Re-store-ation (haha) is underway. It is and will be a slow process.
Background: My site has two parts – a blog and a store – and these required two separate systems (WordPress and Zen Cart). A couple of years ago, I paid (good money) to integrate the two. What I wanted and what I got were two different things and both the blog and the store were compromised.
A couple week ago, I did some background system upgrades a) because it is always a good idea and b) I wanted to use a cloud system so I can access some of my files (not store related) if and when I am on the road. Well, it appears that this upgrade action broke some of the implementation that I paid for and some store items became un-orderable. You could go to the details page, but you couldn’t add the item to your cart.
I tracked the problem to an issue with the template – the “look and feel” of the site. Of course, this template was part of the custom integration that I paid for. I tried to fix that myself. I installed some templates to see if they would allow the site to operate. Well, due to the poor nature of the integration, modifications had been done to root (basic system) files, not directly associated with the template. My actions of simply loading new templates overwrote these files and my site broke immediately. Because I did not know which files were replaced, I could not undo what I had done. I did try doing a file roll-back from the host provider to files dated a week ago (that should have worked) but it didn’t do anything.
So, I gave up. The blog (WordPress) portion of the site was still accessible. I started researching how I can integrate sales into WordPress (what I paid for a couple years ago) and I think I found a solution. I hope it is robust enough to handle what I want – which really isn’t much, but I have over 500 ACTIVE items for sale I will have to enter most of the information individually. I can still access the administrative back end of the old store, so I can export my products and I can import in batch, but each item needs individual attention after that. It is a time consuming process.
You can start to see the results. In the upper right corner of the page, you can see new items on the menu bar: SHOP and CART. These are part of the new store. On the right side menu, you can see the new menu section SHOP BY CATEGORY and you will see categories and sub-categories popping up in there as time goes by. I am going slowly, but stuff is getting there already. I believe the purchase process is in place – so the store is LIVE, just not full of products, yet. Bear with me and we will get there. And I will finally have an integrated store that I wanted a long time ago.
Take your time, ill have an order when you are ready. Good luck with it.