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The e-commerce.

could some control be applied of the quality of mods ?


sparkylabs

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price breaks are important for some markets, I sell electronics components (I'm planning full projects later) and my competition is very large wholesalers who I buy from. They offer prices breaks and therefore as it is I have to make a choice, overprice my parts in case someone only wants one or I end with an order that makes me pennies, that excludes people wanting to buy quantities, or I make my stuff cheap hoping people buy more and if they don't I could be making up a package with a profit of 0.05 GBP.

 

Larger items will not suffer this problem and goods people don't usually buy many of but at the moment on ebay I sell in lots of 5-50, ebay allows me to offer price breaks.

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It must be difficult for Harold seeing his code being used as the basis for other stores. OSC was once the product to have, its just a shame now that the competitors are getting away.

 

I can see that but wasn't someone just reminding me of what "open source" means ? and maybe these competitors have sprung up because they wanted to do something better ? (no disrespect meant). If oscommerce was the dogs privates in the open source esommerce world there would be no room for competition, as it is it is very hard to manage as we are finding in this discussion.

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new core ? are you saying every .1 of a version is a new core (and that's why addon's are incompatible between versions ?), see there is your problem for a start, why do you need to keep rewriting the core ? I assume that this means that upgrading from one version to another is not possible, a grand heritage indeed and a lot of pain.

 

Assuming this was meant for me, I don't have anything to do with the core code. If you have issues with that, you would need to contact Harold since he is the only one that can control it. But, yes, for oscommerce versions 2.3 and before, the code code would have to be changed to allow automatic installs and that just isn't going to happen. You can, of course, upgrade from one version to another, at least with the current versions, but that is not a simple project for established shops.

 

Why should there be any arguments over addon's ? if each group take an addon each (that should become part of the main project by default) they can discuss it, come to an agreement and make the most efficient solution, I mean cmon are you telling me that there are so many ways of having a price break for the end user that we need a choice ????? and what about the daily self update of currencies, that has no user interaction at all, don't tell me that can be a controversy over a function no one will ever interact with.

There will be arguments because programers do things differently. If you pick one addon to show your point, it may seem it is obvious. But there are many popular addons that do the same thing but in an entirely different way. For example, the update of currencies, there are probably four addons for that, one of them being mine. If Harold decided to include one of the others in the core code, I would stop supporting mine - why waste my time. That means the code doesn't get developed unless Harold does it and, again, that probably won't happen since his time is limited.

 

 

My point remains, there are so many so called ad on's that are so basic that they should be part of the main code, no arguing about what they look like, it's loke arguing over if a chair should have 4 legs or not.

No, that's incorrect. It only doesn't matter if it doesn't matter to you. Harold wrote a paypal standard module and included it in the core code. But many people install a different version, for whatever reason. Doing it your way means youtake away the ability of others to decide what they want. There are several shopping cart packaages like.that. They won't allow you to make changes to the code. They know what is best for you and that's that. It sounds like you prefer that sort of package and it isn't something that will happen with oscommerce unless Harold changes how it works.

 

 

Maybe it is time for a rewrite if oscommerce if it is indeed meant for the masses, but then that could be a bit rich coming from me as I can't even code other than a few html tags (that are mandatory to have any for of fomatting over product listings.....) so I have no idea of what I'm suggesting.

There is a rewrite - two acutally. But only Harold knows if they will be released today or five years from now. In the meantime, what you see is what you get. It won't be changed.

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So basically the whole project is solely maintained by Harold ? well that will explain why things are in peices, if you can't work as a team then your obviously having to all write bits on your own crossing purposes.

 

Your missing my point, I am aware there are different ways of coding things, but what your saying is that the end user is missing out so that everyone can have their own way. This sounds like a very stable setup - not, and one that inspires no confidence from an end user like me. Sure you would stop support for your addon if the same functionality was added as standard, if it does exactly the same thing why make another.

 

Again I can go back to my example of KiCAD, mods and subfunctions are discussed on their mailing list and sometimes soneone will volunteer to look at a small part of the programs function and improve it, others will offer suggestions, they will reach an agreement and the program will be improved, overseen by a small group of people (3 I think with 1 main man) that keep a handle on the whole project and that public releases are going out in a functional state.

 

If one person develops oscommerce and other make small bits of code that they can't add to the main project because only one person controls it. That will give you very very sow progress. I thought this was a community project.

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to clarify my second paragraph: the project is being run by coders for coders, with little consideration for a non technical end user that has no interest in how the code was written but wants an easy to use and well supported platform.

 

What are the other projects that have branched from oscommerce ? They might be worth a look if they have evolved from not being able to cooperate effectively (assuming they are open source)

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If one person develops oscommerce and other make small bits of code that they can't add to the main project because only one person controls it. That will give you very very sow progress. I thought this was a community project.

I didn't say there was only one person developing it. I said the final decision is Harold's. You seem not to understand that the core code of the oscommerce package is very old, in programing terms, and the current versions are closed for any new development, according to Harold. So if you are looking for that to change before a new version is released, you are just wasting your time. Like it or not, that is the way it is.

 

The subject of this thread was about the addons section. That has always been a very sore point for many here. I think it could be improved upon, at least some, with a few minor changes. But, again, harold controls that and hasn't seen fit to address it, even though it has been brought up many times. If the addons section was improved, I think some of your complaints would be handled. But, again, that is the way it is.

 

The bottom line is that if you can find another shopping cart package that you like, then you should switch. But I think you will find they all have their problems.

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@@sparkylabs

 

This is an easy to install and use mod for price breaks: Simple Price break

 

Besides that you sound like someone who should rather look at Oscmax or Zencart.

 

Oscommerce is as of today close to the only open source cart with a massive selection of FREE add-ons as-well as a cart which can easily be run on shared hosting. BUT it does require its users to take the time to learn some basic php and html programming to add extra functionality.

 

By the way oscommerce is still one of the more widely used cart softwares, but you might not always see its an oscommerce shop at first glance since for most successful shops they have made their own modified version which looks nothing like the default version.

 

There are plenty of other Open Source shopping cart software out there, many more advanced and with much more modern code than the Oscommerce 2 series. (But if you are concerned about having to pay for programming/modifications your can not do yourself then you will probably "cry" after trying one of those.)

 

- Some will only run ok on dedicated servers, ie. you will have to spend 150 USD and up a month for the hosting alone.

 

- Close to all add-ons/extensions cost money

 

- Due to more complex code, most are not DIY friendly at all so you will be at the mercy of commercial programmers for any extra mod/functionality you want.

 

This is why many sticks with Oscommerce, Its very DIY friendly and you if have the aptitude and patience to learn abit coding you can modify it to your particular business needs.

 

The new Oscommerce 3 version might be a "game-changer" when its released though, since it will be very modern, have a template system and have a modular build where a wide range of add-ons can be installed with a click in admin.

 

But then again my guess is that most add-ons released for v3 will be commercial ones like it seems to be with most newer carts system today.

 

I think Oscommerce v2 is fine as a bare boned starter package and should be keep lean and mean to be able to run on most shared hosting and keep its current flexibility to be modified in any wanted direction.

 

But that said the following functions could still be added to the base package to make it a little bit more "newbie" friendly

 

- Admin control for selection of jquery ui theme.

 

- Admin add/edit info pages

 

- Modular front page

 

- Automatic thumbnails

 

- HTML WYSIWYG editor

 

 

I do think that adding user rating to the add-ons section would be a big plus though. The rating should be for each individual uploaded version of the add-on.

Edited by toyicebear
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All points noted, why would some carts only work on dedicated hosting ? I have a a very bare bones hosting and it runs several wordpress websites and two forums plus oscommerce, granted none get much use.

 

I'm not sure what classes as an addon and what as a standard feature. I look forward to version 3 unless I find something better.

 

The addon you link to is for a previous version of oscommerce, this is the other great drawback, being so basic and each version incompatible with the previous every time a new version comes out it is start from scratch and hope addon's are around to replace your old ones

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So, once again, I ask that anyone interested in the future of osCommerce & who wants to help out, to go and github, and start rolling their own version of osCommerce. You never know that what you do might be rolled up into the official release.

 

I've visited github per posts from this forum but haven't quite figured out how it works or how to actively use it. Meaning I've seen and actually used code posted in github, but how to actually be more involved I have not yet done. I would participate even if only at a basic level for now anyway.

 

For example there are a couple add on's I've modified for my own personal use, but maybe my code changes would be of interest to others. I am not sure my minor tweaks merit going to being uploaded to an add on here on osC though.

 

I've googled some sites that discuss git but if anyone has a reference for info directly pertaining to oscommerce and github and how to use them together I'd appreciate it.

I am not a professional webmaster or PHP coder by background or training but I will try to help as best I can.

I remember what it was like when I first started with osC. It can be overwhelming.

However, I strongly recommend considering hiring a professional for extensive site modifications, site cleaning, etc.

There are several good pros here on osCommerce. Look around, you'll figure out who they are.

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I've googled some sites that discuss git but if anyone has a reference for info directly pertaining to oscommerce and github and how to use them together I'd appreciate it.

Some info to start with github

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/topic/386371-how-to-start-using-git-with-existing-customized-ms2-site/page__hl__github#entry1634775

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So if you are still here ? What are you waiting for ?!

 

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well so much for my googling skills... :blush:

 

Thanks Carine, that will get me started.

I am not a professional webmaster or PHP coder by background or training but I will try to help as best I can.

I remember what it was like when I first started with osC. It can be overwhelming.

However, I strongly recommend considering hiring a professional for extensive site modifications, site cleaning, etc.

There are several good pros here on osCommerce. Look around, you'll figure out who they are.

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The addon you link to is for a previous version of oscommerce, this is the other great drawback, being so basic and each version incompatible with the previous every time a new version comes out it is start from scratch and hope addon's are around to replace your old ones

 

The mentioned add-on is easy to adapt to v2.3, simply follow the manual code change instructions. (Do not try to use pre-modded 2.2 files from any add-on in a 2.3 shop)

 

All points noted, why would some carts only work on dedicated hosting ?

 

Because they are too resource intensive and will not load properly/very slowly.

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