What can I do to maintain my Miva Merchant store and keep it in optimum running condition?

There are a few important, things that a Miva Merchant user can do to make sure the store is always running in top condition:

• • Regularly delete orders on the system that are no longer going to be used.  Generally, order batches that have been sucessfully processed and fulfilled can be deleted.  If you want to keep some of the customer information for record, you can export everything except the credit card information to a flat text file that can be downloaded and stored offline for safe keeping.
  • Delete Shopping Baskets each time you log into your administration.  To do this, follow these steps:
    1. 1. Log into your administration.
       2. Expand the “Stores” menu by clicking the blue triangle next to it.
       3. Expand your store’s menu by clicking the blue triangle next to your store’s name.
       4. Expand the store “Utilities” sub-menu.
       5. Click the link: “Delete Shopping Baskets” and a new screen will be displayed:
          • Delete: Expired or All – You should choose “Expired”. By choosing expired, you will only delete those shopping baskets that have been abandoned by shoppers.  By choosing “All,” you will delete ALL shopping baskets, including those that are currently in use on the store.
          • Recover Orders: Yes or No – You should choose “No.” By choosing “Yes,” you will put back the order numbers being occupied by the abandoned shopping baskets.  If you choose “No,” the order numbers will be permanently removed from circulation and never used.
    1. Once you have selected the appropriate options, click “Delete”.

 

• Pack Store & Domain Data Files as often as possible.  “Packing” your database files is similar to “Emptying Your Recycling Bin” in the Windows OS.  By deleting the shopping baskets, you really only MARKED them for deletion.  They are not actually deleted forever until you pack your data files.

  The Packing Utility for the Store can be found in the same “Utilities” menu detailed above.  See the previous bullet point for instructions on how to access this menu.  Once in the Store Utilities menu, click the link: “Pack Data Files“.

  The Packing Utility for the Domain can be found by following these steps:

  1. Log into the Miva Merchant administration interface.
  2. Toward the bottom of the left navigation list, expand the “Utilities menu“.
  3. In this menu, there should only be one option: “Pack Data Files“, click it.

These simple measures should keep your Miva Merchant storefront running at an optimum level while keeping the database files clear of old records. You can also set custom scripts that will run these tasks for you each day. To have this set up, please contact our office.

(This article is based on an article taken from the Miva Merchant documentations.)