[Giraffic]

Hi

I have been asked to quote for migrating a site from Magento Community Edition to CS Cart - probably the Professional edition.

This will be the first e-commerce / migration I have performed so any general advice on things I should take in to account would be much appreciated.

I have looked in to Cart2Cart for migrating from Magento to CS-Cart and although I have read their faq's, I can't find confirmation as to whether it literally migrates everything (all the pages, css styles, webforms etc) or whether it only imports customers, products and orders. Has anyone used Cart2Cart for a similar project and could advise me?

Really I just need to know whether I will have to recreate the site or whether this will be automated in order to quote. I'm sure even if it is automated there will be a few hiccups which need to be sorted.

The current site was professionally designed and is hosted until August. What would be the best way to approach the design company to access the source files (it was agreed in the beginning she would own the rights to them)? Is there anything I need to be aware of from an ethical point of view as to a smooth handover?

Finally, she is currently paying £600 per year for hosting. I understand that Magento requires quite a large amount of space, what is the best way to quote when it is expected CS Cart requires less? I think £600 per year is far too much, am I wrong on this? I have a reseller account through Hostgator and I am currently on the Aluminum plan (50gb disc space, 500gb bandwidth) and have so far only used less than 10%. Is this plan likely to be sufficient or would I need to upgrade?

Sorry for the amount of questions, I'm learning as I go along

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me

[BlueDreamer]

I'm pretty sure CS-Cart has decent import facilities so you should be able to export data from Magento to a CSV and import into CS cart that way - this should cover most fo your product and customer data.

You will have to rebuild templates and CSS from scratch using CS-cart's own system (it runs on the Smarty templating system).

For misc info pages you may not be able to directly export and import so it will probably be quicker to cut and paste.

£600 a year isn't that much for a large ecommerce site. Most of the disk space allocation is likely to be taken up with images, assets and the database data. If the site is "busy" I'd suggest that a Hostgator reseller/shared hosting environment might not be suitable, they are also based in the USA so if your client does most of their business in UK/Europe you're better of hosting locally.

[a.g.r.c]

Why would the customer want to leave Magento that's what i'd be asking first. Seems like a major downgrade.

[Dx3webs]

If they have had a bad experience with hosting and support give us a shout... as the above poster said it is a major downgrade.

[Giraffic]

BlueDreamer, on 29 June 2011 - 01:04 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure CS-Cart has decent import facilities so you should be able to export data from Magento to a CSV and import into CS cart that way - this should cover most fo your product and customer data.

You will have to rebuild templates and CSS from scratch using CS-cart's own system (it runs on the Smarty templating system).

For misc info pages you may not be able to directly export and import so it will probably be quicker to cut and paste.

£600 a year isn't that much for a large ecommerce site. Most of the disk space allocation is likely to be taken up with images, assets and the database data. If the site is "busy" I'd suggest that a Hostgator reseller/shared hosting environment might not be suitable, they are also based in the USA so if your client does most of their business in UK/Europe you're better of hosting locally.

Thanks for your advice

They only have 4 customers on the system and 50 products so it should be an easy export in this case.

Thanks also for your suggestion re hosting - as the site only has 50 products would it still require a large amount of hosting? Is there any way you are aware of on the magento dashboard to see how much space it is using?

It is UK only sales, could you tell me the reasons behind hosting in the UK? I'm new to all of this and I am not sure of the best way to move forward.

[Giraffic]

a.g.r.c:

The web company who designed the site have since told them that they shouldn't really have put them on Magento. The client finds adding and updating products and content is complicated and they were recommended CS Cart as an easier to use alternative. What are your thoughts on this?

Dx3webs:

Thanks, I had a brief look at your site yesterday. Hosting looks good, my only concern was the email. If you could send me a brief pm to explain how this would work with google apps for email I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,

Andrea

This post has been edited by Giraffic: 29 June 2011 - 06:47 PM

[BlueDreamer]

a.g.r.c, on 29 June 2011 - 04:30 AM, said:

Why would the customer want to leave Magento that's what i'd be asking first. Seems like a major downgrade.

Sounds like it's not working for them, Magento isn't a good fit for every ecommerce site

[a.g.r.c]

@bluedreamer - Yeah definitely, guess it's a shame they got started on the wrong platform... however...
@giraffic - The learning curve isn't too bad, why don't you give them some training to speed up their workflow a little bit?

[Giraffic]

@a.g.r.c I have offered to do this, although I would need to learn it first as I've never used it I'm pretty good at picking things up.

Aside from adding and updating content, they also want to be able to edit the pages themselves and requested a CMS when the site was originally being designed, however the WYSISYG editor isn't enabled. Is this a pretty simple fix?

@a.g.r.c Could you tell me the main disadvantages of CS Cart compared to Magento?

Thanks

[a.g.r.c]

Giraffic, on 29 June 2011 - 07:43 PM, said:

@a.g.r.c I have offered to do this, although I would need to learn it first as I've never used it I'm pretty good at picking things up.

Aside from adding and updating content, they also want to be able to edit the pages themselves and requested a CMS when the site was originally being designed, however the WYSISYG editor isn't enabled. Is this a pretty simple fix?

@a.g.r.c Could you tell me the main disadvantages of CS Cart compared to Magento?

Thanks

There are lots of official vids from Magento in regards to managing the store.
http://www.magentoco...dia/screencasts

Not that i'm a Magento expert but you can definitely create new layouts within Magento i think they call it layout blocks. The developer curve for Magento is a little steeper than most granted.

In regards to pros and cons, Magento has more movement. That's enough for me to be to be honest.

Although i'm definitely not a fan boy, have made 1 site using Magento and it was in a typical shared hosting environment which ran painfully slow. The conventions are a bit unorthodox, but once your over that, it's like Drupal a great system.

[BlueDreamer]

a.g.r.c, on 29 June 2011 - 07:29 PM, said:

@bluedreamer - Yeah definitely, guess it's a shame they got started on the wrong platform... however...

I've seen this quite a lot recently with Magento, it seems that a lot of "designers" are pushing it on clients with no concern as to whether it's the best fit for the client - maybe because it's the "trendy" one at the moment!

Considering there are well over 500 ecommerce platforms to choose from it's a shame designers don't do their homework to find the most suitable one

This post has been edited by BlueDreamer: 29 June 2011 - 07:56 PM

[BlueDreamer]

Giraffic, on 29 June 2011 - 07:43 PM, said:

@a.g.r.c Could you tell me the main disadvantages of CS Cart compared to Magento?

Just jumping in here...

CS-cart is a mature ecommerce platform that was built by some ex-"X-cart" developers. "X-cart" (previously F-cart) has been around for as along as I can remember, maybe getting on for 10 years or so and, it has a very comprehensive feature set. CS-cart is in the same vein as X-cart, but in my opinion has the edge.

There are disadvantages (and advantages) with both platforms so to compare them properly you really need to ask which one is best suited for your client, their products and workflow.

The one major difference is that CS-cart is commercial and comes with direct developer support, wheras Magento is Open Source and comes with no developer support unless you use the pricy Enterprise version. In short if you have a major problem CS-cart support will help you, with Magento you're on your own unless you buy support.

[Dx3webs]

Hi there,

PM send.

Quote

Finally, she is currently paying £600 per year for hosting.

eyes are still watering from that!!!

[Dx3webs]

Sorry .. the systems says I cant send you a PM? so....

Good morning ,

Google apps basically gives you access to 7 GB or online email storage. This email account has all sorts of bells and whistles but you can use it as a bog standard Outlook type email and never know or care that it is hosted with google.

We separate email and web applications as an extra layer of protection so that one system can ever affect the working of the other.

it sounds like you client has been having a hard time.

The whole reason we started Dx3webs down the Magento route is to give that complete 'hand holding' experience for our developer and shop owning clients.

We can offer a 2 week trial for you if you like. You needs are clearly on the £14.50 pcm level. We will copy your existing shop so you can see the sorts of speed and service you will get with us.

thanks
Andy
Dx3webs.com

<sorry if this sounds spammy but it was meant to be a PM>

[arsix]

Dx3webs, on 30 June 2011 - 06:41 AM, said:

Sorry .. the systems says I cant send you a PM? so....

Good morning ,

Google apps basically gives you access to 7 GB or online email storage. This email account has all sorts of bells and whistles but you can use it as a bog standard Outlook type email and never know or care that it is hosted with google.

We separate email and web applications as an extra layer of protection so that one system can ever affect the working of the other.

it sounds like you client has been having a hard time.

The whole reason we started Dx3webs down the Magento route is to give that complete 'hand holding' experience for our developer and shop owning clients.

We can offer a 2 week trial for you if you like. You needs are clearly on the £14.50 pcm level. We will copy your existing shop so you can see the sorts of speed and service you will get with us.

thanks
Andy
Dx3webs.com

<sorry if this sounds spammy but it was meant to be a PM>

Hi Andy,

Thank you for the info. I had to re-register after changing my email address, hence why you couldn't pm me - I think changing this blocked my account...

The shop is currently on Magento version 1.3.2.3 which doesn't have a WYSIWYG editor - looking at this now I feel having this would solve her main frustrations, as well as some training as a.g.r.c recommended.

I emailed my client last night to get her thoughts on staying with Magento if I upgrade her to version 1.4 onwards so that she has the WYSIWYG editor. She has replied and doesn't mind what system she is on as long as it is more user-friendly and allows her to add products once for all her applications (ebay, facebook shop, twitter)- Do you know if this is possible with Magento?

I've had a brief look at upgrading and it would seem this is still a case of recreating the site on the newer version - is this correct?

Finally, the shop is currently on a .com domain, she has since brought the .co.uk domain - is it possible for these to both be running on the server at the same cost? What options would we have? Hope that makes sense, as I said this is all very new to me!

If you would like to reply via pm to this account I'm sure it would be fine now

Andrea

[arsix]

BlueDreamer, on 29 June 2011 - 08:03 PM, said:

Just jumping in here...

Thank you

I've got a list of the frustrations my client has and the main one is that there is only code back-end so she is unable to change anything without paying ££££ each time. I am trying to find the best solution taking in to account the amount she has already spent having the website built and I'm thinking an upgrade to V1.4-> (so that she has a WYSIWYG editor) may be the best option. Even if I do need to re-create the site on a newer version, it looks as though this would be less time consuming than migrating to CS Cart - am I on the right lines?

Thank you all for your help, much appreciated

Andrea

[Dx3webs]

Hi there,

Provided you have not made too many adjustments to the code.. upgrades can be quite straight forward.

Also, adding a WYSIWYG editor to 1.3.x is quite straight forward.

will send a pm

[arsix]

Dx3webs, on 30 June 2011 - 10:17 AM, said:

Hi there,

Provided you have not made too many adjustments to the code.. upgrades can be quite straight forward.

Also, adding a WYSIWYG editor to 1.3.x is quite straight forward.

will send a pm

Thanks Andy, I have sent you a (rather lengthy!) email

[Alexandrable]

Giraffic, on 29 June 2011 - 12:03 AM, said:

I have looked in to Cart2Cart for migrating from Magento to CS-Cart and although I have read their faq's, I can't find confirmation as to whether it literally migrates everything (all the pages, css styles, webforms etc) or whether it only imports customers, products and orders. Has anyone used Cart2Cart for a similar project and could advise me?

Really I just need to know whether I will have to recreate the site or whether this will be automated in order to quote. I'm sure even if it is automated there will be a few hiccups which need to be sorted.

Hi @giraffic,

I'm not sure if this is still relevant, but anyways. Unfortunately, at this point, Cart2Cart does not migrate webpages, css styles, webforms, etc. It can automatically migrate your store data, such as products, customers, orders, currencies, etc. The service works strictly with databases, with an exception of images (it can migrate product images). To tell the truth, the migration of webpages, etc. is a pretty complicated process, if not near to impossible for any service to fulfill. I would advise you to use Cart2Cart for migration all your store data. You can then hire a freelancer (through oDesk or freelancer.com) to help out with your webpages. It would be relatively cheap and you won't have to do all the job yourself.

And as for the "automated" migration, Cart2Cart has a great support service, plus an Assisted Migration Service to make sure everything is done properly. So even if there's any "hiccup", you'll have a great team to help you. You can try the free demo and see for yourself.

Hope this helps!

[rallport]

Giraffic, on 29 June 2011 - 06:37 PM, said:

The web company who designed the site have since told them that they shouldn't really have put them on Magento. The client finds adding and updating products and content is complicated and they were recommended CS Cart as an easier to use alternative. What are your thoughts on this?

This is the point I keep making on this forum - a platform can be amazing written and have all the features you'd probably ever need - but that comes at a price - complexity for the client. While the Magento admin area is perfectly useable to myself (a web developer) clients not in the industry find it pretty tough going - it brought one client to their knees and they gave up trying to use it simply down to it's mamoth size.

I've come across a few clients who feel this exact way.

I'm not debating that Magento isn't a great piece of software, just that it's extremely complex and not for all users.