| What
you need
For the PHP / mySQL versions of the Ecommerce Plus Templates,
you need a server that has a minimum of PHP version 4.1 and a
mySQL
database. To use the UPS shipping feature it will also be necessary
for your host to have cURL component installed. If you have a windows
server then please see our templates in Microsoft Access
/ ASP
version here.
Setting the database connection and installing the
database.
To set the database connection, please open the file vsadmin/db_conn_open.php
in a text editor. You need to fill in the details in the spaces
provided. The 4 pieces of information that you need to provide are
the username and password for database access, the name of the database
and the address of the database. If you are in any doubt about these,
please ask your host who will provide you with the information.
Then fill in the gaps between the quotes as shown.
$db_username = "loginname"; // Your database login username
$db_password = "loginpassword"; // Your database login
password
$db_name = "databasename"; // The name of the database
you wish to use
$db_host = "localhost";
The last parameter $db_host is normally "localhost".
However, it can also be a URL like
$db_host = "db.myhost.com";
Once this information has been correctly entered, you can install
the database tables and data. To do this, just open the file createdb.php
in a browser by entering the address for instance
http://www.yoursite.com/createdb.php
Obviously replacing "www.yoursite.com" with whatever is
the URL of your site. Then click on the button to "Install
Ecommerce Plus" and your database will be created. Please remember
to delete this file from your web after running it, as otherwise
others could use it to destroy your information.
Setting
up your PHP template on a Yahoo! Hosting account.
Firstly log in to your Yahoo! Web hosting control panel. You should
have been provided with details about how to log in here by Yahoo!
Now, on the right hand side under "Expert Web Site Tools" you
should see a link like
MySQL Database
Activate and maintain your database.
. . . and you need to click on this link.
You will now need to click to activate your mySQL database.
Now on the left hand side you need to click under the heading "Database
Setup" on the link "Install Admin Tool". After agreeing to the
license terms, you are recommended to install the admin tool in a new folder,
for instance "phpadmin". You can use the "Create Directory" box
to do this, and once the new directory is created then click on "Install
phpMyAdmin" next to the new directory name.
Now you need to open the phpMyAdmin tool in your browser by using the link
that is shown on your Yahoo! Hosting panel, for instance it will be something
like
http://www.yoursite.com/phpadmin if you used our suggestion for a directory
name. You will need to login using the username and password that you used
to activate your database.
Now in the box labelled "Create new database" choose a name for your
new database, and we recommend something like "vsproducts".
Now you need to enter this information in your vsadmin/db_conn_open.php
script.
$db_username = "username"; // Your database login username
$db_password = "yourpassword"; // Your database login
password
$db_name = "vsproducts"; // The name of the database
you wish to use
$db_host = "mysql"; // The db host is always mysql using
Yahoo! Hosting
The last step here is that Yahoo requires you to set up a new
folder in the root of your store (where your index.php file resides)
called "tmp" - you'll need to make it public and give
it world access rights (CHMOD 777).
Now open the createdb.php script in your browser, for instance
. . .
http://www.yoursite.com/createdb.php
And you should be all set !
One last point about Yahoo! Hosting, you may find that your currency
symbols do not appear, and if not then you just need to make
this simple change in your vsadmin/includes.php script as detailed
here.
Getting Started.
Once the database connection is correctly set, you can access the
admin area by opening the page /vsadmin/admin.php in your browser.
The default username and password are mystore / changeme. Take time
to go through the admin pages and configure the settings for your
requirements as detailed below.
One point to note when naming your pages is that all your pages
need to have the .php extension. This is because there is important
code before the opening HTML tag which needs a .php extension
to be executed.
FrontPage
Issues.
There are a couple of issues with the FrontPage version when using
PHP only. Frontpage extensions do not work with pages with the .php
extension, so this means that FrontPage Includes and FrontPage Navigation
does not work. We have found a neat way around these issues, but
there are a couple of things to bear in mind.
First, for include pages, we have just used PHP includes. It's
already set up for you, and you will find the included pages in
the includes folder. Unlike FrontPage includes however, all links
will be relative to the file that is doing the including. So, for
this reason we recommend you use links relative to the site root
if you want to use the same include files in folders and sub folders.
Examples of different ways to link pages are . . .
- This is a relative link: mypage.php
- This is a link relative to the site root: /mypage.php
- This is an absolute link: http://www.mysite.com/mypage.php
Because FrontPage Navigation is not available, you will have to
make up and over buttons for the navigation. (This does not apply
to templates which use DHTML PopOut menus as navigation of course.)
To change navigation, open the page which contains the navigation.
(Normally includes/leftnavigation.htm.) You will see some lines
of code such as . . .
addrollover('special.php','images/special.gif','images/specialov.gif');
To add buttons to the navigation, just add extra lines here, or
edit the existing ones. The parameters are:
- The link.
This can be relative: mypage.php
or relative to the site root: /mypage.php
or absolute: http://www.mysite.com/mypage.php
- The "normal" state of the image
- The "mouseover" state of the image
The same rules apply about relative links as for the FrontPage
Includes however.
If Frontpage doesn't recognize the .PHP pages, you'll need to configure
it like this:
- In Frontpage go to Tools>Options>Configure Editors
- Choose "Add"
- Put PHP for file type
- Put the same information as you have for htm, html etc. - this
is usually
Editor Name: FrontPage
Command: frontpg.exe
- Save
Shipping Calculations.
8 kinds of shipping calculations are provided.
No shipping -> Shipping costs are not added. -> (more
information)
Flat rate shipping -> Shipping costs can be set individually
per product. -> (more
information)
Price based shipping -> Same as above but based on price
rather than weight changes. -> (more
information)
Weight based shipping -> Here, shipping is calculated
by product weight according to the shipping zone to easily facilitate
international shipping. If Weight based shipping is selected, then
the country zone can be set in the countries admin panel, and new
zones can be edited by following the Edit Postal Zones link in the
main admin panel. -> (more
information)
UPS Shipping -> More information
USPS shipping -> More information
Canada Post
-> more information
FedEx Shipping -> more information
Handling - this charge can be set for all your
products in the main admin page.
Setting up Payment Providers.
To set up the details for Payment Providers, chose the link Edit
Payment Providers on the admin home page. The available payment
providers will be show on this page, with the active ones in bold.
Please note it is possible to have more than one payment provider
active at a time, so, for instance giving you the opportunity to
use both a Credit Card based system like 2Checkout together with
a system like PayPal. If more than one is chosen then your customers
are given the choice of payment service in the checkout phase.
For all payment providers you need to ensure that on the store
admin settings the URL to your web site is correct. To set this
go to the main admin page, admin.php, and chose the Edit Admin
Settings link.
Choose from the list below for detailed instructions on setting
up for the individual payment providers.
Email Notification.
If you chose this option, then your customers can make an order
without actually having to go through a payment routine. You can
use this option if you wish to take orders that are then paid by
bank transfer, check etc at a later date.
Security Considerations.
The default login and password for the admin area is mystore /
changeme. You are encouraged to change this immediately.
Fraud is always a factor in online sales unfortunately. Always double
check with your payment providers admin area to ensure that a sale
has been properly processed before shipping products.
Checklist
Please do read through our checklist here before going live with
a site.
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