Hi

Can anyone recommend any good (idiots guide!!) software for designing a website with shop and shopping basket etc.

Thanks

This one used to be highly recommended a few years ago:

http://ed2.net/actinic_catalog.htm

CubeCart (http://www.cubecart.com/site/home/) is good (free version available).

There's also osCommerce (http://www.oscommerce.com) that is also free/GPL.

Second vote for OSCommerce, good for basic sites, lots of plugins & modules for anything extra, & one of the easiest to install... Also the easiest to re-skin (that I've tried) :loopy:

osCommerce 3rd vote, very good configurable system.

Joel

oscommerce gets my vote too


Just trying to learn it myself, although I haven't the foggiest what I am doing. If you know nothing about php which I don't it is very difficult to change the out of the box look.

Originally posted by Skatiechik
If you know nothing about php which I don't it is very difficult to change the out of the box look.

Surely you mean "If you know nothing about php which I don't it is virtually impossible to change the out of the box look.":D.

I know nothing about php, it took me a lot less time than trying to re-skin phpBB. Ouch...

If anyone wants a 10 minute OSCommerce skinning tutorial, PM me. A bit busy today, but I'm going to do one for my website (want a newbie guide section) anyway so I can write a rough 'n' ready version...

Originally posted by steev
I know nothing about php, it took me a lot less time than trying to re-skin phpBB. Ouch...

phpBB is easy to code a template for than osC (IMHO);).


Originally posted by steev
If anyone wants a 10 minute OSCommerce skinning tutorial, PM me.

There's a few decent tutorials for customising osC (and a few rather good ebooks) @ osCBooks (http://www.oscbooks.com/).

Originally posted by sccsux
There's a few decent tutorials for customising osC (and a few rather good ebooks) @ osCBooks (http://www.oscbooks.com/).

D'oh, that could've saved me a few hours headbutting my desk. Never mind, the bruises healed

Originally posted by sccsux
phpBB is easy to code a template for than osC (IMHO);)

Ah, there speaks someone who knows stuff in the field of web designery. I'm trying to learn, different kind of geek. Do you know of any nice readmes for skinning phpBB (or phpBBfm, as I'm using)?

Originally posted by steev
Do you know of any nice readmes for skinning phpBB (or phpBBfm, as I'm using)?

'Fraid not:(.

I taught myself by looking @ the coding for many templates, then a process of trial & error took over.

To be honest, I haven't used phpBB in a live environment for at least 2 years (least of all the FM version) due to the continual need for updating due to security issues:(.


Does Google not thrown anything "interesting" up during a search?

Dude, googling for phpBB help (and add-ons/mods) is a nightmare. I'm using phpBBfm because it's the only way I could get the arcade mod working, & it took me around a week to work that out, tried phpnuke/mambo/vanilla phpbb with activity mod, even considered paying for vBulletin!!

The main trouble is that the phpBBfm themes (or at least the ones I've tried) are different from vanilla phpBB & break the installation, so I'm stuck with the dozen or so available skins, & modding the rest myself.

The reason I find OSCommerce easier to skin is that it's mostly grepping for colour codes in the .css, plus 1/2 hour photoshopping. If you want to anything with phpBB it's fighting with tpl (http://www.phpbb.com/kb/article.php?article_id=198) files... :loopy:

Cactushop at http://www.cactushop.com

Reasonably priced, very customisable & fully featured. Can use Access, MySQL or MS SQL backend. ASP so runs on MS platform only (may work on Chillisoft on Linux but never tried this). Have used VP-ASP in the past and this is miles better IMHO.

Developers based in the UK with good support.

If you're pretty good with ASP code there's the free Commersus cart . Not trivial though.

Cheers,
Mark.

is there anypoint in gettin a shopping cart for a website if you dont accept credit cards? pro's/con's? i guess it would appear smarter...but a lot of effort for little point?

this is for my benefit..nothing concerning the orignal poster

Originally posted by MTheo
is there anypoint in gettin a shopping cart for a website if you dont accept credit cards? pro's/con's? i guess it would appear smarter...but a lot of effort for little point?

this is for my benefit..nothing concerning the orignal poster

Short answer.... No;).

However, it is very easy to accept online payments via a 3rd party payment processor (PayPal, NoChex, WorldPay etc.).

Hi,

I don't have any suggestions on any particular shopping sites but if your looking for a domain name with free hosting, 10 email addresses and site building software, check out the website in my signature.

Thanks

aRRy

If it was me I wouldn't go with that company above :rolleyes: Just doesn't look very good and the website is shocking.

Originally posted by Skatiechik
If it was me I wouldn't go with that company above :rolleyes: Just doesn't look very good and the website is shocking.

Quite...

Plus you can get .ws domains for $25 a year from enough places, & get free hosting from somewhere other than some numpty who uses his first post to advertise his rather naff startup business...

Yeah sorry about that. It was a bit cheeky slipping that in. I apologise.

I just recently started with this thing and I've got a few signups online making a bit of cash. I found this forum and thought I've got nowt to lose so I registered and posted.

I should have got to know you guys first.

No hard feelings I hope

aRRy

Thanks everyone for all your sugestions, I have found some software called Shop Factory that I'm thinking of going for, has anyone ever heard of it?

Never heard of it I am afraid.

what will u be selling may i ask?

Party Goods i.e. wigs, fancy dress, hen/stag goodies etc.