Newbie with OScommerce/PHP/HTML questions

[netuser999]

I'm completely new to web building. I just signed up at Hostgator a few days ago, so please bear with me. I don't know any web based languages like PHP etc. I understand that OScommerce provides a shopping cart, but let me ask this - can you use OScommerce to build an entire website - the front page,about page,contact us, as well as the product (shopping cart) pages? Is this feasible to do? And what do i need to learn? PHP? HTML? Hostgator has a webite builder (Site Studio), but i don't want to use it. It forces the customer to use the ADD-A-CART shopping cart, which has its own merchant account and gateway. I've had a merchant account for almost a year now for non-web based sales, and recently paid $149 to Authorize.net as my gateway. Any assistance would be most appreciated.

[learoypc]

Bob,

 

Unless you know, or get to know HTML & PHP you will not be able to do too much to the stardard osc.

 

You will probably be able to work your way through the install, but any tailoring will more than likely require some edits in either php, html or sql.

 

In saying that, thats what these forums are supposed to be for....to help others.

 

If you have the time to put into it, give it a go, you can always delete it all and buy a shopping cart program.

 

I am certainly far far far from an expert and have been able to put a basic store together by reading lots of these forums and seeing what others do.

[irwin]

Bob,

 

Unless you know, or get to know HTML & PHP you will not be able to do too much to the stardard osc.

 

You will probably be able to work your way through the install, but any tailoring will more than likely require some edits in either php, html or sql.

 

In saying that, thats what these forums are supposed to be for....to help others.

 

If you have the time to put into it, give it a go, you can always delete it all and buy a shopping cart program.

 

I am certainly far far far from an expert and have been able to put a basic store together by reading lots of these forums and seeing what others do.

 

I'm also a newbie and what I would like to know is. If you want to alter the html, is it all done in the Catalog PHP files because I don't where else you can read the html except for View>Source

[crafted4you]

The OSCommerce shopping cart is done in PHP but if you open each of the PHP pages you will be able to see bits of HTML like tables. If you want to be able to just make a site that doesnt look like the standard site but dont know anything about PHP then you are pretty stuck unless you can manage to follow the instructions to install something like the STS contribution (Simple Template System). Then you will get a cauple of HTML page that you can edit alot easier in a HTML WYSIWYG editor.

 

Hope this helps.

[netuser999]

Thanks for the help guys. I just got back from Borders where i purchased books on PHP, MYSQL and HTML. I plan on reading the HTML 4 DUMMIES first. Then the MYSQL book which is supposedly a crash course on MYSQL - it's about 1" thick. Then the PHP5/MYSQL BIBLE, which is about 3" thick. I'll then tackle the website build after reading those three. By the way, i'm impressed by the activity on these OScommerce forums. It greatly increases the odds of geting a question answered.