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vokf

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Posts posted by vokf

  1. I have an E-Commerce website and have never run banner ads before but currently have a very well known graphic design company designing a banner for us. They work with freelance designers globally. Currently we have had drafts created by 3 different designers. Here is the issue:

    All 3 of these have product images or logos. For example since we sell Consumer Electronics some have the Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, and other similar logos. Others have the product images for products such as the iPhone 4, iPad, and other similar items. I immediately thought that this was a copyright issue but yet with all 3 submitted drafts having this I have to wonder if that's the case. Not all of these designers are in the US though. I'm located in the US but know that laws may vary in other countries.

    In the past we had our logo designed by this same company but I understand a logo may not be the same since it's representing us and also is trademarked by us. An ad is simply a banner ad that is just an ad for products we sell or sell accessories for and it's not trademarked by us. I just don't want to run into any copyright issues down the line. Does anyone have any knowledge of this or know where I can go online to get legal information on this? Even if I'm allowed to place these logos or images in our ads I am wondering if we have to have small print at the bottom of the banner stating that for example "Apple iPhone is a trademark of Apple, Inc". It just would take away from the ad and I don't think I've seen this before.

    Thank you for your advice.

    My first advice.... Don't ask on internet forums for legal advice. Anyone who advises won't be paying any costs on your behalf!

    My personal opinion... If you're not "trading off" as Apple/MS etc, and simply selling goods in a legal manner (ie accessories), then is should be fine with the manufacturers.

    If you're selling Grey Import XBOX 360s, then this could be one way of possibly causing you problems, and I would certainly expect you to get problems. In this instance, anything could make you a soft target, so if you're using official images could give them power over your business.

    Also remember, product images are copyright, often by the photographer, or whoever commissioned the shots (so the manufacturer). Unless you commissioned them (or your graphics company did), OR they are from iStock etc, they may either be taken off the manufacturers website, or a competitors.

    Either way, there would be a clear breach of copyright unless you have agreement for their use.

    If this online store is your livelihood, then I suggest you get professional legal advice.

    If the product images are from a competitor and the comes to their attention, I think this would be the more likely problem for you.

    Hope this helps - sorry, I can't say "chill... it'll be fine!". I'm a software geek/DJ, not a qualified Legal guy.. But, I've been involved in copyright (on the good side!) disputes to a minor degree.

    Jason

  2. is there anyway to know which ftp client was being used? i was kinda thrown into this project which was already started. the overall structure of the site is complete, but product images are not aligning properly.

    The actual FTP client (ie the software) is irrelevant. Today, I've used a Browser for FTP (I was in a rush and on a different computer), but mainly use FileZilla. If you know the server, username and password, you should be ready to go.

    I know Joomla (etc) allow you to edit CSS/HTML within their Admin area, but CubeCart does not and you'll need the FTP credentials from your client. If you have these and download;

    http://filezilla-project.org/

    You'll have all the tools you need to connect to the server and transfer files.

    Have you used FTP before?

    If the hosting is on cPanel, there is also a basic file browser and code editor that will be enough for basic tweaks.

    Jason

  3. i know this might seem like the most basic thing to know, but i am having trouble accessing the ftp site. as a matter of fact, i don't know where to access it. i'm having some issues with a site i'm working on, but need access to the css files in order to make the unnecessary changes. any help would be greatly appreciated.

    thank you.

    You'll need

    • an FTP client. I use FileZilla (as it also has Linux versions), and this is a pretty popular choice.
    • Log-in Credentials. Your Hosting company, or your client (or their hosting company) should provide this. If you have cPanel access, its often the same log-in details.

    If you are sure you have the correct details, perhaps you've been locked out by the server, and you'll need to contact the hosting company with your IP Address and they can remove you from the blacklist.

    Jason

  4. My customer wants the homepage to look like a category page where the products are displayed under each other (with the information of the product) instead of next to each other like with the "Newest products" which can be shown on the homepage. Is this possible?

    Yes, this is possible. Check the template guide over at cubecartforums.org or hire a professional over there to help.

  5. Not without changing the code (ie a Mod).

    You can disable purchases of out-of-stock products via Admin>General Settings>Stock Settings>Allow out of stock purchases? to "NO"

    If this is not good enough, then visit www.cubecartforums.org and see if there is an existing mod, or ask a developer to create it for you.

    Jason

  6. Hi Dave,

    I'm not sure what you're asking..

    Do you mean you want to advertise other sites (your other websites) on your cubecart store?

    If you, you can add these to side boxes, or on the homepage of your CubeCart Store.

    You can also link to your cubecart store in your forum signature (ie when you post here, you'll have a link to your store). Links to non-cubecart sites are prohibited, and you may get flagged as a spammer so please keep any links to your cubecart store only.

    For your own site - CubeCart is only the software, you can do what you like (within the licensing rules).

    Jason

  7. Right, got my head around enabling cURL in Xampp. This was partly thanks to some very good documentation from a cubecart competitor, a demo of who's cart is now installed locally on my PC!

    Here is how to do it:



    • Install Xampp.



    • Open xampp/php/php.ini



    • Remove the semi-colon from the line ;extension=php_curl.dll, I used an editor with a 'find' function and discovered it at line 952 of php.ini



    • Stop and restart the Apache server. You can use the Xampp control panel to do this which is opened by clicking on xampp/xampp-control.exe

    My question now is how to install ioncube on the server so I can get CC5 up and running, I have gleaned nothing but confusion from searching the web for how to do this. Zend Optimizer doesn't work with the more recent versions of PHP as used by Xampp, worst luck.

    I can't help too much with xampp - running Linux here with Apache.

    I found the following link that may help;

    http://support.open-realty.org/showthread.php?24689-installing-ioncube-on-Xampp.

    and/or;

    http://www.smoothblog.co.uk/2011/05/07/install-ioncube-xampp/

    I can't easily install xampp, but yell back if the above doesn't help.

    Jason

  8. Dear Vivaigiochi,

    It looks like you mis-understand the use of this forum.

    This forum is for peer-to-peer support only. No-one (even moderators) are paid. Any help given is voluntary, and the forum is luckly to have keen members who try to help.

    Please remember this and be courteous to other members.

    Devilion Staff (CubeCart developers) do not regularly read or post in this forum.

    If you have upgraded an existing store, you should have tested CC5 first. This is standard IT practice. As server admin, you will be aware of why this is important.

    With an evaluation on a different site/subdomain, you then would have been able to evaluate it (for free), and determine if it meets your needs.

    There are official ways to report bugs.

    CC5 is a large project, dispute testing, bugs will exist. I don't know Devilions release cycle, but from seeing CC3 and CC4 development, I fully expect their current workload is to fix bugs asap.

    If you have not reported your problems, then they probably won't be fixed!

    Jason

  9. Been searching for a few days on this topic of PayPals new (?) payment system called "Adaptive Payments" which allows incoming events to be split up and sent to several receivers (there are different forms of this but all essentially do the same thing) - basically this allows store owners to sell other peoples material and split revenue share between them at source (payment action) instead of having to take full payment and then do a mass-payment of other 'managed' split in ones actual PayPal account.

    Other than their own API documentation (PDF) I can't find any info on whether this is being looked into for CubeCart. Has anyone heard of or know anything about CubeCart support for this? (there are *very few* carts supporting this from the research I've been doing so it might be an interesting 'star' feature to include in CC if it's not already).

    Thanks in advance.

    I can't speak officially for CubeCart, but this makes the most sense as a 3rd party mod. It does look interesting though, and for some merchants could be very useful.

    Perhaps as a wish for CubeCart 5, but I can't see this type development for CC3 or CC4, unless via 3rd party developers.

    Jason

  10. I am creating a web store that will have hundreds of products and I was wondering if there is a way I can have a Review/Comment feature for each item so future potential buyers can read what other people who've already bought that item think. Could there be a module for this? I assumed it would come standard with CubeCart v3 like it does with osCommerce and Zencart.

    CubeCart 3 is discontinued, and support is going to be very limited, and not a good choice for a new store.

    New projects in the immediate future should be CubeCart 4 (which is also coming to an end very soon), and Ideally consider looking at CubeCart 5, both are a much more feature rich system. These are commercial programs, but this should not be be an issue for a business.

    More info;

    http://beta.cubecart.com

    and

    http://forums.cubecart.com/topic/42306-status-of-v5/

  11. HI Cheryl,

    the files under the language folder are used for language translation only. There is no "active" code in the file that could be used to send emails.

    You can try to rename one of the files - if you're not using other languages I don't see a problem, but suspect you may seen an error if you delete/rename a file that is required for the langage you're using.

    So - rename /langauge/en/includes/content/tellafriend.inc.php to tellafriend.old.inc.php

    Surf the store- if all looks ok, you can probably safely remove it. I'm not sure how the file is used (ie how it is included) in the main code.

    If you rename and there are errors, you can very quickly restore it, and post back with the error.

    Jason

  12. hi - my host has informed me that my cc4 has been exploited for email spamming.

    i enabled "spam/bot flood control" but the problem still persists.

    they have now informed that i should eliminate the "tell a friend" option but i have no idea how to do this.

    if anyone would be kind enough to tell me "how to" i would really appreciated it as my host is threatening to close my account.

    many thanks

    cheryl.

    Hi Cheryl,

    first step;

    Delete;

    /www/includes/content/tellafriend.inc.php

    This is the actual script that sends the email.

    Then you need to remove the link from your template (so people don't click it!);

    Edit;

    /www/skins/yourtemplatename/styleTemplates/content/viewProd.tpl

    Remove the following line;

    <li class="bulletLrg"><a href="index.php?_a=tellafriend&amp;productId={PRODUCT_ID}" target="_self" class="txtDefault">{LANG_TELLFRIEND}</a></li>

    As always, run a full account backup before you do anything!

    I hope this helps,

    Jason

  13. I'm trying to figure out which paypal option I need to use to let my customers process their cards directly via paypal. I really want the credit card information screen to open for the customer - I'm using express checkout on 2 of my sites, but they keep missing the cc link and think they have to have a paypal account. I don't have SSL and don't want to mess with it, so don't want to process them on my site - I want it to go to Paypals server to process the card.

    Reading thru all the paypal services options gets way confusing so was hoping someone was already doing this on their site and had a recommendation?

    Hi!

    I always thought this was a cookie thing - if you have a cookie set by PayPal (ie from a previous login to your PayPal account), their site would present the log-in screen. If you don't have a PayPal cookie, then it gives you more options...

    This was a few years ago, so things may have changed... but try a incognito session in Chrome and see if you get the same checkout page (on PayPal) as you do on your normal browser session.

    Hope this helps,

    Jason

  14. Hi All,

    got this error after hoster installed Zen Guard (last version they tell)

    I Have to say CC4 Was NOT fully installed as it stopped by for the lack of Zend Optimizer (and no ionCube at all)

    Is it any chance to install safely CC 4 in there? (As far as you can tell by this line)

    Fatal error: Incompatible file format: The encoded file has format major ID 3, whereas the Loader expects 4 in /var/www/clients/client49/web3447/web/index_enc_zend.php on line 0
    
    
    
    
    thanks
    
    
    Hi, this looks to be a version issue. I don't much about Zend backwards compatibility - so can't offer any serious help. I read you error message as the CubeCart file is encoded with version 3, and the Zend frameworks will only work with version 4. This does sound to be a server/hosting issue. If you can, create a simple PHP script that outputs php info;

    Save this as phpinfo.php and upload to your site, run the script in your browser and see what versions are installed of PHP and Zend.

    Delete the file after use.

    If you can post back the Zend info (don't post any other details for now), it may show some problems.

    Jason

    <?php
    
    phpinfo();
    
    ?>
  15. Can someone please explain how to create the salt and password using phpMyAdmin?

    Is the salt truly a random number (6 chars?) or is it based upon some other field (or fields) in the admin user record? If it is based on other fields. which ones and what function (encryption) is used?

    Re: the password, once the salt is generated (whether random or encrypted) is it prepended or appended to the plain text password. In other words, if the salt is 123456 and the desired password is PassWord, is the value entered into the password field 123456PassWord or PassWord123456? And again, what encryption function is used to process the plain text password to get the encrypted password.

    A REAL explanation of this would really help a lot of people, especially since the "Request Password" function seems to be a joke (as is so much of CubeCart).

    Why do you wish to override the built-in feature and do this in phpMyAdmin?

    The code uses MD5 to create a 1-way hash of the password. The salt is randomly generated.

    It sounds like you mis-understand the function of this forum. This is for peer-to-peer support. Moderators are unpaid and receive no benefits. Support is from helpful other users, who provide this out of goodwill.

    If you need technical support, then the option is to purchase a support plan or contact a commercial developer at CubeCartForums.org

    The best way to get a response here, is NOT to add sarcastic comments, and simply to explain the background to your question and provide as much info as possible.

    Thank-you

    Jason

  16. Does anybody know's how the cart_order_id in the CubeCart_order_sum table is generated? And/or how i can generate it myself?

    The code for this is in;

    /admin/sources/products/index.inc.php

    (around line 204)

    	## Generate product code
    
    	if (empty($_POST['productCode'])) {
    
    		$chars = array("A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N",
    
    				"O","P","Q","R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z","1","2","3",
    
    				"4","5","6","7","8","9","0");
    
    		$max_chars = count($chars) - 1;
    
    		srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
    
    		for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++) {
    
    			$randChars = ($i == 0) ? $chars[rand(0, $max_chars)] : $randnum . $chars[rand(0, $max_chars)];
    
    		}
    
    		$record["productCode"] = $db->mySQLSafe(strtoupper(substr($_POST['name'],0,3)).$randChars.$_POST['cat_id']);
    
    	} else {
    
    		$record["productCode"] = $db->mySQLSafe($_POST['productCode']);	
    
    	}
    
    	
    
    	$record["productCode"] = preg_replace("/[^a-z0-9-]/i","",$record["productCode"]);

    Hope this helps!

    Jason

  17. It is, in fact, MD5. And as you probably know, MD5 is built specifically to be unable to be reversed. That said, there is something called "rainbow tables" but I have no knowledge of those.

    It;s not MD5 because for example Encode '1' by MD5 then it will be 'C4CA4238A0B923820DCC509A6F75849B'

    but if you see in your database then u find your password is '513d9d1d240e7b26bc6e2a20c1a0d6e7'

    CubeCart4 (I'm not in a positjon to check CC3) "salts" the password by adding a random string, before running the MD5.

    The salt value is stored in the admin user table with the MD5 password (which also includes the salt value)

    So - when you enter an admin password, the scipt will retrieve the SALT value from the DB, and recreate the MD5 value from the supplied password. This will be compared to the value held inside the DB password field for that user.

    SALTing the value is much more secure - and prevents the "rainbow tables" style of attack.

    More info on MD5 and SALTing;

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5

    ..and info on Rainbow Tables;

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_table

    With the MD5 being generated from the password AND a random value - the Rainbow Table attack will not work, and a collision will only provide the SALT + Password string. (so inputting this to the admin login will fail unless you remove the SALT value.

    Interesting stuff thou - I've used MD5 for hashing values on lots of projects, but don't pretend to be an expert in cryptology!

    Jason

  18. Hi All,

    I'm in the process of setting up a website to provide a vehicle recovery breakdown service. I would like to be able to have a shopping cart similar to the theaa.com (based in the United Kingdom)You have a choice of 5 breakdown cover types to choose from. When you select one of the services it gives you the price and an option to either pay monthly instalments or pay the full amount and get it discounted if paid in one go. If you choose more options on top of the chosen service then it should add to the price. Once you have selected all of your options you should then have another choice to choose from 5 further options like vehicle cover only, cover for you or cover for two people etc. I'll be grateful if someone can advise me if cube cart will be able to do this and if there's a limit as to how many customers can be processed if they log on at the same time to sign up to the service. I will be using joomla 1.5 to build the website.

    Regards

    Paul

    I'll assume you're not needing any integration with other systems (this can be done, but is not core to Cubecart).

    So, each "cover type" would be a product, and have its own images/description.

    The customer will select one of these (from the homepage?), and then will see the price, and the 5 options. These options can vary the price (or not), and when selected, are part of the order/product.

    The customer will select the cover, add any options, and then proceed to checkout to pay.

    Currently, there is no out-of-the-box payment system for instalments (but 3rd party mods do exist, depending on how they will pay you).

    There is a high level of concurrent users, and this is really limited by your hosting. If this is a serious concern, then consider a dedicated server (as many concurrent customers will also mean high income and can justify a dedicated server)

    So - the front-end party of the store will work fine, but you need to think about how you will take payment, and process the order into your system.

    There are developers who can help, check out cubecartforums.org, to developers who are experienced in using CubeCart.

    I'm not aware of a Joomla<>CubeCart integration. This is probably possible, but you really need to consider the need for either. If the main part of the business is in Joomla, then it may be easier to use a Joomla based Cart?

    If you're using Joomla as a CMS for a few pages, then you may be able to do it all in CubeCart (which can also allow you to create custom pages).

    I hope this helps,

    Jason

  19. This sounds to be a limitation of the 3rd party modification, and so I would recommend support from your mod provider directly.

    He may be able to provide code to import multiple images etc.

    However, this is not part of the core functionality of CubeCart, and so needs to be discussed over at cubecartforums.org

  20. Hi Joe,

    The favicon file (that you created online) needs to be uploaded to the root of the website, You or "your guy" then needs to add a line to 2 template files. Kinectic's post from 2009 is spot-on;

    On the Google Analytics, I can view the source (HTML) code of the page, and can see 2 entries. I may be wrong, but I'd get him to check it out.

    PayPal image hosting - they provide details on their website;

    https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/solutions_imagehosting

    You'll pay a small amount, and normally have a control panel (on the service providers website) to upload and manage your logo.

    You'll have a https:// based URL that can be provided in your PayPal set-up.

    Returns policy, you could view a few other websites - they'll need to be a bit similar to you. Also be aware that B2B transactions are not covered by the Distance Selling Regulations - so something to also consider (so may be a point you need to make), Some stores don't; bother with a returns policy- some state "we'll sort it", and will pay for the shipping of any return and provide a refund if requested. Depending on your business, this may not be possible, and you may decide to limit yourselves to the minimum required by UK law.

    If your terms are unfair, and you ever get an agrieved customer, then they can complain to trading standards.

    Don't worry about asking for help. You web guy has done a fine job so far. If you ever did need support/coding outside of what he can provide, then there are commercial contributors at cubecartforums.org who will be able to help.

    However, there isn't much wrong with your site - good stuff!

    One last thing to add - ensure you have full account back-ups. Your web guy will be doing these as he makes changes, but as he has less to do, then I would suggest you learn how to back-up the website (and the database!)

    Jason

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