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setup for the osCommerce
online E-Shop: |
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A few key points about osCommerce they DON'T tell you on the support
site:
- oscommerce
is an "open source" application that requires direct
editing of some PHP code. The easiest way to do this even if
you've never edited any code in your life is to use the
WordPad program that comes with Windows. (more on this later)
- oscommerce
takes up about 3MB of your webspace once installed. This
includes about 100 sample products, descriptions, reviews
etc., as well as the complete Admin section.
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The
following tutorial applies to Unix based plans with My SQL and PHP
enabled.
Basic Setup in H-Sphere:
You
must make sure osCommerce is activated in your plans creation
wizard or plan settings.
Important!
Also, make sure PHP and My SQL are enabled for the plan.
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Next,
Log into the admin panel for the account you'd like to add
osCommerce to.
Creating
a MY SQL database in H-Sphere:
- For
left menu H-Sphere setup click on "Databases" then
"MySQL DB Wizard".
- Name
the database and give it a description such as "shopping
cart", hit "next"
- Create
a username and password for the My SQL db user. For "User
role" use "dba", which grants this user full
administrative control.
- Click
"Add user"
- Click
"finish"
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Activating
osCommerce and connecting it to your MY SQL Database:
- In
the left nav menu click on "Account" then
"Quick access"
- Click
on the osCommerce icon in the quick access menu
- In
the "Edit osCommerce" menu turn the
to  by clicking on
it.
- Under
the "MySQL databases" drop-down, choose the database
you've just created.
- Under
the "MySQL User" drop-down, choose the user you've
just created. Click "NEXT"
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If
successful, you should see this message:
osCommerce has been added successfully
Don`t forget to set permissions on the "admin" directory
using Web protect (Quick Access INFO) to restrict access to
osCommerce configuration.
This
message is simply a reminder to password protect your
"Admin" directory. The Admin directory holds the backend
of the osCommerce cart and enables you to manage your cart
settings etc., at anytime via the web at: http://yourdomain.com/admin
To
Web Protect your Admin directory follow these steps:
- In
the Quick access menu click on "Web Protect"
- Click
on the "Admin" directory
- In
the "Name" field type in anything, for example
"cart admin"
- Click
on "Add user"
- Follow
the pop-up prompts to create a username/password for this
directory.
- Click
"Save", "ok" and close the window.
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Setting
up osCommerce:
Click
the oscommerce icon in the "quick access" menu. You
should see this menu:
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 :
This operation restores corrupted osCommerce templates and updates
the osCommerce config file to use the current hosting settings.
 : Upgrades
osCommerce to the latest version.
 : A direct link to
your online store.
 : A direct link to
your password-protected Admin section to setup and configure your
cart.
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Click
on . The first thing
you'll notice is the warning message at the top of the screen:
"Warning:
Installation directory exists at: /hsphere/local/home/user/yourdomain.com/catalog/install.
Please remove this directory for security reasons."
To
get rid of this warning message you must delete the entire
"install" folder inside your "catalog"
directory. You can delete this using any FTP client or the file
manager in either H-Sphere or the osCommerce admin section.
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Basic
Configuration of your Store:
Click
on or go to http://yourdomain.com/admin
Login with the user name and password you created using Web
Protect earlier. If logged in you should see:
A
good place to get started here is in "My Store". This
setup is pretty much like most other carts. Basically highlight a
title, click on it and either hit the "Edit" button on
the right to change its value or type it in the text box and hit
"Update". The entire backend of osCommerce follows this
basic procedure and is fairly easy for anyone with basic knowledge
of a PC, website administration or the internet in general.
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PHP
If
you already are familiar with the PHP scripting language skip the
rest of this tutorial. The following is for beginners or those who
have never edited code before.
Basic
Configuration of your main Storefront page: www.yourdomain.com/catalog/default.php
Assuming
your cart is in english:
There are basically 2 PHP documents you must edit in order to
customize your storefront.
Login
via FTP to your site and Download these 2 documents..
Path: /yourdomain.com/catalog/includes/languages/english.php
Path: /yourdomain.com/catalog/includes/languages/english/default.php
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Were
not going to get into a PHP lesson here, just the basics:
2 important things to remember if you've never edited PHP
before:
- Any
line that starts with "define" can be edited, for
example:
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'What\'s
New Here?') could be changed to:
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Welcome
to Our Store!')
- Don't
touch anything else in green unless you know what you are
doing!
Open
default.php using WordPad:
--------------------------------------------------
define('TEXT_MAIN', 'This
is a demonstration online-shop, any products purchased will not
be delivered nor billed. Any information seen on these
products are to be treated fictional.
If you wish to download this sample shop, or to contribute to this
project, please visit the support
site. This shop is based on ' .
PROJECT_VERSION . '.');
define('TABLE_HEADING_NEW_PRODUCTS', 'New
Products For %s');
define('TABLE_HEADING_UPCOMING_PRODUCTS', 'Upcoming
Products');
define('TABLE_HEADING_DATE_EXPECTED', 'Date
Expected');
if ($category_depth == 'products' || $HTTP_GET_VARS['manufacturers_id'])
{
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Let\'s See What We
Have Here');
define('TABLE_HEADING_IMAGE', '');
define('TABLE_HEADING_MODEL', 'Model');
define('TABLE_HEADING_PRODUCTS', 'Product
Name');
define('TABLE_HEADING_MANUFACTURER', 'Manufacturer');
define('TABLE_HEADING_QUANTITY', 'Quantity');
define('TABLE_HEADING_PRICE', 'Price');
define('TABLE_HEADING_WEIGHT', 'Weight');
define('TABLE_HEADING_BUY_NOW', 'Buy Now');
define('TEXT_NO_PRODUCTS', 'There are no
products to list in this category.');
define('TEXT_NO_PRODUCTS2', 'There is no
product available from this manufacturer.');
define('TEXT_NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS', 'Number of
Products: ');
define('TEXT_SHOW', 'Show:');
define('TEXT_BUY', 'Buy 1 \'');
define('TEXT_NOW', '\' now');
define('TEXT_ALL', 'All');
} elseif ($category_depth == 'top') {
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'What\'s New
Here?');
} elseif ($category_depth == 'nested')
{
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Categories');
}
?>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
What\'s
New Here?
Which is the page "heading title" can be easily
modified. As can anything I've highlighted in RED.
Tips:
- Make
copies of english.php and default.php
in a separate folder before editing the source code. This way,
if you inadvertently mess up the syntax you can always start
over with the untouched file. Failure to do so could destroy
your cart.
- You
can insert some HTML tags like or in
between the ' ' where the text
resides. For example: define('TEXT_SHOW',
'Show:');
- When
you are done editing any php file, upload it back where you
got it from and refresh your storefront page to see the
changes.
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Custom
Colors and Graphics:
All
colors for your storefront are controlled by one single document:
stylesheet.css
Path:
/yourdomain.com/catalog/stylesheet.css
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You
can easily change the colors, font sizes, font colors, margins,
etc. for the entire cart using this document.
All
Changeable attributes are marked in RED,
but for .css you can edit just about everything.
Excerpt from stylesheet.css:
--------------------------------
BODY {
background: #ffffff;
color: #000000;
margin: 0px;
}
A {
color: #000000;
text-decoration: none;
}
A:hover {
color: #11366D;
text-decoration: underline;
}
FORM {
display: inline;
}
TR.header {
background: #ffffff;
}
--------------------------------
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| Images: |
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The
first thing you may want to do is replace the osCommerce logo with
one of your own:
Path: /yourdomain.com/catalog/images/oscommerce.gif
The
fastest and easiest way to do this is to make a logo using a
graphics editor, save the file as oscommerce.gif
and upload it, thus replacing the osCommerce logo with your own. Note:
Your logo DOES NOT have to be the same size as oscommerce.gif
Other
images to note:
Path:
/yourdomain.com/catalog/images/infobox/corner_left.gif
This is the little left half-circle at the
top left side of your categories table: 
Path:
/yourdomain.com/catalog/images/infobox/corner_right.gif
Same thing, but on the right side: 
Path:
/yourdomain.com/catalog/images/infobox/corner_right_left.gif
The square one in every table: 
If
you decide to change the table colors in stylesheet.css,
you will want to replace these with matching colored graphics of
your own. For best results make sure the new replacement graphics
you make are the same width and height as the above samples.
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