OSCOMMERCE BABY has Teething problems can anyone help me out please

[athakur]

Hi, I am currently doing a ECommerce site for a using OSCOMMERCE. I am facing some teething problems hence I would request all you seasoned users to help me.

 

What I need to know is following:

 

1. How do I change feel of all modules..i.e.

 

 

 

I would like to change the feel of header and I somehow managed to do so with css and table design. But when i tried using some modules like shopping cart, site search and others....the feel was different and not what I wanted based on my template.

I have designed my own template for the same as I never use externally sourced templates. Now what I want to know is how to place components based on my template and enhance them accordingly:

 

 

for example how do I change feel of left menu, how do I add some components to left menu, then to right side of page and

change the look of centered content.......

 

I am trying to control the site in a 760px frame with 180px on left side and 180px on right with 400px in center. I am looking to use random images/banners on different pages or if I want to use different center content styling for every product page how do I do so. For example say there is a magazine and every new article has a diff image for it...same way I want to do like for football's i want a small image on top of product listings related to football, and on basketball page i want a image that has basketball or related message. Any idea how I can do so?

 

Further i want to place different modules in different positions...and also change there look and feels. How do I do so......and can someone tell me from which module is main body and its design controlled. i.e. I was able to change look of background of header but how do i follow it further down for complete browser window.

 

I request you people to help me in this, for if I am able to do this.....my one dream of starting a site for free oscommerce templates would be half completed. for other half I would like to know following:

 

How do I package templates with codes.

what all security features need to be implemented in .htaccess and other modules to prevent them from being hijacked or hacked.

Can we use Captcha like codes on forms, if yes how and what support is needed on server side.

can one use different page designs in one single website.

Also can we use embedded font's or say .eot files in oscommerce for other languages like Hindi for me fr customized solutions for indian retailers who want to use hindi text and not in utf-8 format but a custom developed font for the site.

 

please help me come over my teething problems.

[athakur]

would someone help me on this