Category: osCommerce

Posted on

Recipient Name

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

Posted on

Finding/Editing BOX_WIDTH

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

Posted on

Agree to Terms then Confirm

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…

Posted on

osCommerce and OpenSSL

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:

  • Your file paths will not match mine.
  • The keys should be in a password protected folder, e.g. I put mine in a folder called openssl in my admin folder.
  • Don’t forget to create the “working directory” folder… or you will get an error as I did.

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

Posted on

Standard osCommerce Buttons

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…

Posted on

UPS WorldShip XML Auto Import

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:

  • Fancy up the 7 new UPS ServiceType Links, maybe javascript, maybe css.
  • Make it so the User data is entered/configurable thru the osCommerce back admin.
  • It would be nice if tracking number could be read from UPS’s AUTO XML IMPORT output file and inputted in order comment and customer notified.
  • Some of the options are still hard coded into this contribution… ie/ number of packages and anything I haven’t noticed.
Posted on

Useful information

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.

Posted on

Cheap Linux Hosting

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.

Posted on

osCommerce Skins?

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.