new sales channel

[jimdanforth]

dug through the wiki and either I'm dense (highly likely) or instructions just don't exist.

We did a single channel install for a site that now needs a second channel for b2b use.  I see how to create a new sales channel, but Im totally stalled out on how to point customers there.  I see the symlinks still in place and they function in pointing back to the default store.

Can someone point out instructions on re-creating the new channel and getting there?

[Ken Shea]

Jim,

Could be reading what you are wanting wrong because it is too simple an answer LOL

Go to admin>dashboard, Sales Channel, at the end right before "App Shop"

 

Click and upper right is "Add new Sales Channel" then select that new channel and you can edit or configure from there .

Edited November 20, 2023 by Ken Shea

[jimdanforth]

Did that.  Now how to I point my customer there?

 

[jimdanforth]

maybe Im just not understanding channels.  Since I deleted them on both my sites I don't have an example 

 

[simon5968]

once you've saved it go back into sales channels and you should see the new channel you made and to the right of it the url link to get to it.

If it is not showing a url or the url is not right go back in a edit the sales channel and make changes to the "Sales channel url*".

i just tried and was not sure how to link to a folder (channels tend to be in folders in same dir) so i had to put in mysitename   dot  oscommerce  dot  host (as it on the free hosting for testing).

then go over each setting in that change as some you would not think of will make it work or not.

[simon5968]

3 hours ago, jimdanforth said:

maybe Im just not understanding channels.  Since I deleted them on both my sites I don't have an example 

 

 

17 minutes ago, simon5968 said:

once you've saved it go back into sales channels and you should see the new channel you made and to the right of it the url link to get to it.

If it is not showing a url or the url is not right go back in a edit the sales channel and make changes to the "Sales channel url*".

i just tried and was not sure how to link to a folder (channels tend to be in folders in same dir) so i had to put in mysitename   dot  oscommerce  dot  host (as it on the free hosting for testing).

then go over each setting in that change as some you would not think of will make it work or not.

[jimdanforth]

 

This not not creating any directory that I can see via ftp.

[simon5968]

right I'm sorry for what i posted after an hour of investigating and research you only get the option to use up to 4 x  Sales channels and a splash page or a single site option on installation and I'm not sure on the single site installation (because I haven't done one yet) if you can add the other 4 sales channels or not but the splash page can be converted to a shop by changing the template in admin > Sales channels. but with the multi channel install you get the 4 x channels and the splash but the way the 4 x channels are created it is only at installation they can be created so without going in to thing openly there is a select few files that if they are not in the dir then they can not be recreated without an re-installation.

 

 

[jimdanforth]

@pandrei is there a way to recreate the previously deleted (or not installed) sales channels?

[Jack_mcs]

15 hours ago, jimdanforth said:

maybe Im just not understanding channels. 

If you are trying to access the new sales channel with a url similar to the built-in ones, like  https:...com/furniture, you have to add a symlink for the new channel.

[jimdanforth]

symlink is still there but is pointing to the base store.  There is no other directory etc yo point it to.

[Jack_mcs]

1 hour ago, jimdanforth said:

symlink is still there but is pointing to the base store.  There is no other directory etc yo point it to.

There needs to be a symlink for each sales channel if you are using the format of the url I mentioned. When installed, V4 creates the symlinks for the included sales channels. But for new sales channels, you have to manually add the symlink.  Directories are not used for the different sales channels so you can't access them as you would if the directories were used.

[simon5968]

1 hour ago, Jack_mcs said:

you have to manually add the symlink

is there a guide on manually add them please?

[Jack_mcs]

25 minutes ago, simon5968 said:

is there a guide on manually add them please?

There are many examples on the web. Here's one.

[simon5968]

I'm temporarily on oscommerce free hosting for setting up, so we can not use Command line on the server or can we make the file on are laptop's then upload them?

but if osCommerce does it at install then we must be able to do it now?

[simon5968]

would this work?

https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.symlink.php

[Jack_mcs]

3 hours ago, simon5968 said:

would this work?

Maybe. But you would need to be able to add the file.

[simon5968]

It's all good, have deiced to get a cPanel hosting account, just can't  hosting doesn't feel right unless you can do what you want. 

[jimdanforth]

I have tried using the symlink still present from the original install.  It is still opening the default store.  And yes, I have changed the them to make sure I can see the difference.

[jimdanforth]

 

 

 

[pandrei]

18 hours ago, jimdanforth said:

@pandrei is there a way to recreate the previously deleted (or not installed) sales channels?

No, there is not. You can create sales channels manually and assign categories/products to it.

[simon5968]

10 hours ago, pandrei said:

No, there is not. You can create sales channels manually and assign categories/products to it.

Then manually create symlink to them on the main site domain account (if I'm correct on this stage).

Edited November 22, 2023 by simon5968
update

[simon5968]

if i have this right what do we put into [source] and [destination] to make the symlink and how do we give it a name so we can add it to the channel in back-end so it know what to use?

is it [/][]

Quote

 

ln [-sf] [source] [destination]

By default, the ln command creates a hard link.
Use the -s option to create a soft (symbolic) link.
The -f option will force the command to overwrite a file that already exists.
Source is the file or directory being linked to.
Destination is the location to save the link – if this is left blank, the symlink is stored in the current working directory

https://phoenixnap.com/kb/symbolic-link-linux

 

.

[pandrei]

3 hours ago, simon5968 said:

if i have this right what do we put into [source] and [destination] to make the symlink and how do we give it a name so we can add it to the channel in back-end so it know what to use?

Here is instruction how to create a symlink for standard sales channels of osCommerce:

 

[jimdanforth]

This was finally solved and wanted to document it in case someone else had the same problem.   

The issue was with a wildcard redirect that was sending everything to the default sales channel.