Adding information-only pages (and many other n00b questions)

[Hieru]

First, please forgive me if this question has been asked a numerous of times. T_T

 

I have recently installed my osCommerce and have uploaded all of my images and prices, but now I am at a dead-end as I am trying to figure out the following several kinks of my website:

 

1. I wish to create some info-only pages (like the Privacy Notice and the Shipping & Returns pages default on osCommerce,) and like a n00b, I have copied and pasted the entire PHP code and named it another name (custom.php) and I have replaced almost everything in the file from shipping to custom. But I know that in order to edit the words of Shipping & Returns I have to go into osCommerce -> Language -> Details -> shipping.php to edit the words. But when I put the custom.php in the exactly folder as shipping.php, such option did not show up at the module. How can I create info-only pages? ><

 

2. My store's shipping is different than most. I sell doll wigs and within U.S., 2 - 3 wigs are a flat fee of $5 with USPS Flat-rate Priority and internal sales are $10 with Global Priority. How do I configure this in my osCommerce shipping module? @_@

 

3. If I wish to include, say, Guest Book or Forums or Q&A forum on my website with osCommerce on the left column, how do I do that? @_@

 

4. Lastly, is there a way to include the PayPal fee (3% for domestic and 4% for international) into the equation before invoices are sent off? @_@ And is there a way to customize the invoices?

 

Thank you in advance for all the help!! I really appreciate it!! ^_^

[nana]

search the contribution pages there ia a link on top of the page

[lauren4521]

I can help with a few of your questions;

 

1. I wish to create some info-only pages (like the Privacy Notice and the Shipping & Returns pages default on osCommerce,) and like a n00b,

 

This is easy to do. IF you haven't figured it out by now, here's instructions on adding "pages" to the info box.

Add Box Page

 

 

3. If I wish to include, say, Guest Book or Forums or Q&A forum on my website with osCommerce on the left column, how do I do that? @_@

 

Add links to boxes

 

Lauren

[mrcomptech]

1. I wish to create some info-only pages (like the Privacy Notice and the Shipping & Returns pages default on osCommerce,) and like a n00b, I have copied and pasted the entire PHP code and named it another name (custom.php) and I have replaced almost everything in the file from shipping to custom. But I know that in order to edit the words of Shipping & Returns I have to go into osCommerce -> Language -> Details -> shipping.php to edit the words. But when I put the custom.php in the exactly folder as shipping.php, such option did not show up at the module. How can I create info-only pages? ><

 

Here is what I did.

I am setting up an on-line store. Not knowing what all is included in osCommerce (there is a lot to read about setting up and using osCommerce!) I started clicking on links on the main page to see what will happen when a prospective customer visits my store.

 

I clicked the "Privacy "Notice" link and was presented with a mostly blank page where my policy notice should be.

 

Using Windows Explorer I started to browse the 'catalog' and related folders, immedately I saw a file named 'privacy.php". I opened the file using "HTML-Kit". I see this line -

 

line 56 - <td class="main"><?php echo TEXT_INFORMATION; ?></td>

 

From my little experience with php I know that 'echo' will write something to the web page.

What is being written to the web page is 'TEXT_INFORMATION'.

TEXT_INFORMATION appears to be some kind of object, variable or constant that is predefined.

I ask myself where might it be defined at? Since I have already browsed the 'catalog' folders many times before and have noticed that there are three languages. I look under 'catalog\includes\languages\english' and find a "privacy.php" file.

 

This file contains the following line -

define('TEXT_INFORMATION', 'Put here your Privacy Notice information.');

 

First, I change 'Put here your Privacy Notice information.' to 'Hello'

I refresh the 'Privacy Notice' page still open in IE6 and now the main text for this page reads 'Hello'.

I change 'Hello' to '<b>Hello</b>' and refresh the page and 'Hello' is no in bold lettering.

 

I (mistakenly at first) concluded that what goes in the quotes is HTML, close but not quite.

I inserted my privacy notice as HTML and refreshed the page. Wrong answer - Now I have an all white page with no text or images at all. I examine some other *.php files and notice that qoute marks must be preceeded by a backslash. so if you need your HTML code to read

 

<font face="Arial" size="2">

 

You must enter it as <font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> for it to be rendered correctly. I also found that to use a single quote mark ' it must also be predeeded by a backslash.

 

After adding all the backslashes where needed the page came up correctly!

 

I would imagine that much of the variable/constant replacements can be accomplished in this same manner.

 

Hope this helps you.

Have A Nice Day!

God is good! and Jesus is Lord!