Chapter 15 - Multi-Stores

Call it Skins, Styles or Stores, the RealTimeDesigner has the ability to present itself differently to different groups of users. By utilizing different combinations of Headers, Footers, Buttons and CSS you can create very different looking sites, yet contain all the products and orders in one administration panel for convenience. Some uses for the Multi-Stores feature are:

• Channeling 2 or more websites into one RTD
• Seasonal or promotional campaigns
• Creating mini-stores for market segments or specific clients
• Product specific design interfaces

To set up a new store, click on the SYSTEM OPTIONS > CONFIGURE STORE LAYOUTS link on the left side of the Admin Panel. At the top of the screen, a is an ADD A NEW STORE button. Click it and enter the new store name in the box provided. Now click the SAVE (CLONE) button. The new store will be created.

Choose the new store name from the STORE NAME pull down. Select the STYLE TO USE for the new store. You can use unique styles for each store or you can reuse styles between stores. Fill in the HEADER and FOOTER codes.

a

Once you've created the additional stores, you'll need a way to link to them. From the Admin Panel, click on the “Your RTD Links & Builders” located at the top left of the screen.



The link is circled in red above. This will open a screen that looks similar to this:



The store names that you created will be shown in the area circled in red. To the right of the store name is the link for that stores catalog and designer. Notice the link is identical to Main Store link with the addition of “STORENAME\”

If you are linking to specific products or templates, simply edit the link similar to this:

http://designer.realtimedesigner.com/yoursite/xyz………
becomes
http://designer.realtimedesigner.com/yoursite/YOURSTORE/xyz………

At this time, the RTD does not assign products to stores but you can control which products are displayed through which stores. All visible products are available for all stores. But since you will be providing direct links from your sites, you will be able to confine what products appear for a particular store.

The Mail and Export Templates option give you the ability to include which store the order originated from by inserting the special code ”[ORD_STORE]” into the order template.