Once you've opened Frontpage choose File>Open Web from the top menu. Browse to the location where you extracted your ecommerce template to (by default this should be C:\Frontpage Templates\FP Store Template). You may want to make a back up of the original before making any changes - remember it's always better to publish FrontPage templates rather than using an FTP program so once you've opened the web you might want to publish it to another location on your hard drive, alternatively save a copy of the .exe on CD or disc, just in case.

There are some issues to bear in mind when using Frontpage and PHP so we've split this section into 2 parts:

Version ASP

You can now get to work on making the design changes - some of the templates use a theme and Frontpage navigation although there are some that rely entirely on include pages.

To change the names on navigation buttons:

1. Switch to FrontPage Navigation View.
2. Right click on the page icon that represents the link you wish to change.
3. Type a new name.
4. Right click in the blue area to "Apply Changes."

To add a page to the nav bars:

In navigation view, select and open a page that exists on the same level of the chart as the page you wish to add.

1. Save it as a new page. Switch to Navigation View.
2. Drag it onto the Navigation View flow chart.
3. In the Navigation View, rename the page to suit your needs.
4. Customize the content and save.

Now that you can see how the general design changes can be made, this is how you would proceed.

1. Get your general design done locally, more or less the look you need for the site - don't worry about the products and links for the moment. The ecommerce templates come with .png files so changing colours, titles and company name etc. is simple - Macromedia have a 30 day free trial available for Fireworks if you don't already have the program.
2. There's nothing you need to add to the pages in the vsadmin folder for the time being as you'll be the only one using those pages for adding product information, shipping stuff, categories, credit card processors etc once the site is on the server.
3. Now you can publish your site via Frontpage to your Windows enabled server.
4. This is where the fun starts - you'll probably want to get some categories and products on your store so you'll have to log into the admin section - chances are that first of all you'll need to change the path to your database in the file vsadmin/db_conn_open.asp - here's a quick way of checking to get the path correct for the ecommerce standard and plus templates. Once you've done that publish the site again.
5. Now that's done log into your online admin control panel at www.yourdomain.com/vsadmin/admin.asp - and the first thing to do is change the default username and password so no-one else can get in.
6. Take a look around the various options, the ecommerce templates come with some sample products, categories and descriptions and although they will need to be deleted, they should give you a good idea of how the system works.
7. That's about it, you can now start setting up your store - if you run into difficulties, take a look through the support forum.

Version PHP

There are a couple of issues with the FrontPage version when using PHP only. Frontpage extensions do not work with pages with the .php extension, so this means that FrontPage Includes and FrontPage Navigation do not work. We have found a neat way around these issues, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

First, for include pages, we have just used PHP includes. It's already set up for you, and you will find the included pages in the includes folder. Unlike FrontPage includes however, all links will be relative to the file that is doing the including. So, for this reason we recommend you use links relative to the site root if you want to use the same include files in folders and sub folders.

Examples of different ways to link pages are...

• This is a relative link: mypage.php
• This is a link relative to the site root: /mypage.php
• This is an absolute link: http://www.mysite.com/mypage.php

Because FrontPage Navigation is not available, you will have to make up and over buttons for the navigation. (This does not apply to templates which use DHTML PopOut menus as navigation of course.) To change navigation, open the page which contains the navigation. (Normally includes/leftnavigation.htm.) You will see some lines of code such as . . .
addrollover('special.php','images/special.gif','images/specialov.gif');
To add buttons to the navigation, just add extra lines here, or edit the existing ones. The parameters are:

1. The link.
   This can be relative: mypage.php
   or relative to the site root: /mypage.php
   or absolute: http://www.mysite.com/mypage.php
2. The "normal" state of the image
3. The "mouseover" state of the image

The same rules apply about relative links as for the FrontPage Includes however.

If Frontpage doesn't recognize the .PHP pages, you'll need to configure it like this:

1. In Frontpage go to Tools>Options>Configure Editors
2. Choose "Add"
3. Put PHP for file type
4. Put the same information as you have for htm, html etc. - this is usually
   Editor Name: FrontPage
   Command: frontpg.exe
5. Save

Now that has been explained the rest is pretty similar to the ASP version.

1. Get your general design done, more or less the look you need for the site - don't worry about the products and links for the moment. Publish to your sever regularly to see everything looks fine or work "live" on the server. The ecommerce templates come with .png files so changing colours, titles and company name etc. is simple - Macromedia have a 30 day free trial available for Fireworks if you don't already have the program.
2. There's nothing you need to add to the pages in the vsadmin folder for the time being as you'll be the only one using those pages for adding product information, shipping stuff, categories, credit card processors etc once the site is on the server.
3. Now you can start on the admin side - you'll probably want to get some categories and products on your store so you'll have to log into the admin section - chances are that first of all you'll need to change the path to your database in the file vsadmin/db_conn_open.php - your host should be able to help you there if you run into problems.
4. Now that's done log into your online admin control panel at www.yourdomain.com/vsadmin/admin.php - and the first thing to do is change the default username and password so no-one else can get in.
5. Take a look around the various options, the ecommerce templates come with some sample products, categories and descriptions and although they will need to be deleted, they should give you a good idea of how the system works.
6. That's about it, you can now start setting up your store - check the instructions for the ecommerce plus templates and if you run into difficulties, take a look through the support forum.