5 replies to this topic

[Peper]

I want to add some sort of forum to my site to provide a technical after sales support for products.
I noted some addons, but surely those will be outdated by now.

Basically I want to keep my store header if possible and use the same database with prefix to new forum tables
Possible? please advise for a simple to use light forum where only registered store customers have got access to

Any suggestion welcome

[DunWeb]

Pierre,

You can link to just about any forum software and use your oscommerce database to add new tables if you want. Just create a button or link from your osCommerce site to the forum.



Chris

[MrPhil]

It's certainly trivial to install forum software (e.g., SMF) in a separate directory, and add a link to it from your landing page and possibly from your store header. The headache comes with integrating everything under one common sign-on, and not losing your session when jumping between store and forum (in either direction). Most forum software, like osC, is architected to assume that it owns everything on the site. If your customers are willing to finish their business in the store before going over to the forum, and accept that they'll have to sign on again with a separate ID and password, then no problem. If you need integration between the two, so you can jump over to the forum without losing your shopping cart or having to sign on again (and likewise, in the opposite direction), it's going to be a lot of work. A halfway measure would be to copy user data between the two systems' databases, so that the same ID and password work on both, but that still requires a separate sign-on for the two sides.

If you need only a fairly simple forum, you might find some kind of PHP-based forum/discussion library that you could plug into osC, or even "borrow" the guts of some forum software such as SMF. At least, that would keep everything under the osC roof, as far as single signon and session go. An alternative would be to install a separate forum and modify the code to use osC's sign-on, and use the same session and cookie settings as osC uses. Still, quite a bit of work. If you had planned from the very beginning to have store + forum/discussion group, you probably would have chosen a CMS such as Drupal or Joomla (or even, Wordpress) and used its forum and store plug-ins.

[rusel]

Create a button or link from your osCommerce site to the forum.
Link to any forum software and use your oscommerce database to add new tables if you want.

[MrPhil]

rusel, on 22 December 2010, 07:27, said:

Create a button or link from your osCommerce site to the forum.

You will lose your session when you jump out of osC into the forum. Your shopping cart will be emptied out and if you're signed on, you'll probably find yourself signed off.

[Peper]

I'm about to create my second osCommerce site and still have not much to work with.
I would really like to implement something of use to customers.

Any examples on a site with something like this?
Where do I start and which addon is recommended to do this

Thanks for reply's to this