webcart database - can I build it on a donor domain?

[Pish_Pash]

I've decided to move host & change cart software (my current host sucks canal water through their backside ......& my cart software is now so old, it constantly plays showaddywaddy records & wears flares)

My company domain is already live & bringing in dosh (albeit meagre dosh), so I wish to prepare as much as possible on a 'test build'.

What I'm uncertain about if if I build/populate a test website (on a test domain)...once done, can I simply export that database & import it into the live domain without issue? For example

let's call my real present live website cart live.com

Let's call my new all singing & dancing new build cart software test.com

Once I've populated test.com with all the text, categories, products ...can I use the database exported from test.com & import into a vanilla cart install on live.com? (or would it be better to forget about importing a database build on another domain & just install a vanilla cart on live.com & then import products via csv?)

 

[NuBlue]

It depends on the application but that's not the best way to do it. Usually, when test.com is ready to become the live site, it's changed within the app to become live.com. How that's done is app dependent but if, for example, you chose Wordpress+WooCommerce or Magento, you'd make some changes in their admin panel to make it work as live.com.

That's not all, you then need to sort out the hosting which is dependent on the control panel and whether test.com was developed on the same hosting as live.com. If test.com was developed on another server with different IP address, you then just change DNS records to make it live. If it's on the same server & IP address, your host would be able to tell you how to handle it.

If you are not starting completely afresh, after some successful copying of the old live data into test.com, you'd make a data refresh part of your go-live process.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Thanks, I'm actually moving to Prestashop 1.7 on a new host .... I'm now leaning towards having all my import CSVs tested via test.com prior (categories, products), then late on a nominated friday night, pointing the live.com nameservers to my new host & doing a vanilla Prestashop install from scratch on my new host - at least going this way, I know I have a clean build & I know that my imports are all going to import without a hitch (albeit a bit more time consuming going this way)

 

[Storebuilder]

That sounds like a good plan. The other way is to create a subdomain like test.live.com and set it all up so you know it is working on the new server setup.

The drawback with developing on two different servers is that they may have different PHP versions and plugins activated/deactivated. You could check that though beforehand.

You could also do the install on your new server and get your host to provide you with the URL shortcut before the domain goes live to make sure it is all working properly. That way you know it'll all be working when you switch the DNS.

Good luck!

 

[NuBlue]

More time consuming but you know it's a fresh clean install. You could even develop it as live.com if you don't mind switching between live & test using a hosts file edit.

 

[pelparc]

The drawback with developing on two different servers is that they may have different PHP versions and plugins activated/deactivated. You could check that though beforehand.

I had this problem with a Magento test site (same host but diff rent servers).

I'm actually moving to Prestashop 1.7

I seem to recall a while ago you thought you might go with Magento 2. What made you decide Pretashop? genuine interest question as i plan on upgrading and i just dont know if i can be arsed to relearn Magento now they have changed it to a completely new version.

 

[Pish_Pash]

I seem to recall a while ago you thought you might go with Magento 2. What made you decide Pretashop? genuine interest question as i plan on upgrading and i just dont know if i can be arsed to relearn Magento now they have changed it to a completely new version.

I had thought that the Magento 2 extension market might have had more to offer by now....for example when I looked about 12 months ago, there were no cheap Stripe extensions...there still aren't. Essentially, I'm a tightwad, and have no intention of ponying up £150 just to be able to continue to accept Stripe payments on Magento 2 (as I do now on Opencart). Then there's the resource hoggishness of Magento 2 (my website doesn't sell enough to warrant a dedicated server).... Prestashop seems to offer a pretty broad suite of (cheaper) extensions...pretty good facebook plugins (this is something I have to start paying more attention to), & fruugo are seemingly soon to release a plugin to provide a datafeed to them (fruugo is another marketplace I wish to go with) Prestashop is not as resource hungry ...plus the importing into Prestashop seems way easier than into Magento 2. I like the Prestashop documentation...I was able to get a direct MS Access to Prestashop mySQL working without much incident...their database schema seems well documented (Frankly....after the woeful Opencart database documentation ...anything is a win!). Finally, Linnwork's Linnlive2 release for Magento 2 was in the offing back then (listing tool) ....this was a big attraction, but frankly, Linnworks took the piss with their pricing structure, so I baled on them ...therefore this aspect is no longer an argument for me going the way of Magento 2.

Having read way too much on the genre...the broad overall consensus is that Magento 2 is for medium to large enterprises, whereas the likes of Prestashop is more suited to a smaller operation like mine ...I have to say having dabbled with it briefly...I like it (still some way to go before I go 'full in' ...I'm more just scoping the thing out presently)

 

[antropy]

I had this problem with a Magento test site (same host but diff rent servers).

Correct, Magento requires significant server configuration to run.

I had thought that the Magento 2 extension market might have had more to offer by now....for example when I looked about 12 months ago, there were no cheap Stripe extensions...there still aren't.

Correct, to achieve any given task Magento is more expensive.

Then there's the resource hoggishness of Magento 2 (my website doesn't sell enough to warrant a dedicated server)....

Correct, it is slow and expensive to host.

Prestashop seems way easier than into Magento 2.

Correct, Magento is very complex both from a code perspective and a user perspective.

the broad overall consensus is that Magento 2 is for medium to large enterprises

Correct, it has its place, but it is NOT the small business.

I'm glad to see you finally agree with every point I always make about Magento, perhaps I can link to this post in future when someone else refuses to believe me

Prestashop is good and well written, so it's probably a good choice, but a point about OpenCart:

woeful Opencart database documentation

The OpenCart database is sooo simple documentation would look like this:
"oc_customers: this is where the customers are stored.
oc_users: this is where the users are stored.
oc_orders: this is where the orders are stored.
etc..."

 

[Pish_Pash]

The OpenCart database is sooo simple documentation would look like this:
"oc_customers: this is where the customers are stored.
oc_users: this is where the users are stored.
oc_orders: this is where the orders are stored.
etc..."

Now if only they'd documented it (it would have only taken them 5 minutes if it's as simple as you imply!) - but they didn't (checkout the forum for folks asking about the schema) & to me, that's no good at all (& speaks volumes about their lackadaisical approach to support), whereas Prestashop ....

http://doc.prestashop.com/display/P...mentalsofPrestaShopDevelopment-Databaseschema (bottom of the page)

...it's like a breath of fresh air.

Also check out the respective marketshares...

https://www.similartech.com/compare/opencart-vs-prestashop

...in nearly all cases I can think of, you're better rolling with the leader! (there's a reason they're leading!)

 

[antropy]

checkout the forum for folks asking about the schema

Yep, I've seen that, but honestly it's so simple.

speaks volumes about their lackadaisical approach to support

But remember, OpenCart has a very small team indeed, Prestashop is backed by a big company. OpenCart have instead put their effort in to having a very simple, high quality codebase.

PrestaShopDevelopment-Databaseschema (bottom of the page)

...it's like a breath of fresh air.

Sure, we consider OpenCart and Prestashop to both be great platforms and both right at the top of the self-hosted ones. There are pros and cons to each, but Presta does have better documentation and more formalised coding standards. OpenCart on the other hand is simpler and allows modification via vQmod rather than the hook system that Prestashop uses which may prevent you from making certain changes.

But as I say, both are great.

 

[pelparc]

Thanks Pish_pash the amount the developers charge for the modules is a massive disincentive to upgrade, many also charge a rolling yearly fee for the modules. The whole Magento 2 seems to be a big rip off for the end user. Haven't really looked at alternatives.
I currently only have 2 paid for modules on my Magento 1 multi-store setup (costing a total of £110) all the others are free or i did myself. So called upgrading looks like it will cost me just under 1K for the modules and some i use are not available. Looks more like a downgrade.
Good luck with Prestashop.

 

[antropy]

The whole Magento 2 seems to be a big rip off for the end user.

Sure, if you are a relatively small company. I always say that Magento is not suitable for start-ups right through to ecommerce businesses with say 40-50 people at a guess. Above that the higher cost of development might make sense.

 

[Page]

I first used cs-cart - now magento 1.?

It was nice software and is still going - maybe worth a look

 

[Pish_Pash]

I've already commited to Prestashop...but thanks for the tip (it might help others)

 

[19ninety]

I moved from OpenCart to Prestashop (frustratingly a few weeks before 1.7 was announced!!), I was glad to leave OpenCart, Prestashop by comparison is fantastic for a hands on user.
I digress, I used Cart2Cart to migrate OC to Prestashop 1.6, it was a fairly small customer and product database at the time and a little tidying up was needed in the products after.

 

[Pish_Pash]

I moved from OpenCart to Prestashop (frustratingly a few weeks before 1.7 was announced!!), I was glad to leave OpenCart, Prestashop by comparison is fantastic for a hands on user.
I digress, I used Cart2Cart to migrate OC to Prestashop 1.6, it was a fairly small customer and product database at the time and a little tidying up was needed in the products after.

I'm moving from Opencart to Prestashop too...it's like a breath of fresh air ...I'm not using any cart to cart utility ...I'm just using my access database to export it's content to csv files for importing into Prestashop (already have the import into Prestashp working fine) ...I'm using V1.7.2.1 (the latest update - just released a couple of days ago)

 

[Page]

Might interest you

https://www.merchantmaverick.com/reviews/prestashop-review/

 

[Pish_Pash]

Might interest you

https://www.merchantmaverick.com/reviews/prestashop-review/

Thanks I'd previously read that review (which in the main was very positive), the only bit I don't wholly agree with is the cost of extensions. For example with Magento 2 I'd be on the hook for about £150 just to to get a stripe extension, here's what the prestashop review said...

"Stripe Integration. $174.99. Accept payments via the third-party payment gateway"

Erhm, actually stripe have an official Prestashop extension - & it's free https://addons.prestashop.com/en/payment-card-wallet/24922-stripe-official.html (so I can only assume the review is a little out of date).

The only extensions I need are a shipping estimator (about £30), stripe (free) & facebook shop integration (£40ish)...therefore I'm looking at less than £100 spend....that's compelling for me!

 

[Page]

Out of curiosity - were you not thinking of shopify - What won you over ?

 

[Pish_Pash]

Out of curiosity - were you not thinking of shopify - What won you over ?

I'm not keen on subscription based purchases (or any ongoing commission skim) ...after trialling Prestashop it had all the functionality I needed, reasonable extension prices & a decent support community - ease of integration with my MS Access setup was a major plus too.