Juto Posted May 19, 2010 Posted May 19, 2010 After some years of experience, I have found this to be very useful: 1) Make yourself familiar with the install procedure. 2) Make yourself familiar with the use of htaccess files, for the catalog and the admin folder. This is the first step in securing your shop against hackers and the like. Create two files: catalog_htaccess.txt and admin_htacces.txt 3) -Find an available domain name for your shop, which should not be cryptic. -Find a reliable web host, cheap is cheap, professionals are not. Make sure you are allowed to use htaccess-files. -Remember: You can repoint your site to another host, but you can not change your registrar. -When your domain exist, re-read the install instructions once again. -If the host offers installation, make sure they have the latest version of OScommerce. -Before installation, define the name of the data base, its userid and password. And the userid and password for the first administrator. 4) Install a ftp-program which supports SSH and SFTP, and a good ASCII editor on your pc. 5) Setup your ftp-program so you can access your site. Have the accounts id and password ready. 6) Perform the installation of OScommerce as per instructions or have it done by your host. 7) Immidiately ftp to your site and copy the two files catalog_htaccess.txt and admin_htacces.txt to their respective folders. Rename them to .htaccess. 8) Test your site in your browser, preferable Firefox. FF is, with its addons, a very good tool in designing/debugging. 10) Now, is the time to take a full backup of your site. Use cpanel, its a lot faster. Store the backup in a backup folder on your pc. 11) Continue with security, meaning follow the advice given in the forum (security topic). 12) Once your site is secured and functioning, take a new backup over writing the old one. Never, ever remove this backup. It can become your "life saver". 13) Now, the fun part begins... Start by making the catalog side W3C-compliant, (its a topic for this). 14) Play with the stylesheet.css in the catalog folder and see the effect on your shop. 15) Now is the time to get inspired, look into http://www.csszengarden.com/ or Google. If you can master the stylesheet, edit some html and php code, you are all set to make an impression on your customers. 16) Now its time for a better popup for your images. I will not recommend one over another, its about personal taste. 17) I also recommend to make the admin side W3C-compliant. 18) Before you go alive with your shop, you really should install a good SEO contribution. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above is what I have done for my demo/development site. True, i has taking a lot of time, but beleive me its worth it. Regards Sara Contributions: http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/8010 http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/8204 http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/8681
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