BYGino Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Hi folks, I think I'll start with a bit of background. I am a complete newB with all this stuff. I am self taught in webdesign (from code to image manipulation) and have been teaching myself for about four years now during my free time (a few hours a week). This was my first attempt at an osCommerce site and I have been working on it now for about two years with a gap of about a year in the middle (my real job didn't allow enough time to finish the project) The site is actually for my partner's father (he's been very patient) and has had some serious modifications on the admin/database side. This is because I had to hack, chop and add to bits of osC to do everything that his current access database I wrote for him does (i.e. stock locations, stock lists, item condition etc) As far as design goes, the site colourscheme and graphics are based around my original attempt (standard HTML uploaded from the access database!) The format is probably fairly stock compared with some of the really nice highly modified sites I've seen you guys create but I like the simplicity of the stock site and I can always build on this. So here it is.... quiggs.co.uk/shop Please don't critque www.quiggs.co.uk this is the old site (currently live) and I know it's buggy as hell and has no functionality really but it was done years ago and has been hacked to pieces ever since! Thanks for taking the time to have a look, all critisism greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank everyone who has helped me get this far.
BYGino Posted August 3, 2005 Author Posted August 3, 2005 Here are my own observations of things I want to change before going live: 1) The front page will be modified completly, I was thinking of going down the flash route but I'm not all that keen on big flash intros - what do you guys think about flash? 2) The rel-oading header starts to get annoying after a while. 3) A few category images are still missing so I have to get the camera out again. 4) Lots more product information has to be added - not my job. 5) New products list currently list all products for some reason. 6) Checkout modifications have to be made (shipping/payment modules) 7) Whole osCommerce site to be moved to root level of domain overwriting old site.
BYGino Posted August 4, 2005 Author Posted August 4, 2005 God darn host! Site is down again, I think I'll be changing my host very soon!
♥MYC267 Posted August 5, 2005 Posted August 5, 2005 Yes it might help if the host was up.... if we can't get their neither can your customers.... lol Dan
Guest Posted August 5, 2005 Posted August 5, 2005 Here are my own observations of things I want to change before going live: 1) The front page will be modified completly, I was thinking of going down the flash route but I'm not all that keen on big flash intros - what do you guys think about flash? 2) The rel-oading header starts to get annoying after a while. 3) A few category images are still missing so I have to get the camera out again. 4) Lots more product information has to be added - not my job. 5) New products list currently list all products for some reason. 6) Checkout modifications have to be made (shipping/payment modules) 7) Whole osCommerce site to be moved to root level of domain overwriting old site. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Why are you worried about big flash intros what puts you off? maybe i can help explain how to fix Put PWA in, much better than having to register.. Generally your site is fine, nothing outstanding but better than the stock osc stuff we see a lot. Think about the last point it can be handy to have a separate store.
BYGino Posted August 5, 2005 Author Posted August 5, 2005 Why are you worried about big flash intros what? puts you off? maybe i can help explain how to fix Put PWA in, much better than having to register.. Generally your site is fine, nothing outstanding but better than the stock osc stuff we see a lot. Think about the last point it can be handy to have a separate store. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks for taking the time to comment. Firstly, the store is obviously back up! I will however been changing host ASAP. Not perticularly worried about using flash. I just find it a bit show-offy and fairly purposless. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking anyone who does use flash - there are some really eye-catching ones out there but I personally find flash intros nice for about 5 seconds but for repeat customers however, it can become a bit of a pain. Sorry, your going to have to ellaborate on PWA - what is it. It sounds to me like a "purchase without account" type contribution - I'll nip over to the contrib section after I post this and have a look. Just out of curiosity why do you recommend doing this? I know it's not a great site but I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt and it's been great fun doing it. I feel I have learnt a heck of a lot since starting this project so its been worth it for that alone. Maybe some time down the line I will do a complete re-design but the shop owner wanted me to keep it as close to the old site as possible as he like it that way. I'm afraid my partner's dad, who will be updating the store is not great with computers (typical single finger typing sort) and will strugle to keep oscommerce up to date so I'm not going to ask him to try and keep on top of both stores. The problem is the store deals mainly in single item used equipment so there is always quite a high turn over of stock (i.e many items are sold daily in store + many item traded in) I'm working on an in-store interface to make everything work off the site.
Guest Posted August 5, 2005 Posted August 5, 2005 PWA is purchase without account and is simple to setup and really worth it. Basically if I go to a saite to buy something I dont want to register first, for a number of reasons: a) takes too long (whether or not it does thats my thought) B) You are taking my email address why? what spam do you want to send me? (doesnt matter if you dont) I hate registering to buy products, after all on the following pages im giving you my details, and you dont need to sell stuff to me im already buying!! I use flash not so much for long flashy intros but for my headers and menus instead of stock stuff or gifs, you can do good fancy stuff in flash, and make it so it loads bit by bit rather than big gif files. You could get rid of the reloading header with flash. Like I say the store is quite nice, but not stunning, it tells me you are an old fashioned camera store (which being into cameras I quite like).
BYGino Posted August 5, 2005 Author Posted August 5, 2005 Thanks again for your comments. I see the point with the PWA contrib had a quick look at the contrib - not got time to install just now though. All orders will initally be processed manually - will this be a problem? Flash for headers is probablya good idea but I don't like intros very much - I may look into this for the future. I suppose I'm a little set in my ways. I only have a couple of hours experience with flash but it did seem rather easy to do. I amy ask you for some pointers :rolleyes: Do you have a store currently using flash headers I could have a look at?
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