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STEP BY STEP: Upgrading 2.2-MS2 to RC1


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Hello,

 

My name is Graham Leach and I am an experienced LAMP professional.

 

I have never worked with OSCommerce before, but my wife asked me to put a store online and after asking around I settled on using OSCommerce because it generally got good reviews.

 

Out of the box the system installs easily with only a minimal amount of system knowledge necessary to get a basic store up and running. Installing STS (a future topic, maybe) was also pretty straightforward.

 

But I made the *MISTAKE* of buying a storefront OSCommerce to get things up and running quickly. My particular storefront was purchased from www.templatemonster.com, who offers templates at a reasonable price. My store cost USD$180.00 and it pleased my wife greatly. I am not an artist by any means so this appeared to be the "fastest" way to go.

 

TIP: If you buy your template from www.templatemonster.com and it's not up to the latest version of the template, you may be able to get a deal from them in terms of an upgrade. I was given this offer and if I cannot upgrade this site by myself successfully I will use their upgrade service.

 

Remember, I am new to OSC but not to LAMP.

 

The template came with installation instructions, which I followed to the letter. Installation was not easy and hung on the first screen. I also noticed something strange during the install. The OSCommerce interface did not match the test installations that I had been performing with the latest download of OSCommerce.

 

To my horror/surprise I discovered that I was installing a version of OSCommerce that was four (4) years old and required retrograde versions of PHP and MYSQL to function correctly!

 

I went to a couple of online services to see if I could price upgrading the site and received prices ranging from USD$30.00 to USD$250.00 to upgrade the site. The MAJOR problem was that the site had been MODIFIED (i.e. a storefront template had been implemented). It seems that once a site has been modified from the stock OSCommerce code base all bets are off - which seems a silly thing for a system that's been around since who knows how long.

 

Looking around, I noticed that there were UPGRADE packages available, but they looked like a collection of updated files, not patches (has anyone at OSComerce ever heard of a patch file?). This meant, unless I'm missing something, that simply copying over the file would DESTROY THE CUSTOM INTERFACE for which I had just paid good money.

 

At first blush (remember, I've been at this for a week, part-time) the documentation appears to be a collection of manual DIFF instructions (i.e. replace this with that). In some other documentation, I saw a suggestion to use WinMerge to compare and merge the update files with the existing files. This appears to be a LOT of work, but for the patient and careful operator it will render the proper result...an up-to-date installation.

 

I have not seen any TOOLS that will do this (like the well-used patch mechanism)

 

(RANT: THIS IS WHY MIXING CODE WITH THE UI IS A BAD, BAD, BAD IDEA!)

 

(RANT: HAD CODE AND UI BEEN SEPARATED IN OSCOMMERCE UPGRADES WOULD BE MUCH, MUCH EASIER!)

 

After some fiddling and trolling the forums I found out what needed to be changed to give my site basic functionality under MYSQL 5 and PHP 5, so the site is now up and running.

 

A lot of it had to do with fixing SQL statements and ADDING PARENTHESES TO LEFT JOINS

 

I also had to create an /admin/backup directory

 

The next post in this series discusses in a STEP BY STEP manner *exactly* what I am going through to upgrade my installation

 

Thank you,

 

Graham Leach

Co-Proprietor, Authentic Closet

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PART I

 

I believe that the first thing to establish before you go anywhere is get a fix on where you are.

 

Here's where I started from. An example of the website I purchased is available to look at here:

 

osc.template-help.com/9795/index.php

 

At the bottom of my templated website appeared the phrase

 

Copyright © 2005 Company Name Powered by osCommerce

This gave me some information about the epoch of the solution, but not much else.

 

Taking a closer look at the information surrounding the template, I found this:

 

Item number: 9795

Type: OS commerce 2.2

Author: Cerberus

Downloads: 5

 

Sources Available: .PSD;.PHP

 

Software Required:

Hosting with PHP4x and MySQL4x;

Apache only (on Unix/Freebsd/Linux/Windows);

osCommerce runs on most server specific configurations ranging from dedicated servers to shared servers that utilize different PHP configurations such as register_globals (should be ON) and safe_mode restrictions;

Adobe Dreamweaver 8+ (or any php-editor);

Adobe Photoshop CS+;

For uncompressing a template ZIP package:

WinZip 9+ (Windows);

Stuffit Expander 10+ (Mac)

 

 

OK, so now I know that I have a "2.2" installation, but was there any other information to be found?

 

Poking around in the forums, I found out how to get information about my server, including my OSCommerce version:

 

Going to the Administration section of my website, I clicked on TOOLS | SERVER INFO

 

Here's what I found:

 

osCommerce 2.2-MS2

 

Now I know that my particular installation is osCommerce 2.2-MS2

 

I also had a look at the main file for the installation (/catalog/index.php) and found that some version information is available in the first few lines.

 

Here's what I got:

 

#head index.php

<?php

/*

$Id: index.php,v 1.1 2003/06/11 17:37:59 hpdl Exp $

 

osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions

http :// www.oscommerce.com

 

Copyright © 2003 osCommerce

 

Released under the GNU General Public License

 

 

So we can see that the CVS version of this particular file is from 2003/06/11

 

2003!!? This code base is not exactly fresh

 

Now knowing that I was running the "MS2" version of OSCommerce 2.2, I started to look around for an upgrade path.

 

http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=en&...mp;aq=f&oq=

 

In this thread I came across a bunch of hopeless posts saying stuff like "get RC1, there's instructions inside" which was a little useful, but nothing else.

 

http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=en&...mp;aq=f&oq=

 

There's some better stuff in that thread, but nothing like what I was looking for (an official release from OSCommerce with patch files), this stuff was user contributed and maybe not right for my situation and/or code mix.

 

But I think the thread here says it all:

 

www.ez-oscommerce.com/oscommerce-support/index.php-t284069.html

 

Despairingly, I realized that an automated (or even semi-automated) solution was not to be had.

 

Manual upgrade is (and was) the only option ever available

 

Accepting my fate, I moved on to find the file(s) related to the MS2 -> RC1 upgrade.

 

Trolling for what seemed like HOURS, I finally found (using Google to search the OSCommerce site) the update file.

 

I then downloaded the archive to bring this beast to version RC1, which is this file:

 

oscommerce-2.2ms2-060817.tgz

 

You can find this file using Google, a la:

 

http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=en&...mp;aq=f&oq=

 

I then unpacked the archive and took a look at the files inside.

 

Noticing a file called CHANGELOG, I took a look at it:

 

ls -l CHANGELOG

-rw-r--r-- 1 webmaster webmaster 12808 Aug 17 2006 CHANGELOG

 

I then looked at its top:

#head CHANGELOG

$Id: $

 

osCommerce Changelog

Copyright © 2006 osCommerce

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

08/17/2006 osCommerce 2.2 Milestone 2 Update 060817

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Please review the update-20060817.txt file for the important changes made.

 

So now I know that this update will bring my installation to code level 060817

 

Now I also know that 060817 corresponds to 2006/08/17

 

So that means my installation is probably 030611. In sourceforge page there is a file called osCommerce 2.2-MS2 released (Sat, 12 Jul 2003 10:06:49 GMT)...note the date.

 

I want to upgrade to 060817 and the file related to that is called osCommerce 2.2 Milestone 2 060817 released (Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:43:43 GMT)...note the version number in the file name

 

Now that I know where I am and where I want to go, it's time to dig a little deeper into the HOW

 

Looking around, I found some promising instructions which I will include (and expand) in the next post:

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PART II

 

I found a very promising post while looking around that seems to offer a high-level overview of how to perform the upgrade of OSCommerce from 2.2-MS2 to 2.2-RC1.

 

It is available in this thread:

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/lofiversion/i...hp?t269024.html

 

Here it is:

 

evolutionwebinc

Jul 25 2007, 08:08 AM

UPDATE INSTRUCTIONS:

=========================

 

Prepare Data from OLD database.

 

This assumes clean install on both old and new and no contributions or modifications other than to the appearance.

 

1) Use phpMyAdmin to export data only, select type REPLACE and save to local file for use later. Make sure you have an off-line copy of the old catalog and a FULL backup of the database as well.

 

2) Rename the directory containing the old version.

 

3) Install new release as clean install with new database in directory with same name as the original installation.

 

4) Copy the original /images directory to the new installation.

 

5) RUN SQL on NEW database using phpMyAdmin.

--------------------------

 

INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, date_added) VALUES ('Product Quantities In Shopping Cart', 'MAX_QTY_IN_CART', '99', 'Maximum number of product quantities that can be added to the shopping cart (0 for no limit)', '3', '19', now());

 

 

alter table configuration modify configuration_title varchar(255) NOT NULL;

alter table configuration modify configuration_key varchar(255) NOT NULL;

 

--------------------------

 

6) RUN SQL using the previously prepared dump of the data from the old database.

 

7) Check the new installation. If all went correctly you should see your new installation populated with products and images and your customers should be restored. The layout will be as if a new installation at this point. To bring back the appearance of the original installation you may need to move additional old files to the new installation depending on where you made your changes. Some of these files may include:

 

/includes/language/...[ your language ]

english.php

index.php

privacy.php

shipping.php

conditions.php

 

... and any other file you may have modified. Test after each replacement.

 

/includes/... ( not all of these may have been changed, so them one at a time )

header.php

footer.php

application_top.php

application_bottom.php

column_left.php

column_right.php

 

8) Test again. Your new installation should now look like your original with all your products and images in place.

 

I have now done three consecutive upgrades using this process and they all worked fine.

 

This looks like a pretty good overview of what is required to upgrade OSCommerce 2.2-MS2 to OSCommerce 2.2-RC1. I'm going to follow each step and tell you how it went as I went along.

 

I think there is a little preparation missing in terms of getting ready for the upgrade which I am going to explain right here.

 

It appears to me that when you upgrade a OSCommerce installation code base there are four things to worry about:

 

1) Files that are new to the code base

2) Existing Files that are pristine (they have never been altered from the original installation code base)

3) Existing Files that are modified (they have been altered from the original installation code base)

4) Changes to the MySQL schema that may affect how information has been stored or is accessed

 

The easiest part of this upgrade (by far) is Files that are new to the code base.

 

Adding these files will not affect your installation in any way because your old code base is not aware of the existence of these files. You can add them all day long and not affect your existing OSCommerce implementation.

 

So the first thing to do when upgrading OSCommerce from 2.2-MS2 to 2.2-RC1 is to identify if any new files are being added by the OSCommerce Upgrade from 2.2-MS2 to 2.2-RC1 package.

 

This means generating a list of the files in the OSCommerce Upgrade from 2.2-MS2 to 2.2-RC1 package and then subtracting the file names from your existing installation from it. Anything left over is new.

 

You can generate a list of the files in your existing installation using the tree program:

 

I am NOT going to include my tree here as it will make this post very long.

 

Here's the last line:

 

110 directories, 1626 files

 

Now I am going to run a tree on the OSCommerce Upgrade from 2.2-MS2 to 2.2-RC1 package.

 

Here's the last line:

 

85 directories, 972 files

OK, looks like the update is smaller than the original code base

 

To generate a list of files to compare, use the tree -fi option to generate a list that can be easily compared between the two directories. In my case the two directories are:

 

www.authentic-closet.com/catalog

 

www.authentic-closet.com/upgrades/toRC1/oscommerce-2.2ms2-060817/catalog

 

The next post will talk about how I generated a difference listing between the two code bases and how I identified files that were new to the installation and could be added safely to my existing OSCommerce 2.2-MS2 installation without hurting anything.

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The easy way would have been to;

 

1. Install latest version of osCommerce

2. 1. buy the template. (I assume you still get the html files as well as the "oscommerce" implementation of them.)

3. Dump the oscommerce version of the template

4. Using skills learned over time, and some elbow grease, integrate the html template into your installed oscommerce. This can be done the real way using standard osCommerce, or you can save a bit of time by using STS (you've already spoken about this).

5. Done

 

OR

 

1. Find someone who is decent at osCommerce AND design.

2. Show them the template you like

3. Get them to quote a price to come near to the design, integrated to your install. The quote would probably be near to the TM price anyway, as there is not a lot of work involved for someone who knows what they are doing.

 

Easy...?

 

Had you done a little more research you would know that no-one who has any idea about how osCommerce works would have recommended you to buy from Template Monster ;)

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Thank you for your constructive (?) comments.

 

Question: Have you ever actually done this (upgraded from MS2->RC1->RC2) or are you speaking from a hypothetical vantage point and not from a "been there, done that" vantage point (as I am developing)?

 

I would prefer that you quote exact resources rather than generalized lists in your next posting. There's already enough fluff in this website, we don't need more:

 

1) WHO could I go to replicate the template?

2) WHERE are they?

3) HOW much does it cost?

4) How LONG would it take?

 

Please explain WHY templatemoster.com templates are no good. I'm sure they would like to know as well seeing as you are impugning their reputation without providing supporting facts.

 

FACT: The MS2 implementation I bought WORKED GREAT on php/mysql 4 (as advertised) and worked fine on php/mysql 5 after about 1 hour of research and adjusting code (mostly LEFT JOIN statement alteration to conform to MySQL 5 syntax).

 

FACT: The templated site I purchased from templatemonster.com worked within ONE DAY, is functioning RIGHT NOW with BUYERS actively PURCHASING goods from me.

 

FACT: I'm in business right now with templatemonster.com, which is more than can be said for either of your approaches.

 

FACT: templatemonster.com offered to upgrade my site for USD$30.00 - can you offer a cheaper provider?

 

When I complained about the age of their template, here's their email response, which I found quite reasonable and very professional.

 

We are very sorry for the inconvenience. We reported about this issue to both design and quality assurance departments, it will be fixed in the nearest time.

All the template information including version number and template requirements can be found at the template preview page: www.templatehelp.com/aff/preview.php?skin=21&i=9795

As you may see this info states the following: OS commerce 2.2, hosting with PHP4x and MySQL4x

 

All osCommerce template come with the latest stable version of the osCommerce engine available at the moment of creation, for this particular template it was osCommerce 2.2.

 

We also provide engine updates for extra fee, so if you like we'll update it for you for $30.

 

So, thanks anyways for your opinion. I'm sorry and please don't take it the wrong way, but your posting is typical of most posts in this forum...I mean, where's the beef? In my opinion there's no substance at all to your posting. All it appears to be is a high-level overview that boils down to nothing at all other than you basically saying:

 

1. break it and then figure out how to fix it the hard way by flailing around and developing "elbow grease"

 

or

 

2. hire someone else to do it

 

Sorry, I don't do things that way. I don't consider either of your options the "easy way" as the first option leaves me with a non-functional website for an indefinite period of time and the second option puts me into a buying cycle for an indefinite period of time and also leaves me at the mercy of a service provider and no further ahead in terms of understanding how OSCommerce is put together to boot. They both look like losers to me.

 

Neither of your methods would have given me a functioning site quickly and reliably on day 1, which is what I (and most people purchasing an OSCommerce templated site) want.

 

I think I'll continue to post my STEP BY STEP instructions for the benefit of people who are looking for a safe, completely documented way to upgrade their implementation of OSCommerce 2.2-MS2 to OSCommerce 2.2-RC1. What you have provided is definitely not that, in fact you provided nothing constructive at all.

 

Once I'm done, anyone will be able to understand how to update a Linux code base, whether it's OSCommerce, or anything else that's implemented on Linux using a zillion files with a SAFE METHOD, rather than 1. mashing code together and hoping for the best or 2. outsourcing.

 

I think you missed the point of this entire thread.

 

Thanks for playing.

 

----

 

The easy way would have been to;

 

1. Install latest version of osCommerce

2. 1. buy the template. (I assume you still get the html files as well as the "oscommerce" implementation of them.)

3. Dump the oscommerce version of the template

4. Using skills learned over time, and some elbow grease, integrate the html template into your installed oscommerce. This can be done the real way using standard osCommerce, or you can save a bit of time by using STS (you've already spoken about this).

5. Done

 

OR

 

1. Find someone who is decent at osCommerce AND design.

2. Show them the template you like

3. Get them to quote a price to come near to the design, integrated to your install. The quote would probably be near to the TM price anyway, as there is not a lot of work involved for someone who knows what they are doing.

 

Easy...?

 

Had you done a little more research you would know that no-one who has any idea about how osCommerce works would have recommended you to buy from Template Monster ;)

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If you read the forum rules, you will clearly see that the forum is not for installing templates or for problems with templates (even if one of the template providers is a sponsor).

 

The forum is only for the oscommerce downloaded from this site, and the contributions added here. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to provide directions for updating templates, you will need another website.

 

Burt is correct with what he says, if you can't see it, it is your problem.

 

As for TM, it is like a box of chocolates. You will never know what you will get.

 

As for fluff, you added more.

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Yes - I have upgraded shop from MS2 to RC2, and all in between. In fact, I first used osCommerce for my own selling site, before it was even known as osCommerce, and have succesfully upgraded that, and that in itself was not much of a big deal.

 

Next, option 2 in my previous post would have gotten you a working store, on RC2a (or whatever you have installed) on DAY ONE, with a theme that is not worse than you can pick up at Template Monster. it would also have cost you less money (assuming you paid the usual rate for a TM template). Option 1, well, with a little bit extra searching before jumping to a TM purchase, you could have learned how osCommerce works, how easy it is to take a html template and integrate.

 

I think you missed the the intent of my post, but that's understandable as you are not yet aware of just how poor a service provider TM is.

 

Please do continue your Step by Step thread.

 

It'll be very interesting to see how many commercial links you can get into your posts. It will also (hopefully) serve to show people who are thinking of purchasing a Template Monster, just how much works needs to be done, and how much expense to get that lovely look into an up-to-date version of osCommerce.

 

It is 100% obvious to me, that you did not do your research before purchasing. Caveat Emptor.

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And, as you asked specifically;

 

I would prefer that you quote exact resources rather than generalized lists in your next posting. There's already enough fluff in this website, we don't need more:

 

1) WHO could I go to replicate the template?

2) WHERE are they?

3) HOW much does it cost?

4) How LONG would it take?

 

1. Commercial Posts are not allowed in this forum.

2. Commercial Posts are not allowed in this forum.

3. Commercial Posts are not allowed in this forum.

4. Commercial Posts are not allowed in this forum.

 

However, assuming that you are asking about the template to which you linked, that is not more than a days work. It is certainly possible to get a days work from any number of osCommerce coders/designers/developers for less than the cost of that template for less than $210 (I believe you mentioned $180 + update fee of $30).

 

For anyone else reading, who has not read any of my numerous Template Monster posts, know my thoughts on TM;

 

1. Good looking

2. Poorly coded

3. Lack of support

4. Decent price

 

Overall, I say AVOID, unless you know enough about osCommerce to not need their help.

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One more thing, sorry !

 

On the likes of eBay etc, you will see packets of Template Monster template being sold. You MUST definitely avoid these. The reason why is that a number of TM templates use illegal images from the likes of Getty (a large provider of images for anyone not aware)...

 

If you buy a TM template direct from TM (or, of course, via a TM reseller), when Getty come knocking at your door wondering why you are using their image and wanting to charge you appropriately, you can deal direct with TM to get it sorted - as they now have "some" permission gained retrospectively for images.

 

Note: quote taken direct from Template Monster email;

You do not have to pay any fees. What you need to do is to take the image in question down and we will take care about the rest. Let me know when the image in question is offline. Feel free to request assistance in exchanging the image: we're ready to provide you with a licensed image.

 

Hence any illegal images must be taken down - and you can then get a different licensed image. However, at least you won't have to pay the Getty fee!

 

Whereas;

 

If you buy from eBay or other similar provider, you can expect TM to do nothing for you and you WILL pay Getty their fee (and you subsequently discontinue use of their imagery). And the fee is not small @ £968 (about 1800us$).

 

So, if you have to use a TM, be sure to buy from TM (or a reseller) and not from someone on an auction site.

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G Burton: Hey, your follow-on series of answers was quite detailed and constructive, thank you. That's the kind of stuff that I love people adding to threads I'm involved in, though I am not 100% sure I am in agreement with your statement regarding getting a site up and running quickly with either of your methods.

 

G. Burton: Furthermore, I recognize your experience with OSCommerce and longevity on this forum. Respect.

 

G. Burton: On a side note, I have a small addition to the ADMIN section of the RC2 codebase that I would like to give to the community, can you please have a look at it and help me to package it up so that I can post it into this place and not break any more of the rules of this joint?

 

To everyone else, sorry - I didn't realize how narrow this place is. Seeing as this forum is not for template-oriented upgrades not for discussion of commercial providers and basically only for DIY OSCommerce installations (WTF? Who does that when hundreds of templates are available for a couple hundred bucks?) I guess I'll stop falling foul of the rules of this place and talking about such things and basically take my marbles and play somewhere else.

 

For those of you who are actually looking for this information, not OSCommerce DIY experts and in desperate need of help with this problem: Sorry, www.oscommerce.com/forums isn't into helping you with your problems. You have to learn it the hard way. So, if you bought a template....try somewhere else. It looks to me like templatemonster.com will do it for 30 bucks if you bother to ask. Other places (elance.com, getafreelancer.com, etc) have similar pricing but quality and mileage may vary as do the vendors.

 

You can probably use Google to find the rest of this topic, which I will develop and post on my own website or at a more amenable website where I am free of the kinds of restrictions/censorship that www.oscommerce.com/forums imposes on its members (i.e. don't mention commercial providers, don't talk about templates, etc...)

 

Graham Leach, Co-Proprietor

Authentic Closet

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P.S. - I am not commercially affiliated with any of the websites mentioned in this thread (except my own).

 

I just figure that kind of information would be helpful to people - especially beginners - as it was helpful to me. I'm really not into withholding useful information.

 

I believe that these organizations give value for money and are of great use to those seeking immediate solutions, answers and prices.

 

If that's not www.oscommerce.com/forums's position, so be it.

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another arrogance that has not been seen here for sometime who began by introducing he himself or claiming as some kind of "expert" (which by the way, -knowledge about lamp is barely worthy mentioning by many here).

your information is in fact misleading instead of helpful because RC1 is out of date and replaced by rc2a.

if you so believe in *these organisations* you should pay for them to advertise on this forums (as seen at the top right).

i say you are arrogant because a forum moderator had edited your first post but you showed no regard and carried on posting external commercial links.

if you dont believe in the forum rules, then your days are numbered on this forum, which is my best advice to you.

commercial support - unProtected channel, not to be confused with the forum with same name - open to everyone who need some professional help: either PM/email me, or go to my website (URL can be found in my profile).

over 20 years of computer programming experience.

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Correction: what i referred to in my post above should have been lampp, not lamp. sometimes xampp is referred to as lampp. sorry for the mix-up mistake.

commercial support - unProtected channel, not to be confused with the forum with same name - open to everyone who need some professional help: either PM/email me, or go to my website (URL can be found in my profile).

over 20 years of computer programming experience.

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This place is very "narrow" and it is something I have argued against for the whole time that I have been a member. By disallowing mention of commercial providers, the community as a whole gets LESS choice, which I don't like. But the rules are what they are, I don't make them ;)

 

So, if you bought a template....try somewhere else

 

How about: "buy a template only if you know enough about osCommerce not to need any help with it".

 

Said that, here's a hypothetical situation;

 

Buy a template. It doesn't work. Come to this forum for help...

 

Why should anyone with the right skillset want to help fix it?

You've just spent perhaps $200 on something, isn't the onus on the vendor to make it right?

 

I believe that these organizations give value for money and are of great use to those seeking immediate solutions, answers and prices.

 

There are a number of more "true" people who are making money commercially and supporting the community. You could have gotten a one-off design, not a template for the same cost! Isn't that better value for money? A one-off design that is completed inside one day.

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G. Burton: Hat's off to you - you render quite balanced replies and the more I read them the more I like what I see. I think we got off on the wrong foot. I find myself in 100% agreement with you and I like what you've got to say - yes, within the box of the rules I believe we can have quite a bit of fun together in this place.

 

And yes, maybe $200 has been "wasted" but that's just a trifle, no?

 

As for the other poster(s) looking for a flame war - guys, I don't need to prove anything to you. I was around before LAMP was coined as a term. Go bait someone else...or better yet, post something other than your OPINION - post some CODE or a SOLUTION to something rather than your opinion of me (i.e. either put up or shut up).

 

Enough with the hot air from you folks. I'm not here to be everyone's friend, nor do I need to be.

 

Graham Leach, Co-Proprietor

Authentic Closet

----

 

This place is very "narrow" and it is something I have argued against for the whole time that I have been a member. By disallowing mention of commercial providers, the community as a whole gets LESS choice, which I don't like. But the rules are what they are, I don't make them ;)

 

 

 

How about: "buy a template only if you know enough about osCommerce not to need any help with it".

 

Said that, here's a hypothetical situation;

 

Buy a template. It doesn't work. Come to this forum for help...

 

Why should anyone with the right skillset want to help fix it?

You've just spent perhaps $200 on something, isn't the onus on the vendor to make it right?

 

 

 

There are a number of more "true" people who are making money commercially and supporting the community. You could have gotten a one-off design, not a template for the same cost! Isn't that better value for money? A one-off design that is completed inside one day.

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Hello,

 

I've been noticing people coming to my website looking for the STEP BY STEP instructions on:

 

How to upgrade from OSCommerce 2.2-MS1 to OSCommerce 2.2-RC1

 

or

 

How to upgrade from OSCommerce 2.2-MS1 to OSCommerce 2.2-RC2

 

I'd just like to thank my visitors and tell everyone that I've improved the formatting of the cut n' paste from here to there and it is now much more readable.

 

Here's the link for those of you who are looking for FREE guidance on what to do if you find yourself in this situation:

 

www.authentic-closet.com/upgrade.php

 

Best Regards,

 

Graham Leach, Co-Proprietor

Authentic Closet

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  • 1 month later...
I would prefer that you quote exact resources rather than generalized lists in your next posting. There's already enough fluff in this website, we don't need more:

 

1) WHO could I go to replicate the template?

2) WHERE are they?

3) HOW much does it cost?

4) How LONG would it take?

 

Please explain WHY templatemoster.com templates are no good.

 

Actually I quite agree with GBurton (look at that member number!) and was thinking the same thing myself. Why didn't you simply do a fresh install of rc2 and put the template into that? Or even more confusing- why did you "install" a template with old code when you had installed STS in your store? eeek

 

As for the answer to your questions: you could go to any freelance site and post a project, for free in most cases, and get bids from all over the world, some quite cheap (say $25-50 or lower) for someone to throw a new install on your server and whip out the template, or even make you a new one. I'm not sure if you could have gotten a refund from TM but I would have tried it myself.

 

Why TM templates are no good? Obviously because they are old and cause problems. Isn't that what your entire post was about? I think if you had posted your concerns here first, you might have gotten some suggestions about a faster implementation of new store w/old template, thoughts on your situation from someone else who experienced the same thing, or maybe some fluff or flames, or you could have gotten totally ignored, or, possibly, something else might have happened.

 

In any event, I totally agree with YOU that this particular store is very difficult to work with and the process of "comparing files" is just endless in order to accomplish sometimes even the smallest thing. I've been working with oscommerce since November and have had a hard time with it. I am in the process of creating a new store and one mod overwrites the other, then nothing works, etc etc. I recently posted in a contrib support forum only to have the guy tell me I'm supposed to compare every file in the catalog and figure it out. Well, first off, I don't do that if it's a new file that won't overwrite anything, duh. Second, I (try!) never to overwrite my server files with replacements until I do compare them to see if they are even needed or what. Sometimes they are not, because a lot of contribs actually contain some of the same sets of changes. But thirdly and most honestly, WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR? Why write up 45 Find and Replaces if you just want people to run winmerge all day? If I follow the instructions and something doesn't go right, I backtrack, but sometimes I have done everything fine and the stuff just doesn't work or produces errors on the page. They need to come up with some strict type of instruction format so that things are made clear all in the same manner, not all willy nilly like they are now.

 

I have gotten contributions with files missing, or worse yet downloaded supposed "missing files" for a contribution they were never a part of (headertags anybody?), or I see files included with no instructions about where to put them (different directories of catalog files that you have to figure out which is what you need), or say 'Upload these 2 files from this directory' and there are more than 2 files. Just every loose end seems to be untied and blowing in the wind. I actually rewrote instructions for a contrib because I had installed it before and was sick of reading the bad directions.

 

I spend hours following every detail in the instructions, which are often wrong and ask you to search for things that don't exist or include extra brackets or even nonsensical commands, and I am still baffled by the total mahoney found in even the most popular mods. For example: yesterday I saw this one. In the middle of 20 instructions that all resemble

 

///////

 

Find:

(this code)

 

///////

 

and Replace with:

(other code)

 

///////

 

someone decided to write a

 

***********

 

Statement~ looks like (code)

 

Should add (certain function)

 

***********

 

What? lol

 

 

- Yes I figured it out but damn I am not a php wizard, so it's incredibly difficult for me. I don't understand why they don't use smarty templates or something and why most (what I would consider) "normal" functions don't even exist in the clean install (like maintenance mode, add/delete boxes, change template/skin/site colors, etc - no depts on contact form - no captcha - the list goes on and on like Michael Schenker B)) and dealing with the taxes is just a nightmare.

 

Things could be made a lot easier and contributions could be moderated in some way to delete the ones that don't work or contain bad instructions somehow (Report button etc.) and the admin panel could be expanded to control the whole store instead of everybody filtering through includes all day to try to find something.

 

I think your instructions were very helpful and will be appreciated by many, which is what this forum is all about, and if you completed your task in only a day, then you did very well indeed. ok well I got to get back to work. Guess what on.

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ok I just went to your site. Basically after 2 pages of ranting, you post someone else's instructions (found here) and then as you promise to give your own instructions, "The next post will talk about how I generated a difference listing between the two code bases and how I identified files that were new to the installation and could be added safely to my existing OSCommerce 2.2-MS2 installation without hurting anything," the story ends. Oops! :rolleyes:

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