Considering Using OsCommerce, but Need Help

[Hope]

I'm in the process of signing up with a web hosting service that provides this shopping cart.

It will be an online gift shop e-commerce business.

Now for someone who has very little knowledge of HTML, how difficult will it be to intergrate the OsCommerce shopping cart into the website? I've tried the online demo and it would look very easy for the customer to use. But for me to install properly, will it be difficult?

 

Please respond by Nov 14, as the web hosting company is offering a special and it ends that day.

Thank you for any help.

[Guest]

there will always be specials from hosting companies. just for grins, what is the special. do not post who the host is, as we dont want to know that part.

if you do sign up with them, download your source from the main osCommerce site, dont trust the host.

installation is easy. it is the custom items/contributions which take time.

read thru the knowledge base, find yourself a decent editor for php (one that is free) many discussions here for an editor, just search for that in the forum.

[Guest]

Hope,

 

Be sure to ask the hosting company what version of osCommerce. The current version is 2.2 Milestone 2 (12th July 2003). Many of the contributions and current support won't work with older versions of osCommerce.

 

ed

[Hope]

there will always be specials from hosting companies.  just for grins, what is the special.  do not post who the host is, as we dont want to know that part.

if you do sign up with them, download your source from the main osCommerce site, dont trust the host.

installation is easy.  it is the custom items/contributions which take time.

read thru the knowledge base, find yourself a decent editor for php (one that is free) many discussions here for an editor, just search for that in the forum.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Thanks for replying. Well the hosting company indicates a "copy/paste the html" type thing after clicking on the "Install OsCommerce" icon.

 

You already lost me with "decent editor for php" what exactly is that? And what is that used for? And by "it is the custom items/contributions which take time" - do you mean the images or products I will sell? By time, you mean uploading them?

 

I'm sorry, I'm not too familar with these thing, but thank you in advance for elaborating.

[Guest]

php is the programming language that osCommerce is written. Most of the contributions require some PHP editing.

 

John (Mibble) is referring to the plethora of text editors that do syntax highlighting (i.e. special colorization based on what words are in the file) to help make PHP editing easier.

 

I agree, from experience, not to trust the host about the version of osCommerce that they have. It's really in your best interest to download osCommerce from here, and install it yourself. It takes a little bit more work, but will save you headache in the long run.

 

-jared

[Guest]

i dont understand why the hosting company would say it is a copy/paste html as that is very little to do with osCommerce. maybe they were saying to copy and paste html into your product descriptions, but that is not much to do with the overall package.

[Guest]

Keep in mind that some hosting companies offer features like car dealerships offer features. The web hosting salesman might not know any more about osCommerce than the car salesman knows about ABS.

 

The hosting company will provide the script, make it easy for you to install whatever version they've downloaded, but are very unlikely to provide any support for it at all. It's just a convenience they're providing for you.

 

-jared

[Hope]

Keep in mind that some hosting companies offer features like car dealerships offer features.  The web hosting salesman might not know any more about osCommerce than the car salesman knows about ABS.

 

The hosting company will provide the script, make it easy for you to install whatever version they've downloaded, but are very unlikely to provide any support for it at all.  It's just a convenience they're providing for you.

 

-jared

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Thanks everyone for the input. Ok, I guess I will download it from this site if I choose to go with it. Here in brief is what they tell me:

 

How to Install OsCommerce:

After clicking on "Install OsCommerce" do the following:

 

1. You will see a listing of an existing installation. The userinterface is what users see. The admin interface is where you can manage the cart. Click on html code.

 

2. Select the code, right click on it, and choose Copy.

3. Click the Edit icon (pencil with paper) next to the page you want to insert the link to the cart.

 

4. Choose the toggle HTML source button.

 

5. Paste the code into the HTML source of the page and click the Save Changes button.

 

6. Select the Publish option over to the left. On the publish page click on Publish Now.

 

 

What exactly would this installation process above be? Just to enable the shopping cart onto the website? Oh, furthur down it says when I then publish and visit the site, I will see a link to the shopping cart. Is that all what this copy/paste is?

 

The web hosting does not handle questions/tech support regarding oscommerce. They tell me to go to www.oscommerce.com

 

So please tell me, will it be difficult to do?

[Hope]

Thanks everyone for the input. Ok, I guess I will download it from this site if I choose to go with it. Here in brief is what they tell me:

 

How to Install OsCommerce:

After clicking on "Install OsCommerce" do the following:

 

1. You will see a listing of an existing installation. The userinterface is what users see. The admin interface is where you can manage the cart. Click on html code.

 

2. Select the code, right click on it, and choose Copy.

3. Click the Edit icon (pencil with paper) next to the page you want to insert the link to the cart.

 

4. Choose the toggle HTML source button.

 

5. Paste the code into the HTML source of the page and click the Save Changes button.

 

6. Select the Publish option over to the left. On the publish page click on Publish Now.

What exactly would this installation process above be? Just to enable the shopping cart onto the website? Oh, furthur down it says when I then publish and visit the site, I will see a link to the shopping cart. Is that all what this copy/paste is?

 

The web hosting does not handle questions/tech support regarding oscommerce. They tell me to go to www.oscommerce.com

 

So please tell me, will it be difficult to do?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Just bumping this for some help....thanks

[Guest]

I'd ignore it. It sounds like they're trying to tell you how to use their file manager to edit individual PHP files (not HTML, as they say - - osCommerce is made up largely of PHP files that have some HTML in them, but you won't see .htm or .html files in your osCommerce directory).

 

See the knowledgebase for help (linked in my sig) or come to the forums with help. We'll be MUCH more help than your webhost's instructions.

 

-jared

[Guest]

For the novice php can be daunting. Trust me. However once you start to read the code you'll understand it.

Html is the output that php dynamicaly creates.

 

Osc is a truly amazing open source shopping cart. The forums are very helpful. The contributions (add ons) can range from ok to absolutly fabulous.

 

Get an old pc use it as a testing server and play with osC. It is worth the time, and will reward you as you learn.

 

Go through a few of the posts from the My Store topic. You will see a wide diversity of stores and changes to osC.

 

Don't let your host try to make you think that you are getting a good deal. See for yourself. Download the osC from here.

 

PhilipH