*This is legacy information. We no longer support this software.
No, There are easier ways to transfer files from your current host and get your site up and running. The information below assumes you currently have a functional SoftCart site and have full FTP (file transfer protocol, for more information about FTP, please refer to our FTP Tutorial) access to your current account on the different host.
*Important note: Please be sure NOT to download any SoftCart executable files or configruation files within your cgi-bin or cgi-local folder at your current ISP/Web host unless you are absolutely certain the file you download will NOT have any conflict with our Server. You can always check with us via support@webii.net before transferring these files. (Please do not email any files.)
A.Downloading your Products and Category database
FTP to your account on your ISP/Web Host server, locate the folder that contains your product database (the directory path for this database is normally: merchant/shopdata/products/
–However, this may differ for each Service Provider; depending on how your current host has set up SoftCart, some dig-around within the directory may be necessary)
Download all of the files within the products/ folder, most of these files should start with product4., *Note, be sure to download these files via ASCII (do not use the auto detect function for your FTP program).
You may then ftp to your account on our server (refer to the account setup notice email for FTP address, userid and password). Select the folder merchant/shopdata/products/ and upload all of the product4. files you previously downloaded via ASCII format.
Your product database has now been transferred to our server!
B Downloading your shipping and sales Tax information
FTP to your account on your current ISP/Web host server, locate the folder that contains your shipping and sales tax files. It should be: merchant/shopdata/salestax/ and merchant/shopdata/shipping/
Download all of the files found in the above folders, it is recommended to download these files into two separate folders on your computer (to eliminate confusion). You may then ftp to your account on our (new host) server and upload all of the salestax files to your merchant/shopdata/salestax/ folder and your shipping files to your merchant/shopdata/shipping/ folder.
If you have previously customized your files within your merchant/shopdata/template/ folder, you will need to follow the above instructions to download the file(s) within this folder and re-upload the file(s) to the same folder on our server. Otherwise, you may skip this step.
C Store design and layout
If you are using one of SoftCart’s default template to generate your store and you did not customize this template sets on your current host, you may skip this step and proceed to section E.
If you were using the method to insert SoftCart’s tags to your existing sites previously, please skip to section D.
For customers that had previously created a custom template, please FTP to your current host and locate your custom template files within your merchant/SmPageGen/ folder. You should find the folder that contains your custom template within merchant/SmPageGen/ (ie. merchant/SmPageGen/mytemplate/). Please download all of the files within this custom folder along with the .cfg file that was located within your
merchant/SmPageGen/ folder. The file name of your .cfg file should be the same as the folder, (ie. if your folder is named “mytemplate” the .cfg file should be “mytemplate.cfg”).
You may then ftp to our server and locate the folder: merchant/SmPageGen/ and upload the .cfg (template configuration) file via ASCII upload. You may then create the custom folder within your merchant/SmPageGen/ and upload all of your custom templates to this folder via ASCII upload.
Please proceed to section F. after this step.
D. Transferring existing Web Site content (for customers that inserted SoftCart’s tags to an existing site on their previous host)
You will need to locate the web site folders (ie. htdocs/ –on some hosts the main folder you logon via ftp is the root web folder). You may then download all of your files via Binary transfer or Auto-detect (ie. .htm .html and image files) to your computer. Once the download is completed, please ftp to our server and change folder name to htdocs/ and upload all of your files via Binary transfer or auto-detect. Please be sure to keep the directory structure as found on your previous host. Then proceed to section F. after this step.
E. Transferring product images and thumbnail files
FTP to your current host and locate the folder where your store files are generated —
ie. scstore (it should be the same as the Store Name), within this folder, you should find two separate folders – graphics and images. Download all of the files (*note: be sure to use Binary mode or Auto-detect) within these two folders to your computer (you may want to separate them into two separate locations on your computer to reduce confusion). Once the download is completed, open an FTP session to our server and change directory to htdocs/scstore/, you should be able to find two separate folders – graphics and images. FTP upload via Binary mode or Auto-detect all of your graphic files you had previously downloaded to the graphics folder and your image files to your images folder. This should complete the transfer of your products’ images.
F. Log on to your StoreMgr
Please logon to your StoreMgr on our server via the logon information we provided you when we first setup your account (via email). Under the “Store Admin” page, type in the basic information as it appears on the StoreMgr at your previous host, you may also want to setup the online and offline email as well via the StoreMgr. If you have selected CyberCash for a payment module, please be sure to setup your payment system via your StoreMgr as well (you may simply copy the existing information via the StoreMgr of your current host to the StoreMgr on our server).
G. Assigning Encryption Key
We assume you are using the computer that has the SoftCart Encryption program installed and has previously generated an encryption key. If you have not done this previously, please follow the instructions on the SoftCart User’s Guide – Security Option P. 61
Within your “StoreMgr”, please select “Security” – “Manage Encryption keys” via the computer that had previous generated the encryption key. From the Keys menu, select “upload a public key”; select the public key you created previously; and upload to your StoreMgr. Please be sure to assign the key as well.
For customers that are using “inserting SoftCart’s tags for an existing web site” after you have completed this step, your site should be functional! For other customers please proceed to section H.
H. Generate your Store
Logon to your StoreMgr, select “Site Design & Generation”. Under the template set drop-down list box, select the custom template (if you have a custom template) or the template sets you wish to use. Select the Site page and the Catalog Navigation scheme from your previous settings (on your previous host) and click on the “Generate Site” button. Your site should be generated and you should be able to access your Store via:
http://www.yourdomain.com/scstore/ or http://ipaddress/scstore/ (if your domain name has not been transferred to us yet).
The above information is a summary of steps which you may perform to transfer your site; you may also want to review the Mercantec SoftCart documentation for detailed information. If you are having any problems with the above instructions, please feel free to contact us at: support@webii.net and be sure to provide us the domain name of your account and the details of the problems, so that we can assist you to make your site transfer as smoothly as possible.