new to OSCommerce...

[brimmy]

I upgraded my hosting account earlier this week to allow databases and OSCommerce on my website but I am having issues in figuring things out. I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the hosting service's technical support because rather than telling me how to fix something, they just do it for me. Besides the fact that in the long run it would be faster to just tell me (I'm not an idiot), I don't like the idea that someone is poking through my admin functions.

 

Anyways, I'm running out of patience with this entire mess and thought I would appeal to the masses for help. Below I have a bunch of questions I have run across so far. Any help I could get would be greatly appreciated. What I would like best would be someone willing to sit on IM with me and talk me through it. I can't afford to pay anything, but I am more than willing to create something custom (I am a glass artist) for the person who is willing to do this for me. Anyways, on to my questions....

 

 

1. Upon creating a new database and user for my shopping cart, I receive the reminder "Don`t forget to set permissions on the "admin" directory using Web protect (Quick Access INFO) to restrict access to osCommerce configuration." on the management pages. How do I do this?

 

2. When I open the admin pages on OSCommerce, I found the notice "You are not protected by a secure SSL connection." on the bottom left side of the screen. This was advertised as part of my upgraded hosting package. Is there a settign somewhere that I need to change to bring this into effect?

 

3. I have the database and user created and have been customizing my admin options. When I view the public side of the site, there is an error at the top of the screen that says, "Warning: Installation directory exists at: /.../.../.../.../...com/catalog/install. Please remove this directory for security reasons." I went to the file manager through the admin function and tried to delete it, but I got "Error: I can not remove this directory. Please set the right user permissions on: /.../.../.../.../...com//catalog/install." How am I supposed to fix this error?

 

4. Also on the public side of the site, right in the center of the page in bold it says, "This is a default setup of the osCommerce project, products shown are for demonstrational purposes, ........ Any information seen on these products is to be treated as fictional." How do I remove this and have my shopping cart officially running when I am ready for it.

 

5. I don't actually want the public side of the OSCommerce. My products and catalog are fairly simple. I do not need a search function or to be able to sort by types or styles or anything. I just want the buy it now and check out buttons with the product descriptions on my current website template. I do wish to keep the back end information like the newsletters, shipping and reports and all that. Is there a way to go about doing this? (This is really where I need the help of someone on IM talking me through the whole process). I tried using the paypal HTML cart and I liked how I could just add a product to any page with the provided coding, but I didn't like not having the weight or quantity options. My creations are one of a kind, so I need to be able to have the listing change to *SOLD* or something before I start getting conflicting orders.

 

6. With my webhost, I have the ability to create my own databases using MySQL. Would it be easier to create the pages manually rather than use OSCommerce considering what I want with regards to my shopping cart? I'm definately going to need help with that.

 

 

Anyways, as you can see I'm completely lost here. Please help!

[brimmy]

Anyone?