OsCommerce

A basic guide on how to install osCommerce.

Foreword
OsCommerce was founded around year 2000 by Harald Ponce de Leon from Germany. His idea was to create an E-commerce system in which all could be involved to design and program the system under a license called the GNU General Public License which basically means that it is free for all and even for commercial use.

Much has happened since then and those who design and program Oscommerce today have become much better, so the system is very stable and secure in my opinion.

Disadvantages of Oscommerce

Although this is one of the best platforms for e-commerce the system has some drawbacks that you will notice, just changing a small picture may require excessive coding.

There are some good tools for this called for the STS (Simple template system) which is a "Template" system for Oscommerce. But since it was added afterwards, it's not 100% compatible with the system which may result in some modules not interact.

Benefits of Oscommerce
Is many and ones you learn the system you will be surprised how much you can do with it.

So how should I proceed?
If you decided to build your store in Oscommerce which is recommend, you should ask yourself if you want to learn the system, or if you simply want to sell goods.

If you choose to focus on selling goods
you will probably need to hire help to get your store going. Although Oscommerce is a complete system, it is far from complete. After you install your store (which is advanced for a beginner), you probably need a few modules installed and they are more difficult to install than the actual store. (Available to download on www.oscommerce.com)
The next step is to hire someone to take care of the layout since a standard Oscommerce store doesn’t look good.

If you want to learn the system
you have an exciting task ahead of you. Here are some good tips.

Start to familiarize yourself with Oscommerce website, where you'll find very good forums that you can ask questions at. And you should also take a look at the "Contributions page" where you'll find over 5000 modules that can be installed for your store, you will also find some modules created by Mindsparx "Mindsparx" modules.

After you download the program it has to be installed. Note that if you purchase a finished design template it is the one you should use instead of the version you downloaded.

This is what you need to install a store. (Will not go too deep as it gets too complicated)

Web hosting that supports PHP (the programming language Oscommerce is built in) and at least 1 mysql database (the database used by Oscommerce) Most hosting have this
Domain name, this can usually be purchased at the same time as your hosting.
The program that you download from http://www.oscommerce.com /solutions/downloads Or purchased from us or others.
A pantry filled with coffee and patience.

You can build a shop locally as we do and then send it up to your server. To download "Wamp server, install it and then make it work is difficult, and this is something we won’t go through here.

What knowledge is needed?
To install a store it is not required too much besides this guide, but if you want to dig in to the codes you will need to have some of this:

Computer skills
Basic HTML knowledge
Basic PHP and database management
Understanding CSS
Basic Java knowledge
Understand what FTP means and how to set the rights (chmod) and send files in binary form (We go through this further down)
Manage Programs such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop
Basic knowledge of brewing coffee

How does a script like this work?
(Easily explained). OsCommerce is built on a free programming language called PHP, PHP is an extension of the traditional programming language HTML used when building websites, the major difference is that PHP is a server side script that converts PHP to HTML on a server.
PHP's best friend is called MySql it is a database language that’s also free. Together they are the cornerstones of Oscommerce, everything that happens in your shop when it is running ends up in the database in form of orders, reviews and such.

Installing Oscommerce
The first thing we need to do is to send up the files to your server, open your FTP program (download FileZilla if you do not have any good FTP program, it's free)

Note that when you send your files to the server it should be done in binary mode,(Set up your FTP to do so) Send up all the files that are contained in Catalog folder (Admin, includes… etc. about 50 visible files and folders)

Meanwhile, create a database through your Cpanel or similar. When all files are up and the database is created, navigate to your domain name eg www.dittdoman.se and the installation will begin, this is pretty easy, just follow the instructions.

Database server, usually localhost
Username is your user name for the database
Password is your password for the database
Database Name is your Database name created in your Cpanel for example.

Then follow the instructions and the installation is complete.

Fix warnings
The first thing you see is some warning messages when you visit your store the first time, one warning is that the installation folder is still on your server. Delete the entire folder with your ftp program.

The second warning is a little trickier, configure.php file located in the includes folder is writable, which is not too good because others can access it, to lock it can be difficult depending on your host. The idea is to give rights 444 to the file which means that it can only be read. This is also called to chmod a file.
To do this, open your ftp program (Filezilla) and right click on includes.php which is on the server in the includes folder and then select "File attributes" depending on which language you have, then change the right to 444. If this is not working you can try to do this in your Cpanel or contact your host.

Done … but what you have now is hardly something you want to sell from. You need to sort out the layout and probably install a few more modules depending on what you are selling.

But before you start filling your store with new modules you should find out which one is the hardest to install and start with that since then you don’t need to worry about overwriting files. which saves a lot of time.

Remember that the more modules you install the more difficult it becomes since you often change the same. And remember you do not need all the features you think you need, most of your customer wants a peaceful experience when they are shopping and circulating products and flashing texts can scare them off,

Here is a few complex modules that should be installed first (if you need them)

Discount coupons
Extra photos
Shop without account
Master products
STS system

Then you should install our module Mindsparx_Admin for a better administration it can be found here:
http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/6440

Another thing you must consider is whether you should design a shop or buy a complete STS template or clean Oscommerce template. If you will buy a template then you should install it first before you install any modules, it will be much more complicated to install a template in a store filled with modules.

Done…

I will probably write a design guide as soon as i have some more time over. It will be about how to design your store.

Until then, Good luck
/ Janne.K