Using Marketing feature when design & orders are on different computers

[party_pete]

I think i'm missing the obvious but.........

My set-up is;

Computer 1
- Design & Website Maintenance

Computer 2
- Order Processing

Ticked and unticked accordingly in Business Settings.

What is the best way to get the marketing data from Computer 2 to be uploaded by Computer 1, so that the Best Sellers, Also Bought, etc can be updated?

I tried to import a snapshot taken from Computer 2 into Computer 1 for this purpose but cannot get it work.

Any ideas?

TIA

[Jan]

Hi Pete,

Have you tried using the import orders feature to transfer the orders from the order processing machine into the design/upload one. I think that is the easiest way to do this.

Regards,

[party_pete]

Thanks Jan.

I'm ok using the Import Orders Feature but I can't see how to make them available to Computer 1.

I've ticked the Order Processing Box within Computer 1's Business Settings but when click Import Orders, i've got to specify where to Import Orders from:

Would this be from a snapshot taken from Computer 2 or elsewhere?

[leehack]

It's the database you need Pete, click on the '?' and then the field and it will tell you what it wants.

[party_pete]

Now i've gone and done it!

Made a copy of the .mdb from Computer 2 and saved on Desktop, tried to import orders and got the following error;

Failed to create new index 'nPromptID' on field(s) '[nPromptID]' in table [Checkout Prompt] - fatal error.
Reported error was:

Invalid field definition 'nPromptID' in definition of index or relationship.

Clicked "OK"

and get;

A serious error occurred while upgrading the database. Please use a previous version of Actinic.

Clicked "Ok"

Actinic closes and everytime it is re-opened, the same errors appear.

Actinic Multi Site v8.5.1 HFUA

Looks like the solution is here;
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=33476
Now to try and get it back!

[RuralWeb]

Made a copy of the .mdb

Its the orders database you need pete - its all in the help files

[leehack]

Surely it would be quicker, better, more efficient and less hassle to have 2 identical sites by swapping snapshots and then just setting the capabilities on each one. We are talking a 30 second job on each to give the options, you could have done this for 2 years on the time you have wasted doing this already.

Coupled into that, you also have a backup PC which can jump into action immediately should one of them have a problem and i think the choice is a clear one IMO.

[party_pete]

I had thought of this Lee but I didn't want the Maintenance computer to have the risk of being downloaded in error and vice versa with the Order processing.

Having the Download/Upload arrows greyed out on the respective machines eliminated this risk.

I'd much prefer to have your method but couldn't see how to avoid this happening.

[pinbrook]

we have SW on 2 machines - one for downloading (2) the other for design/products (1) Machines are in 2 different geographical locations - and use an online backup service for backups. Hence the mdb file we need is always available to the uploading PC.

We take actiniccatalog.mdb from (2) save it to disk (outside site1) on (1) use the import orders feature (File Menu) browse to said db, get orders on (1) and upload from (1)

We only do this one a monthish - it ties in with the routine jobs we run to update googlebase, sitemap etc - we then fiddle with bestsellers/new products etc - monthly marketing task

[Jan]

Are both computers running exactly the same version of Actinic? I'm wondering why your import orders didn't work.

The benefit of using import orders instead of snapshots is that you don't need to keep the order processing machine up to date with design changes, you do have to have all of the same tax, shipping setting etc on both machines though for import orders to work and both should really be running the same version of Actinic (and same patch level).

Regards,

[party_pete]

Jan - Both machines are running identical versions of Actinic.

I'm just trying to get the database from a snapshot, as you suggested in an earlier post, then hopefully i'll be ok.

If it doesn't work, i'll be putting my Actinic Cover into use

[pinbrook]

you should be able to lift actiniccatalog.mdb from site1 on the machine that downloads orders - no need to use snapshots

the import order feature requires the mdb file not a snapshot

[party_pete]

Problem now solved using Jan's solution here;
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=33476

This was done before i'd seen Jo's response, which worked equally.

If anyone else gets this happen to them, don't panic (like I did).

Hopefully this post will help someone in the future but not sure why the original import orders didn't work.

Daren't try it again, so will resort to Lee's suggestion I think, as now wasted 2 hours and am nearly back on the B&H