is osCommerce suitable?

[JakeAy]

Hi, I've been looking for information on the web and this forum to answer my question for a while now and can't find anything. Apologies if this question has already been answered.

 

I bought a website template which doesn't have commerce functionality. I've used Golive to modify content to match my requirements. I would now like to include commerce functionality to sell about a dozen items online. I am very finicky over the website layout - I want total control over the look.

 

So I need a shopping cart, right? And a shopping cart is typically composed of the php code which does the work behind the scenes. I thought osCommerce would do the trick but when I read the forums I see things that concern me such as the fact that you need to install it?? and it can manage images??? Both of these things make me think that osCommerce is a CMS and I don't want a CMS because I want to use Golive or Dreamweaver to modify my website, not an online management tool.

 

Surely all I need is some code that I upload to my web server and some hooks in my html to interface with this code?

 

So, to clarify these thoughts into some specific questions:

 

1) Is osCommerce the best way to go for my situation?

 

2) Can I continue to easily use Golive/Dreamweaver to modify the layout of my website if I go with osCommerce?

 

3) How much effort is required to make use of osCommerce as the shopping cart in this situation?

 

4) Can anyone point me to a good system-level description of how osCommerce works?

 

Hope you guys can help - I've been banging my head up against a wall for a while now.

 

Regards,

 

John

[bigbob]

Hi John,

 

Unless you are a wizard with PHP, from my experience I would say that it will not do what you want. OSC is the best thing since sliced bread, but it is a complete system. It would be better suited to buid a site on, than to try to add as a commerce module within an existing site. As far as design goes, it can be changed and modified to adapt the look, but I have not yet seen an OSC site that I could not immediatly spot as such.

 

Others may disagree with this but I started with no PHP experience and have now built a very good and very successfull site using OSC. It looks like I want and has heaps of new features not included in the original, but it is still basically OSC.

 

I hope this helps a bit.

 

Cheers Kevin.

[JakeAy]

Thanks Kevin, it has indeed helped.

[Nick Weisser]

If you use one of the template system contributions, you should be able to use your template without any problems. You can keep things very simple by inserting only the markers you need for your purpose.

 

But I also agree that out of the box, version 2.2 is not easily customizable. Nevertheless, installing a template system onto osCommerce is not that difficult...

 

I'd prefer this approach from reinventing the wheel once more. And one of the greatest advantages of using osCommerce as a framework is the many payment modules that are available.

[JakeAy]

Can you tell me what a "template system contribution" is?

 

And are you saying that the technical difficulty to implement osCommerce on my website shouldn't be that high? (assuming I have some coding experience)

 

And finally, can I have complete control over the visual layout using osCommerce? Can I continue to easily use Golive/Dreamweaver to modify the layout of my website if I go with osCommerce?

 

Regards,

 

John

[kgt]

To fully answer your question about how OSC works, just install it yourself and see. You can install XAMPP on your own PC, and then install OSC. Play around with it. Try fitting it into your template.

 

XAMPP will give you a webserver, PHP and the MySQL database needed:

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

 

Help installing OSC:

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?sho...=162231&hl=

 

A template contribution will allow you to create templates (or integrate your own) for OSC:

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1524

 

If you are not familiar with scripting, then you may think that "it doesn't work" in dreamweaver. There's no problem editing the pages with dreamweaver. Just don't expect that scripted code will work with your preview function.