This article is designed to highlight some really simple steps to take to make osCommerce a bit more reliable.

Step 1. Change the default admin folder name, still needs to be something you will remember but it doesn’t need to be so obvious as “admin” (e.g it could be “secureadmin” for instance)

Step 2. Use a second level of authentication on your new “admin” / “secureadmin” folder, this canbe set up simply via cPanel or whichever control panel your hosting provider provides you with. (password protected directories)

Step 3. If you are not using the “Tell A Friend” module, delete it as this is wide open for misuse by spammers.

These three steps will protect you from a lot of vulnerabilities that have been discovered on OsCommerce. But as always, backup your database and website regularly as nothing is safe forever

However, to clarify; This particular post is only going to get you to the stage of having an online shop up and running. It’s appearance, search engine optimisation, style and stocking will be dealt with at a later stage.

I have spent many hours building ecommerce website’s so I am going to dispense some of the things I have learned over the past few years in this blog for your free use and comment.

1. What will I need?

There a few ingredients required to come out with a complete ecommerce website they are as follows :

• A domain name, this is your address on the internet (e.g ‘ecommerce1.com’ is my domain!) (for purchasing domains try here.)
• A hosting account that supports PHP and MySQL (glx web hosting is my recommendation for ecommerce hosting)
• FTP software (my recommendation is filezilla which is free!)
• Choose which ecommerce software you would like to choose (we will assume osCommerce for this post, but I will be going through all the ecommerce software at a later date and highlight the pros and cons.)

2. How do i install my ecommerce?

This part is a little complicated if you haven’t done it before, If you have hosting with a reputable company they will offer helpful support if you require it.

First you will need to log into your hosting control panel.

In your control panel will be an area for MySQL, you will need to create a database and create a database username and password. Keep a record of these as they will be needed in the oscommerce installation.

Next, using your FTP login details (provided from your hosting company) upload your downloaded copy of oscommerce.

Follow the installation instructions that you will find in the downloaded folder. (some files may need file permissions changed, you can do this through filezilla by right clicking on the file or folder and selecting ‘File permisssions…’)

Once this is completed you will have an fully functional oscommerce website! weldone! But however this is just the begining…