Hi - I have to create a new wedsite (using Viart of course). I need to move all the data (products & customers etc) from an existing OSCommerce website..
I've had a quick test exporting data from the original OSCommerce website and importing into Viart.. So far it seems pretty straight forward.. My only problem at the moment is customer Passwords.. They appear in the .CSV database (exported from PHPMyAdmin) as 30+ digit/letters rather than the actual password.. I assume this is a security feature and due to encryption..
Obviously these are unusable as they stand in Viart.. and all 3000+ exisiting customers would need to create new passwords. Is there anyway around this? for example a different way to export the exisiting data from the old OSCommerce website?
thanks in advance..

Fishpaste,
 
I have actually had the same problem with an existing cart, and exported the customers into my ViArt database anyhow.
 
What I did, was notify the customers that the site would be down for some maintenance, and then after going live, I sent out an email notification to ALL users that their passwords would need to be reset due to new store database restructuring.
 
I had 1 complaint and that was due to an old email address in the system, but they contacted the support team, we verified their identity and updated their email address in the system.
 
I think the customers will be happier with the new structure of your cart system, and if it only requires them to reset their password... I think it's a great move.
 
ALSO... remember that ViArt uses their own encryption key, so it's not exportable either, unless you turn MD5 off (which I don't recommend as you lose security.)

Thanks Dan..
That sounds like probably the best solution..
Sending an email out also reminds our more infrequent customers that we're still here... So, added bonus!
..any regrets about switching to Viart? I must say so far it looks fantastic - and the support for the product amongst users is great too
Thanks

You will notice some familiar faces here within the ViArt forums for those of us who are here quite a bit. I stop by at least twice a day to see if I can help anyone, or get ideas from anyone as well. See, this is more of a community that just a cart. It's great.
 
I've made some of my own MAJOR customizations to the helpdesk and forum aspects of the cart, but either way, it's definitely worth the transition.
 
You're statement of the "reminding customers that we're still here" was great. That's another major aspect of the cart, is it's newsletter subscription option. I send out one a week, letting my customers know about the specials, or even just a holiday cheer. I also include the link to remove the subscription at the bottom of ALL newsletters so that they know they can control what they get.
 
The whole cart in itself is nothing short of amazing, and I'm sure you'll be please with the support from both ViArt and it's community leaders.

Hello
 
This is one way of changing the passwords when switching to the new cart.
 
Another elegant way would be a small script within Viart which would generate automated passwords for each new imported customer and notify each customer through email.

I'm just talking about a method that would already exist.
 
All it takes is the link to the reset password screen in your cart using MD5

Yes, i understood what you meant.
 
What i meant to say is that Viart should implement a standard feature in the cart which would do all the necessary steps of creating new passwords for those New imported customers whose passwords cannot be decrypted.