osCommerce Setup
 

A few key points about osCommerce they DO NOT tell you on the support site: www.oscommerce.com
 

  • osCommerce is an "open source" application that may require direct editing of some PHP code. Do not worry about this as it is not complicated. What you really do is open a text based page, made the changes to suit your site and re-save the text file. You can easily do this with WebShell or WordPad.  T

  • osCommerce takes up about 3MB of your webspace once installed. This includes about 100 sample products, descriptions, reviews etc., as well as the complete Admin section.

  • osCommerce requires a database and helps you set this up.  You must have access to databases within your hosting plan, or may need to upgrade.
     

  • IMPORTANT - Please do not attempt to setup osCommerce until your domain name is resolving fully to your new account with us.  If  your domain was transferred, please allow up to 72 hours before you setup your osCommerce solution through the control panel.  Please contact us should you experience issues around this.
     

To Install osCommerce
 

1. Select "Web Options" from your control panel and check that PHP is turned "on" for your site and changes are applied at the top of the same screen where you would turn PHP on.
 

2. First click on the osCommerce icon in your "Quick Access"  options or the link for osCommerce in your text based menu system.


osCommerce

3. Select the domain you wish to activate osCommerce for.
 

4. Select a database for your store.  If you do not have one already, enter a new name for your new database.  Please keep in mind to make this name very unique, as the system may reject common store names.
 

5. Once complete, you will see a login screen like this:
 


 

6. You can now administer your store.

 

 

  • There are two urls setup for you once the installation is complete.

    1.  www.yourdomain.com/catalog  will be the address of your storefront
    2.  www.yourdomain.com/admin  will be the access to your web based store control panel


    The osCommerce Administrator control panel looks similar to this:


 

NOTE:  The installation creates a new folder dynamically.  The folder is called "install" and can be found at www.yourdomain.com/catalog/install.  Make sure you use the "WebShell" program accessed in your control panel or the file manager in osCommerce to delete this file as soon as possible.

**Also use WebShell to password protect the default "admin" directory that is setup by the osCommerce install.

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