Need Feedback - In between Rock and a Hard place

[esolution]

I have been working on this site lately - Check out this Website.

 

Since I am new to OSC, and just recently found this forum, I thought it wise to gather opinions on how others might approach upgrading this site. The images are currently being updated, but I am more concerned about the OsCommerce pieces, and how to make sure we are taking advantage of what's available. I have reviewed most, if not all of the contributions regarding SEO, and some regarding tax exempt status, and a few more more topics.

 

We minimally would like the search engines to index each page, with meaningful information, and it is our understanding a contribution can make that happen.

 

When I look at the copyright statement "2003" of this site, it makes me wonder what we could gain by starting with a new install, and what would be gained on our SEO goal by doing so.

 

Thus far, our insertion of contributions have been slowed, becasue we seem to create errors with each change. It makes me wonder if we are not handling the PRIVATE & PUBLIC FOLDERS correctly. We may simply need assistance with how to insert contributions with the structure of the folders.

 

Any and ALL thoughts and suggestions will be welcome.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

:'(

[allaboutwicker]

Hello,

 

I went to your website and indeed found that it could use some work. First off I notice that it is in secure mode at all times as in https:// lock instead of http://

 

oscommerce comes set up to lock only when on special pages like ordering or create account pages. The rest of the time, it is in regular mode. I am not sure how the search engines like the locked mode??? When I try to go to http:// I get an error message

 

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF in /home/bideas/domains/brightideas4kids.com/public_html/shop/includes/header.php on line 27

 

I know it seems old with the copyright at 2003, but that version is solid and many people are still using it, myself included. you have a fine store going with lots of items listed already and they have not really changed the oscommerce software that much until a new one is supposed to come out, but it will be a while it seems for that to actually happen. I am not a programmer, but I have been able to figure out how to install contributions and make changes to the oscommerce software to make it do pretty much everything that I need it to. It can be tricky at times when you make lots of changes, but if you take your time and do just as the instruction says regarding modifying existing files, it can be done.

 

As far as making some changes right away, I would correct the header problem. I do not know if you still have the complete original oscommerce files that you originally used to set up the store, but if not you should download them to your computer for comparison and backup purposes. Once you have them you should use a files compare program, I downloaded one free from the internet called "files compare tool", and use it to compare the original catalog/includes/header.php file against yours to help you see where the error is coming from. That "" at the top of the page is obviously not supposed to be there.

 

Also, another quick fix for you would be the following contribution as it is only a small bit of instruction I will just paste it here instead of having you download the file. It will have your category name at the top instead of the Let's see what we have here. Here is the instructions:

 

In the /catalog/index.php, there are three <?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?>

 

FOR CATEGORIES, just replace the first one

<?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?>

 

TO

 

<?php echo $category['categories_name'] ?>

 

 

FOR SUBCATEGORIES, just replace the second

<?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?>

 

TO

 

<?php if (isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['manufacturers_id'])) {

$category_query = tep_db_query("select manufacturers_name from " . TABLE_MANUFACTURERS . " where manufacturers_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['manufacturers_id'] . "'");

$category = tep_db_fetch_array($category_query);

if ($category['manufacturers_name'] != "") {echo $category['manufacturers_name'];} else { echo HEADING_TITLE;}

} else {

$category_query = tep_db_query("select cd.categories_name from " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES_DESCRIPTION . " cd where c.categories_id = '" . (int)$current_category_id . "' and cd.categories_id = '" . (int)$current_category_id . "' and cd.language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "'");

$category = tep_db_fetch_array($category_query);

if ($category['categories_name'] != "") {echo $category['categories_name'];} else { echo HEADING_TITLE;}

}

?>

 

 

The third <?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?>

Nothing needed to modify.

 

The only other suggestion I can think of that I noticed needed help was that some of the links in the Information box go to pages that have not been modified yet. I would either change them or not show those links in the info box.

 

I hope something I have said here has helped you.

[digilee]

I'm an OSC snob and believe the stock install is merely a starting point.

 

You've made the classic mistakes:

Stock images

One language/ one currency - why show these?

No SSL

No SEO URLs

Lack of company details - 'Privacy Notice' for example

 

blah ...

 

Besides adding products, you've done nothing.

[Jan Zonjee]

Thus far, our insertion of contributions have been slowed, becasue we seem to create errors with each change.

No wonder if you use an editor that adds a utf-8 BOM (pops up as: ) in front of your PHP files:

<!-- header //-->
<style type="text/css">

[♥FWR Media]

No wonder if you use an editor that adds a utf-8 BOM (pops up as: ) in front of your PHP files:

<!-- header //-->
<style type="text/css">

 

 

@ esolution

 

Try googling ConTEXT .. it's free it's great .. it will edit all files just fine.

[esolution]

Thank you! Thank you!

 

All of you have been very honest and we do appreciate it. With all of the experience displayed in the replies, I know you can help us with this question - How long would it take of we need to clean up the obvious glitches, allow for the site to Search Engine Friendly and incorporate tax exempt processing for some clients?

 

Wtih that said, how many hours would estimate it to take? We are crunched with other projects, and may need to outsource this work. Is there anywhere on the forum where folks post they are looking for work?

 

Once again, thanks for you honesty.

[Guest]

Your site "operated" fine for me.

 

Somewhere in the forum rules it is mentioned that we aren't supposed to put links in for paid outside resourses so I will suggest that you search google for for something like: +osCommerce +freelance

 

How many hours? Depends upon who's is doing it and how badly the code got sc***ed up. Adding the tax exemption thingy is on my list of things to do on my client's exceedingly heavily modified store and I could not imagine it taking more than 2-3 hours.

 

Yes, the editor makes a big difference. (Nothing like finding out that when you opened html_output.php to paste some code in that your editor changed other parts of the code just by opening the file. :blush: )

 

It appears that I can go from SSL to NONSSL to SSL easily. I entered your site via the SSL link you provided. I was however presented with a SSL Certificate configuration error on connection. I first used Firefox. I looked at the certificate error notices and didn't see any obvious to me problems, but I am not an SSL expert.

 

I reentered the site with Opera and here are the messages:

for: brightideas4kids.com

- The certificate for "brightideas4kids.com" is signed by the unknown Certificate Authority "Go Daddy Secure Certification Authority". It is not possible to verify that this is a valid certificate

Certificate name

 

brightideas4kids.com

brightideas4kids.com

Domain Control Validated

 

 

Issuer

 

Go Daddy Secure Certification Authority

GoDaddy.com, Inc.

http://certificates.godaddy.com/repository

Scottsdale

Arizona, US

serialNumber: 07969287

 

 

Details

 

Connection : TLS v1.0 256 bit AES (DHE_RSA/SHA)

 

The certificate for "brightideas4kids.com" is signed by the unknown Certificate Authority "Go Daddy Secure Certification Authority". It is not possible to verify that this is a valid certificate

 

Certificate version: 3

Serial number: 0x41e4a8

Not valid before: Nov 29 15:48:36 2007 GMT

Not valid after: Nov 16 00:53:50 2008 GMT

Fingerprint(MD5) D6 25 03 42 FC 45 66 5D 1E E4 69 40 1B 6A 83 38

Fingerprint(SHA-1) 89 E4 88 3E 5A 80 99 D3 2C 1E 55 07 12 11 8F 03 33 30 EE AB

 

Public key algorithm: rsaEncryption

Public-Key (1024 bit):

Modulus:

00: 37 88 C4 8E 31 04 D2 36 12 55 A0 8F 54 6B 1C 56

10: E7 1F F7 4D 1F A6 E9 AE 75 12 DF 67 E8 DE 6A 2A

20: 97 9E 25 A1 22 B4 73 95 60 FC 5A 4C 41 AC 24 DC

30: 37 06 27 9E 27 B1 32 24 27 04 DD 78 9E D3 C0 49

40: 6F B9 72 9A 9F 48 86 79 BF DE C6 0A 46 1E 4D EC

50: BC 84 BE 44 DF 83 9F 3D EA 95 1D 03 01 84 18 CD

60: E0 63 B6 6D 97 E5 04 10 1F 72 7E 84 24 B3 FE 7E

70: E6 B5 07 46 45 FF C7 AD 3A D5 96 D7 B7 76 54 C0

 

Exponent:

01 00 01

 

Public key algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption

0000: 33 D9 64 DC 03 8E 6A ED 11 51 7A B1 6A B0 A5 39

0010: AD 8E 3D E0 FB 73 C6 D5 D4 FA 49 A8 10 08 48 19

0020: FF C9 F3 E2 0F 2A 1D 07 F1 09 1E 65 A7 26 FD 2B

0030: 72 DB 33 76 8E 68 BF C6 D6 78 D2 3C 34 BE 0E 56

0040: EF 48 6D 84 E8 7E B8 B9 99 21 ED 36 3C A9 C3 74

0050: F0 92 FE 99 A4 36 D8 75 28 B2 7A DA 05 BE 95 EF

0060: 29 63 42 45 1D 56 CA 7F 2B A8 72 40 AE 42 81 C0

0070: F9 1F 8C 65 B2 DE 35 1E B1 AF 46 63 EC 2D A7 E4

0080: 56 46 51 50 28 0E 22 28 D0 1A 0E 8A 57 95 B9 2B

0090: 12 E5 A8 2E 4B CC 4B 57 97 29 9A 4B 26 F5 2B D4

00A0: 2C 01 72 D8 86 49 59 CB 57 C5 33 A6 DC C2 5D 9C

00B0: D6 13 29 FE 91 6E 40 B1 32 56 95 6E CB 46 CF 0E

00C0: C9 8F 95 10 84 2F CA C8 82 E7 3F 2A AE 67 F3 F4

00D0: A5 F8 FA BB 8F 0C F5 B9 2E BA A5 98 06 C4 86 50

00E0: 3D A8 37 BD C1 5E AA C3 1D 42 94 1B C0 EE 4E B9

00F0: 5D CD 44 47 A5 D7 04 C9 AA BE B6 3B B7 B7 46 B3

 

Extensions

X509v3 Basic Constraints: CA:FALSE

X509v3 Key Usage: Digital Signature, Key Encipherment

X509v3 Extended Key Usage: TLS Web Server Authentication, TLS Web Client Authentication

X509v3 CRL Distribution Points:

URI:http://certificates.godaddy.com/repository/godaddyextendedissuing.crl

X509v3 Certificate Policies:

Policy: 2.16.840.1.114413.1.7.23.1

CPS: http://certificates.godaddy.com/repository

Authority Information Access:

OCSP - URI:http://ocsp.godaddy.com

CA Issuers - URI:http://certificates.godaddy.com/repository/gd_intermediate.crt

X509v3 Subject Key Identifier: B3:59:10:43:55:C7:74:9C:0B:0A:32:A9:34:1F:03:96:79:C5:51:F1

X509v3 Authority Key Identifier:

keyid:FD:AC:61:32:93:6C:45:D6:E2:EE:85:5F:9A:BA:E7:76:99:68:CC:E7

X509v3 Subject Alternative Name: DNS:brightideas4kids.com, DNS:www.brightideas4kids.com

 

You may have a problem between www.brightideas4kids.com and brightideas4kids.com

If I understand this correctly, if the SSL certificate is for brightideas4kids.com then the site needs to be brightideas4kids.com and if it is for www.brightideas4kids.com then the site needs to be www.brightideas4kids.com. Before getting an SSL certificate for my client I did try and read up on the subject. We got the certificate for the www and I changed all configuration values, including cookies, to match and have had no known problems or complaints.

 

By the way, in Opera I was brought to the login page instead of index.php after accepting the certificate.

 

I went back to Firefox and from the main page I clicked My Account . I was taken from www.brightideas4kids.com/index.php to brightideas4kids.com/login.php

 

I am not sure how you have your site configured nor do I know how to find out how your host has things configured. It is very possible that they did not install it correctly.

 

I am not sure what you mean by "PRIVATE & PUBLIC FOLDERS".

[WebPublishing]

Your header is too high. You're waisting valuable vertical space. Put the words on one line, trim the top and bottom sun rays, and resize it. Make use of the white-space on the right.

 

Change the mouse-over colors on links to one that is more visible than the other text, not less visible as it is now (light blue?).

[Obewanz]

Get yourself a template - the other stuff has already been said above.

[Guest]

You need to add content to the information pages

 

Shipping & Returns

Privacy Notice

Tax Exempt Policy

Conditions of Use

Contact Us

 

Every page is blank.. I would not shop from this store

 

Tim