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

Getting Paid with PayPal


Businesses of any size can benefit from the reliable and trusted PayPal brand. Using PayPal for osCommerce transactions is also one of the easier modules to work with. In fact, you can have a more or less working PayPal facility up and running in no time at all. The hard work comes from ironing out the wrinkles along the way and ensuring the smoothest operation of your payments in the future.

If you are happy with the most basic setup, then all you need to do is create your own PayPal account, and enable the PayPal module in osCommerce using the admin tool. Then, when customers attempt to purchase goods, they will have the option to pay with PayPal and be redirected to the PayPal site, where they can make the transaction.

There are a couple of cons to doing things this way! The main thing is that customer's making payment might simply close their browser, without continuing back to the store. In this case, the order is simply not recorded in the database. This is...