I have a couple of queries as to how other people manage their large shopping sites.
I understand that it is best to not have one database because of the size it would be, and to actually have one for each category. That's no problem. However...
(1) does that mean I won't be able to have just one merchant page showing them all across the databases?
(2) It's easy to do with AWin and Webgains because you can select categories, but what do you do with other networks - do you just add the merchant to each applicable database?
(3) Is there any way to do a search across ALL databases?
Does anybody have any tips/advice for me?
I think I know the answers, but before I start thought I would ask :-)
TIA
Jill
WOW! Thanks David, lots of good info there. Didn't know about the csv and hadn't thought to put all feeds into same directory.
It will take me a few days to get it set up so far as I have visitors coming :-/ But will let you know when I've got the main set up done.
Thanks again!
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Jill
Hi David
With the fetch.sh file where would I point for the script file to import? Should I move some files to a "common" directory?
At the moment I have...
cd /home/papillon/public_html/categoryfolder/scripts/
/usr/bin/php import.php @ALL
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Jill
>>with general merchant feeds registered into all sites and then use filters to extract only the products / categories required for that installation.
To selectively import categories; add a "Drop Record If Not RegExp" filter to the category field containing (Category 1|Category 2|Category 3) as the expression to import only those listed categories (pipe separated; with the entire expression in brackets).
Hi Jill,
Regarding automation; assuming that you are using a shared feed library as discussed, then what you might have is:
#fetch common feed(s)
wget ....
wget ....
#import to each site
cd /home/papillon/public_html/category1/scripts/
/usr/bin/php import.php @ALL
cd /home/papillon/public_html/category2/scripts/
/usr/bin/php import.php @ALL
cd /home/papillon/public_html/category3/scripts/
/usr/bin/php import.php @ALLHope this helps!
Cheers,
David.
Hello Jill,
The new Affiliate Window "create-a-feed" system was partly behind the decision to add multiple merchant feed support; and makes it extremely quick and easy to create a category based site using a single feed. Bear in mind that you will need to use the CSV version of their feeds (I recommend PIPE separated values) as these contain the merchant name in every record.
Obviously start with the new distribution; and you may have noticed that one of the advanced configuration options is the ability to change the location of the /feeds/ folder (relative to /admin/), so by doing so will make it much more straight forward to work with networks where you are not able to obtain a category specific feed.
Directory names containing an installation for each category would be the best way to go about it; and I would set-up your directory structure something like this:
example.com/feeds/
example.com/electronics/
example.com/clothing/
Within each of the installations, edit config.advanced.php and set $config_feedDirectory as follows:
$config_feedDirectory = "../../feeds/";Now, in the /feeds/ folder itself; there's no harm in having both the category specific feeds and general merchants feeds together. The category specific feeds you would then only register into the appropriate installation; with general merchant feeds registered into all sites and then use filters to extract only the products / categories required for that installation.
To selectively import categories; add a "Drop Record If Not RegExp" filter to the category field containing
(Category 1|Category 2|Category 3)as the expression to import only those listed categories (pipe separated; with the entire expression in brackets).With regards to the "look and feel", I would perhaps manage a single local copy of the /html/ folder on your local computer (where you would work on the design), and then upload that to each of the installations. I would also suggest moving default.css up to the top level of your site and then modifying line 12 of html/header.php as follows:
<link media='all' href='/default.css' type='text/css' rel='stylesheet' />If you decide to go down this route; let me know and once it's in place I can help you out with creating a cross-site merchant index; and cross-site search.
Cheers,
David.