How to test site in local mode

[ihmt]

Before publishing anything, I would like to adapt, modify and test osCommerce locally , so that I can get a good idea of it's capabilities (and my limitations!).

 

I can't find any way of doing this locally (on my PC). It's not like calling up HTML pages that were previously downloaded. I always end up in editing mode. I can't find any way to execute the PHP files on my PC.

 

I've heard about localhost, but I don't know how to set this up. Any clues anyone?

[♥Vger]

You need to set up a web server on your computer - so that you can view your osCommerce site on an 'Intranet' using 'localhost'.

 

There is a very good all-in-one package called XAMPP, which will automatically install all you need in one go. You'll find it here:

http://www.apachefriends.org/en

Once you have it installed on your computer, go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin and set up a blank database.

 

Then copy the osCommerce 'catalog' folder to your webpages folder, may also be called htdocs.

 

Then go to http://localhost/catalog/install and begin the installation procedure.

 

Once that's complete you will need to apply the php5 fix to admin/includes/classes/upload.php for the osCommerce 'admin' control panel to work.

 

On line 31 of that file, where it says $this = null; change it to unset($this);

 

Vger

[very new]

"Then copy the osCommerce 'catalog' folder to your webpages folder, may also be called htdocs.

 

Then go to http://localhost/catalog/install and begin the installation procedure. "

 

Anyone please explain me further how to do the above ?

[emanresu]

"Then copy the osCommerce 'catalog' folder to your webpages folder, may also be called htdocs.

 

Then go to http://localhost/catalog/install and begin the installation procedure. "

 

Anyone please explain  me further how to do the above ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

If you have already installed XAMMP you will see a XAMPP_Start and XAMPP Stop. To start the localhost you need to XAMPP_Start.

 

If you have downloaded OSC it should be unzipped to the htdocs directory. I've installed mine in c:\xampp\htdocs\mysite\

 

With XAMPP running (and if you have created the empty mysql database) you should be able to open your browser and type http://localhost/mysite/install

 

The OSC installation routine should start and install the data to the mysql file and change you config.php to the localhost settings.

 

My conifg.php has this line

 

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://localhost'); // eg, http://localhost - should not be empty for productive servers

 

To sum up :

 

Install XAMPP on C

Copy OSC to a directory in the htdocs

Run XAMPP and use phpmyadmin to create a blank mysql database

Run XAMPP and use the OSC install routine to populate the database and the config.php file(s)

 

Once you can run it on localhost it saves a lot of hassles when making changes