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osCommerce

The e-commerce.

Making the store operational


livablelearning

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Posted

I have OS commerce installed as a package through Pow Web and even after browsing through these OS help files I have not found any understandable explanation as to how to make the store operational.

 

The set up looks wonderful but this is what my shop page http://www.shop.livablelearning.com reads:

 

"This is a default setup of the osCommerce project, products shown are for demonstrational purposes, any products purchased will not be delivered nor will the customer be billed. Any information seen on these products is to be treated as fictional."

 

I have contacted the Pow web support team and so far have not received any *helpful* answers from them either regarding this matter.

 

I am very frustrated and *not* html savvy - so please someone help me understand this whole process....

I also do not understand how the SSL is made functional either.

 

livablelearning

Posted

You really have to customize all of those things yourself. The host just gives you the software. The ssl isn't just activated either, you have to purchase that separately from your host and then you can activate it. It takes some work but if you chip away at it you'll be surprised what your capable of. You can learn the answer to most of you questions here. good luck!

Posted
Try reading the text you want to get rid of - the instructions to remove it are listed there quite clearly in point number 2.

 

 

You know if it was *quite clear* to me I would not have asked the question.

Please don't bother to reply unless you have a truly helpful response.

 

Also after posting this question to the forum - some smart* someone hacked into my store and added an item called admin tool under new products in my catalog with the following message

"might be an idea to secure the admin tool :-)"

 

I don't in any way find that humorous or helpful.

 

Why is it so difficult to get help around here?

Posted
You really have to customize all of those things yourself. The host just gives you the software. The ssl isn't just activated either, you have to purchase that separately from your host and then you can activate it. It takes some work but if you chip away at it you'll be surprised what your capable of. You can learn the answer to most of you questions here. good luck!

 

I don't have a problem with putting forth the effort and the work and customizing etc. but you know I don't think I asked a question that can't be answered. All I need is someone to tell me how to make the store operational - see me gritting my teeth. My patience is running thin - first with PowWeb support and now the same lack of true helpfulness here.

 

I sure would like to get the answers to most of my questions here - but so far it's not off to a very good start!

Posted

If you read your main page is says:

"The text shown here can be modified in the following file, on each language basis:

 

[path to catalog]/includes/languages/english/index.php"

 

The best thing to do is to download a copy of your store to your computer

Edit the files then upload them to your server

 

The_Bear

Posted

Hi Suzanne,

 

Some of these responses might be curt... But, I've looked over every single one (including your "hack"), and found them to be correct responses. The items on your page tell you what to edit to replace the default text. Another thing you can do is a recursive text search or grep on the text you want to get rid of in your web server root directory.

 

The thing about open source is that people expect you to do your own research... No bucks for support.

 

FYI... The Admin "hack" was no hack at all. Somebody simply went into your admin tool, and added a new product with the description of "might be an idea..." Go into the Admin tool & remove the product.

 

Under the installation docs, it describes what needs to be done to secure the Admin tool. You may be able to twist your Host Tech's arm to assist you, if you've got something unusual.

 

I'm a new user too! Good luck.

Posted
If you read your main page is says:

"The text shown here can be modified in the following file, on each language basis:

 

[path to catalog]/includes/languages/english/index.php"

 

The best thing to do is to download a copy of your store to your computer

Edit the files then upload them to your server

 

The_Bear

 

Thank you for your reply - I feel like I'm am just *a bit* closer to getting my questions answered...perhaps there is hope yet. But bear with me...

 

1). So how do I load a copy of the store to my computer - I'm still guessing here - is it through a Save as command or what?

 

And if so as what type is it saved? Web Page complete? Web archive single file? or what?

 

And once that is done I am assuming I will be able to add and delete and edit product info as I have been doing thus far with the online version?

 

I still don't understand exactly what this means [path to catalog]/includes/languages/english/index.php"

 

2). I have worked with Front page on another of my websites and I have downloaded files via FTP - but it is still beyond my understanding what I have to do to create a secure site for this store. When I finally upload this store to the server - exactly how am I going to do that?

Posted

Hi Suzanne,

 

Some of these responses might be curt... But, I've looked over every single one (including your "hack"), and found them to be correct responses. The items on your page tell you what to edit to replace the default text. Another thing you can do is a recursive text search or grep on the text you want to get rid of in your web server root directory.

 

The thing about open source is that people expect you to do your own research... No bucks for support.

 

FYI... The Admin "hack" was no hack at all. Somebody simply went into your admin tool, and added a new product with the description of "might be an idea..." Go into the Admin tool & remove the product.

 

Under the installation docs, it describes what needs to be done to secure the Admin tool. You may be able to twist your Host Tech's arm to assist you, if you've got something unusual.

 

 

I *am* doing my own research - I have read **every** OS document in the Knowledge Base but when it still doesn't make sense then my research is to ask a real person...

 

Forgive my ignorance - but I honestly don't understand what the admin tool is yet! So not knowing what it is to begin with - I really can't secure it either.

 

And I have no idea what you meant by any of this: "Another thing you can do is a recursive text search (what?) or grep (what?) on the text you want to get rid of in your web server root directory"

 

I can go to the page that I have shortcutted to work on the product revisions etc... which online reads admin/categories.php - so somehow I am assuming that is along the lines of what you mean my admin tool???

 

and I finally found where the files were actually stored on my server and the *clear as mud* - is getting a little thinner - and a little more clear - but I am still lost and I will continue to ask questions until I get answers.

 

Thank you.

Posted

Ok so you need to get some FTP software. This allows you to transfer files between your web server and your computer. WS FTP is a well used one - go to www.download.com to grab it. We're talking about grabbing all your store files (i.e. all those in the 'catalog' folder or the directory you installed OSC on your webserver) and FTPing them to your computer so you can work on various files.

 

Once you've done that you browse to the file I mentioned earlier (it will now be on your PC somewhere) and remove all that text. Then FTP the file from your PC up to your webserver (into the same location) to see the change.

Posted

Thanks for your patience and for your response...

 

I have the FTP software, not a problem - and I just figured out how to download the OS shop file to my computer but now if I go back to the page I had bookmarked where I was making all the catalog changes online it reads:

 

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /www/l/livablelearn/shop/htdocs/admin/includes/languages/english.php on line 108

 

So what happened? I can't even edit online any more.

 

And what exactly is php. (what does it stand for) because I also cannot open the docs to edit them now that they are copied on my computer.

 

So back to my original question - are you saying that the store was actually functional but just that the verbage on that page needed to be cusomized/edited??

Posted

To secure the admin section:

 

Log in to your cpanel for your webserver. There should be an icon or option for Password Directories. Enter Password Directories and select your admin folder. Set a password for it and now you'll need to enter this user/password to reach your admin section.

 

Since I don't use your host I don't know what they offer in their cpanel/site manager so took a quick look at the support section of your host. This link shows step by step instructions on how to use .htacess to password a directory. http://kb.powweb.com/questions/291/Password-Protection

 

The admin tool is simply the webpage you go to to add products and handle all the behind the scenes information for your store. If I'm not inccorect I belive your admin section is found here http://shop.livablelearning.com/admin/. Now visitng that link I see you have a parse error you'll need to fix.

 

You should work on fixing this parse error and passwording the admin area in my opinion before you go any farther with adding products etc.

 

To edit and change the text on most of the pages you'll need to edit the language files.

Using FTP log in to your server. To download a copy of your store to your computer you will need to download all of the files and folders in the directory you have named "shop".

 

Once you have downloaded the files you will have a working backup copy of your store.

 

To edit the index file that you mentioned earlier and remove the text desired. On your computer open the folder you have just downloaded via ftp which should be named "shop" since that's what you've named it on the server. Look for [path to catalog] *which we know now is your "shop" folder /open folder includes/open folder languages/open folder english/open file index.php.

 

You will then see inside this file the text you mentioned above that you would like to remove. Replace that text with what you want it to say. Save the file. Now going back to FTP upload the file and replace the one that is currently there with the new file you just edited. Refresh your website page and you should see the changes made to your online store.

 

Searching:

To help find further information you can use the search feature in the forum to search for the words/text you want more information about or are wanting to remove. For example - if you want to remove the text on your site that reads, "default setup" in the search box type "default setup" or "+default +setup". This will bring up search results that have this term/text within it.

 

ALWAYS back up your files before you make changes. Incase something goes wrong this way you can replace with the original files and still have a working store.

Posted
So back to my original question - are you saying that the store was actually functional but just that the verbage on that page needed to be cusomized/edited??

 

Correct ;-)

 

If you were seeing that text then the store was up and running. You mention Frontpage in an earlier post - my first recommendation is to ditch that - that's one of the worst editors you can use as it inserts it's own code which really messes things up. Use Notepad if you have to - but not Frontpage.

 

PHP stands for Php Hypertext Processor - it's not important and doesn't mean a great deal. PHP is a server-side scripting language and is what the nuts and bolts of OSC are written in. You don't need to know PHP in order to get the store installed and working - although you will need to know it if you want to do any major work on your store.

Posted

suzanne..you are not the only one here pulling hair out..I started last week following the installation got a few good replies but it is mindblowing and still have not got up and running. My hosting company told me it was easy to get up and running...yes if you are a computer expert with 100 years experience. Be careful though you don't get a message from the administrator of this forum slapping your hands about touting for a web designer..

 

yours

still bloody confused

Posted

Regarding the ability to edit PHP files... I found a nice open source PHP editor called pspad. You can download it at pspad.com. Word & notepad didn't do a very good job for me... And, I wasn't ready to pay for Dreamweaver yet.

 

It will make looking at your configure.php & other files a lot easier!

Posted

I have Dreamweaver MX but I still use EditPad Lite, which is a brilliant, free text editor. You can get it from http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html

 

The great thing about Dreamweaver though, you can have the entire site within it and just flick from page to page.

 

Anyhow, you don't really need either of those! You can make all your changes from the Admin area, that's why it's there. :rolleyes: ;)

 

Being as your site is live, once you have sorted your Parse error - which is probably a missing; or } or ' or it could be some missing comments //, paste your code from line 107 and 108 and we will see - you can make all the changes live.

 

Or being as you have downloaded your site to your PC, you can do it there. The only thing about doing it from your PC, you will need Apache, PHP, MySql and phpMyAdmin installed.

 

To do that, either go to, and I'm taking a stab at you being on Windows, http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html to download XAMPP

 

or to http://www.en.wampserver.com/download.php to download WAMP5. Either of which will install everything you need to view your site locally.

Posted
Or being as you have downloaded your site to your PC, you can do it there. The only thing about doing it from your PC, you will need Apache, PHP, MySql and phpMyAdmin installed.

 

Just thought I would point out that you do not need the above mentioned applications if you do not want to run and install osc locally for testing.

 

If all you want to do is download the files you are editing use any of the php or text editors mentioned in previous posts and make your edits. Then save the file and upload it over the old one using ftp. Make sure to save an untouched copy of the original files you are editing though so you can replace them incase something goes wrong with the one you have edited.

 

-- Mindy

Posted
Just thought I would point out that you do not need the above mentioned applications if you do not want to run and install osc locally for testing.

 

Well, the OP has stated she has downloaded her site and she intends to do a bit of off-line development. So she needs it!

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