embedding oscommerce into existing site

[yocompia]

i would like to know if oscommerce can provide an ecommerce solution that satisfies the constraints i'm going to list below. i'm asking this because i want to know what oscommerce can and can't do, as far as my constraints are concerned.

 

constraints:

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- i have an existing site that uses frames. its layout is a 3 frame setup: topFrame runs across the top and holds our logo and banner, leftFrame is on the left and holds our menu and mainFrame is our central frame that holds our content (product pages, etc.). there are entries in my menu in the leftFrame for "Cart" and "Checkout" that load links in the mainFrame. i have installed oscommerce before, but i noticed that it already has its own layout and setup that suggests you should design your site around the oscommerce layout, but i would rather not do this since i have already gone to great lengths to design my current site. i would like to "embed" oscommerce into my existing site by having the "Cart" and "Checkout" links in the menu link to a stripped-down version of oscommerce that would load in mainFrame

 

- i already have designed product pages that i have linked from my menu. i would like to have an "Add to Cart" button that i can link from my existing product page that will add items to the oscommerce shopping cart

 

- i'm to understand there is a quickbooks add-on that will export sales records to QB. i assume this is easy enough to get working

 

that's the end of my constraints. i would greatly appreciate a "yes you can do this, no you can't do that" at a minimum, and links to other threads or additional docs would be great if you can provide them.

 

thx for reading.

[Guest]

OK, yes in theory you can do this. I'll go into the pros and cons a bit later, but basically you would need to assign a session id to the links in your left column on the visitors first click which was then passed into your main content panel to ensure that the two sections of your site were reading customer details from the same source. Agin, if you existing product page has php functionality, or you are able to stream the id's into it (perhaps via a rss feed type setup if php is not the extension of these pages), then yes you can use existing pages to add the content. Again a nother proviso on this would be that if you wish to offer any kind of product options, this would become more complicated (i.e. choosing colour from a dropdown).

 

now, pros and cons.

1 - this would be exceptionally fiddly and fraught with the dangers of errors which may not immediately be obvious.

2 - Frames are kinda iffy, and can lead to serious problems in terms of search engine optimisation. there are workarounds, but again this can be a minefield for the mistakes you dont necessarily see at first glance.

3 - Why not either transfer your existing design into your osc setup (using stylesheet it is possible to mimic a frames setup without actually having frames), or pay soembody to do it for you if you are som determined to retain your current design, then link to osc normally from your existing site and retain the benefits of both your existing site and osc.

btw, taking the menu layout away from osc is not a big task at all, if you look at some of the live stores, you will very quickly find people who only have a left column or a right one, or indeed none at all.

 

And as far as quickbooks goes, yes this does work; i have installed it on five different clients' sites, all to good effect. Relatively easy install, just a bit time consuming

[Guest]

i was hoping from the topic title that this page might contain answers to my own question

which is very similar...

 

i would like to embedded oscommerce within a 2 frame index/html page, the top frame holding flash

graphics & buttons to other site content, the main frame being the store....

 

i have designed a mock up working version, where by the main window loads up os commerce

but it requires a link to load up the os commerce index into that window.

 

http://www.dreamcarleasing.com/shopindex.htm

 

basically what is the html / javascript for

 

DISPLAY THIS INDEX.HTML FILE IN THIS PAGE ?

 

anyone ?

[Guest]

okay, i solved my own problem, its a simple solution using

 

<i frame = "yourpage.html">

 

within the master HTML document, u dont even need the frame sets