Recipient Name

June 18th, 2008   Filed Under osCommerce  

Well, I just released a new contribution that I think everyone needs…

Its an extension to the /admin/orders.php page in osCommerce. It needed yet more useful information. What more do you want?

The recipient name (in the osCommerce DB its aka delivery_name) was a recent necessity for a client because he couldn’t find an order. The recipient knew who sent it but the sender [customer] also sent to many other persons. The only way to find that specific order was by looking into each order the sender made.

This contribution was a work-a-round for that type of dilemma, but again it seemed useful so I released it as a contribution, click here.

Oh, it’s easy install. all you have to do is edit a few lines in /admin/orders.php

Finding/Editing BOX_WIDTH

June 18th, 2008   Filed Under osCommerce  

I spent some time looking for BOX_WIDTH because I needed to change the width of my admin boxes. It’s where you’d expect it but it isn’t so obvious…

Public viewable boxes…

/includes/application_top.php
~line 61

Admin boxes…

/admin/includes/application_top.php
~line 52

BTW, your lines might be different depending on your version of osCommerce.

Happy Coding,
Thuan

Agree to Terms then Confirm

June 9th, 2008   Filed Under osCommerce  

I couldn’t find a “Agree To Terms” module that was really simple to set up so I made one. There are a few out there but they required changing the database and/or javascript and/or the osCommerce checkout process.

My contribution only edits the checkout_confirmation.php page but doesn’t change the checkout process at all. It simply takes the user to conditions.php so he/she can read it or redirects him/her back to the homepage.

Sounds interesting? Click Here, to download it. Enjoy…

osCommerce and OpenSSL

June 9th, 2008   Filed Under osCommerce  

How does one get OpenSSL to work after you have enabled osCommerce’s “PayPal Website Payments Standard” module? That is actually a very hard question to answer even with my IT knowledge. But with a lot of research and the piecing together of two articles, I was able to get everything working…

My primary challenge was I couldn’t figure out, “how to generate the encryption keys on my shared hosting Linux server”… necessary for OpenSSL to work. I eventually learned that the keys are not generated from the servers, you only upload the keys to the server. Just as you would with standard html files.

osCommerce OpenSSL

As you can see the module calls for: 2 keys generated by you, and the only way I was able to generate “both” keys was by following a post by Martin Hughes-Jones, click here.

For the remainder of the field items asked by the module I followed a Lunarpages post, click here.

A few notes:

Well, that’s it, your osCommerce “PayPal Website Payments Standard” web payments are now encrypted.

Standard osCommerce Buttons

May 3rd, 2008   Filed Under Design, osCommerce  

Standard osCommerce Buttons

While setting up an osCommerce installation, I decided that I needed “regular, plain, standard, whatever you want to call them” buttons for it’s frontend. I searched the osCommerce contributions/addons site and found nothing “standard”. So, I opened up my image editor of choice (Fireworks), then did a little magic and ended up with a contribution, here.

Final Thoughts: Standard is not so standard anymore!? Grrr…

How to check your cPanel based email

April 24th, 2008   Filed Under Web, cPanel, osCommerce  

Using your web browser,

1) Go to http://www.yourdomain.com/webmail
2) Log in using your username and password.
3) Click on Horde or SquirrelMail

It’s that simple.

*Optional: if you have Outlook, after logging in using your web browser, click on “Configure Mail Client”, then choose “Auto-Configure Microsoft Outlook 2000® for POP3 Access” to automatically have cPanel configure Outlook for you. This involves downloading a registry file and installing it. If you would rather not do this or the auto configuration doesn’t work, then follow the manual configuration instructions.

Final Thoughts: I suggest using Outlook if you have it.

UPS WorldShip XML Auto Import

February 13th, 2008   Filed Under osCommerce  

I have a new “UPS WorldShip XML Auto Import” osCommerce contribution if anyone is interested… Its actually a few months old, but I never took the time to blog about it. You can find it here on the osCommerce Addons Website… http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/5519.

This contribution allows you to process your UPS Worldship orders with the click of a link. The links are located in the order’s details page.

Your are required to have: UPS Worldship software that can be ordered free here: http://www.ups.com/orderworldship?loc=en_US, an UPS account to order and use the UPS Worldship software, and a daily UPS pick-up required for use of the software.

Also, you must have UPS Worldship running, specifically… you must have their “XML Auto Import” running. Instructions straight from UPS: http://ups.com/media/en/XML_Technical_Support_Guide_Final.pdf

My future plans for this contribution are:

Useful information

October 23rd, 2007   Filed Under osCommerce  

By default the osCommerce team have put some very useful information regarding your shop’s order on the admin index page (no longer used in osCommerce RC1)…

os_useful_1.gif

But once we pass this page, that useful information is gone. So I did a little editing… the end result is everywhere within a shop’s admin section you’ll have access to that information…

os_useful_2.gif

The modification is very simple. It is now a contribution on the osCommerce website, here.

Cheap Linux Hosting

October 16th, 2007   Filed Under Web, osCommerce  

Below are my recommendations for cheap reasonable, reliable website hosts:

Lunarpages.com
+ Affordable Plans ($6.95 monthly)
+ Decent Support
+ Linux and Windows Hosting ($8.95 monthly)
++ (10) Free Addon Domains
++ WHM (web hosting manager)

Siteground.com
++ Affordable Plans ($5.95 monthly)
++ Excellent Support
- Linux Only Hosting
- – Only (1) Domain

Hostgator.com
+ Affordable Plans ($6.95 monthly)
+ Decent Support
- Linux Only Hosting
++ Good Reseller Plans
++ WHM (web hosting manager)

Godaddy.com
++ Dirty Cheap Hosting ($3.99 monthly)
- – Poor Service
- No cPanel
++ Up-to-date Software

Please note that it really depends on what your goals are and what you need your site to do. Give me a ring if you can’t decide or need help.

osCommerce Skins?

October 4th, 2007   Filed Under osCommerce  

I have been thinking about developing a site that will give away free skins. Similar to Freedotnetnukeskins.COM, whenever that gets up and running is all based on how fast Lunarpages.com is… I will decide if I’ll be going through with this after I get some experience(s) from that site.