How to integrate with existing website?

[thejunklabel]

I have recently set up my store in a subfolder called /shop and all is tested and seems to be working fine.

 

I have done a bit of simple customisation (changing background colours and adding our own logo etc) but what I would really like to do is make the store become a seemless part of our entire website. I am thinking this is the time to make any "major" earth shattering changes before we start selling in ernest.

 

The rest of our existing website is currently built from very simple static html files which are currently all located in the root of our domain.

 

What I would really like to end up with is something like the followng site (which like us is an independent record label) which I found in the sample live sites:

 

http://www.rouge.co.nz/

 

I am thinking of leaving my shop where it is in its subfolder and integrating elements of it into my existing site, so for example I would like to display the login and cart on every page in the same position.

 

Should I be looking at changing my existing html pages to php pages to do this, or is there another way?

 

I know this is probably a big job to get to the stage that the above site is at, but I am happy to look at compromises and baby steps to get there.

 

I have also read other posts about the pro's and con's of moving the shop into the root of the domain as another option.

 

I am OK at html file set-up but the php stuff it all new to me ..

 

Any advice most gratefully received :blush:

 

Cheers

Bob

[♥Vger]

I am OK at html file set-up but the php stuff it all new to me

 

Then you won't be able to do what you want to do. You need to know some PHP, CSS and HTML.

 

1. You CAN have both .html and .php files in the root, because they do not conflict with one another.

 

2. But most hosting setups do not allow PHP to be parsed in .html pages, so people moving from .php to .html pages will lose their session id and any products in their cart, logged-in status, etc.

 

Best advice - treat the osCommerce site as THE website and forget about the html pages. Concentrate on redesigning the osCommerce website or else buy in a template which looks as you want your osCommerce website to look.

 

Vger

[thejunklabel]

Then you won't be able to do what you want to do. You need to know some PHP, CSS and HTML.

 

1. You CAN have both .html and .php files in the root, because they do not conflict with one another.

 

2. But most hosting setups do not allow PHP to be parsed in .html pages, so people moving from .php to .html pages will lose their session id and any products in their cart, logged-in status, etc.

 

Best advice - treat the osCommerce site as THE website and forget about the html pages. Concentrate on redesigning the osCommerce website or else buy in a template which looks as you want your osCommerce website to look.

 

Vger

 

Good advice - many thanks for this, Its a great help!

 

All the best

Bob