Using templates & image modules

[Guest]

Evening all,

This is my first post after being introduced to oscommerce by a work friend.

I am enjoying learning about this product & finding great info on this site, however i have my first question.

 

After spending a few hours messing about with image modules from here that will give me more options with the pictures, my question is,

I have purchased a template for my friends mums website and installed it - it's all working fine but she wants a bigger pop up image and/or closer/rollover images - so i read up on here and found a couple of contributions that looked like they would do the trick.

After following the instructions to the letter (using compare tools etc etc) I ran the sql database script at the end (Successfully) but when i look at the site it was all messed up and had php errors everywhere :( (I thought something maybe a miss when having to change the stylesheet.css extensively?)

So can contributions be used with templates from the likes of monster template or are they designed just for the std out the box "shop"???

 

If that is the case, fair enough, but is there a funky little script i can add to the correct area in my "templated" site to increase the default image size or cause a rollover effect???

 

Thanks for any help in advance :)

 

Highfx

[Guest]

Evening all,

This is my first post after being introduced to oscommerce by a work friend.

I am enjoying learning about this product & finding great info on this site, however i have my first question.

 

After spending a few hours messing about with image modules from here that will give me more options with the pictures, my question is,

I have purchased a template for my friends mums website and installed it - it's all working fine but she wants a bigger pop up image and/or closer/rollover images - so i read up on here and found a couple of contributions that looked like they would do the trick.

After following the instructions to the letter (using compare tools etc etc) I ran the sql database script at the end (Successfully) but when i look at the site it was all messed up and had php errors everywhere :( (I thought something maybe a miss when having to change the stylesheet.css extensively?)

So can contributions be used with templates from the likes of monster template or are they designed just for the std out the box "shop"???

 

If that is the case, fair enough, but is there a funky little script i can add to the correct area in my "templated" site to increase the default image size or cause a rollover effect???

 

Thanks for any help in advance :)

 

Highfx

 

 

Fairly new to oscommerce as well, but I've successfully moded my store which uses a template. I've added lightbox, SEO, shipping, supertracker, etc and many more contributions manly without issue.

 

Most of the problems I've had with the template is where the base oscommerce code is badly hacked or removed, i.e. my site doesn't use the left and right columns at all so anything that relies on these is difficult to use.

 

The most annoying problem I had with the template I use was that it was based on MS2 and I didn't realise how time consuming it would be to upgrade it to RC2a. Got there eventually, but much harder than expected.

 

Now that I've got a basic understanding of PHP syntax it's getting easier to mod the store further but I'm still learning.

 

Most important thing by far though is to backup before you try anything. If the mod or contribution doesn't work restore the files you changed or restore the database.

 

Good luck!

[spooks]

Unfortunatly templates contain non-standard often out-dated code, so can be very difficult to alter except by the template writer.

You best bet is only get templates where support is provided & they have regular updates, but most do niether.

 

Template Monster produce some very bad code, so a bad choice, especially if you wish to mod.

[burt]

Unfortunatly templates contain non-standard often out-dated code, so can be very difficult to alter except by the template writer.

You best bet is only get templates where support is provided & they have regular updates, but most do niether.

 

Template Monster produce some very bad code, so a bad choice, especially if you wish to mod.

 

Agree 100% with this.

 

If you are new to osCommerce you should not be using a template - get to know "standard" osCommerce first.

[Guest]

Although I agree that templates are not the best place to start, I also think the standard Oscommerce layout is really bad, so it's a difficult choice.

[Hotclutch]

Although I agree that templates are not the best place to start, I also think the standard Oscommerce layout is really bad, so it's a difficult choice.

 

The look or layout of a new Oscommerce installation is far easier to change than to undo the code changes of a template.

[Guest]

The look or layout of a new Oscommerce installation is far easier to change than to undo the code changes of a template.

 

 

I think it depends. A lot of people have no coding experience at all and find even the simplest of changes impossible, so they go for a template.

 

I started with the standard Oscommerce site and then went for a template as the graphical design of a template can be very good, even though the coding is poor. I didn't appreciate what this meant at first, but after spending a week trying to make sense of the template I wasn't going to give up!

 

I've little to no experience with HTML / PHP prior to looking at Oscommerce a couple of weeks ago, but I have background which includes a bit of programming in various languages, so it's more the syntax that's confusing to me than anything else.

 

What would be great is a standard Oscommerce release that includes some of the best contributions, hints and tips as it appears to me that the basic site you get is not really that good. It seems a shame that there are a lot of people using Oscommerce but other than the great contributions no one is moving the base product forward.