AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

Hello. I have, what I hope, is an easy question.
I (for purposes my boss has explained in great detail) would like to have mutiple URLs, all controlled by the same installation of AbleCommerce, all sharing the same database (although some may only have some of the categories available).
For instance...
http://www.poolgeek.com
http://www.allpoolsupplies.com
http://www.allpoolpumps.com
etc...
Now, I know that I could set up three separate installations, but, I would really prefer to have everything controlled via the same back-end, to keep order processing from becoming a nightmare. Due to the limitations of certain inventory/order management systems, I don't think that it would work to just try to merge all the data into an offline solution, and process everything from that interface (for instance, I guess that Stone Edge still does not have the ability to send order confirmation emails when an order is processed).
So, that being said, is there anyway for AbleCommerce to be able to accomplish this? Licensing cost is not an issue for us... if the requirements call for additional licenses, that is not a problem. Really, all that I'm concerned with is that each storefront has a unique look, and the proper URLs.
Any ideas for me? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Scott
http://www.poolgeek.com

I don't think you can have multiple URLs for an AC7 store- you could for 5.5 if you had more store licenses. Even at that, for a different look for each store, code would have to be written to use a theme based on the URL. I also had to put code in to switch the checkout over to one URL so it didn't cause problems with processing ( I can't remember what the specific problem was). Then when I did that, the customer would lose the basket contents because of the cookie changing.

[[Edit- see Logan's note- Able 7 will support multiple domain names now]]

[[Edit #2 - I remember what the multiple domain problem was. It had to do with a return URL for the CardinalCommerce VerifiedbyVisa code]]

It seems like it shouldn't be that hard... Right now, for instance, I have a license that works with both the ip and the www addresses... so, once I switch my domain over, everything should be seemless. That being the case, shouldn't it be fairly easy to allow a few more urls to work under the license? I could, I'm sure, figure out the theme-ing issue ultimately...
I've heard different things in the forums regarding this issue. Many are saying that Able with ultimately support multiple stores in version 7. Is that true? Can I tell my boss that this is coming down the line? This is purely for the purpose of future expansion, but it would be nice to plan accordingly now.

Thanks again.

Scott

AbleCommerce 7 licenses can have multiple domains included. So you could have a single store that would respond to a number of domains.

The part about skinning each site differently is what you would have to customize - our themes are set dynamically so you could certainly add a check for domain and accomplish a unique look. Also at this time there is not a way to alter the catalog based on domain.

The thing to do would be to try to accomplish the skinning change using the downloadable demo. With a demo license, you are not restricted to domain so you could try it out. If you can get the skinning to work to your satisfaction, you'll be able to purchase a license that includes all the domains you need.

If your boss is wanting to do this for different doorways for search engine links, he might want to check into the duplicate page/content issues it might cause before he jumps into it. Search engines are smarter about this than they were several years ago when people had multiple domain names to the same site. My son-in-law had so many domain names I told him he needed to get a bumper sticker "He who dies with the most domain names wins."

Yeah, I know that duplicate content is a big issues, and should be avoided. It is curious, though, how a site like CSNstores.com gives the ability to navigate to the same content, either from their main site (csnstores.com) or from one of the associate companies (allbarstools.com)... Both of the sites do have unique IP's, although in the same subnet, so it's not just a naming thing I know. And this is a 200 Million a year company.
In this particular situation, I can only imagine that some type of custom offline order processing exists to tie everything together, and perhaps Google lets the dup. content slide, since both are owned by the same parent...?
Ahhh... it's all so confusing!

heinscott wrote:...I can only imagine that some type of custom offline order processing exists to tie everything together, and perhaps Google lets the dup. content slide, since both are owned by the same parent...

They're probably not using their storefront as their store"back". They've probably custom-written an order processing system on the back end that pulls orders from multiple db's into a single order processing screen.

You wouldn't want all your stores in the same db - if the db goes down, you've just shut down 12 online stores instead of one. Same goes for the frontend - you may want to run the same code but not all from the same server and code-install. Lose the server or mess up your one copy of the code, and all 12 stores are affected.

Since AC7 is both a 'front'end and 'back'end product, it sort of limits the flexibility in hosting multiple sites. But even if you could run several different businesses from the same set of code and same db, would you really want to given the potential for failure crippling them at all once?

Hello,

I recently posted about doing the same thing (viewtopic.php?f=42&t=14506) and was directed over here. Did any of you successfully get the multiple theme / 1 database situation worked out?

I would like to pursue this angle before setting up separate stores for each location. There would only be 2 themes/domains to 1 database.

Thanks.