What changes are involved with applying a new Auth File

[bruce clumpner]

I put my store's home in a sub-directory while I built the site. It's now close enough to roll-out that I would like to move the store into the root directory of the domain. My understanding is that I need to install a new store.auth file to make the move and I have some questions....

What affect with this have on the way the site is currently configured.
What will be lost?
What will I have to rebuild because of the transfer?
Is there any way to simply redirect the current configuration to put the index.html file in the root directory instead of the /store sub-directory?

Thanks.

-bc

[Jim]

Changing the authfile is not something that is usually done. The auth file contains the "authorized url" where pages will be publish, images located etc. You can't simply redirect the publish to use a different directory because all images and page urls are based off of the authorized url. You might be able to index.html file in the the root of your domain and have it as an entry point into the /store pages. You would need to create this manually since ShopSite won't be able to publish to the root of the domain, only to the /store as indicated in the auth file

There is some information on moving a store in the help at: http://shopsite.com/help/10.2/en-US/install/moving.intro.html

The new auth file must have the same serial number and storeid as the original or you will have to reconfigure anything that has a password, like payment gateway, UPS/FedEx/USPS shipping method, Google Feed settings, and a bunch of other things.

Assuming you have a new auth file with the same serial number and storeid . Note: <storeid> is what you login to the ShopSite interface with here are the steps you need to take..

1. The new auth file needs to replace the one in the store's data directory do not change the symlinks in the ss and sc directories.
2. You need to edit the <storeid>.aa file in the ss cgi directory (sc if on windows) and change all the paths and urls to the new output location. The data and cgi locations can probably stay where they are.
3. You need to move the contents of the current output directory (authorized url) to the new location and maintain all permissons and ownership as they currently are.
4. You need to Reset Attributes on all Images.
5. If you have hard coded any urls in templates, or store text fields you will need to modify those.
6. There is a field under Commerce Setup > Order System > Thank You that is populated with the authorized url to be used as the Return to Store link on the Thank You sceen. You should change that to the correct url. (some templates use the field and others don't so depending on the template you may be ok if you don't change it)
7. If you have any Order Anywhere links you may need to change them if the path to the cgi directories change.
8. If you have validated your url with Google you will need to validate the new url
9. You need to republish the store.
10. If using Google feeds you need to send the feed.

I think that is most of the things you need to do.
If you don't feel up to the challenge you could purchase the Store Migration assistance at
http://shopsite.com/support_pricing.html

[bruce clumpner]

Jim,

If I copy down the images, database, page and product settings, I'm not adverse to rebuilding the site, now that I understand that part of Shopsite fairly well. But how about if I simply redirect an index.html from the root to the shopsite home in the /store directory? How would that affect my SEO appearance to Google? It seems like the easiest way to keep the shopsite index.html as the home page, but I heard Google doesn't like redirects on the main page.

Thanks.

Bruce

[Jim]

I don't know anything about how search engines rank sites so don't know if it would hurt seo or not.
Sorry