11 Creating an Online Store
11.1 osCommerce
11.2 Setting Up osCommerce
11.3 Updating osCommerce to version 2.2

11 Creating an Online Store

Your control panel comes with two on-line store builders, Miva Merchant and osCommerce.

* This document isn't a storefront management guide. It only explains how to run integrated e-stores from your control panel. For instructions on how to operate your on-line shop visit the corresponding company site.

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11.1 osCommerce

Your plan may allow you to create an online store with two online shop builders and managers:

on-line store

osCommerce www.oscommerce.com version 2.2 osCommerce is an open source e-commerce solution and is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Features

Add/Edit/Remove categories, products, manufacturers, customers, and reviews Categories-to-categories structure Statistics for products and customers Dynamic product attributes Tax zones, classes, and rates Configuration parameters in database for remote editing Not tied together with the catalog module (admin module can be installed on another server) Payment and shipping modules Backup tool Add/Edit/Remove categories, products, manufacturers, customers, and reviews Categories-to-categories structure Statistics for products and customers Dynamic product attributes Tax zones, classes, and rates Configuration parameters in database for remote editing Not tied together with the catalog module (admin module can be installed on another server) Payment and shipping modules Backup tool Customer accounts Customer address books (other shipping destinations) Order history Temporary (not logged on) and permanent (logged on) shopping carts Search catalog for products or manufacturers Product reviews by customers E-mail notifications Foreseen checkout procedure Secure transactions with SSL Number of products in each category are shown Bestseller lists Display what other customers have brought (relating to the current product displayed

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11.2 Setting Up osCommerce

To set up osCommerce online shop, do the following:

• Click osCommerce on the control panel home page.
  
• On the page that shows enable osCommerce for the online store domain.
  
• Agree with charges, if any.
  
• Create a database and a user. osCommerce uses MySQL databases to store your commercial data, such as products, catalogues, etc.

WARNING: Assigning a previously created MySQL database for use by osCommerce will clear contents of all its tables.

The databases used by osCommerce will show among your MySQL databases marked "(Locked By osCommerce)".
You can manage osCommerce databases with any MySQL GUI client or the built-in phpMyAdmin control panel.

* For more information on MySQL please refer to the MySQL support chapter of this manual.
Set permissions to the "admin" directory using the htProtext utility. This is done to restrict public access to osCommerce configuration.

Now let's take a look at the osCommerce controls:

ON/OFF:
Enable/disable the resource. Switching off your osCommerce will permanently remove all your osCommerce settings, databases, etc. So the next time you enable it, you'll have to configure it from scratch and you will be charged the osCommerce setup fee.

EDIT:
Click the icon in case you somehow corrupted the templates and want to get them fixed. Also, use it if you have just set your e-shop to use SSL certificate. This option resets the config file using the current hosting settings and restores the osCommerce files from the bundle.

E-SHOP:
Click the icon to go directly to your on-line store.

ADMIN:
Click the icon to go to your osCommerce administrative panel.

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11.3 Updating osCommerce to version 2.2

osCommerce 2.2 contains lots of bugfixes, so if you run the prior version, we highly recommend you to update your online store building software to version 2.2:

• Back up all your custom osCommerce settings.
  
• In your control panel, go to the osCommerce settings page.
  
• Choose the domain you are running your online store on and click the Edit icon. That will update osCommerce scripts.
  
• Click the Upgrade icon. This will update osCommerce database:

Important: Please make sure that your current osCommerce version is older that 2.2 before performing the upgrade.

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