jerseyjoe

Please allow me to offer one more piece of unrequested advice. You mentioned that you may put the column of boxes on the right. I sometimes see web sites with the primary menus on the right - and it is always an attempt to be unique and creative. But that is almost always a mistake. In the western world, we read from left to right. Therefore our highly developed expectation is that basic navigational menus are in the same place on every page - at the left. Putting them to the right is dis-orienting. While one of the purposes of Art (note the capital "A") is to change our perception of things, often by disorienting the viewer and forcing a new gestalt that invokes an "ah HA!" moment of fresh insight, you are building a commercial site where the purpose is to sell things. To disorient the prospective customer is not productive. The purpose of graphic art (lower case) on commercial web sites is to make it easier to find information and navigate the web site. Placing the boxes on the left will accomplish that purpose better than putting them on the right. So, I respectfuly suggest you reconsider that intention. I totally agree that you should keep the skin itself as your own unique design. But, when you are4 finished with your site, if you would share how to make those boxes it would be appreciated.

First of alll, your English is fine. Your participation here is welcome. Secondly, I am envious of your design - I think it one of the best I've seen. I hope that after you resolve your current issues you will do a few mini-tutorials on how you create those delicious round corner boxes and compatibale frames around your product photos. My one negative comment is that the page header is way too huge, an issue that is made even more striking when viewed in 800 by 600. Keep in mind that the header sits atop EVERY page. By putting such a huge header on every page you are, in effect, shouting at your visitors, telling them something they already know - that they are at your store. Keep in mind that this is not mission critical information. The mission is to sell your products, not shout your name on every page. In that case, assuming you agree on that goal, you will want to put the store's inventory before your customer, not a highway billboard that is designed to be seen at 200 kilometers per hour. My suggestion is that a header that is between 100 to 125 px high is more than adequate - and will do a better job of selling things. Finally, I agree with the suggestions that you should consider a two-column approach with the boxes on the left. During that review process, think carefully about the value of each box. For example - how much does it help a customer to know that you have X products in Y categories? It may be "cool" information and satisfying to you, but think carefully about that from the perspective of a customer. And if it doesn't promote sales, remove it. Another example - If you are not intending to create a language file for alternative languages - complete with product details in those languages, of what value is it for you to have the Language box and its options? It only changes box headers and similar text. Is that enough to justify the space this box occupies and the distraction it causes a customer who is seeking to actually buy soemthing? So, as you see, you may be able to remove some boxes without negative effect on sales - and that would allow a cleaner interface - plus give you a much larger central box in which to promote sales. Hope this helps - and keep us in mind regarding those excellent graphics when you have some time.

I believe there is a need for a data base companion to CC. I'm calling it Shopping Cart Mechanic (SCM) and soliciting suggestions and support. The data base would track the development of a CC store and maintain a record of its skinning, hacks and mods, patches, etc. The value, as I see it, would be as a handy resource of what has happened in the history of a particular installation. It should support multiple stores so a developer can keep all stores in one location. It should be relational so that, for example, a query for all stores that have a certain mod or hack or patch installed would return records for those stores. It may as well also keep details such as user names and pws, contact info, etc. To my mind, the ideal SCM would be server-based, written in MySQL and PHP, so it could be accessed through any Internet connection. I see it as Open Source but perhaps sold on modder's sites for a modest fee to recover costs of maintaining it. But, I have problem doing it in those languages because I am a total doofus with MySQL and PHP. Perhaps someone here shares my view and will take this up? On the other hand, if there is no support in those languages, I am heavily experienced in FileMaker Pro and could create a "run time" version, meaning it could be distributed as a stand alone app that would run desktop on either Windows or Mac. A server based version in FMP is possible but not practical - and would not be Open Source. But if there's a lack of support for a MySQL/PHPO version I'll still want feedback and suggestions from experienced CC developers who can help define the fields and functions that they want SCM to have when I create it in FMP. So I'm putting this out with the hope that someone with MySQL - PHP expertise will pick up on it. I own a hosting company and would donate server space. Feedback? Comment?

Actually, I love it. I'll explain all that to the client and make sure they know that future changes require future fees. Thanks for an elegant solution!

I'll send you a PM with my suggestion. Can't do it in public.

The first suggestion works fine. Thanks. But I'd already tried the second one - and in fact redid it to show you how it acts. The grahic starts to repeat. Hmm - is there perhaps a "no repeat" line of code I could put in there? Again thanks for the help.

Do a search for an excellent tutorial "Manipulating Boxes" by MarksCarts. It covers your topic in great clarity - and opens the way for you to ontrol ALL boxes.

I think I have done all of that correctly. Still stuck. Even had one of the hosting guys try it without success. Send me a PM with your URL and access codes and I'll see if I can fix it. It used to make me crazy until I figured it out .

The three security practices are good advice but the third (daily backups) should not depend on discipline, given that almost any professional hosting service worthy of the name offers automatic scheduled backups. If your host offer cPanel, this is very easy to configure. In a mission critcal situation, the backup should go to another drive. That costs a bit extra but the first time you need it you will find it was a damned good investment. You probably also should considser backups more frequent than just daily, if you have a store doing serious business. Just one caution - you should not plan on restoring from backups yourself unless you have inhouse support that is fully qualified. It's best to have restorations done by your hosting tech support. And get a commitment from them that they will be there 24/7 and will do restorations on demand, without delay - like within a few minutes. Good luck!

Yes, that's the problem. The lower one being against a darker background is exposing the fact the the graphic has a jagged top edge. I'll have to rework the grahic to fix the problem. Thanks for your help

Please see: http://www.keepsakeribbonstore.com/store/index.php and note that the box titles are hard to read. I want to make the box titles (Shop by Category, etc.) bold and I want to experiment with them aligned to the bottom or the center (meaning between top and bottom) so it shows up stronger against the background. I've experimented with various editing of the Legend layout.css - .boxTitleLeft, .boxTitleRight { - but so far, nothing I've tried does what I want. Is this controlled somewhere else - or do I simply need better code? TIA

Actually, it's still showing. I'm looking at it in FireFox. I just looked at it in IE and arrrrrggggghhh! Yes, that graphic displays properly in IE - which is what you probably saw - but then mail contents box has jumped down. I'm guessing that I've made it too wide. Whaddya think? A few px fewer should fix that? Hmmm - or maybe it's the editing I did to the little graphic inside the Mailing List box. I guess I should fix that first by reducing the font size and then see if the center box goes back where it belongs before I do anything else. I do hate IE. Hate it. Meanwhile, I'm still stuck with the Language box graphic issue when seen in FF.

Please look at http://www.keepsakeribbonstore.com/store/index.php Compare how the box title gifs are displaying and note that the one at the bottom (language) is displaying ragged. Please ignore the graphic itself - I'm learning how to use Photoshop to create a gif that looks like a ribbon - it's an interesting problem to achieve that within the narrow parameters of 160 by 16 px. I probably will expand it to something like 20. But before I do, I want to findout why it's not displaying consitently. Ideas anyone?

Thanks to both of you for this question and answer. I had managed to figure this out about 90 days ago for a store I built then - but while starting in on the home page of a new store, I could not, no matter how I tried - figure out how I did it until this thread refreshed my memory. If I'm going to continue building stores I'm going to have to buld a database of what I've dome, how and where I did it. I'm serious. I think I'll do that. Wish I knew how to do it in MySQL so I could publish it online but I do know how to in FileMaker Pro. Thnaks to the excellent tutorial by MarksCart on controlling boxes, I was able to do that again without having to re-discover. If he keeps this up, he may yet make up for the horrible lack of comprehensive docs so sorely b=needed by CC. Right now I have to do a tedious search for how to control the width of the center box so it's wide to the right margin (see http://www.keepsakeribbonstore.com/store/index.php for what I mean until I can either find the info or recall how and where I did it in thew previous cart.)

I'm not seeing anything like that in FireFox. Also, the overall width does not fit in an 800 by 600 display.

You are going to feel right at home here.

I think you'd be better off upgrading to 3.07p1 or waiting a few weeks for 3.08.

Wow - what a great resource. Thank you for sharing!!

I'm not going to say the name of who I use for hosting because I own that hosting service. Under one banner or another I've been doing that since January, 1994. I host web sites for clients in 5 countries. Today is our 12th anniversary. Later this week I will be sending every one of my clients an Anniversary Gift in the form of a one-month credit for every year they have hosted with us. I'm withholding the name of my company because, although I disagree with the idea that I should not be allowed to mention its name here, I'm not going to defy it either. But I do think it treats me like a second class citizen. I think it is unfair to me as a piad license holder of CC and to anyone who wants to ask an open question for that kind of information. The policy is mistaken in assuming that such a mention, with proper disclosure of my interest, would be predatory. Were I to answer the question as posted by providing the name of my company, I also would have clearly disclosed that I am the owner of the business, not just a user. I think that such an explicit disclaimer should be sufficient. Why assume that a person who is informed of that will somehow be abused by that knowledge. In fact, they should be comforted, knowing that I am a responsble member of this support community, one who is much more likely to understand the needs and issues involved in running a CC store than some uninvolved hosting company. I could understand such a policy if CC were to be in the hosting business - in which case, this is their venue and banning competetive mentions would not be at all unreasonable. However, that's not the case - at least not so far, anyway - but were I Brooky, I definitely would partner with someone in offering a hosting service in the same manner as a IPB, the maker of the software for this support forum (for which I also hold a few paid licenses) and host a few forums.) Having said all that, I agree that customer service and prompt, competant, professional support is a consideration far more important than price. That's why I am still in business after all these years and why so many of my clients have stayed with me from the start. Our service is definitely not the cheapest. Not even close. We charge a business web site $240 per year (20 a month) or $71.88 per year (that's 5.99 a month) for a personal web site, paid annually in advance, with a plain-language, no-excuses, money-back at any time guarantee. And my clients know they are paying for someone who watches out for them. For example, it was my tech support people who stepped in around 3am on a Sunday morning within minutes after the latest hack of a CC and protected the client by shutting down the store and preserving the database. The anomlies were immeditely detected and made the subject of premptive shutdown. Damage might have gone on for many hours or even days at some lower-priced hosting services - and maybe never acted upon until it was too late. That's because the price I charge for hosting includes 24/7/52/265 live human monitoring. When the stable version of CC is available, we'll upgrade the installation and restore the store from backups that are never more than 12 hours old. I wish you well in your search - but unless your web site is just for fun - make price the last thing you look at.

Yes, it's a promising design you've started. Nice colors. Clean graphics. But it's not completely perfect. It may look great in high res but at 800 by 600 it requires a left to right scroll, even in FF, and that's acceptable only if you intend to discourage orders from the huge numbers of people who have their monitors set at that. However, if you constrain the width of your store to something under 800px wide, customers at all resolutions can comfortably use the store. Also, because you are looking at the screen in hi-res, you are not seeing that box headings such as "Shopping Basket" are humongous in 800 by 600. Taking the font size for those headers down a notch or two would restore some harmony.

I'm ready when it's ready! And I want to again thank those who have pitched in. That kind of spontaneous and unselfish comunity support says a lot about the future of CC.

Learning how to operate your Cube Cart Store and customize its features and create a custom look (skinning) can't be all that hard if I am an example. I'm close enough to my 73rd birthday that I'm starting to say that's how old I am. The things I know I've learned by doing and with the excellent support of some very smart people here in the forums. Important Note: Before asking for help or before posting questions in a forum, do keywords searches in the forum - and go through the Knowledge Base. The basic stuff has all been asked and answered many times. You do not have to register in order to use the free download. It is complete in every way. A common route to expertise is to download a free copy, install it on a server and then play with it. When you are ready to operate a real store, do the right thing and pay for a registration. You will not only be helping sustain the ongoing development but you will feel good about. Now here's a free tip about how to learn without paying for server space. See the tutorial I wrote on how to make ytour own computer - or even a thumb drive - act like a server so you can install a store on it. http://www.cubecart.com/site/forums/index....topic=10592&hl= You then will be able to play with it all you want and publish a store online when you are ready. BTW - be aware that the current vers 3.07 has a serious security hole that is being furiously addressed by the experts. It's fine for using on your own drive but don't publish a store on a server until that has been fixed. It should be fixed in a day or so. CC is the best open sourcee store around and promises to be the very best of both OSS and Commercial stores. Good Luck -

I have a 3.05 board that is down, taken offline by my upstream tech support to stop the attacks. As you can imagine, that also means I have a very unhappy store owner who wants to know why I can't put her store back online - and what data have been lost, if any. A TS ticket to CC asking to confirm 3.07 is stable has gone unanswered for about 24 hours but meanwhile, the threads here are telling me there are unresolved issues. After reading the "don't install 3.07" thread, I am totally confused. Let me say I greatly appreciate the diligence and persistence of people like Sir W, Aikdo, Goober, etc. - If Sir W's fix is definitive, final and complete, I can't tell, what with all the forth and back about corrections. As I read the thread, my eyes glaze over. Each correction of a correction makes me more and more confused. I can't tell if any of those corrections have been updated into Sir William's suggested upgrade. And the last thing I need is a "fix" that needs fixing. I also have been delaying launching a custom mod that one of the fine CC modders here has defined until this vulnerability is finally fixed. So I have to ask for a clear specific unequivocal response - is there a dependable, complete upgrade from 3.05 to 3.07 that will fix the problem without needing tweaks to it? May I have a URL? TIA And BTW, I have an appointment Tuesday afternoon (New York time) to pick up a check for a new store by a customer who is upgrading his site from a static brochure to CC. Before I start work on it, I sure would like to know if I should install 3.07 or wait until Sir W's fix of it has been incorporated, let's say as 3.07.1 or 3.08 or whatever the version numbering scheme requires. TIA

Where exactly is that done? I don't see any such configuration option within the UPS module. In Store Config I see Countries & Zones. But that's not the UPS module. And even if it is, the USA and the various States are listed. Also, there is nothing to explain what configuring anything the that module affects.

doesn't work for me. I used to know the answer but I have totally fogotten because it's been too long since I did a new install. Use it or lose it. Meanwhile, I have a dead installation. Mewanwhile, I wonder why, since this comes up so often, it is not avoided by a change in the installation tool. May I ask someone to help with completing this installation? And - tell me again how it is done? I'll provide the server login info in a PM for some kind soul. TIA