Linking Shop url to Main URL??

[tracker17]

This may be the wrong area to ask,
But,
I have installed Zen Cart, www."mystore".com/shop, and can see that fine.
My main site url www."mystore".com/ has the standard "Under Construction" message.
This may be very basic & obvious, but it's all new to me.
I want users to be able to type in the Main url, and get to the shop.
Is there an easy way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

[stevel]

Upload the contents of "shop" from your local copy of the store to the top level (htdocs) folder. Remove the string "/shop" from your two configure.php files. Delete the "shop" folder on the server.

[tracker17]

Hi Steve,
Thanks. I've got the files loaded at the top level htdocs folder.
Now, for editing the configure.php files, I see in one of them,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
define('DIR_WS_ADMIN', '/shop/admin/');
define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/shop/');
define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_ADMIN', '/shop/admin/');
define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/shop/');
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So, my question is, what should the 2nd and 4th define statement be?
I beleive the '/shop/admin/' in the other two lines just becomes '/admin/'

[tracker17]

I believe it's simply one slash in single quotes?

define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/');

[tracker17]

Something didn't quite work.
The shop is now at

http://mydomain.com/index.php?main_page=

My goal was for http://www.mydomain.com

I suppose I could edit that page adding a pointer to the shop page, saying "click to enter the shop"? What's the best way to do this?

[stevel]

You shouldn't need to do that. If I knew your actual URL I could take a look and offer advice. My guess is that there is some other configuration entry that is cauzing ZenCart to not recognize your store URL. I don't use ZenCart, but I do use osCommerce which doesn't have this issue.

[ld101]

Isn't it just easier to put a redirect on your main page (www.mysite.com) to www.mysite.com/mystore? At least this is how I have it with my current host...still checking out powweb's features before I make my change.
Doesn't PowWeb offer redirect?

[stevel]

tracker17's problem is that he has PowWeb's placeholder index.html file still on the server. If that is deleted, then it will find index.php.

A redirect is a poor way to resolve this, though PowWeb certainly allows you to do it. It creates needless overhead for the server and hurts your search engine rankings. The simplest solution is what I recommended above - put your shop files in the top level folder (htdocs here).

[tracker17]

That was exactly it. Thanks again Steve!

[ld101]

Hi, sorry, not very familiar with this, but how does that hurt my search engine ranking?

Thanks.

[stevel]

It makes pages look "less important" because they are further away from the root, and links to the store aren't links to the actual pages. There's no point in having a /store or /catalog subfolder if there's nothing else on your site.

[ld101]

Thanks again, I plan on having at least three stores selling different things on each one.
Would it make sense to have a simple page on the root directory and have links pointing to each of the stores like:
www.mysite.com- has simple Welcome page with links like 'Enter Jewelry Store'- links to www.mysite.com/jewelry, 'Enter Clothing Store'- links to www.mysite.com/clothing, 'Enter Computer Store' - links to www.mysite.com/computer, etc.
Would this be better for my search engine ranking?

[stevel]

If they're individual stores, that would work. Or you can do it with subdomains, such as jewelry.mysite.com, etc. Just be sure that if you do, you don't use PowWeb's "easy subdomain" feature because that won't work with PowWeb's shared SSL. (You do know that PowWeb does not offer the ability to install your own SSL certificate?) Instead, you put the content in a subfolder and use .htaccess to rewrite the request.

[tracker17]

Hi Steve,
I'm doing some "house cleaning" and wanted to confirm that I should Not be editing a "Copy" of the configure.php placed in my custom template directory.
Since there are two configure.php files, I edited those in their original locations, when I did the above operations, back on 1/21.
(So, I do Not have any configure.php in my custom template directory)

I'm checking because I plan to update the Zen Cart software when I get a chance, to the latest version 1.2.7. And, I wish to preserve my custom files, as much as possible, from being overwritten.
Thanks.

[stevel]

I have not installed or use ZenCart myself, so I really can't comment on it.

[tracker17]

ok, thanks. I posted the question on the Zen forum.