If you want to setup multiple Magento stores and multiple domains that share the same admin area, the tutorial below will assist you in doing so. This is very useful if you have a lot of stores that share the same or related products and you wish to manage it from one central location. You will also be able to track your sales and customers without having to login to the admin area of each website.

With the latest release of Magento Commerce it is much easier to set this up than it was in previous versions. Before it required you to modify the index.php file to handle your different domains pointing at different stores and various other complicated modifications. With Magento 1.4.x it is now much easier. The new index php contains the following code:

$mageRunCode = isset($_SERVER['MAGE_RUN_CODE']) ? $_SERVER['MAGE_RUN_CODE'] : '';
$mageRunType = isset($_SERVER['MAGE_RUN_TYPE']) ? $_SERVER['MAGE_RUN_TYPE'] : 'store';

It checks two variables(code & type) and then uses them to run Magento. With the new code you’re able to set which store is supposed to be running under your main domain directly within your virtual host definition(root access required) or for our shared hosting and cPanel hosting customers you can actually now use .htaccess to accomplish this.

Creating your additional stores

If you haven’t already done so, the first thing you will need to do is setup your second store in the Magento admin area:

1. Login to the Magento admin area.
2. Go to the Catalog tab, then select Manage Categories.
3. Click the ‘Add Root Category’ button on the left.
4. On the right, for the Name, enter your secondwebsite.com. In the dropdown set Yes for both ‘Is Active’ and ‘Is Anchor’.
5. Click on ‘Save Category’.
6. Next you should go to the ‘System’ tab and select ‘Manage Stores’.
7. Click the ‘Create Website’ button.
8. For the Name enter your Secondwebsite.com, and for the ‘Code’ you should enter secondwebsite. You’ll be using this value later so make sure your note it down somewhere.
9. Click ‘Save Website’.
10. In the same area, click on the ‘Create Store’ button.
11. For the Website, select your Secondwebsite.com from the dropdown. For the ‘Name’, you can enter Secondary Store. For the Root Category, select your now created Secondwebsite.com from the dropdown.
12. Click the ‘Save Store’ button.
13. Next click on the ‘Create Store View’ button.
14. For the ‘Store’, select Secondary Store from the dropdown menu, make sure it’s for the created Secondwebsite.com. For the Name, you can enter English. For the ‘Code’, you should enter secondwebsite_en. For the Status, select ‘Enabled’ from the dropdown menu.
15. Click on ‘Save Store View’.
16. Next you will need to go to the ‘System’ tab and select ‘Configuration’
17. For ‘Current Configuration Scope’ (located near the top left), change the dropdown menu from ‘Default Config’ to Secondwebsite.com.
18. Select ‘Web’ from the left sidebar under the ‘Genera’l headline.
19. For both the Unsecure and Secure sections, uncheck the Use default box next to the Base URL item, and enter the URL for your store, e.g. secondwebsite.com. Make sure to include the trailing backslash.
20. Click the ‘Save Config’ button.

You’re almost done so hang in there!

Once you are finished creating the store, if you have not added your second domain as an add-on domain you will need to login to your cPanel account with us and create it as an Add-on domain now. Once you have done this you then need to copy your index.php and .htaccess file to the created directory for your add-on domain.

After copying over your index.php file, you should replace the following lines of code in the index.php file located only in the new add-on directory:

Replace this line:

$mageFilename = ‘app/Mage.php’;

With the following:

$mageFilename = ‘../public_html/app/Mage.php’;

Next you will need to either use the VirtualHost method(VPS and dedicated servers) or the .htacess method (for regular magento hosting / shared hosting accounts).

Using VirtualHost:

To set this up using the Virtualhost method you should simply add the following lines within your VirtualHost definition file:

SetEnv MAGE_RUN_CODE "base"  #Put your main/base website or store code here.
SetEnv MAGE_RUN_TYPE "secondwebsite"  #Here you should put 'secondwebsite' if the URL of the additional store you are adding is secondwebsite.com.

Using the .htaccess method:

If you do not have access to the virtual host file and are not a VPS or dedicated server customer, you can still use .htaccess for this.

In your .htaccess code you will need to define your main and secondary websites. For example if the URL of your main/base website is base.com and the URL of your second website is secondwebsite.com you should put the following code in your .htaccess


SetEnvIf Host .*base.* MAGE_RUN_CODE="base";
SetEnvIf Host .*secondwebsite.* MAGE_RUN_TYPE="secondwebsite";


You are, of course, not limited to using just 2 websites. To add additional stores you would simply add the additional lines of necessary code:


SetEnvIf Host .*thirdwebsite.* MAGE_RUN_TYPE="thirdwebsite";


etc.

You should now be all setup using Magento multi-stores and have multiple stores with one main admin area in Magento, without messing around with the code and the other previous lengthy methods .

If you have any questions, additions or issues with this feel free to comment.

New Features in Enterprise Edition Version 1.7

Magento Enterprise Edition version 1.7 features the all new reward points system, which allows merchants to implement unique programs designed to enhance user experience and increase customer loyalty. Points are awarded based on purchases, as well as actions such as registering on the site, inviting others to register, submitting product reviews and tags and more.  Points are managed by customers through their account and are redeemable at checkout time towards the price of a purchase.

Magento Enterprise Edition version 1.7 also places a focus on highly tuned page performance by making use of Full Page Caching.  Forrester Research has recently hailed caching as the “best practice” behind some of the internet’s fastest sites and new performance optimizations included in this version of Magento Enterprise Edition provide significant benefits for merchants of all sizes through a new Full Page Caching module. The optimizations, which together with other performance-enhancing functionality already in Magento, significantly reduce page load times, increase conversions, and enhance the customer browsing experience.

Additionally, Magento Enterprise Edition version 1.7 included no less than fifteen new features available to store administrator users to help augment the range of tools administrators have at their disposal for managing their site.  These include such features as sales report optimization, WYSIWYG Editing for Products, Categories, and email templates, Design Theme & Packages Facilitation, Custom Variables for use in email templates and CMS, and upgrades to the Magento Enterprise Edition CMS+ content management engine.

Magento Hosting For Enterprise Edition

In addition to our regular optimized web hosting services, all eLief VPS and dedicated servers can be optimized for Magento hosting – with our expertise and experience with Magento we can customize a solution based on your exact needs, number of products and SKU’s in your store, growth expectations and much more. Contact us today for a free quote.

Ok cool, so what..you created this blog just to talk about your services? Not exactly! This blog will serve as a great way to communicate and interact with our readers and customers, gather opinions, collaborate with industry veterans, or to just come and read the mindless ramblings from the creators of eLief.

The scoop you can get from here:

• Upcoming news and insider perspectives
• New feature announcements
• How-to tutorials
• Webmaster tips & techniques.
• In-depth information about what happens behind the scenes at eLief.
• Why eLief is the best hosting company in the galaxy and how it will come to rule the world. Just kidding, no but seriously.

To start things off, during the month of April, we will be focusing on tutorials and information about running a Magento Commerce store for all our magento hosting and ecommerce customers.

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