Comments on: Get A Great Design For Your Store – Create A Profitable Online Store Part 5

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:41:41 +0000

That is so true, once you add your own stuff then upgrading is always a nightmare unless you keep track of every mod you did and where you did it. I have a good program that compares two PHP files so I can see what changed between them.

My thoughts are along the same lines, I took a look at BTS and it does look sweet. You can change your template colors/layout anytime very easily but is the overhead of the template system worth it? Will all your other add-ons work with it? There is one thing that is nice, the BTS system is totally CSS no more tables

For now I think I will try the OScommerce right out of the box and add only the extras I need.

Thanks again,
Phil

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:02:42 +0000

Hi Phil,

I don’t currently use BTS or any template system right now. My personal opinion of OSC is that the plugins and addons are somewhat of a mess and the less you have to deal with by hand the better. The real question is why you need a template system in the first place. While in theory a template system will allow you to upgrade to the latest shopping cart version easier, in reality no shopping cart upgrade I’ve ever done has ever gone smoothly.

Even the template structures undergo changes all of the time so there really is no such thing as a completely future proof solution. Given that premise, it’s best to go with an out of the box solution that is well maintained. As soon as you start adding things on your own, your shopping cart will no longer be a standard install and any new upgrades will be difficult to make no matter what.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:05:14 +0000

Hey Steve,

Did you finally end up using a template system on your OSC cart or did you just use the out of the box version? I know you said before that you would recommend OSCMAX but I still am a bit leary.

I am thinking about taking the OSC out of the box and just adding the extras I need and want. The one thing I looked at was the BTS template addon that OSCMAX uses as well.

Once again, the problem is now BTS is changing the entire structure of the underlying code for OSC. Maybe other addons won’t work, maybe things would break?

There are so many books and guides for the straight OSC that I hate messing with the code so much that these guides are useless.

Just looking to hear your point of view.

By the way, I currently have a home brewed cart that is working fine but lacks a bunch of features that I am not sure I want to waste my time adding in when I could just change to something tried and true…

By: Find Products To Sell Online – Create A Profitable Online Store Part 2 | Wizpress.com

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:48:32 +0000