Installing dual language on existing active site.

-- url of the page with the problem -- : mybabylonia.gr
-- HikaShop version -- : 2.3.0
-- Joomla version -- : 2.5.4
-- PHP version -- : x.x.x
-- Browser(s) name and version -- : XXXXX x.x.x
-- Error-message(debug-mod must be tuned on) -- : Error_message

Hi,
I'm new to hikashop.
I have been approached to manage a website which has hikashop installed.
The site owner has asked me to take over someone elses work.

Now I noticed that instead of using a multi-language installation of joomla, they use two different installtions of joomla. Not sure why they did that.

No I want to fix this, as the owner is forced to update the e-shop twice, once for every language.
Currently there is the site mybabylonia.gr (english) and mybabylonia.gr/gr/ (greek installation of joomla)

If I install a second language to the current joomla installation, then how do I go ubout making hikashop multilingual?
Shouldn't that make the owner's life easier?

Will this mean that when he uploads a new product, he will upload it once, and enter two different descriptions and product names, one for each language?

What are the steps I need to take in order to achieve this?

thanks

any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi,

Indeed it will be easiest to have one site with many languages.
HikaShop is compatible with FaLang or Joomfish, when installing one of these components and then the plugin to make it working with HikaShop, you will be able to enter two descriptions, etc, for the products in order to have it translated.

hikashop.com/support/faq.html#tran

How can I use FaLang or JoomFish for HikaShop ?
You have to install HikaShop after FaLang/JoomFish.
If you already installed HikaShop, no problem. Just install FaLang/JoomFish and then install HikaShop again.
If it still doesn't work, copy the xml files from yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_hikashop\falang to yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_falang\contentelements or yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_hikashop\translations to yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_joomfish\contentelements
Then, make sure that you can translate joomla articles with FaLang/JoomFish before you try to translate HikaShop content.

Hi, thanks for the reply,
the link you sent me has good information. Just a quick question,
it mentions that I need to install FaLang/JoomFish before HikaShop, or install and then re-install Hikashop. Will that have any affect on the allready excisting data?
The hikashop at the moment has a huge list of products.

thanks

PS: How do I re-download hikashop in order to re-install it? I don't have the purchase information since it is a site that someone else had initialy created and I've been asked to take over and fix it.

Hi,

You can re-install over the current installation, you will not loose data.
The products will still be there, if the overrides have been made correctly there will be no problems.

Regarding the licence, was it a commercial one ? If it is and if it has less than one year you can potentially get the credentials, else it will require a renew.

Under Update/About in the HikaShop admin area, it only says the following:

Your version is 1.5.8, the latest stable version is 2.3.0

It does not mention if it is a commercial licence. How do I check that? And if it requires a renew. I'm not the person that originaly installed it, so would I have to check with the person that initialy created the site or can I check in any other way? (the owner of the site has no clue)

Hi,

The release date of the 1.5.8 is Release date : May, 29 2012.
So the licence is expired. Do you have any red lines in the configuration of HikaShop ?

If yes, if it display that you need a commercial licence for this feature so you have the free one.
If it display you need the business, so you have the essential, else you have the business.

To have a renew you can just use your current account, take a licence and download the package file then install it over your current install. (doing a backup before is always a good thing ).

Another quick question:
since currently there are two joomla installations, and I want to totally remove one and make one of them multi-lingual, do I bakcup and restore all the hika shop tables from the database?
Information such as person address, purchase history etc.
I will export the users from the joomla users table for the login info and passwords, and import to the other database.
But I will also need all the information and history from hikashop.

Do I export all hikashop tables? (if not, which?)
Will importing these tables to the other database (wich does have content), cause any problems?
Will there be a problem if there are lines with the same ID?

thanks

Hi,

You can export all the tables regarding the users, orders, carts. The other ones are not necessary needed.
Having same IDs can cause problems indeed, it will require management to start the ids from a value higher than the higher id in the existing table. And change the informations in all the related tables.

Ex:
If user with ID 10 is present in the two tables, you will have to change it's id to, for example, 50 if the highest id in the first table is 49. And you wll have to change the user_id in the addresses, orders, carts form 10 to 50 in the second table before the migration.

We recommend to make backup of your both sites, and install a third site for test and migration before editing the site in production.

thanks for your help.
so it seems more work than I originaly thought. I imagined that the table would auto assign new ids to the imported data.
So I will need to change the tables as I have underlined them in the screenshot below:

Going through the table they have two fields with id. In the user table for example there is user_id and user_cms_id (since it is a relational db) so will I have to go through and change both id fields?

I'm beginning to feel like there is too much trouble.

What if I make a new installations from scratch? I would still have to go through this same process in order to import all the inforamation from both databases.

(why did this person originaly make it that way???? crazy)

Hi,

Indeed you have to edit all that tables, but too the Joomla user tables.
Depending of ywhat you use, the tables "b6siu_hikashop_file", "b6siu_hikashop_download" could need an update too.

Yes you can do a new installation from scratch to be sure to not cause any problems when managing the tables.
It seems to be the better solution.

(I don't know but it was not the best idea of the year )

OK, If I only want to move across the users, not their shopping history or cart, which tables do I move across? I will be moving across the normal joomla login user info aswell.

So I will have to change all IDs. phpMyAdmin will not auto detect same IDs and change them?

Also, since I will have to re-install hikashop, where do I find the old version in order to download and install it?

If you don't want their shopping history, you don't need the tables order - cart - history..

phpMyAdmin will not auto detect it will display an error, and even if it auto detect and change the id it will not update the other tables correctly based on the user id.

I recommend to duplicate one whole website to have it as a test site, then make the import. By this way you will have the good HikaShop version with the correct overrides and options, etc.

So you're saying I should just dublicate one of the sites in a sub-folder, creating a new blank database for it.
then export the database from one of the current sites, import it ot the new site and start from there.
And the new (third site) will be activated once it is working fine through the use of the htaccess file directing to it.

right?
thanks. Looks like this would be the safest option.

but there might be only one problem. While I'm working on this test site, the owner will be working on the current one, and more users might sign up. Then I will have to edit all that again right?

I guess there is no win win situation.

PS: can I download older versions of hikashop to re-install?

I copied the current site into a subfolder,
I then created a new blank databse. Edited the config file in the sub directory, but when I visit the site within the sub directory, it is still linked to the original database. Even though I have editied the config file.

Hi,

Yes that's what I'm saying.
We don't have link to older versions of HikaShop, but with this method you don't have to reinstall it, because you get back the files and the database so it will work directly.

For the migration, the best way is to make a dynamic script which will check the entries, if it is already existing so ignor, else change the ids and import.

Regarding the database link, if you changed correctly the settings in the configuration.php file of the root folder of your installation, that should work. Be sure that your file has been correctly edited, and that there is no folder restrictions.

thanks for your help,
Yes by making a clone of the site it works out better, I will have to re-install hikashop over the existing installation in order for a second language to work along with FaLang.
Which means I will need a copy of hikashop.

Hi,

It's not really necessary, it can be done by another way:

You have to install HikaShop after FaLang/JoomFish.
If you already installed HikaShop, no problem. Just install FaLang/JoomFish and then install HikaShop again.
If it still doesn't work, copy the xml files from yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_hikashop\falang to yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_falang\contentelements or yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_hikashop\translations to yourWebsite\administrator\components\com_joomfish\contentelements
Then, make sure that you can translate joomla articles with FaLang/JoomFish before you try to translate HikaShop content.

Note that I don't which to auto translate items.
I only want to be able to have a second desdcription and name in hikashop items.
The other items are prety much static so I can dublicate them, translate them myself, and publish them in the desired language.

So you're saying that since Hikashop is already installed, I just install falang and install hikashop again (I dont have hikashop so I can install it)
Copying these xml files will do?

thanks

After making it work, I inserted a user from one DB to the other, I edited his ID, and the user was listed in the administration section.
The only thing is that when I try to log in with that user, I get this error: "You cannot access the private section of this site."

any thoughts?

EDIT>> Found it. It was the user groups.

I shouldn't be working on this, this late.

noticed that JoomFish 2.5 requires mySQLi and not mySQL.
Should I install mySQLi instead? Will importing my mySQL db work?