MerchantManager Database via Hostway over to osCommerce

[TheHeadNut]

Hello My name is Lee,  We use Hostway as our site hosting company they use MerchantManager which is a copy of osCommerce just an older version and has not been updated since 2007.  I see that osCommerce was updated in June of 2014.  My main question is we have over 15,000 products listed on our shopping cart.  We would like not to lose that and have to start out new which would take weeks of time just to do.  Is there a way of copying our database from MerchantManager over to osCommerce setup when we move to a new hosting company that uses osCommerce?

[Hotclutch]

Database structure between old and new osCommerce is different. It does not sound like you are too worried about maintaining the look of your shop or template, which will make a migration easier. My advice would be to look at hiring someone from here (there's a commercial section) to do the migration for you.

[TheHeadNut]

That's great I'll have to contact them in the migration team any numbers for them? We are trying to leave hostway for a better hosting company.

[MrPhil]

osCommerce circa 2007 would have been osC 2.2, possibly as old as 2.2 MS2. If MerchantManager was a straight copy of osC, there is a pathway to semi-automatically upgrade the database to the current (osC 2.3.4) version, involving running SQL command files. If MM made any changes to the database, you will have to examine the schemas of the old (MM) and new (osC) and decide how to proceed. The upgrade can be done manually, but will take great care.

 

You should not modify the database of a live (production) shop, but instead make a database copy and work on that. Worst case, you can always go back and make a fresh copy of the production shop's database. You would install osC 2.3.4 first (which creates a sample database) in a test site, save the DB schema, clear out the database, copy or import the existing database, get its schema, and do whatever is needed to upgrade the old database to the new. You will need to have a deep understanding of MM if its database turns out to have changed or removed osC data. If MM simply added some new fields or tables, you might be able to simply drop them.

 

Once you have a working osC 2.3.4 with your shop's data, you can look at what function is missing and whether there are add-ons for it or if you need custom PHP coding. Much of the appearance can be updated via CSS (see ThemeRoller).

[TheHeadNut]

In merchant manager when our customers go in as a guest to start their orders another customer also goes in as a guest before going to checkout the problem we are having is that the other users see the cart contents of the other user and when the one person goes to checkout the other users guest cart get merged into their cart at sign in.

[MrPhil]

You've got a "session" problem with MM, probably due to very old PHP code (in MM) not playing nicely with current PHP versions. Moving to an up-to-date cart such as osC 2.3.4 should fix that problem.

[Hotclutch]

There is a sub forum for commercial inquiries where you should post your job requirements. Hiring someone will allow you to hit the ground running so to speak as opposed to spending many weeks or months fiddling and not getting things right in end.

[TheHeadNut]

There is a sub forum for commercial inquiries where you should post your job requirements. Hiring someone will allow you to hit the ground running so to speak as opposed to spending many weeks or months fiddling and not getting things right in end.

Thank you I'll check over there.