Installing Os Commerce Templates

This section deals with installing OsCommerce templates. Many useful tips are included. Please use the navigation buttons below or main navigation menu to browser through topics.

How to install an osCommerce template

Once you have downloaded a ZIP file, you should unpack the archive and save the unpacked files to any folder on your computer.

Your archive manager will create an "OSC" folder inside your unpacked root directory. You should rename it using "shop" as the new name. Then copy it to the root catalogue of your web server.

Type "http:// your_site/shop/" in your browser ("your_site" - is an address of your web server).

If you have any problems with your browser, try "http://your_site/shop/install/". Check for the closing slash at the end of the URL, as some of the configurations of the web servers may not process URLs without the closing slash.

Click "Install" to get the next step.

For the correct installation check in both matchboxes ("Import Catalogue Database" and "Automatic Configuration") and press Continue.

Because osCommerce uses a database to store data, you should fill in all the fields to provide the information on your database server. osCommerce installing script will import values from the file "web_root/shop/install/oscommerce.sql" to the database that you point to ("web_root" is the path to your web server's root catalogue).

• Database Server - your database server address
• Username - the name of the user who has rights to create and change databases and tables
• Password - password of the user
• Database Name - the name of your osCommerce database
• Session Storage - special storage to keep sessions' values

Press "Continue" for the next step. osCommerce will process the test connection to the database server now. You will be informed about the results.  If osCommerce fails to process the connection, then you should get in touch with your administrator to check your server settings.

Press "Continue now". osCommerce will add the values to the database now. This process may take several minutes.

Check the osCommerce configuration settings. It's recommended to keep these settings unless you have to change them. After checking the settings press "Continue".

We recommend that you save the settings with the form but create a new account (user) for OsCommerce.

To finish the installation press "Continue". You will be shown a notification about the successful installation.

To have a look at your on-line shop, press "Catalogue".

You will have 2 or 3 notifications at the top of your browser. To hide them you should

1. delete the catalogue install from "web_root/shop" folder
2. mark "web_root/shop/includes/configure.php" file as read only.

To make any changes to your on-line shop, you should type "http://your_site/shop/admin/" with your browser.

We recommend that you rename your admin folder with any other secret name (secret_name) and enter the admin section using this name "http://your_site/shop/secret_name/"

Setting up your existing shop without re-installing

Ok, let's see how to install our OsCommerce Template on your existing shop without re-installing.

Open your OsCommerce shop on the server and open the OsCommerce package you received.

What you have to do:

1. Copy all the files from the root folder (excluding folders).
2. Copy /images folder
3. Open /includes folder and copy header.php, footer.php, column_left.php and column_right.php files
4. Copy /includes/boxes folder
5. Open /includes/classes folder and copy boxes.php file
6. Open /languages/english folder and copy /images folder
7. Open /languages/espanol folder and copy /images folder
8. Open /languages/german folder and copy /images folder
9. Open /includes/modules folder and copy product_listing.php and new_products.php files

That's all! Let's check the results...

Now you can see our OsCommerce template on your existing shop!

Changing the number of the featured products

Q: How do I change the number of featured products on the front page?

A: The number of columns shown in the Featured Products section of the front page of the shop can be changed by editing the "includes/modules/new_products.php" file. The number should be changed appropriately. The default is '2', which will show three columns because the counter starts at 0.

The following (modified) code will show 2 columns:

How to update images

You should open your PSD file in Adobe photoshop. Go to "sourcespsd" folder and there you will find all the PSD files for your OsCommerce Template.

You can edit any text using text tool (hotkey "T"). To add a new image open image file and then just drag'n'drop it to your template opened in photoshop. When you make all the changes to your PSD file you have to save the slices that have been modified. To do it press ctrl + alt + shift + s (or go to "File-->Save For Web") to call save for web window. Then select all slices that you want to save (hold shift for multiple selections). Press save. Select "selected sliced" and "images only" in next dialog. Choose "osc" folder and then save. If you have done everything right you will be asked whether or not you would like to replace or not replace the old image files, choose replace.

Then you will have all the updated images in "images" folder of your OsCommerce locally on your machine. Now you should copy this "images" folder to your server. Replace all the images and then they will be updated.

You can open your online shop, refresh the page and will see new images.

Registering globals in my OSC template

Q: I'm receiving the error that I need to register globals in my php.ini file.

A: It's not a problem with our Oscommerce template or the installation process. The problem is with your hosting. You should contact your hosting provider and ask the tech guys to enable register globals. Otherwise an oscommerce template won't work and you will need to turn to another hosting service that supports these functions.

Configure.php file permissions

Q: How do I set the correct permission for configure.php files while installing an OsCommerce template?

A: Please, do the following steps:

• Rename the "catalog/install" folder or delete it.
• Reset the permissions on "catalog/includes/configure.php" to 644 (if you are still getting the warning message at the top of the page after setting this configure.php files to 644 then set the "catalog/includes/configure.php" file to 444 which is read only - this happens on some servers that have been updated for security reasons).
• Set the permissions on "catalog/images" directory to 777.
• Set the permissions on "admin/images/graphs" directory to 777.
• Create the directory "admin/backups" and set the permissions to 777 (this is the folder to store the database backup of your store in the "Tools" section of the store admin).

OsCommerce copyright

Q: From the demo of these templates I can see there is a banner/link of the "oscommerce" website at the bottom part of each page. Do I have to use this banner if I buy the oscommerce templates?

A: The separate text "Powered by osCommerce", or similar text, displayed on both Administration Tool and Catalog modules is an optional display. You can replace it with your information.

How to turn infoboxes on/off

There is a possibility to turn on/off all the standard OsCommerce infoboxes. Due to design some of them are turned off but you can easily turn then on in the " /includes/column_left.php" or " /includes/column_right.php" files.

All you need is to remove comment of the appropriate box:

The string for box looks like require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'THE_BOX_FILE_NAME.php'); where THE_BOX_FILE_NAME is the name of the box.

Product description

Q: If I delete the English language in my OSC template, the product's description is no longer available in other languages.

A: The problem is in the file "new-products.php"(includes/modules) in line 40 where the integer is set to first language in the DB. Once you delete this language(in this case english) you have to set the ID number of an active language in that file.