Creating a multi store on an Apache server

Step 1: Create a New Store in Magento

The first step in setting up multi-store functionality is to create the new store(s) in the Magento Admin application. Follow the steps below to create a new store:

1. Log in to the Magento Admin Panel.
   NOTE: If you want your stores to share the same catalog and products, you may skip to Step 7. 
2. In the top menu, go to Catalog > Manage Categories .
3. Click Add Root Category .      

·  In the Name field, enter your new store name.

·  Under Is Active , select Yes .

·  Click the Display Settings tab. Under Is Anchor , select Yes , and then select Save Category .

Go to System > Manage Stores .

Go to System > Manage Stores .

·  Click Create Website .

·  In the Name field, enter your new store name.

·  In the Code field, enter a unique string without spaces, and then click Save Website .

·  Click Create Store .

·  In the Website field, select the website that you just created.

·  In the Name field, enter a name for your store.

·  In the Root Category field, select the Root Category that you created above or use the default Root Category if you skipped ahead. Click Save Store .

·  Click Create Store View .

·  In the Store field, select the store you just created. In the Name field, give your view a name (typically "English").

·  In the Code field, enter a unique string to identify the store view. Change the Status to Enabled . Then click Save Store View .

·  Go to System > Configuration .

·  In the Current Configuration Scope , select the website that you just created. This is changing a store view

CHANGE STORE VIEW!!!!!! Make sure you do this other wise you will have major problems with the next step it will lock you out of your website (if this happens see my other post: http://magento-myguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/magento-mysql-base-urls-locked-out-of.html)

·  Select the Web menu option, and then click to expand the Unsecure and Secure sections, respectively.

·  For each section, clear (deselect) the Use Default box next to the Base URL and enter the URL for your store, including the trailing slash. When you are done, click Save Config .

So... change the store view to your new one called "newsite"
go to the tab called "unsecure" and change the "Base URL"
you need to change the base url to the website you want this storeview to open at i.e. www.mysite.co.uk

Make sure you assign a home page under configuration > web > default pages other wise it will always re direct back to your original store view! 

save and repeat the process (keep checking that store view)
go to the "secure" tab and again change the "Base URL"
as you did before.


Step 2: The techy bit
to link the domain name to your new store view I edited the index.php file in my httpdocs where I found the similar code relating to the other store views.

The First "case" (red) is the new site name
The second "case" (green) is the main site name 
In the first part of the bracket (blue) you need to enter the store code. 

Code is as follows:



switch ($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']){
case "newsite.co.uk":
case "www.mainsiteco.uk":
        Mage::run('storecode', 'website'); 
    break;

    default: 

       Mage::run($mageRunCode, $mageRunType);

}

Upload the index.php doc via ftp (make a backup of the original first) and test your sites domain.