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How to edit the create account page in osCommerce

Gerae Lindsey — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:05:40 +0000

By default, osCommerce requires certain information from visitors creating a new account. This includes their name, address, gender, birthday, street address, and other contact information.

Let’s say you don’t want to require new customers to supply their birth dates.

No problem.

osCommerce allows to you turn off the following fields:

Gender

Date of birth

Company

Suburb

State

First, login to your osCommerce admin area.

Under “Configuration” click on “Customer Details”

When the page loads, you will see the following:

Click on the field you would like to edit. Then click on the “edit” button to the right.

You can then click the radio button next to “False” to turn off the field. Click “update” to apply the changes.

The field will now no longer show on the create account page.

Backing up your osCommerce database in cPanel

Gerae Lindsey — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:05:31 +0000

I just added a new tutorial on making a backup of your store database in cPanel.

Though titled Backing up your ZenCart database in phpMyAdmin, the instructions will work the exact same for osCommerce MySQL database files.

See Backing up your ZenCart database in phpMyAdmin

Backing up your osCommerce files in cPanel

Gerae Lindsey — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:05:30 +0000

I just added a new tutorial on making a backup of your store files in cPanel. Though titled Backing up your ZenCart files in cPanel, the instructions will work the exact same for osCommerce.

See Backing up your ZenCart files in cPanel

How to add quantity discounts in osCommerce

Gerae Lindsey — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:05:22 +0000

Let’s say you sell shirts from your osCommerce store and you want to offer a discount if customers purchase more than one shirt. For example:

Buy 1 shirt = $6.99 each
Buy 2 shirts = $5.99 each
Buy 3 shirts = $4.99 each
Etc.

Unfortunately, osCommerce does not offer this function built-in. You will need to install a special mod. There are multiple ones available but for this tutorial, I will be using the Quantity Discounts Mod for osCommerce by That Software Guy.

After uploading the mod using FTP, login to your osCommerce admin area.

Click on “Modules in the side menu.

Now click on “Order Total” under “Modules”

Once the page opens, click on “Quantity Discounts” and “install” to the right.

Once installed, click on “edit”

Enter in your discount specifications, and then click on “update”

If you run into any troubles, let me know below.

How to remove product counts in osCommerce

Gerae Lindsey — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:42:21 +0000

By default, osCommerce displays a product count next to each category name as shown below:

To remove the number of products displayed next to category names in the side menu, just follow these simple steps.

To start, you will need to login to your osCommerce admin area.

Now, click on “My Store” under the “Configuration” menu:

Once the options load to the right, click on “Show Category Counts”

To the right, you will see an edit button:

Click on the “edit” button.

Change the value from “true” to “false” and then click on “update”

And that’s it!

Your category will no longer show the product count.

How to change the width of your osCommerce store

Gerae Lindsey — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:40:19 +0000

By default, osCommerce is set to a width of 100%, stretching the store across the entire screen. You can decrease this so a background is visible on the screen.

This tutorial will show you how to edit the width of your store.

We will need to edit the following files:

index.php (located in the main folder)
header.php (located in the includes file)
footer.php (located in the includes file)

To do this, you will need to open the files using either Notepad or WordPad.

First open the index.php file. Once opened, locate the following line of code:

< table border = ” 0 ” width = ” 100% ” cellspacing = ” 3 ” cellpadding = ” 3 ” >

Change 100% to a width of your liking, either a percent or fixed pixel width.
After cellpadding = ” 3 ” add align = ” center “

NOTE: Remove the spaces in the actual file.

Save the file.

Now open the header.php file. Once opened, locate the following line of code:

< table border= ” 0 ” width= ” 100% ” cellspacing = ” 0 ” cellpadding = ” 0 ” >

Change the 100% to a width of your liking, either a percent or fixed pixel width.
After cellpadding = ” 0 ” add align = ” center “

NOTE: In the header.php file, there are 4 lines of the above code that will need to be changed. Some of the other instances have different cellpadding numbers. That is okay, only the width needs to be edited.

Save the file.

Now open the footer.php file. Once opened, locate the following line of code:

< table border = ” 0 ” width = ” 100% ” cellspacing = ” 0 ” cellpadding = ” 1 ” >

Change the 100% to a width of your liking, either a percent or fixed pixel width.
After cellpadding = ” 1 ” add align = ” center “

NOTE: In the footer.php file, there are 3 lines of the above code that will need to be changed. Again, some of the other instances have different cellpadding numbers. That is okay, only the width needs to be edited.

Save the file and upload all 3 of the files to your web server.

The width of your store will now be changed.

IMPORTANT: This will only change the width of the main store page. You will need to edit all of the .php files in the main folder following the same steps as index.php above.

How to change the logo in osCommerce

Gerae Lindsey — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:24:30 +0000

Displaying your own logo in place of the default osCommerce logo is easy.

You have two options for replacing the log with your own:
1. Overwriting the current image with your own
2. Changing the header.php file to display your logo

To overwrite the current logo with your own, upload your logo into the images folder. Make sure you have named your logo “store_logo.png”

Once uploaded, refresh the page to view your logo:

You can also change the logo in the header.php file. To do this, you will need to open the file using either Notepad or WordPad. This file is located in the includes folder.

Once opened, locate the following line of code:

tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . ’store_logo.png’, STORE_NAME)

Replace store_logo.png with whatever your logo name is.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have uploaded this file into the images folder.

Save the file and upload it to your web server.

Your logo should now appear!

How to install osCommerce at HostGator

Gerae Lindsey — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:01:51 +0000

Installing osCommerce HostGator takes only a few simple steps.

First, you will need to login to your cpanel.

Now, scroll down until you see:

Click on “Fantastico De Luxe”

To the left, you will see “OS Commerce” listed under E-Commerce.

Click on OS Commerce.

Now click on “New Installation” as shown below:

The following screen will then appear:

You will need to enter the following information:

Install on domain – select your domain name from the drop down list
Install in directory – for example: store, leave blank to install in main directory
Administrator username – enter your desired username. for example: admin
Password – enter desired password
Shop name – enter the name of your store (you can edit this later)
Owner’s name – enter your name
Email sender – either your name or your store’s name
Your email address – enter your email address
Use SSL – Unless you have installed SSL, select no (you can change this later)
Secure server hostname – your domain name
Show prices incl. tax – Choose yes or no (you can change this later)

The last section “When clients register” is optional and can be edited later. The options are for information collected when a customer registers to shop at your store.

Once you have entered your details, click on “Install OS Commerce”

A screen will appear letting you know that the server will create the necessary MySQL database for the store. Click on “Finish installation” to complete the install.

osCommerce has now been installed! You can start adding products now.

Be sure you email yourself the username and password for future reference: