Magento language/ store switcher not working correctly

Question

I have installed a "fresh old" Magento (v1.7.2) for testing purposes and I have created two different stores with different store views:

If I take a look at the frontend of my shop I can see that the store switcher is enabled:

Furthermore I have created a global category "electronics" and I have configured the name and url key for the german store view. So this category is enabled for both stores. In addition I have created the sub directory "gb" in my Magento root directory. This directory represents the english store, so I have created some symlinks and a htaccess file which sets the store code:

SetEnv MAGE_RUN_CODE gb

So far all is working fine and I got two different stores with the following urls:

• German store: http://localhost/magento-1.7.2/
• English store: http://localhost/magento-1.7.2/gb/

So the category urls for my global category electronics looks as follows:

• German store: http://localhost/magento-1.7.2/elektronik.html
• English store: http://localhost/magento-1.7.2/gb/electronics.html

But If I change the store on the german electronics category page to the english store I get redirected to home page of the english store and not to the english category page of electronics. So I have inspected the store switcher on the german electronics category page:

<div class="store-switcher">
    <label for="select-store">Select Store:</label>
    <select id="select-store" title="Select Store" onchange="location.href=this.value">
          <option value="http://localhost/magento-1.7.2/gb/?___store=gb">English Store</option>
          <option value="" selected="selected">German Store</option>
    </select>
</div>

As you can see the values of the store switcher seems to be wrong because I have expected something like the following:

<div class="store-switcher">
    <label for="select-store">Select Store:</label>
    <select id="select-store" title="Select Store" onchange="location.href=this.value">
        <option value="http://localhost/magento-1.7.2/gb/electronics.html">English Store</option>
        <option value="http://localhost/magento-1.7.2/elektronik.html" selected="selected">German Store</option>
    </select>
</div>

But I don't know why the store switcher is not working as expected. Did I forget a specific setting?

UPDATE

Or is this just a configuration mistake because this is not a multistore case and I have to use store views instead of multistores, because multistores are independent of each other?

Answer 1

Using store views instead of stores works for me. So the language switcher will be activated and not the store switcher.