You have received your osCommerce Template ZIP package and unpacked it. Let's see what you have inside:

• "screenshots" - contains screenshots of the template.
• "osc" - contains osCommerce theme installation files.
• "sources" - contains the source files.
  "clipart_library" - contains free clipart .PSD files - all the elements are arranged in several files.
  "fonts" - contains all the fonts used in .PSD files - True Type (.TTF), Adobe fonts (PFB\PFM), or both.
  "psd" - contains Adobe Photoshop .PSD files.

The "sources" folder may include "Html" folder as well - this is a html version of osCommerce template, it contains .HTML files and sub-folders with the images.

Note: For security reasons the sources folder is in a zipped file and is password protected. To uncompress a password protected .ZIP file you will need to have a zip file utility program installed and the correct password. As soon as the zip file begins to uncompress, you will be prompted to type in the password. The password is the ID number of your order. You can find this number on the order page which is provided to you through a link that we sent to you via email.

Once you have downloaded a ZIP file, you should unpack the archive and save the unpacked files to any folder on your computer.

Your archive manager will create an "osc" folder inside your unpacked root directory. You should upload the contents (every single file and folder) of this folder to the root folder of your server.
This is if you want your shop to be opened by typing your domain name in the address bar of a browser like http://www.your_site.com

If you want to place your shop into some folder of your server called say "shop" just create this folder on your server and upload the contents of the "/osc" folder to the /shop folder. In this case your online shop will be available at this address "http://www.your_site.com/shop/".
Click "Install" to get the next step.

For the correct installation check in both matchboxes ("Import Catalogue Database" and "Automatic Configuration") and press Continue. Because osCommerce uses a database to store data, you should fill in all the fields to provide the information on your database server. osCommerce installing script will import values from the file "web_root/shop/install/oscommerce.sql" to the database that you point to ("web_root" is the path to your web server's root catalogue).
Database Server your database server address
Username the name of the user who has rights to create and change databases and tables
Password password of the user
Database Name the name of your osCommerce database
Session Storage special storage to keep sessions values (we recommend you to choose "database" here)

Press "Continue" for the next step. osCommerce will process the test connection to the database server now. You will be informed about the results. If osCommerce fails to process the connection, then you should get in touch with your administrator to check your server settings.

Press "Continue now". osCommerce will add the values to the database now. This process may take several minutes.

Check the osCommerce configuration settings. It's recommended to keep these settings unless you have to change them. After checking the settings press "Continue". We recommend that you save the settings with the form but create a new account (user) for OsCommerce.

To finish the installation press "Continue". You will be shown a notification about the successful installation. To have a look at your on-line shop, press "Catalog". You will have 2 or 3 notifications at the top of your browser. To hide them you should:
1. delete the catalogue "install" from "web_root/shop" folder
2. mark "web_root/shop/includes/configure.php" file as read only.
 
To make any changes to your online shop, you should type "http://your_site/shop/admin/" with your browser. We recommend that you rename your admin folder with any other secret name (secret_name) and enter the admin section using this name "http://your_site/shop/secret_name/".

Let's see how to install our OsCommerce Template on your existing shop without re-installing.

Open your OsCommerce shop on the server and open the OsCommerce package you received. What you have to do:

1. Copy all the files from the root folder (excluding folders).
2. Copy /images folder
3. Open /includes folder and copy header.php, footer.php, column_left.php, column_right.php and application_top.php files
4. Copy /includes/boxes folder
5. Open /includes/classes folder and copy boxes.php file
6. Open /languages/english folder and copy /images folder
6. Open /languages/espanol folder and copy /images folder
6. Open /languages/german folder and copy /images folder
7. Open /includes/modules folder and copy product_listing.php and new_products.php files

That's it! Let's check the results... Now you can see our OsCommerce template on your existing shop!

Note! You can use this feature starting from the template #13091 only and in case you do not use any contributions.

The number of columns shown in the New Products section of the front page of the shop can be changed by editing the "includes/modules/new_products.php" file.
The number should be changed appropriately. The default is "2", which will show three columns because the counter starts at "0".

$col ++;
if ($col > 2) {$col = 0; $row ++; }
?>

The following (modified) code will show 2 columns:
 $col ++;
if ($col > 1) {$col = 0; $row ++; }
?>

You should open your PSD file in Adobe Photoshop. Go to "\sources\psd" folder and there you will find all the PSD files for your OsCommerce Template.

You can edit any text using text tool (hotkey "T"). To add a new image open image file and then just drag and drop it to your template opened in Photoshop. When you make all the changes to your PSD file you have to save the slices that have been modified. To do it press CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + s (or go to "File-->Save For Web") to call save for web window. Then select all slices that you want to save (hold shift for multiple selections). Press save. Select "selected sliced" and "images only" in next dialog. Choose "osc" folder and then save. If you have done everything right you will be asked whether or not you would like to replace or not replace the old image files, choose replace.

Then you will have all the updated images in "images" folder of your OsCommerce locally on your machine. Now you should copy this "images" folder to your server. Replace all the images and then they will be updated. You can open your online shop, refresh the page and will see new images.

Q: I'm receiving the error that I need to enable register globals in my php.ini file.

A: It's not a problem with our OsCommerce template or the installation process. The problem is with your hosting. You should contact your hosting provider and ask the tech guys to enable register globals. Otherwise, an OsCommerce template won't work and you will need to turn to another hosting service that supports these functions.

Set the correct permission for configure.php files while installing an OsCommerce template:

• Rename the "catalog/install" folder or delete it.
• Reset the permissions on "/includes/configure.php" to 644 (if you are still getting the warning message at the top of the page after setting this configure.php files to 644 then set the "catalog/includes/configure.php" file to 444 which is read only - this happens on some servers that have been updated for security reasons).
• Set the permissions on "/images" directory to 777.
• Set the permissions on "admin/images/graphs" directory to 777.
• Create the directory "admin/backups" and set the permissions to 777 (this is the folder to store the database backup of your store in the "Tools" section of the store admin).

Q: From the demo of these templates I can see there is a banner/link of the "oscommerce" website at the bottom part of each page. Do I have to use this banner if I buy the oscommerce templates?

A: The separate text "Powered by osCommerce" or similar text, displayed on both Administration Tool and Catalog modules is an optional display. You can replace it with your information.

There is a possibility to turn on/off all the standard OsCommerce infoboxes. Due to design some of them are turned off but you can easily turn then on in the " /includes/column_left.php" or " /includes/column_right.php" files. All you need is to remove comment of the appropriate box:

/*
  $Id: column_left.php,v 1.15 2003/07/01 14:34:54 hpdl Exp $
  osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
  http://www.oscommerce.com
  Copyright (c) 2003 osCommerce
  Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

  if ((USE_CACHE == 'true') && empty($SID)) {
    echo tep_cache_categories_box();
  } else {
    include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'categories.php');}
  if ((USE_CACHE == 'true') && empty($SID)) {
   // echo tep_cache_manufacturers_box();
  } else {
  //  include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'manufacturers.php');}
// require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'whats_new.php'); // This is for "Latest Products" infobox 
//  require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'search.php');
//  require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'information.php');

/*
$Id: column_left.php,v 1.15 2003/07/01 14:34:54 hpdl Exp $

osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
http://www.oscommerce.com

Copyright (c) 2003 osCommerce

Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

if ((USE_CACHE == 'true') && empty($SID)) {
echo tep_cache_categories_box();
} else {
include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'categories.php');
}

if ((USE_CACHE == 'true') && empty($SID)) {
// echo tep_cache_manufacturers_box();
} else {
// include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'manufacturers.php');
}

// require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'whats_new.php'); // This is for "Latest Products" infobox
// require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'search.php');
// require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'information.php');
?> The string for box looks like require(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'THE_BOX_FILE_NAME.php'); where THE_BOX_FILE_NAME is the name of the box.

Note! You can use this feature starting from the template #13077 only.

Q: If I delete the English language in my OSC template, the product's description is no longer available in other languages.

A: The problem is in the file "new-products.php"(includes/modules) in line 40 where the integer is set to first language in the DB. Once you delete this language(in this case english) you have to set the ID number of an active language in that file.

Any osCommerce template can contain banners in the header and side columns. The template's programmer often links them to a category, new products, specials listing and so on.

You may want to link them to your own category or to your own featured products. It's not difficult to do. First you need to locate where this banner is coded. That is to locate a specific file. If the banner is located in the header most likely this banner can be found in the /includes/header.php file. If the banner is located in one of the side columns look for it in the /inludes/column_left.php or /inludes/column_right.php files.

If you have difficulties in locating the place where the banner is coded here are some tips for you:
- in your browser right-click (Ctrl-click on Mac) the image of the banner and select Properties (in Safari you can use "Open Image in New Window" instead).
- See the name of this image (e.g. banner1.gif)
- Use the search functionality of your file manager or search tools like http://www.sowsoft.com/search.htm.
- Having located the file, you can now search for the line where this image is sitting. Very often it's Ctrl+F key stroke in any text editor.

You may see a line of code like this:
<a href="<?php echo tep_href_link('products_new.php')?>"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES.'banner1.gif')?></a>

What you do after that is replacing the parameter for the tep_href_link() function for your own.

1. Linking to a category
<a href="<?php echo tep_href_link('index.php?cPath=1')?>"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES.'banner1.gif')?></a>
Use your own value of cPath. You can get this value while you are browsing the category you are going to link to. Just take a look at the address bar of your browser and you'll see the cPath value the current category has got.

2. Linking to a product
<a href="<?php echo tep_href_link('index.php?products_id=10')?>"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES.'banner1.gif')?></a>
Use your own value of products_id. You can get this value while you are browsing the product page you are going to link to. Take a look at the address bar of your browser and you'll see the products_id value of the current product.

3. Linking to the New Products, Specials is even easier
<a href="<?php echo tep_href_link('products_new.php')?>"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES.'banner1.gif')?></a>
<a href="<?php echo tep_href_link('specials.php')?>"><?php echo tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES.'banner1.gif')?></a>

Ok, if you want to install a contribution for your OsCommerce shop you should follow the steps below:

1. Please, go to www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions and download a contribution you need
2. Save and unzip a file
3. Each contribution has a detailed instruction on how to install it and implement into your OsCommerce shop, so you should check all the readme files within the package or on a website before editing.
4. E.g. if you download a contribution for " InfoBoxes " then you should copy a .php file with this box to /includes/boxes folder
5. It depends on a contribution but most likely you will need to turn this new infobox in column_left.php or column_right.php files.
6. Now you can update the files on your server and check all the modifications.

Please note:
1. We are not responsible for any contribution you will use. All of them are installed at you own risk.
2. Some contributions may not work with your template right away as they will have to be altered to fit the major template design.

Some stores may not want to show their prices, such as in the case of a wholesale supplier, or perhaps a seller wants the customer to call for pricing on certain items. The enclosed Demo Movie leads you through the steps necessary to turn off the price display in all pages and modules included in a standard installation. It is all done via CSS, so the only modifications needed to your PHP code is the addition of a CSS class in the various presentation sections. No changes are made to any SQL queries or business functions.

Here is the list of files you may need to modify. As always, it is highly recommended you make a backup of these files before making these changes. Jump to each instruction set by clicking on the list item below:
* stylesheet.css
* includes/boxes/shopping_cart.php
* shopping_cart.php
* product_info.php
* includes/boxes/specials.php
* includes/boxes/whats_new.php
* checkout_confirmation.php
* products_new.php
* product_reviews.php
* products_reviews_info.php
* product_reviews_write.php