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Posted

I've taken over an OSCommerce. I've done some OSCommerce and do understand it, but I have little familiarity with the huge number of contributions and the side-effects of using them together.

 

The site doesn't have some things it needs, but I've upgraded functionality sufficiently for the customer to use it effectively. Now, I need to take a look at longer range plans and determine which combination of contributions to use. Your thoughts and suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

The most critical issue is the ability to add more than 9 extra pages to the site because I have some pages that need to be added and I don't want to clean up the extra pages that are there until I have decided whether to do the more-than-9-pages hack on Extra Info Pages or go to something else.

 

I'm not particularly wedded to any of the contributions on the site except for STS and SPPC. I could even give up STS if there were a good enough reason, but I haven't seen anything else that does what it does.

 

Here's the site for you to look at. Please note that it is in better shape than when I got it, but needs much more work. Also please note that the images are large because the owner wants them that way. Since I fixed up the category and product pages to handle the larger images, sales have picked-up, so apparently, he's correct.

 

Xeonix

 

Here are my thoughts on the subject. I would be most grateful for your thoughts and suggestions.

 

I have some goals for the site and need to make some decisions before doing much more. I added a couple of contributions as quick fixes. (Define Mainpage and Subcategory Textboxes - because they were easy to install and I was confident they wouldn't scew-up other stuff.)

 

It uses STS and SPPC, which are the only contribution I'd prefer to keep, so I'm going to layout what I need here:

 

My concern is a set of contributions that work well together without a lot of hacking or side-effects.

 

1. I need to do the proper SEO URL and tag stuff:

 

  • The site currently has Ultimate SEO URL's installed, but almost every option is turned off and I'm not going to start turning stuff on until I understand how I'm going to test it. (There's a history that tells me I need to be careful with this.)
  • Site Needs a sitemap
  • Bill Kellum, who has been very helpful, suggested HTC SEO
  • Tools that transparently work would be better than one's requiring separate admin tasks to keep the content up to date, but not at the expense of reliability
  • So, what's a good combination of SEO tools?

 

2. Site has significant editing requirements:

 

  • We need more than 10 extra pages
  • Currently using Extra Info Pages
  • We could use the more-than-10-pages hack on Extra Info Pages
  • Article Manager would do the trick, as a replacement for Extra Info Pages
  • Article manager has the added advantage of built in cross-selling - which is the reason for the extra pages.
  • Page Editor looks like it would do all of the editing, but again, it doesn't have the cross selling built into Article Manager.
  • I think we can turn off dates, authors, etc. in Article Manager, so it could be used to create the needed extra pages that would look like pages created in Extra Info Pages.
  • We're also using Define Mainpage to edit the home page from admin.
  • Define Mainpage needs an html editor.
  • We're using Subcategory Textboxes to edit blurbs on category and sub-category pages
  • Subcategory Textboxes needs an html editor
  • Extra Info Pages uses FCKEditor. Article Manager uses the HTMLArea Editor.
  • We need to decide on ONE html editor which is reliable and easy to use
  • The html editor should be one that can be easily attached to textboxes in the Admin area as needed.

 

 

3. Content Delivery Network

 

  • We will be using a Content Delivery Network to serve the images
  • Images will be pulled by the CDN.
  • This requires changing image urls to the CDN URL.
  • I haven't seen any contributions that support this
  • Also, whatever is done cannot screw up the SEO stuff.

 

4. Summary:

 

  • What contributions do we use for a complete SEO solution?
  • Do we hack Extra Info Pages to handle more than 9 pages or go with Article Manager, or something else?
  • If we went to Article Manager, will it allow editing of a section of the home page similar to Define Mainpage?
  • We need one html editor for all admin wysiwyg editing tasks. Which html editor will work with all of the contributions it needs to work with?
  • Are there other contributions I've missed that would work better than the one's I've mentioned here?
    [*}What about changing image URL's to point to the Content Delivery Network? No, we don't want to use Amazon S3!

 

5. Shortest Path:

 

The shortest path could be to hack Extra Info Pages, pick an html editor and install it on Define Mainpage and Subcategory Textboxes. But, which html editor to use is the thing I'm most uncomfortable with. FCK Editor is already instealled, so I suppose I could dig in and figure out how to initialize it on the other admin textboxes that need it. But, that would mean giving up the cross-selling on the extra pages, which Article Manger has. So?????

Posted

4. Summary:

 

  • What contributions do we use for a complete SEO solution?
  • Do we hack Extra Info Pages to handle more than 9 pages or go with Article Manager, or something else?
  • If we went to Article Manager, will it allow editing of a section of the home page similar to Define Mainpage?
  • We need one html editor for all admin wysiwyg editing tasks. Which html editor will work with all of the contributions it needs to work with?
  • Are there other contributions I've missed that would work better than the one's I've mentioned here?
    [*}What about changing image URL's to point to the Content Delivery Network? No, we don't want to use Amazon S3!

For the recommended list of SEO contributions, see the link in my signature.

I recommend Information Pages over Extra Info Pages.

Article Manager doesn't change text on the home page like Define Mainpage does.

FCKEditor and TinyMCE anywhere are the most compatible. TinyMCE is easier to install but requries additions so I recommend FCKEditor.

 

Both Article Manager and Information Pages will work with Header Tags SEO and Ultimate SEO V2.2d allowing you to SEO the pages they create.

Support Links:

For Hire: Contact me for anything you need help with for your shop: upgrading, hosting, repairs, code written, etc.

All of My Addons

Get the latest versions of my addons

Recommended SEO Addons

Posted

For the recommended list of SEO contributions, see the link in my signature.

I recommend Information Pages over Extra Info Pages.

Article Manager doesn't change text on the home page like Define Mainpage does.

FCKEditor and TinyMCE anywhere are the most compatible. TinyMCE is easier to install but requries additions so I recommend FCKEditor.

 

Both Article Manager and Information Pages will work with Header Tags SEO and Ultimate SEO V2.2d allowing you to SEO the pages they create.

 

Thank you for your clear and complete response.

 

I quickly reviewed the SEO stuff and it looks like just the ticket.

 

Is this the Information Pages you are referring to? Contribution

 

If this is the Information Pages you were talking about, it looks like I can edit the homepage, similarly to Define Mainpage, edit blubs on the category and subcategory pages, similar to Subcategory Textboxes, and add additional pages. I'm guessing that I could use Information Pages to create versions of About Us, Contact Us, etc. that Extra Info Pages handles.

 

That would eliminate Subcategory Textboxes, Define Mainpage, and Extra Info Pages - which would likely simplify Admin navigation and be simpler to maintain.

 

HOWEVER: I haven't found any examples, screenshots, or anything else to give me a better idea what Information Pages can do.

 

QUESTION: Are you aware of an automated cross-selling contribution that can be added to Information Pages that is similar to what Article Manager has?

 

The alternative would be to keep Define Mainpage and Subcategory Textboxes, dump Extra Info Pages, and add Article Manager.

 

I'm wondering about the advantages of using Information Pages vs. Article Manager as I've described.

 

The decision may come down to whether or not there's a cross-selling contribution for Information Pages.

 

Since FCKEditor is already installed, I think I'll follow your advice and stick with it. I've installed it on various CMS's, etc., so it shouldn't be too difficult.

  • 5 weeks later...
Posted

For the recommended list of SEO contributions, see the link in my signature.

I recommend Information Pages over Extra Info Pages.

Article Manager doesn't change text on the home page like Define Mainpage does.

FCKEditor and TinyMCE anywhere are the most compatible. TinyMCE is easier to install but requries additions so I recommend FCKEditor.

 

Both Article Manager and Information Pages will work with Header Tags SEO and Ultimate SEO V2.2d allowing you to SEO the pages they create.

 

Hi, Jack,

 

I am an amature on codes or oscommerce, however, learning. I've just recently installed oscommerce on my localhost, using xampp, and installed your fantastic contribution Header Tags SEO. I've also downloaded and installed (followed the documentation) tinyMCE, which is easy to install for a dummy like me. But when I start to add new product, the error message appears:

 

"Warning: include(includes/javascript/tiny_mce/general.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\htdocs\oscommerce\admin\categories.php on line 412

 

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'includes/javascript/tiny_mce/general.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\xampp\php\pear\') in C:\xampp\htdocs\oscommerce\admin\categories.php on line 412"

 

I've checked all the files in tiny_mce, there isn't a general.php. I've searched online for solutions, but it seems nobody had such a problem. Could you please help me? I am actually runing the online shop and need to go through this.

Posted

I've checked all the files in tiny_mce, there isn't a general.php. I've searched online for solutions, but it seems nobody had such a problem. Could you please help me? I am actually runing the online shop and need to go through this.

You need to download the TineyMCE Anywhere contribution. It has the file you need.

Support Links:

For Hire: Contact me for anything you need help with for your shop: upgrading, hosting, repairs, code written, etc.

All of My Addons

Get the latest versions of my addons

Recommended SEO Addons

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