Book Image

Building Online Stores with osCommerce: Professional Edition

By : David Mercer
Book Image

Building Online Stores with osCommerce: Professional Edition

By: David Mercer

Overview of this book

<p>The book can be read from front to back, but each chapter is self contained so the reader can skip chapters to read those that they are interested in. Each chapter will move from basic to advanced where applicable and also relate what the administrator (reader) is doing to how this affects what the client sees on the site.</p> <p>So, for example, the customization chapter will start off with a discussion on the concept of design and how to relate this to your business. Once the reader has a clear idea of what they need to do, we look at some really simple changes such as modifying the site's language, before moving to some advanced modifications which may involve some PHP programming. At the same time the discussion will demonstrate how the changes made affect the site.</p> <p>Throughout the book, much consideration is given to the "right" way to doing things. Readers will have the great advantage that they begin, from the very start, doing things properly. This will save them a lot of time and effort in the years to come as they build on and modify their site. Utilizing best practices and sound methodologies is a great asset for beginners and experienced users alike.</p> <p>At all times, the coverage given in this book pays homage to the fact that, ultimately, the reader has a business goal in mind. To this end, the material never gets bogged down in technical issues or long discourses, but rather focuses on what is practically important for the online business and then moves on. To complement this, there are plenty of suggestions and hints as to how and where to look for further information.</p>
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Building Online Stores with osCommerce: Professional Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Foreword
Introduction
Index

PHP


Conventionally, Apache is installed before PHP. However, it will make no difference to us to install PHP now, and even makes the chapter easier to follow as we can then deal with the Apache installation and configuration in one place without having to jump around. The PHP homepage is http://www.php.net/ and contains absolutely everything you need to know about PHP, from the various projects they have on the go, to the downloads, user groups,

Unlike MySQL, we are going to download the .zip file instead of the .msi file as shown here (if you do not currently have a utility to handle ZIP files, check out http://www.winzip.com/downwzeval.htm and download the trial version of WinZip. Alternatively, you can always use Google to search for a free ZIP file utility):

Click PHP5.0.4zippackage to open a list of mirrors to choose from. Once you have done so, download the package, and sit back and relax while you wait.

Installing PHP

Once the ZIP file has downloaded, you will need to extract it to...