osCommerce Getting Started Help Guide

osCommerce - Getting Started Help Guide

Let's Get Started

If you plan to launch a commercial web site – a site that sells something – you’ll need a way for customers or clients to pay you. osCommerce is an open source checkout available free to all Website Source shared hosting clients. Open source means that the code that makes up the application (osCommerce) is available to anyone. So, the software is constantly going through revisions with increased functionality.

It’s got plenty of features, it’s scaleable to the size of your business and it’s easy to install. And did somebody say ‘free’!?

Installing osCommerce

• The software has to be installed (not a big deal) and then it has to be configured to the needs of your customers, your product line, databases and your accounting practices (a bigger deal). It’s pretty much a pick-and-click, screen-driven process but it can get a little confusing to the techno-impaired, which is most of the human race. So, let’s start at the very beginning.
• First, log on to your Website Source account from the home page. You’ll need your screen name and password. And if you don’t have these, do not pass go; do not collect $200. Actually, I lost my screen name and had to call Website Source’s Help Desk and they were, indeed, helpful.
• Once logged in to your shared hosting account, scroll down a bit to the E-commerce section. Just below that you’ll see the osCommerce icon. Click it to start the installation process.
• The first screen you’ll see is your general account information at the top of the page. Down below, you’ll see your domain name and an osCommerce button in the Off position. Click the button to turn on the osCommerce installation package. Pretty easy so far.
• After clicking the button, you’re taken to a screen the says MySQL Databases with two drop down menus – one that says new database and another that says new user. You can create one or more databases, giving each one a different name, i.e. customer information, inventory, shipping status and so on. You can create d-bases to manage your entire on-line enterprise from one location. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
• Then, once you’ve completed the creation of your databases, they’ll have to be configured and locked in to osCommerce. You can still get into these d-bases with your user name and password (see below) – which you should write down some where safe. It’s also a good idea to use a different password for each database you create.
• After creating a new database and entering your user name, click on the NEXT button.
• On the next page, you’ll be asked to name your database and give it a brief description. This’ll help keeping d-bases apart. So, for the sake of example, let’s call database1 cutomeraccountinformation01 and describe it as customers 10/7 – 6/5 – the dates they became customers.
• Your database creation, customeraccountinformation01, will be confirmed on the next page.
• Next, it’s time to enter your user name and password, mentioned above. Listen, you’re going to be storing a lot of valuable, sensitive information on your business system so choose a new screen name and create a robust password using letters, numbers and even symbols, i.e. pa$$word910. It’s easy to do and it’ll make it a lot harder to hack your system.

That’s it for the installation portion of the program. Click, click, click and osCommerce is hooked up to your website. Couldn’t be easier. But now, you’re faced with four icons offering: edit, upgrade, e-shop and admin. This is where you go about configuring your osCommerce checkout to suit your needs and preferences.

You’ll be asked if you want to reset the settings and recreate osCommerce templates. You do, so click on “Yes, I would like to do it.”

You now come to the page where you actually design and launch your site’s checkout. There are plenty of options here so let’s see what they do.

First, you have the option of editing your checkout but since you haven’t created one we can ignore that. Next, you’re asked if you’d like to upgrade. The upgrade gives you lots of new and utile features including banners, categories, images, language options, an address book and so on. Click on yes and these features will be installed automatically.

Next ->

osCommerce Administration