Is it possible to share the cart contents between multi-store websites?

Question

I have a client who needs a multi-store setup. They require the contents of the cart to be shared between websites. Also when the customer switches between websites, the cart item(s) price may be different and in different currencies.

Is this possible to do? As far as I am aware its possible between store views. Any information would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Magento does not allow sharing carts between websites. The sessions objects for individual websites are completely detached, products in one website may not belong to the other website, the category structure and visibility of data will be different. As you pointed out, the pricing may be different from one website to another as well, as could the promotions, tax rates, etc.

From a data perspective, it would be rather difficult to share carts between websites given that a product you may have in your cart may or may not be in the next website you go to. This would create major problems with products disappearing and/or errors in the cart due to products not being available.

Something like this would have to be completely custom built, and I'm certain it would not come without it's problems and anomalies.

Without knowing more to contextualize the situation, I'm skeptical that using multiple websites with different prices and currencies plus sharing the cart between them is the best solution. If the pricing and the currencies are different, why do the carts even need to be shared? Doesn't make sense to me, and I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario where this would be appropriate. Perhaps you could enlighten us.

Answer 2

I wrote an article here that worked for me for sharing the cart between websites. Full code provided.
The main idea is to change the session key that holds the quote id and to change the store views that share the quote. By default Magento remembers the quote id in $_SESSION['quote_id_{Store id here}']. (check Mage_Checkout_Model_Session::_getQuoteIdKey) That should be changed to $_SESSION['quote_id'].
The store view that share the cart need to be change from all the store views under a website to all store views. Check Mage_Sales_Model_Quote::getSharedStoreIds

Answer 3

There are three general scopes in Magento:

Website

This where you can have different websites (or businesses), like awesome.com and horrible.com.

Products from one website do not mix (are not shared) in the same cart as products from another site.

Stores

This is where you can have sub-brands or multiple brands under one roof, for example: houses.awesome.com, cars.awesome.com.

Technically you can probably have both awesome.com and horrible.com point to different stores under the same website, but it would probably defeat the whole purpose.

All products from each store are shared in one shopping cart (but not all products will be 'editable' in cart)

Store Views

This is where the same domain links to multiple variations, for example: having and english version of awesome.com, as well as a spanish version of awesome.com.

Another way store views can be used: different customers get different experiences.

All products mix and are editable in one shopping cart.

Summary

It sounds like you need to use multiple stores under one website to achieve your result.

For more info on this subject see here and here.