Where to begin

[bleimone]

Hello,

I want to be able to offer a shopping cart to the site. I am not really sure where to start with osCommerce. Is osCommerce connected with Paypal or another company. Meaning how does it accept payments.

Where do I get the program and instructions to install?

Is this pretty easy?

thanks for your help.

[stevel]

Let me put it this way - if you have to ask, look for another solution!

osCommerce is NOT easy. In fact, it's incredibly difficult. However, it does a lot and it's free, which makes up for some of the aggravation. But it is a real bear to customize, unless you want your store looking just like every other osCommerce store.

What's worse is that once you have customized it, it's very difficult to apply upgrades and bug-fixes, as it usually requires you to reapply by hand all your customizations.

There are multiple "payment modules" that interface to various payment methods, PayPal being one of them. There are other services such as authorize.net which process credit cards directly that also work with osCommerce.

Let me suggest that if you're already using PayPal, that the best thing is to make use of the PayPal shopping cart feature, which is free from PayPal.

[Jade Dragon]

Guys I really don't get all your negativity about OSC. It is not that bad. ::sigh::

Actually getting OSC up and running is not that hard. Using it is not that hard, just a little learning curve.

There are many options for accepting payment. All depend on setting up an account with the corresponding agent, in this case you are looking at Pay Pal.

OSC comes installed with a light blue/grey theme. The sticky thread has a few tips on where to change a couple items like your welcom screen and uploading products. The best thing to do is install it and look at the "catalog" fuctions in the admin screen and look at the different options for your products.

The hard part is customizing the look and layout of OSC. Most of the images you can right click and properties to find the path to replace the images such as your logo. The CSS file controls the color of the text and box headers.

The hardest thing that people want to attempt is changing the look of OSC to a different layout or try to integrate it into an existing site. This does require a basic knowlege of php to be successful.

Many people run the stock layout of OSC and just use the CSS to change the colors. If this is adequate for what you are looking for then by all means go ahead and give it a try.

If you get stuck post your question and I will try to answer. I may not know everything about OSC, but I should be able to point you in the right direction.

Getting Started: go to Ops and look under your HTTP tab. Click on the Logo to start the set up. You will need to have a mysql database (your first one is free, if you do not have an existing one). If you do not have a mysql db then click on the Billing/PLan tab and scroll to the bottom. Write this information down somewhere!

=)
Jade

[stevel]

I agree that getting a stock osc store up isn't hard. But most people want a store that more closely resembles their existing site, or has options such as quantity discounts, or different kinds of images for the product pages, etc. Once you stray off the path of the standard install, you're waist-deep in alligator territory, with little or no documentation and an overall design that greatly complicates customization.

For those of us who are programmers, or are inclined to poke and prod and decipher, you can do a lot with osc. I took a deep breath and am integrating a contribution called "Shoppe Enhancement Controller" which adds some features I need, but to do so, I had to find, download and then install a specific "daily snapshot" of osc that isn't a standard one. Then I had to replace some files, edit others, selectively merge MySQL definitions, figure out and fix a bug in the installed MySQL definitions, and more. I'm still not done.

I know that once you're into it, you may wonder what the fuss is, but to many, the hurdles to getting the kind of store you want are very high. I am a professional software engineer, and my pain threshhold is fairly high, so I'm plugging away because I can see the possibilities. But it's not for everyone....

[bleimone]

Thank you all for your help. Does any one know of a good cheap, easy program that Powweb will support for a shopping cart other than osCommerce. Maybe I'm asking for something too good (Cheap, good, easy) but sometimes there are those rare programs that are great.

Thanks for the help.

[stevel]

PowWeb doesn't support osCommerce, nor any other shopping cart. There are many that will work with PowWeb, but PowWeb support won't help you with any problems.

I did suggest the free PayPal shopping cart - it doesn't require installation of any software, just some HTML additions to your site. The disadvantage is that it requires (I think) your customers to join PayPal to buy from you.

[bleimone]

What other programs will Powweb host that are cheap, good, and simple? Thanks for the help.

[stevel]

I have no personal experience with others. Another user recommended http://www.templatedepot.com/powershop.htm

[SimCoWeb]

We are the one offering Powershop. Not only to Powweb customers but to anyone looking for a feature rich and highly customizable shopping cart solution that does not bind you to a particular look or layout.

OSCommerce is a well written cart and has many fine qualities. But, as Jade pointed out, the difficulty is in customizing it. If you have a small store (under 100 products) and just want a turnkey setup then it works. But, the problem is you want to customize it to look like and match the rest of your site.

OSCommerce is designed to be your site. That's the difference between it and other carts.

It's kind of like PHPNuke. All the PHP Nuke sites look the same except for the color scheme (or 'skin'). OSCommerce is designed along the same principles.

Powershop lets you create the design of your site right down to the cart buttons if you wish. We have created a dozen sites using this cart and all of them are completely different:

http://www.discount-mobility.com
http://www.familymobility.com
http://www.pkfineimports.com
http://www.invotel.com
http://www.kidsplaythings.cc
http://www.thekitchenoutlet.com

for a few examples.

The next thing I wish to address is this fixation with 'free' software. It's rare that you will have free software that has a robust support community, ongoing development, and all the features that you need (or the hope of getting them). Although there are exceptions to this (invisionboard, ikonboard, etc.), providing a super powerful fully customizable cart system with all the various payment gateways integrated into it as well as re-writing those gateways when your merchant provider changes their system (as AuthorizeNet and PayPal have both done), adding in shipping upgrades, custom shipping, etc. etc. etc. for free is asking a little too much.

The 'Net has changed in the past 5 years. More big players are in the arena than ever before. Online retailers create dozens of sites using powerful technology to 'capture' markets. The days of putting a mom and pop shop on the web for a shoestring budget and having it do gazillions of $$$ in sales is highly unlikely.

The heart of your online store is the cart. Make proper choices when investing into your online store

Originally posted by SimCoWeb
Snip...........The heart of your online store is the cart. Make proper choices when investing into your online store

Hey Dude,

I agree with all that you have said. But I wanted to add on the other side of the coin is some of us, like myself, are not looking to be rich or expect tons of sales. I am looking for a more professional look to sell some of the crafts that my wife and I make. I had been using mals e-commerce for my cart and paypal for payments for almost a year with decent results. My big complain from customers was the inability for me to calculate UPS or USPS costs in real time to be able to complete the transaction in one step. Before the Post Office changed their pricing format on priority boxes, I was able to get away with fixed S&H fees. Now with OSC I am able to have all of that and a much beter way of tracking what we have to sell as well. Being a craft, re-ordering is not happening.

For this kind of situation, well, free is better. As for a custom look on it, I am finding that PHP is pretty simple to learn as was HTML. I think once I have done some more reading, I don't see making the layout changes or implimenting various features of the program into my own design as being to hard.

JMHO

but in conclusion to this much longer post then I intended If you are a true business and setting up a store online, go with a tried and true program as this IS you store..

Later!
Kevin

PS: I am still working on it, but I would love some input on my store so far.
http://www.rosevalleysoaps.com/catalog/default.php

[stevel]

I studied the Powershop web site, and at first glance it doesn't seem to do as much as osCommerce out of the box. It's hard to tell, though, the site has very little information, though there is a demo I'll have to go through. I see references to a version 4.5 that's been "in the works" apparently for a year - the current version doesn't use a database. I also don't see provision for shipping calculations using USPS, which my store requires.

osCommerce is a pain, to be sure. But I'm not sure Powershop is an improvement. The sample stores shown seem to look a lot alike in overall structure, just like osCommerce...

I will have to spend some more time with the Powershop site so that I can understand it more. But so far osCommerce does everything I need it to (once I fix the bugs, which are many, especially in the "contributions"!)

[SimCoWeb]

Some FAQ's on Powershop:

Version 5.0 is available
Now uses a CSV or MySQL database (your choice)
Supports real time shipping calculations with UPS or USPS
Also supports custom shipping (price based, order based, etc.)
Supports discounts, coupons, category discounts
Has Specials, Bestsellers, and New Items categories
Supports 12 top merchant providers (activate one or more)
Supports multiple methods of payment for your customer
Supports offline processing with encrypted credit card info
Fully customizable layout. Create your site the way you want.

Version 5.1 is hours away and will include:

Another dozen (approx.) merchant providers integrated
Customer profiles and account database
Specify different shipping calculations per product
Affiliate system (scheduled to be released with 5.1)
Plus many other improved elements

Version 6.0 is in the works. It will be completely modular. If you don't need certain components then you don't purchase them.

The demo we have online right now is version 4.0. We will have a separate site set up for Powershop shortly and will have the 5.1 version on demo there.

I've used OSC , Agora, and EdatCat, and several others. Powershop has many more features, robust support, and is in constant development. I can't say that for the others.

I guess it's like a car in some ways. The 1978 Toyota Corolla will get you there, but the 2003 model will help you stay there

[stevel]

Thanks for the info - let us know when the 5.1 demo is available (and documentation on 5.1) A lot of what the current site has seems to be quite old.

[SimCoWeb]

The version 5.x demo is available now

www.upowershop.com

[stevel]

Thanks - looks interesting, will have to play with the demo some more. I assume if I have questions I can use the Contact form on the site?