Is It Safe To Edit Index.php

[Guest]

I know i've got huge revamping to do because i don't really like the default look. I've referred to "basics of design" thread, 1st post and it mentioned it's easy to edit the layout just by editing the few mention files.

 

But what i really want, is the change the layout drastically ie, put links (like categories,about us, home etc) at top and bottom like tabs. is there any safer ways? i'm no php expert and the index page just kind of scares me. can i go about editing one (or a few) template files to change the look? :blink:

[web-project]

I know i've got huge revamping to do because i don't really like the default look. I've referred to "basics of design" thread, 1st post and it mentioned it's easy to edit the layout just by editing the few mention files.

 

But what i really want, is the change the layout drastically ie, put links (like categories,about us, home etc) at top and bottom like tabs. is there any safer ways? i'm no php expert and the index page just kind of scares me. can i go about editing one (or a few) template files to change the look? :blink:

 

to change design of the oscomerce software you need to edit the following files:

/oscommerce/public_html/includes/header.php

/oscommerce/public_html/includes/footer.php

[Guest]

to change design of the oscomerce software you need to edit the following files:

/oscommerce/public_html/includes/header.php

/oscommerce/public_html/includes/footer.php

 

hi thanks for your reply.

 

what i want was, not just to only change colours. i've looked though header and footer files, they dont' do much.

 

i'm talking about really drastically changing, because i don't like the raw skeleton structure osCommerce has. eg http://www.silkorigins.com/index.php like this site.

[Guest]

do i really have to download sts to do something like the site i've posted in the above post?

[dropdeadred]

To alter the whole look, drastically as you say, there's not one file you would edit, it would be a combination of all the major pages that you see in the catalog folder, and also a few includes files. It's not a ridiculous job, but it's not going to be done in half and hour, especially if you haven't taken time to familiarise yourself with the structure of the program or are a real beginner with code.

[rrrhythm]

I know i've got huge revamping to do because i don't really like the default look. I've referred to "basics of design" thread, 1st post and it mentioned it's easy to edit the layout just by editing the few mention files.

 

But what i really want, is the change the layout drastically ie, put links (like categories,about us, home etc) at top and bottom like tabs. is there any safer ways? i'm no php expert and the index page just kind of scares me. can i go about editing one (or a few) template files to change the look? :blink:

 

yes, you can change it all yourself. i've seen some great looking osC sites with nav tabs at the top that looked nothing like the stock layout.

 

the first rule is to always make backups so you can recover if you've really screwed something up.

 

it's a fairly big project. there are something like 60 files to edit.

 

my own story is that i revamped my entire site. before i started i understood the basics of HTML and CSS, and pretty much nothing about PHP. it took me about 6 months to finish the major phase of renovation. now i would describe myself as pretty competent at PHP programming, extremely competent at HTML and CSS, not bad at MYSQL and knowing a smattering of Javascript.

 

this may seem backwards, since index is what you really want to change, but my biggest bit of advice is to start at the small easy files, like shipping.php, and about_us.php and modify those. they are not nearly as crazy to work on as index.php is. work on those first and they will teach you the structure of osC. after you've figured out what you're doing on these smaller files, then you can tackle index.php.

 

also understand that index.php is actually 3 pages in one: 1, category pages that have further sub-categories (if $category_depth == 'nested') , 2, categories that are at the bottom with products in them if (elseif $category_depth == 'products'), and 3, the top default page (else).

 

and get an HTML editor that will color code your code, auto indent code, and check your syntax. Taco HTML Editor is a decent one for Macs (and is free). don't know PC versions, but in hind site i would readily have paid money for an HTML editor if i had had to. life is so much easier with one.

 

enjoy!

 

rj