Downloading the StoreBuilder Software

There’s a feature that few know about. After many hours with customer service, I got it working, so I decided to post this here.

You can download the StoreBuilder software which is the shopping cart guts, so to speak. If you install it on another host, you can run your store from there. Or you can just run it on your local computer (not sure why you would want to).

I played around with this hoping I could generate html pages that I could FTP to a new site. But it doesn’t work that way; the software is the actual server that generates your site, so it has to be installed on a new server.

To download it:
Log into your StoresOnline storebuilder site.
Click on Account
Click on Merchant Services
Click on Other/Misc.
Click on Pro Download

Follow the instructions for downloading and installing.

Now here’s the part that I learned.

1. In order for it to run properly, you have to ask customer service to send you a license file.
2. They will email you the file. It will be called StoresOnline.license. When you get it, put it in the config subfolder of where you installed it. If you took the defaults on installation, it will be c:/program files/storesonlinepro/config. Tip: if you don’t remember, you can look at the properties of the shortcut. In Windows, click on Start/All Programs/StoresOnlinePro/ then right-click on Configuration and choose Properties. What it shows under “start in” is the path of the config directory.
3. Follow the instructions to log in, but, and here’s the important part, use the original password supplied by StoresOnline before you changed it to your own password. It will be listed on your license agreement you got in your welcome set.
4. The StoreBuilder looks exactly the same as the vanilla version of the one online. You have to rebuild your store (you can probably export products from the online storebuilder and import them into your local storebuilder).
5. When you click Publish, it creates a .jar file in C:\Program Files\StoresOnlinePro\files\export\9999XXX\(your license #)\publish. Note that 9999 will be the first four digits of your license number.

The jar file is like a zip file. I had hoped that uploading the jar file to a server would let me run the site on another host, but it doesn’t work that way. I assume the software uses the jar file to display your site.

You can follow the instructions to view the published site.

Tip: if you don’t have the instructions anymore, you can still get to them. Go under your start menu/All Programs/StoresOnlinePro/Readme.

I hope this info. is helpful.

Posted by susb8383 under StoresOnline Review | No Comments »