edit layout and pics

[stevenrwoolley]

I have read several people in this forum talk about how easy it is and how quickly they learned to edit the overall design of their website using oscommerese and I have viewed some great sites that people were able to insert their logos and change the site. I have read that I need to make the changes to the code through the file manager under the tools section of the administration. I have created several websites using front page and dream weaver and never spent much time reviewing the html, but I lost when it comes to php. I look at the index.php and I do not see or even recognize anything that I can edit. I look for paths for the banners and background color and can?t figure it out. Do you know of any books or online documentation that would walk me though changing the layout and inserting my logo and banners until I get the hang of this. Thank you, Steve

[GraphicsGuy]

The osCommerce 2.2 Milestone 2 Documentation is good place to start.

 

After that, try out applying a few contributions. As you start doing so, you will start to get a little understanding of how things work in osc. These forums are also an excellent resource if you practice with the advanced search tips.

 

If you want to go further you can get books on PHP and mySQL at any book store. Or you can use Google to find answers to specific questions. The official PHP website is also full of useful documentation and code examples.

 

One very important thing to remember is always backup the files and database before making changes. That way, if something doesn't work after the changes, it is easy to revert to the last working setup.

[stevenrwoolley]

Thank you, I have been checking them out. I mostly get Parse errors when following the milestone document. I think part of my problem is that I am having a hard time with the file structure. To make changes to one part of the site I need to go into 4 or 5 different .php and find what line to edit. Do you know where I can find info of the relationship of the files to each other and is their away to search code with out copy and pasting it into a text document to help find.

Thank you,

[GraphicsGuy]

I don't know about a guide, but here is a little overview of the file structure and how it relates:

 

The code and the text is divided up to support multiple languages so for each page (i.e. /catalog/index.php there is a file by the same name in the language folders(i.e. /includes/english/). Text that isn't directly a part of a specific page is usually found in the base level language files (i.e. /includes/english.php.

 

Likewise, the admin and catalog sections are separated. So everything that is in the admin section will be under the /admin file structure.

 

The code fairly modular in structure, relying on modules and classes to accomplish many functions. These are found in appropriate sub folders under the /include folder.

 

applicaiton_top.php sets the stage for the page build. It has many of the variable definitions and script support.

 

filenames.php tells the rest of the code where to find files called by defined names.

 

The pages are constructed with common header, footer, column_left and column_right files in conjunction with the specifc page content.

 

I know I have left out some things, but this may help you understand some of the basic structure.

 

hth