there, I will surely describe how to set the store to work with different domains like example.com, example1.com and example2.com.

Also I will describe how to work with subdomains of one domain.



As soon as the documentation is ready, I will write about it here on the Forums.



Thank you.

Categories, products, pages, top menu etc. created for a particular store. This means that there is no common frontend for all stores?

Hello Darius,


[quote name='Darius' timestamp='1316588208' post='122022']

Did not read very carefully.



Question, can one product be shared among say 2 stores and if in one it is sold then it is no longer available in both? If so very handy…

[/quote]



Yes, it works in this very way. Products have common inventory, so if this product is out of stock in one storefront, it will be out of stock in the other one as well.



Best wishes!

Hello alek,


[quote name='alek-ua' timestamp='1316608554' post='122033']

Categories, products, pages, top menu etc. created for a particular store. This means that there is no common frontend for all stores?

[/quote]



Yes, you are right. But if you need a common front-end, you can do the following:

  1. Create a few different stores

    - Store A:

    Categories

    Toys (with products)

    – Electric car

    – Plastic ball

    Gifts (with products)

    – Gold ring



    - Store B:

    Categories

    Gadgets (with products)

    – Headphones

    – Bluetooth adapter

    Phones (with products)

    – new Phone


  2. Create a new store (which will be as considered as common)

    Store C

    And share all objects you need (categories, products, shipping methods, etc…) for this (Store C) store.



    That's all. And when you open the storefront of the third store (Store C), you will see all products from all your stores.



    Kind regards.

This multi-store is most needed on my shop and looking for more than a year. also want to help on this beta. Question:


  1. Is it full private label multi-store?


  2. The Reward feature, affiliate feature, coupon and gift certificate. How we will operate this as Root admin & Store admin?



    3)Is it possible after Store admin create a store will be upon moderation review?


  3. Is it possible for root admin to limit the products to be added on store admin?


  4. Is it possible to upgrade from Multi-vendor to Multi-store?

We are very happy to hear this announcement.

We will test the beta release soon.

Is there any chance, that multistore edition will include the live help addon, too?

We use Plesk as our control panel and unfortunately editing the DocumentRoot for a domain is no small matter. The VirtualHost settings for each domain are not contained within the httpd.conf file and DocumentRoot cannot be edited within Plesk. Instead, there is an include for each domain as in the following:



/var/www/vhosts/example.com/conf/httpd.include



However, editing the file above can break Plesk so a “vhost.conf” override is supposed to be set as in the following example:



http://kb.bobcares.com/?View=entry&EntryID=590



Our IHP recommended using a Symbolic Link instead of editing the DocumentRoot but this idea seems even more confusing. Does anyone else use Plesk and if so, have you been able to modify your DocumentRoot without breaking Plesk? I haven't tried the vhost.conf override yet as I could use some insight on the best approach at this. Should I try the vhost.conf override or a symlink?

Dear merkado,


[quote name='merkado' timestamp='1316932306' post='122246']

  1. Is it full private label multi-store?

    [/quote]

    No, you cannot offer Multi-Store Edition under your own brand name, but you can obtain such a right from us for a fee. Please [size=3]contact us[/size] after the stable release if you are interested in this option.


[quote name='merkado' timestamp='1316932306' post='122246']

2) The Reward feature, affiliate feature, coupon and gift certificate. How we will operate this as Root admin & Store admin?

[/quote]

As regards this functionality, for example, Gift certificates or Promotion Coupons. It will be possible to view all records being a root admin. In other words you will be able to view, for example, all certificates of all your stores. But after you have selected a certain store, you will see only the certificates belonging to it.

This principle works almost everywhere in Multi-Store Edition - a root admin can view everything, and after he/she has selected a store, he/she can view only the data belonging just to the selected store.


[quote name='merkado' timestamp='1316932306' post='122246']

3)Is it possible after Store admin create a store will be upon moderation review?

[/quote]

Currently, no. You can post your idea on UserVoice: http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/134344-multi-store

and we will surely consider it.


[quote name='merkado' timestamp='1316932306' post='122246']

4) Is it possible for root admin to limit the products to be added on store admin?

[/quote]

As far as, as I wrote above, at the moment there is no ability to create individual administrators for each store, that is why there is no such limitation at the moment. But I think that this functionality will be useful after we have created the ability to create individual admins for managing stores. Please post it to UserVoice as well: http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/134344-multi-store


[quote name='merkado' timestamp='1316932306' post='122246']

5) Is it possible to upgrade from Multi-vendor to Multi-store?

[/quote]

Yes, the upgrade will be available after the stable release of CS-Cart Multi-Store Edition.



Thank you!

[quote name='drahos.istvan' timestamp='1317048573' post='122321']

Is there any chance, that multistore edition will include the live help addon, too?

[/quote]



At the moment the add-on is being tested in Multi-Store Edition. After the testing has been finished, we will decide whether to include the add-on in the final release. Currently the add-on works correctly and no serious problems in its work have been discovered. So it is likely that it will be included in the release.



Thank you.

What are the implications on performance after adding several stores?

hello, I am new here and I’m very interested on using the CS-CART MULTI-STORE system for my business.



But I wonder if this system can do the following things :


  1. When I list down all my products to my MAIN store, I want my other stores will also got those products listed on it automatically (that’s mean when I add product in my MAIN store, I don’t have to do it again for my SECOND store). Is this possible?
  2. Is that possible for me to register a new owner for my second store?
  3. Can he/she(second store’s owner) put their own prices for all the products listed?
  4. Can he/she put their contact information in the store without affecting other stores (3rd, 4th and so on)?
  5. When I delete my products from my MAIN store, I want all the other stores will also got that product being remove too (automatically). So I don’t need to do it over and over again. Is this possible?



    That’s all I want to know for now. I will be glad if I can do all that things.



    Anyway, I’m still interested to use it after all. :)



    Thank you,

[quote name='quicksilver1024' timestamp='1317177918' post='122453']

What are the implications on performance after adding several stores?

[/quote]

Multi-Store Edition will not cause any additional load on the server as compared to Professional Edition.



Let's suppose that you have a CS-Cart Professional installation on your server and 3000 visitors come to it per day. And another CS-Cart Multi-Store installation with three storefronts each of which is visited by 1000 people per day (3000 as well in total). Load on the server will be approximately the same for these Professional Edition and Multi-Store Edition installation.



Multi-Store Edition's load will be a little bit higher as a result of an additional MySQL request, for example when selecting category products.



Thank you!

Is it possible that Vendor can also option on Vendor/Store registration form if features of Multi Vendor or Multi Store?

[quote name=‘max_master’ timestamp=‘1317218120’ post=‘122481’]

hello, I am new here and I’m very interested on using the CS-CART MULTI-STORE system for my business.

But I wonder if this system can do the following things :

  1. When I list down all my products to my MAIN store, I want my other stores will also got those products listed on it automatically (that’s mean when I add product in my MAIN store, I don’t have to do it again for my SECOND store). Is this possible?

    [/quote]



    As it was written earlier in this thread, you can use the sharing products functionality for this.



    When you create a product in a storefront, you can specify at once that this products will be displayed in your other storefronts as well. When selecting a category, just select another storefront and specify the category in which it should be displayed. You do not have to create this product one more time.


[quote name=‘max_master’ timestamp=‘1317218120’ post=‘122481’]

2. Is that possible for me to register a new owner for my second store?

[/quote]



At the current moment, no. But this functionality is already under development and it will be available in CS-Cart soon.


[quote name=‘max_master’ timestamp=‘1317218120’ post=‘122481’]

3. Can he/she(second store’s owner) put their own prices for all the products listed?

[/quote]



For each storefront, you can define different product names, prices, descriptions and SEO/Meta data.


[quote name=‘max_master’ timestamp=‘1317218120’ post=‘122481’]

4. Can he/she put their contact information in the store without affecting other stores (3rd, 4th and so on)?

[/quote]



Yes, sure. For each storefront, you will be able to specify different company information:







This data can edited on the edit store page (menu Stores).


[quote name=‘max_master’ timestamp=‘1317218120’ post=‘122481’]

5. When I delete my products from my MAIN store, I want all the other stores will also got that product being remove too (automatically). So I don’t need to do it over and over again. Is this possible?

[/quote]

First of all, I would like to state again, that there is no any main store in CS-Cart Multi-Store and all the stores are equal.



Then, as the inventory database is common for all the storefronts, yes, once you delete a product from your database (in a store), it will not be displayed in the other storefronts with which it was shared.



Thank you for your interest in CS-Cart Multi-Store Edition!

@alexions



thank you very much for your extra detail explanation… :)



I really appreciate that… I can’t wait until official release… :D

No one else uses Plesk?






[quote name='Phoenix' timestamp='1317058824' post='122328']

We use Plesk as our control panel and unfortunately editing the DocumentRoot for a domain is no small matter. The VirtualHost settings for each domain are not contained within the httpd.conf file and DocumentRoot cannot be edited within Plesk. Instead, there is an include for each domain as in the following:



/var/www/vhosts/example.com/conf/httpd.include



However, editing the file above can break Plesk so a “vhost.conf” override is supposed to be set as in the following example:



http://kb.bobcares.com/?View=entry&EntryID=590



Our IHP recommended using a Symbolic Link instead of editing the DocumentRoot but this idea seems even more confusing. Does anyone else use Plesk and if so, have you been able to modify your DocumentRoot without breaking Plesk? I haven't tried the vhost.conf override yet as I could use some insight on the best approach at this. Should I try the vhost.conf override or a symlink?

[/quote]

I didn’t use Plesk since I don;t know how to use it. :D



Anyway, I’m still hoping this script will be PERFECT, SUPER USER FRIENDLY and FLEXIBLE TO USE…



Argghhh!!! I can’t wait!!



I hope it will release in this next month… :P

Dear Phoenix,


[quote name='Phoenix' timestamp='1317315031' post='122611']

Our IHP recommended using a Symbolic Link instead of editing the DocumentRoot but this idea seems even more confusing. Does anyone else use Plesk and if so, have you been able to modify your DocumentRoot without breaking Plesk? I haven't tried the vhost.conf override yet as I could use some insight on the best approach at this. Should I try the vhost.conf override or a symlink?

[/quote]

You can use symbolic links for configuring Multi-Store Edition.



For example, if you install Multi-Store Edition on http://example.com (and its web root directory is /var/www) and you need to have the second storefront available on http://example.com/store2, you need to create a symbolic link in the /var/www/store2 directory that will link to /var/www.



Then, create a storefront (for that second store, if you have not already created it) on the “Stores” page in your CS-Cart Multi-Store admin panel and enter example.com/store2 in the Storefront URL field on its details page.



After that, when you open http://example.com/store2 in your browser, you will see your second storefront.



I hope, this will help you.



Best wishes!

[quote name='alexions' timestamp='1317387908' post='122664']

Dear Phoenix,





You can use symbolic links for configuring Multi-Store Edition.



For example, if you install Multi-Store Edition on http://example.com (and its web root directory is /var/www) and you need to have the second storefront available on http://example.com/store2, you need to create a symbolic link in the /var/www/store2 directory that will link to /var/www.



Then, create a storefront (for that second store, if you have not already created it) on the “Stores” page in your CS-Cart Multi-Store admin panel and enter example.com/store2 in the Storefront URL field on its details page.



After that, when you open http://example.com/store2 in your browser, you will see your second storefront.



I hope, this will help you.



Best wishes!

[/quote]



Will symbolic links work for domains as well and not just subdirectories? For example, http://www.example2.com that links to http://www.example.com? If so, will the search engines see http://www.example2.com as unique content (its own domain) and not a redirect to (or mirrored content) of http://www.example.com?