Is the Auth file "www" dependent?

[Randall]

I'm trying to sort things out so that the site will work properly whether or not the visitor arrived by including "www" in the URL. Hopefully I'll be able to standardize all code and settings to include the www with the domain.

I've also gotten a revised SSL cert that will be compatible with both www and non-www visits.

However, I don't know if the auth file is sensitive to the presence or absence of "www." Is it? If www isn't specified in the auth, will adding www. wherever I can be a problem? (I see there are some settings in Preferences > hosting that do not currently include www and they are not changeable (unless they change as a result of other tweaks?).)

Offhand, I don't know how the domain name is specified in our auth file. How do I tell?

[Jim]

You can view the actual auth file by using the diagnose.cgi script. To do this log into your store the normal way and when you are on the main screen the URL will end with start.cgi. Replace the start.cgi with diagnose.cgi and reload the screen. The auth file will be displayed toward the bottom of the output.

The auth dictates where your pages are published to and where the media for your store is located. When you publish the store that url is included in links to pages, product, and images. It doesn't necessarily exclude using both www and non-www domains but if your server is not setup to have both be directed to the same location then that would cause a problem. Also as I mentioned earlier having the different domain names does cause problems with cookies in the shopping cart and mini cart on store pages.