Intergrating my shop into my website

[JonathanPijnenburg]

Hello everybody!

first,thanks for opening this topic and listening to my question(s)!

 

I run this Tshirt-brand, Felzmade.com. The shop is from spreadshirt.net, and i included it in a Iframe (http://felzmade.com/shop.html). Now that i'm almost 18, I want to take the step to make it into a real company. And i need a good webshop for that. As this wil be V2 of the first website i've ever build, it all seems really scary and confusing.

 

That's why i made his topic. I hope to be able to ask questions in this topic while on my quest of making a webshop with Oscommerce. I'll try to search first tough before asking to much stupid questions!

 

My first question; Is it possible to include Oscommerce into my website withouth using a Iframe? Building the graphics i've got around the (very confusing) code? I really don't like Iframes. Or is the best option for me to strip down the shop and place it into my website with a Iframe, like i did with the Spreadshirt store? Or what would be the best option for a newbie like me, with only html&css knowledge?

 

Second, i installed the store, and chose for the folder 'Felzmade.com/shop/'. When i log into the admin panel and go to Catalog, it gives me the error 'Error: Catalog images directory does not exist: /home/felzmade/public_html/catalog/images/'. How can i tell osCommerce to look inside /shop/images instead?

 

Thanks alot in advance!

 

Thanks for reading and sorry if my questions are stupid,

 

Jonathan

[♥mdtaylorlrim]

 

Second, i installed the store, and chose for the folder 'Felzmade.com/shop/'. When i log into the admin panel and go to Catalog, it gives me the error 'Error: Catalog images directory does not exist: /home/felzmade/public_html/catalog/images/'. How can i tell osCommerce to look inside /shop/images instead?

 

The two files names configure.php are the files that store the paths to various directories. Take a look see if you can interpret that file.

[JonathanPijnenburg]

Thanks for your fast reply!

 

I read those two configure.php files. I think i could understand a bit, and i the ''catalog'' if it refered to the directory to shop. I think it find the right map now, thanks! :)

 

only a new error occured.. "Error: Catalog images directory is not writeable: /home/felzmade/public_html/shop/images/". Does this have to do with those 644 to 777 codes? I changed those for the configure.php, maibe i have to do it there too?

 

Jonathan

[♥mdtaylorlrim]

 

only a new error occured.. "Error: Catalog images directory is not writeable: /home/felzmade/public_html/shop/images/". Does this have to do with those 644 to 777 codes? I changed those for the configure.php, maibe i have to do it there too?

 

Yes, the web server process needs to be able to write to the images directory. When you add a product and upload an image it is actually written by the web server, not you.

 

DO NOT change the permissions on the configure.php files to writable by anyone but you. They need to be read by anyone (the web server), but only writable by yourself.

[JonathanPijnenburg]

Okay. So does anyone might have a idea what to change to fix the error that shows up in red on the screen?

 

And okay, i didn't change the permission :)

 

I'm going to try to find some tutorials on how to edit the visuals of the store.

 

Thanks again for your response!

 

Jonathan

[JonathanPijnenburg]

(sorry for double post)

 

Nevermind! Got it fixed!

 

Tough i still don't know where to start with the design. I understand to edit the headers & stylesheet etcetera.. but would it be possible to fit my webdesign around this? or should i just use a Iframe?

[MrPhil]

only a new error occured.. "Error: Catalog images directory is not writeable: /home/felzmade/public_html/shop/images/". Does this have to do with those 644 to 777 codes? I changed those for the configure.php, maibe i have to do it there too?

Whoa! Directories are normally 755. In some cases, you may have to change selected directories to 775 or even 777 in order for PHP (the store code) to be able to write to them. 777 is certainly a security risk on a shared server, and 775 can have problems, so change those directories back to 755 when done uploading.

 

Files are normally 644. Your configure.php files will give you a warning message that they are writable, so when you're done fooling with them, change them to 444 (read-only). 666 files may be needed in some cases, but are a security risk -- change them back to 644 ASAP.

 

-- setting permissions

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=327395&view=findpost&p=1443272

 

Since you're obviously a beginner at running a website, here are some other links you'll need:

-- 1054 errors (MySQL version 5 problems)

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/335136-osc-and-mysql-5-1054-errors

-- 500 error causes

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/345637-internal-server-error/page__view__findpost__p__1442374

-- IE8 emulate IE7

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/347247-tep-image-button-problem-with-internet_explorer/page__gopid__1449869entry1449869

-- ereg and session deprecated functions (PHP 5.3 and up code changes needed)

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/341737-function-ereg-replace-is-deprecated/page__p__1434612__hl__eregi%20deprecated__fromsearch__1entry1447311

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/342525-page-script-error/page__p__1430745entry1430745

-- cannot modify header

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/350012-error-in-all-page-submits/page__gopid__1467801entry1467801

-- navigation history bug

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=346007

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=168369

-- error log clogged with spurious error messages:

If you don't have your own "error handler"/"error document"/"error page" files defined, and the system is using the default handlers when you get, say, a 404 error (/catalog/ not found), it throws a 404 that it couldn't find the 404 handler! Not critical, but if you'd like to get rid of these extra 404 messages, define your own error handlers. To minimize the number of unnecessary error messages cluttering up your account log, you should supply a set of Error Pages for your account: /400.shtml, /401.shtml, /403.shtml, /404.shtml, and /500.shtml at a minimum, along with a /robots.txt (requested by every search bot) and a /favicon.ico (requested by every browser). If you have cPanel, it has a button to produce the *.shtml Error Pages ("Error pages") -- you can customize them all you want with additional HTML code. /robots.txt can be empty until you figure out what you want to put in it. Any "paint" program can produce a favicon for you (16x16 ICON format). Having these seven files will greatly reduce the clutter in your system error log, enabling you to see real errors that you need to address.

[JonathanPijnenburg]

Thanks so much!

That clears alot up. I do have those /401.shtml files and a favicon. I'm going to look into the Robots.txt thing!

 

A new question.. a friend talked to me, and adviced me to drag the Oscommerce webshop into my own website with the <?php require() ; ?> tag. He told me i had to delete some things in my webstore code to make it work. But then he had to go. So i have no idea how to make the Oscommerce page into a .php document that isnt a webpage for itself! could anybody help me? I suppose i need to remove the <html> and </html>, and the <body></body> tags because otherwise there would be two bodies and two html documents?

 

Thanks alot in advance!

 

Jonas

[MrPhil]

No, what your friend advised isn't going to work. osC is intended to be a complete website itself, not a subset of another page. It's not going to work. If you want osC to be a section of your site (say, enter your site with its own home page, and then take a link to the store), that's no problem. You install osC into its own directory somewhere under the rest of your site (say, /store). Your link is to /store/index.php. You will need to adjust your configure.php entries to point to the right place.

 

Sorry for not getting back sooner, but today is the first day that the forum will let me see your reply!

[bkellum]

Thanks so much!

That clears alot up. I do have those /401.shtml files and a favicon. I'm going to look into the Robots.txt thing!

 

A new question.. a friend talked to me, and adviced me to drag the Oscommerce webshop into my own website with the <?php require() ; ?> tag. He told me i had to delete some things in my webstore code to make it work. But then he had to go. So i have no idea how to make the Oscommerce page into a .php document that isnt a webpage for itself! could anybody help me? I suppose i need to remove the <html> and </html>, and the <body></body> tags because otherwise there would be two bodies and two html documents?

 

Thanks alot in advance!

 

Jonas

 

 

Jonas,

 

Another option would be to use the Simple Template System (STSv4.6) and use your existing web pages as templates for osCommerce. Doing it this way would actually allow you to keep your current site and add in osCommerce functionality to it. This is a very common approach with a lot of STS users.