Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

-------------------------

Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

-------------------------

Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

The site looks pretty good.  I honestly think some of the graphics look a little cheesy... the "buy now" button; the blue gradients; the font on the "transmission components" page...

-------------------------

Mike Hirst
---
more of Mike Hirst`s thoughts on small business and marketing at http://www.hirstcreative.com
---
Marketing is the art of making extraordinary products tell a great story.
Which one are you missing?
Where do you go from here?

I remember your site! Wow... you`ve come along way!... I don`t want to discourage you.. but there`s lots of cleaning up to do... But before I critique your web sites... I like the way your designer manipulated the Oscommerce Engine. I don`t know if he used the OSCommerce Simple Template System (OSCOMMERCE STS) or if he actually went into the OScommerce template and modified the tables... but whatever he did... Nice Module Manipulation...

I am currently bulding a car`s part web site based on Pro Stores "SSXML" Pro-Store and Ebay have a partnership where any item that you add to your Pro Stores Web Site Automatically gets added to your Ebay store... the language is very straight forward and very easy to use... just like Oscommerce...

OK, Now... lets move on to the following: What version of Oscommece are you using? I don`t think you`re using the latestest release because I went to your admin and a winbox popped up... WinBoxes are not secure... at least not for OScommerce.. http://www.lyonsperformance.com/admin/ is your login correct? this is not a good way to set the admin...

This is a major security issue... The latestest version which is Oscommece Merchant 2.2rc has addressed the WinBox Issue for you, the admin side has a login module. So no more WinBOX.
Secondly, if you went all out... rather than using Oscommerce Merchant V2.2rc you should have gone full OsCommerce 3.0 Alfa... and here is why...
OsCommerce 3.0 architecture is table-less and it`s CSS and XHTML compliant. Many new features were integrated into the new package... such as: meta tag creation for individual items (Just Like Zen Cart). Gift Certificate and Coupon Module, and simple layout and module manipulation.
I don`t understand why your designer went with an old version. This is a set back to your online store because OSCOMMERCE (the version you have) is based on php4 and not php5. and there is very little support on php4 since January 1st, 2008. PHP5 is more secure.
Now ask yourself something? What if you want to upgrade? it`s intensive work just to Upgrade with a lower version.

I`ve ran into database migration from php4 to php5... I was able to get it going after I manually edited the SQL files, and that is time consuming to go through every SQL command and tweak the file just so you can run an SQL command.
If I were you, I would talk to your developer and have him upgrade you to the latest.. Don`t trash this site through.. have him install it on the server and once he`s ready to move over... just swap the engines out...

I like your Forum... See that`s how the front end of your site should look... You might have to go back to the labs... Six Months is too Long...Oscommerce is a 1 month project.





-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Excellent website with a quick glance.  Very clean, very professional, looks safe and secure!  I`d shop with u only I don`t know a thing about cars.