Re: [mv] master/slave catalogs - (products & checkout)

[Mike Heins <mikeh@minivend.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Mike Heins <mikeh@minivend.com>     ******

Quoting Dave Barr (barrd@cricinfo.com):
> 
> Hi MiniVenders,
> 
> [Debian 2.2 / MiniVend 4.04]
> 
> I'm hoping that someone might be able to help/advise me as to the 
> best course of action regarding LARGE numbers of catalogs (in time 
> several thousand, ulp ;).

Hmm. This would argue for a completely table-based virtual catalog
setup. This is very doable with Interchange, and we will be coming out
with a template eventually. Consider:

in minivend.cfg:

GlobalSub <<EOR
sub setcat {
	my $db = Vend::Database::database_exists_ref('store');
	my $c_id = $::Scratch->{store_id} || 'default';
	my $settings = $db->row_hash($c_id);
	unless ($settings) {
		::logError "$c_id not a store.\n";
		$settings = $db->row_hash('default');
	}
	for(qw/COMPANY ADDRESS STATE COUNTRY POSTCODE YOU_GET_THE_IDEA/) {
		$::Variable->{$_} = $settings->{lc $_};
	}
	return;
}
EOR

in catalog.cfg:

Autoload setcat

The problem with that many subcats is they end up eating all of your
memory. If you have any significant differences between them, each one
will add X kbytes to your memory footprint. 

You just set up an Autoload that looks for the catalog ID

> 
> After reading through the dox and hours spent reading through the 
> archives I haven't come across any real answers regarding running a 
> master catalog and hanging slaves from it. I like the idea as I will 
> be sharing the HTML pages driven as templates and most of the 
> database files (esp shipping, & userdb).
> However the only real differences between the shops will be the 
> products that they carry (easily changed by altering the ProductFiles 
> directive, or so I thought ;)
> 
> Having created 3 shops as a test the basket page will pick up the sku 
> of any orders placed in any other shop in the chain - but as each 
> shop has its own unique products file it 'obviously' doesn't have the 
> supporting price, description etc. (This (the sku) I presume is 
> gleaned from the session db for the master catalog?). I actually want 
> each shop to be an autonomous unit, so that from entry page through 
> checkout to receipt follows its own template variables and only 
> reflects its own unique products (and maybe those of the master cart, 
> again easily sorted with the ProductFiles directive). Has anyone 
> worked out a workaround for removing unwanted products from other 
> carts using the master/slave model for this? Or is it indeed possible?
> 
> Talking of which, can anyone explain why using this model that no 
> matter which shop you are going through when clicking for "Check Out" 
> it will always default to the master catalog (inheriting its template 
> variables et al), yet the basket page (as specified under "Special" 
> pages in the master catalog file) is called in exactly the same way 
> i.e.
> 
> [snip catalog.cfg]
> SpecialPage          checkout       __ORDER_STYLE__/checkout
> SpecialPage          order          __ORDER_STYLE__/basket
> [/snip]
> 
> I assume this is "hard coded" somewhere deep within the MiniVend lib routines?
> 

No, it is just that the subcatalog is configured with no knowledge of the
master's settings. It cannot read a variable set there.

-- 
Akopia, Inc., 131 Willow Lane, Floor 2, Oxford, OH  45056
phone +1.513.523.8220 fax 7501 <heins@akopia.com>

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