What you need.

For the PHP / mySQL versions of the Ecommerce Plus Templates, you need a server that has a minimum of PHP version 4.1 and a mySQL database. To use the UPS shipping feature it will also be necessary for your host to have cURL component installed. If you have a windows server then please see our templates in Microsoft Access / ASP version here.

Setting the database connection and installing the database.

To set the database connection, please open the file vsadmin/db_conn_open.php in a text editor. You need to fill in the details in the spaces provided. The 4 pieces of information that you need to provide are the username and password for database access, the name of the database and the address of the database. If you are in any doubt about these, please ask your host who will provide you with the information. Then fill in the gaps between the quotes as shown.

$db_username = "loginname"; // Your database login username
$db_password = "loginpassword"; // Your database login password
$db_name = "databasename"; // The name of the database you wish to use
$db_host = "localhost";

The last parameter $db_host is normally "localhost". However, it can also be a URL like
$db_host = "db.myhost.com";

Once this information has been correctly entered, you can install the database tables and data. To do this, just open the file createdb.php in a browser by entering the address for instance
http://www.yoursite.com/createdb.php
Obviously replacing "www.yoursite.com" with whatever is the URL of your site. Then click on the button to "Install Ecommerce Plus" and your database will be created. Please remember to delete this file from your web after running it, as otherwise others could use it to destroy your information.

Setting up your PHP template on a Yahoo! Hosting account.

Firstly log in to your Yahoo! Web hosting control panel. You should have been provided with details about how to log in here by Yahoo!
Now, on the right hand side under "Expert Web Site Tools" you should see a link like
MySQL Database
Activate and maintain your database.
. . . and you need to click on this link.
You will now need to click to activate your mySQL database.
Now on the left hand side you need to click under the heading "Database Setup" on the link "Install Admin Tool". After agreeing to the license terms, you are recommended to install the admin tool in a new folder, for instance "phpadmin". You can use the "Create Directory" box to do this, and once the new directory is created then click on "Install phpMyAdmin" next to the new directory name.
Now you need to open the phpMyAdmin tool in your browser by using the link that is shown on your Yahoo! Hosting panel, for instance it will be something like
http://www.yoursite.com/phpadmin if you used our suggestion for a directory name. You will need to login using the username and password that you used to activate your database.
Now in the box labelled "Create new database" choose a name for your new database, and we recommend something like "vsproducts".

Now you need to enter this information in your vsadmin/db_conn_open.php script.

$db_username = "username"; // Your database login username
$db_password = "yourpassword"; // Your database login password
$db_name = "vsproducts"; // The name of the database you wish to use
$db_host = "mysql"; // The db host is always mysql using Yahoo! Hosting

The last step here is that Yahoo requires you to set up a new folder in the root of your store (where your index.php file resides) called "tmp" - you'll need to make it public and give it world access rights (CHMOD 777).

Now open the createdb.php script in your browser, for instance . . .
http://www.yoursite.com/createdb.php

And you should be all set !
One last point about Yahoo! Hosting, you may find that your currency symbols do not appear, and if not then you just need to make this simple change in your vsadmin/includes.php script as detailed here.

Getting Started.

Once the database connection is correctly set, you can access the admin area by opening the page /vsadmin/admin.php in your browser. The default username and password are mystore / changeme. Take time to go through the admin pages and configure the settings for your requirements as detailed below.

One point to note when naming your pages is that all your pages need to have the .php extension. This is because there is important code before the opening HTML tag which needs a .php extension to be executed.

FrontPage Issues.

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 does 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
    

Shipping Calculations.

7 kinds of shipping calculations are provided.

No shipping -> Shipping costs are not added. -> (more information)
Flat rate shipping -> Shipping costs can be set individually per product. -> (more information)
Price based shipping -> Same as above but based on price rather than weight changes. -> (more information)
Weight based shipping -> Here, shipping is calculated by product weight according to the shipping zone to easily facilitate international shipping. If Weight based shipping is selected, then the country zone can be set in the countries admin panel, and new zones can be edited by following the Edit Postal Zones link in the main admin panel. -> (more information)
UPS Shipping -> More information
USPS shipping -> More information
Canada Post -> more information

Handling - this charge can be set for all your products in the main admin page.

Setting up Payment Providers.

To set up the details for Payment Providers, chose the link Edit Payment Providers on the admin home page. The available payment providers will be show on this page, with the active ones in bold. Please note it is possible to have more than one payment provider active at a time, so, for instance giving you the opportunity to use both a Credit Card based system like 2Checkout together with a system like PayPal. If more than one is chosen then your customers are given the choice of payment service in the checkout phase.

For all payment providers you need to ensure that on the store admin settings the URL to your web site is correct. To set this go to the main admin page, admin.php, and chose the Edit Admin Settings link.

Choose from the list below for detailed instructions on setting up for the individual payment providers.

• Authorize.Net (US Dollars)
• Verisign Payflow Link (US + Australian Dollars)
• WorldPay (Multi Currencies)
• PayPal (US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, UK Pounds, Japanese Yen, Australian Dollars)
• 2Checkout (Multi currencies)
• SECPay (Multi currencies)
• NOCHEX (UK Pounds)
• PSiGate (Canadian and US dollars)
• Capture card (Offline credit card processing)
• More payment processors

Email Notification.
If you chose this option, then your customers can make an order without actually having to go through a payment routine. You can use this option if you wish to take orders that are then paid by bank transfer, check etc at a later date.

Security Considerations.

The default login and password for the admin area is mystore / changeme. You are encouraged to change this immediately.
Fraud is always a factor in online sales unfortunately. Always double check with your payment providers admin area to ensure that a sale has been properly processed before shipping products.