1.2 What Type of Connection to the Online Store Database to Choose

In this article, you will get to know what type of connection is better to use if you want to connect to your online store via Store Manager.

In a nutshell, Store Manager is a program that makes your work with products, clients, orders, and categories in your online store much faster.

Why do you need to know the types of connection?

• You can get around an issue or access restriction of your hosting company to the database of your store by selecting the relevant type of connection.

• You can make your work much faster by establishing the optimal type of connection.

Let’s see how a standard online store works.

You should save all your products, registered customers, orders, categories into a database to see them in the online showcase of your store. Our program works with this database.

Store Manager allows working with three types of connection to a database. Let’s see the main pros and cons of every type.

Direct Connection - the type of connection that links Store Manager to the store database directly.

This is the most convenient and fast type of connection.

Advantages:

• You will see everything you’ve changed in your online store instantly.

• There is the possibility to work with the store in groups up to 4 people without any conflicts with data.

Disadvantages:

• Every accidental modification will be instantly applied to the store database. Unless you have database backup, there’s no way to undo changes.

• It’s necessary to have direct access to a database on a server. Some hosting companies forbid these connections by default. But don’t worry - for these cases, there are Bridge connection or Module Connector.

• The speed of direct connection depends on the speed of your internet and server power.

• A bulk import to your store, for instance, 100 000 of products, will be slower than with the Bridge Connection.

PHP Bridge Connection - By executing "Get Data from Web", you get a local copy of your store database. All operations are performed locally, so you’re kind of protected from accidental deletion or other critical change. When you're done, you need to post (synchronize) all changes from the local database to your store.

How does it work?

Store Manager uploads one small PHP-file to the website of your online store through FTP. This is a kind of dispatcher that transmits data from the program to the database of an online store and vice versa.

For this type of connection, you need to synchronize changes between your store and computer manually.

This pattern works this way:

1. Received data from the store.

2. Changed data (any information)

3. Send data back to the store.

On the one hand, this type of connection will slow down the work process with the store. But on the other hand, this is its advantage. In this case, should you import to your PC and damaged a database, your online store won’t be damaged, because you won’t send changed data back to the store.

Advantages:

• This type of connection works in situations when the direct connection is not possible.

• There is the possibility to turn back if you made a mistake during your work with the store. Do not send data to the store by pressing POST, just get the latest version of the store with the GET command.

• It also speeds up the import of products or other bulk operations upon a large amount of data.

• You can also work offline and apply changes to the store later when an internet connection is available.

Disadvantages:

• If someone else is working with the same store and modifies the same kind of data (orders, products, etc.), you may not be able to apply the changes you’ve made.

• You need to get data for editing and send it back to renew the online store after changes were made.

Module Connector

To begin working with the online store, you should install our module (Connector) in your Admin panel (store back-end). After that, you'll work with databases through this module.

The module is located in the MarketPlace catalog. You should find it and follow the installation instructions.

Advantages:

• A safe connection - all requests go through the module of the online store.

• Easy installation for PrestaShop (The installation for Magento is more complicated).

• For PrestaShop - you can add product images much faster through the module. In this case, the speed of uploading product images increases approximately 8 times. That is, if you upload 1 image, you’ll receive 8 variants of product image at the server.

Disadvantages:

• You should have a powerful server, which can process the request with API, to work with the module.

• You have to receive data from the store and send it back right after modifications were made (similarly to the bridge connection).

In conclusion, let’s see in what cases what type of connection is better to use.

• Instant product editing - Direct Connection (everything you’ve changed in the program will be visible at the store instantly).

• Import of a great number of products - Bridge Connection (data is gathered from the store into your PC and is changed locally).

• The safest connection - Connector Module (it works only via the store module).

• Product editing offline - Bridge Connection (this is relevant for the existing products or categories).

• Canceling of changes in the database - Bridge Connection (do not send changes from PC to the online store)