Starting over...

I originally published a test version of my website with FrontPage. I have a backup copy of all my html. Then I installed OsCommerce. The database has nothing in it except the default sample stuff. I've played around with the PHP files, phpMyAdmin, and the MySQL database over the last week and I'm now reasonably comfortable that I know what's what. What I'd like to do is start completely over... drop all the FrontPage stuff (which looks awful in comparison to the OsCommerce stuff) and reload OsCommerce from square one, making it my homepage and starting fresh. I really want to start out with a clean slate, brand-new files, etc. Can anyone give me a step-by-step on the best way to do this? Thanks in advance.
PS. PLEASE don't suggest, "Why don't you leave it and just edit this or move that?" I actually WANT to start over even though nothing's "broken." It's just the way my brain is wired. Thanks.

[Galax]

Good plan, FP is the cause of so many website issues these days. Anyone that sees the value in not using it has my congradulations.

Anyway FTP is the answer to your question. If you are not familiar with FTP the best program to use would probably be WS_FTP LE. There is a tutorial on how to use it at http://support.powweb.com/index.php?...s&topic_ id=3 . You want to use it to delete the contents of the htdocs folder of your site, after that is complete you can go to OPS and reinstall OSC. Make sure to let OSC go right to htdocs and not a sub directory of it and then you can run the actual installatioon process. With OSC in your htdocs directory it's default page becomes your home page. Since I assume that you have the database setup the way you want, there is no reason to have OSC import the default database informaiton, you can skip that part of the install. As long as you tell OSC the correct database information to use it should sync up with the information already contained in your sites database.
One thing that I should mentions is that not all FTP clients can do a recursive delete, this means that you may have to delete the contents of a directory before you can delete the directory itself. One way to save yourself time in this regard is to simply use the FTP program to reneme the htdocs folder on your site and then create a new one.

Thanks for the encouragement. I know I'm on the right track, I just can't seem to nail it down. Using FileZilla FTP I successfully deleted the CONTENTS of /htdocs. I left the folder alone, but it is definitely empty. However, when I try to reinstall OSC it insists on creating a subfolder of /htdocs called /oscommerce. I've tried and tried and I can't make it stop doing that. Then under that, of course, comes /catalog and everything else. I'm back where I started. I've tried twice and I can't seem to make the OSC install do what I tell it. During the install process when I wipe out "/oscommerce" in the dialog box (just like it says to do) and click "next" it puts it right back in. Any help would be appreciated. Merry Christmas.

[Galax]

ok, use your FTP client to select the contents of the OSC directory and then use the move function to move them up one level to htdocs. Typically entering /htdocs into the move screen will accomplish this.

I've wiped everything out again and started over before reading your post. Same thing... /htdocs/oscommerce/catalog, etc. It's pretty annoying. I'll try FTP-Move tomorrow. If I understand correctly I am moving stuff up TWO levels, is that right?

In DOS terms I'd be moving "oscommerce/catalog/*.*" to "root/*.*" After doing that I can delete the empty directories "oscommerce" and "oscommerce/catalog."

Thanks again for your help.

[Galax]

Leaving the catalog directory in the htdocs folder is ok, You can use an .htaccess file to automatically load the correct file which would be /catalog/index.php. The syntax for the file would be '

RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} yoursite.com
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !catalog/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ catalog/$1 [L]


' and you would place it in your htdocs folder to get it working.

I'll give the .htaccess thing a shot. Here's where I am right now...
I gave up on installing OSC thru the OPS panel. I went directly to OSC and followed their instructions to download and install the latest release which at least let me put /catalog directly under /htdocs. So I'm basically only one level off from total victory. Thanks for all your help. I give myself about a 50/50 chance of getting the .htaccess thing to work, so I'll probably be back....

TOTAL VICTORY, 1st attempt. "Thanks" doesn't do it justice. IOU.