Hints on going live with a SW6 shop
Generally, it is the case that your Shopware shop cannot go live immediately under the desired target domain. For instance, if an old shop or website is still being operated under the target domain. In this case you can install Shopware in another directory on the server, which is temporarily available through a subdomain.
Here we show you the most important points to consider when you launch your shop later.
Adjust manually maintained links
You may have manually maintained links in your test installation that lead to a resource in your shop. If you now change the domain of the shop, you need to adjust the links that lead to this shop.
Links are frequently used in the following places and might need to be adapted.
Categories:
Categories can be linked directly. Click on the respective category under Catalogues > Categories. Categories that have the category type custom link have the custom link area further down. Here you can customise the link. If it changes when you go live, you should change it here.
For categories with the category type category or structure category, a category text can be stored. You may have stored a link here. You will find the category text in the menu settings area of the category under the item description.
Article:
You might have added your own links in the product description. To adjust these, click on Catalogue > Products in the admin area. Then choose your product and adjust any links in the product description.
Removing the demo data
If you have installed the Shopware 6 demo data extension for test purposes, you should of remove before going live. However, deactivating or uninstalling the demo data extension does not remove the demo data. The demo data must removed manually.
The following data is added by the demo data extension and should be removed.
Categories: Food, Clothing, Free time & electronics including the subcategories.
Manufacturer: Shopware Fashion, Shopware Food, Shopware Freetime, Shopware AG
Articles: All articles of the named manufacturers.
Shopping experience: Provided that these are not required any longer.
Properties: If no longer needed, the properties colour, size, material, target group and ingredients can be removed.
Check shipping methods
Check whether the currently created shipping methods should also be available in the live system in the respective sales channels. Temporary shipping types may have been created here for testing purposes and should now be removed or at least deactivated.
If desired, also check in the frontend whether the dispatch types are only available under the conditions under which they should be available.
You can find information on setting up the shipping costs here.
Deactivating the sandbox mode of the payment methods
If you have added more payment methods, you will probably have activated the sandbox mode of these payment methods in the test phase in order not to generate real payments for test orders.
In the case of the latest PayPal version, for example, you can find this option in the admin area under Settings > Plugins > PayPal. There, the sandbox option can be deactivated in the API access data section.
How to deactivate the sandbox mode for the respective payment providers can differ depending on the payment type. See the documentation of the respective provider to find out how to deactivate the sandbox mode.
Check order process
Before going live, you should carry out at least one complete test order. This is the only way to find out if the process is running smooth. We advice to carry out several different orders, so that as many different cases as possible can be checked.
Are all the desired payment methods displayed? Are the desired shipping methods available? Does the checkout process work without problems? Is the order confirmation sent properly?
Check email templates and mailers
Before going live, it is important to check your email templates and mailer. To do this, place a complete order and check whether you receive the order confirmation without any problems.
If no mail is sent, check your mailer settings.
Also check whether you have assigned the business events for the order to the correct email template.
When your mail arrives, make sure that all the information is given in the mail.
Is the logo displayed correctly?
Are the articles displayed correctly?
Are all variables such as name, salutation and address of the customer filled correctly?
Are the bank account details provided?
If something still doesn't fit, you'll find all the information on how to make adjustments to the email template here.
Reset number ranges if necessary
During your tests, you will no doubt have placed orders, created customers and even created invoices. To have your invoices start at a desired value, you can create a new number range for your sales channel. You can do this in the admin under Settings > Shop > Number ranges.
You can find out how to do this here.
The respective number range should not be changed after going live. On the one hand, the current legal situation requires consecutive invoice numbers, and on the other hand, there may be coordination problems between the programs if an ERP or CRM system is connected.
If you use ERP or CRM systems, it is best to check with the manufacturer first to see if changing the number ranges is still unproblematic.
Shopware account licence conversions
When creating the Shopware account, it is necessary to enter the licence domain. However, if you are still running an old shop or website on your main domain, you may have temporarily entered a subdomain. Make sure to replace this temporary domain with the final licence domain, under which the shop will be accessible in the future, before the going live.
In your Shopware account at account.shopware.com, click on Shops and then on your corresponding shop domain that you would like to change.
Under Shop Information you can click on the button Rename shop domain (1) to rename your domain.
Keep in mind that you can only rename the shop domain once. So be sure that the new domain is your final domain.
It is then necessary to change the usage type (2) of the domain to productive environment.
Adjusting the licence domain in the Admin
If you have adjusted the shop domain, you should also adjust the licensing host in your Shopware Admin. You can find this under Settings > System > Shopware Account. Update the plan domain here.
Adapt the domains of the sales channels
If your shop can now be operated under a new domain, it is essential that you also adjust the domains of the sales channels. You can find this setting in the respective sales channel in the General tab in the Domains section.
Adapt domain at the hoster
Once you have checked all points and your shop is functioning, the last step is to route the domain of the hoster to the main directory of your Shopware shop, so that your shop can now be reached using the final domain.
You can find out exactly how to adjust the routing of your domain from your hoster. As a rule, this can be configured yourself using a corresponding admin interface.