Store Front Question

Multiple Stores

[bze306]

I know how to create a store front using php and mysql. What would be the best way to set it up so that members that sign up on my site can create their own store and sell items. I am thinking that I have to create seperate store id's then somehow attach the member's id to the store. I also thought of possibly creating a seperate subdirectory for each member and copy the source code for the store that they will need to install but not sure how to do it plus seems like a lot more work. I would think that utilizing mysql would work the best but need some direction in this area. I am new to php so any help would be appreciated. My goal would be to have my members sign up then pick a link to a store front they want to install and install it from their members site. They would manage their own store.

[cameraman]

Welcome to Webmaster World.

I think you've answered your own question. Copying the scripts to several directories would be more work - if you discover bug(s) or one member comes up with an excellent hard-to-ignore new feature you'd have to make sure you caught each instance of the necessary changes. Of course you could write some automation for it, but still, it's just making things unnecessarily complex.

You're going to need some sort of members table to store user name, password, etc. Store id is just one more field. There's at least 3 or 4 ways to do it, but I think the easiest way to set it up would be as an url parameter:
example.com/storefront?id=3456

Then your scripts know which store template to display, what products to display, who gets the credit, etc.