From Static to Dynamic in 1,436,697 easy steps...

What is the best way to do it?

[akmac]

I've got this friend (cough) who has a ecommerce site with over 1500 products on it. The entire thing is static html-and thus a minor headache to update. What I (I mean HE-my friend, that is) would like to do is add a product database that interacts with my existing pages so that all the images and individual product pages are generated. I'd like to leave my main entry pages and category pages as they are (static) for seo reasons.

"So what?" you ask. Well, I have NO IDEA how to do this-just a vague recollection of a compilation of articles I've perused singing the praises of PHP and MySQL. I have no working knowledge of either of these.

So, hypothetically-if you (illustrious webmasters) found yourselves in a situation sililar to that of my friend-what would you do?

What more do you need to know from me to give helpful advice?

Sticky me if you want the url.

[ScottM]

I didn't have any working knowledge of php either but I mucked my way through a simple .csv based on this thread:

[webmasterworld.com...]

It's not really that tough.

[mattglet]

If you want to do it correctly, I highly suggest you find a developer that can build a successful solution for the site (whether it be custom, or 3rd party).

[akmac]

I definetly want to do it correctly-but I have time to do it myself and would like to learn. I will be building it under a different domain to test results against my existing static html site.

Is it possible to just insert snippets of php into my html to populate my category pages with products?

Is a mysql database the best type to draw from?

Currently I'm using buy_me buttons and authorize.net.

Basically, I'm looking for one of two things. Either:

A) "Buy this php book and learn it-here's some great tutorials on how I did it."

or

B) "Yes, that's easy (possible)-just adapt X script to your pages to draw your products from your db, and Y script to generate your product pages. Upload Z cart to your server-get another merchant account and you're golden."

Or a combination of the two.

This could be an oversimplification-but I can do that because I'm ignorant =)

[lorax]

>> I'd like to leave my main entry pages and category pages as they are (static) for seo reasons.

If you find the right developer they'll be able to make the dynamic pages look static and you wouldn't see a difference if you didn't know.

[akmac]

Yeah, that's a possibility as well. If I decide to go that route I'll probably use oscommerce with some of the seo mods. At this point though-I'd like to preserve my existing keyword1/keyword2/keyword3.html configuration and dynamically serve the products within my existing framework-if possible-that's what I'm learning!

Thanks for your feedback so far!

[akmac]

Is it possible to use OSCommerce and leave my static html category pages unchanged?

More work than it's worth, maybe?

Ideally I could use their cart and inventory management backend with my static main pages. Anyone with experience doing this successfully?

[lorax]

>> Ideally I could use their cart and inventory management backend with my static main pages

I have done this on several sites though, in my case, the product pages aren't static but rather pull data from the database along with SEO content that I don't include within the cart pages.

[HughMungus]

akmac, just to give you some encouragement, it's very easy to do what you want to do (and you'll be glad you did). With my limited MySql and PHP knowledge, I was able to build a small database-driven website for a local merchant. The way I learned to do it was just by asking myself, "What do I want to do? Then what?" However, if you do get stuck, you can always buy the code and/or hire a coder to build it for you. Give it a shot. If all else fails, buy someone else's solution (they're not expensive).

[akmac]

So you're adding the oscommerce cart to an existing site-or are you modding oscommerce with seo modules? I'm clueless here-sorry.

[lorax]

I added osCommerce to an existing website and then modifed the tables osComm used to include SEO components for each product, category, and manufacturer.

[sun818]

I use a $20 program called DBtoWEB to publish static HTML files from a Microsoft Access database.

I am at a point like you where the manual updates are becoming a drag. So, I've been researching a ColdFusion equivalent for Linux. I've run across a free web app called SteelBlue that will allow me, a non-programmer, to generate dynamic pages from a web database.

[akmac]

hugh and lorax-Thanks

hugh-can you sticky me the url of the site you did this with? Any help I can get...

[akmac]

sun818

I'm looking into something similar for my mac-but if I can tweak oscommerce to fit my needs, the inventory control would be worth the extra effort.

[lorax]

>> the inventory control would be worth the extra effort

Therein lies the beauty of Open Source applications. If you can deal with sometimes poorly written code you can get a decent jump on achieving what you really want by starting with an Open Source app that's close and then modifying it to suit your needs.

[sun818]

> then modifying it to suit your needs.

This was something I was thinking about last night. What kind of hours would a competent programmer be required to devote in order to create an search engine friendly osCommerce?

[lorax]

What kind of hours would a competent programmer be required to devote in order to create an search engine friendly osCommerce?

It depends upon how search engine friendly you want it to be.

I've modified one cart with several of the contributions offered and then tweaked them a bit and it took me about 20 hours to get the product, manufacturer, and category pages to use the on-page and code level text I wanted.

Partly because I'm still getting used to how osCommerce works and partly because I also took time to sift through the contributions to find what I wanted and rewrote one or two of the contribs to something closer to what I was after. A good learning experience.

I haven't tackled the URL issue yet and I think I saw a contrib for that as well.

[sun818]

I see. In searching for a search engine friendly ecommerce solution, I've yet to run across a package under $10,000 USD that has good back-end automation with a catalog system that is optimized with the major search engines in mind. At the last conference, I remember hearing that customization since these packages are not designed with SEO in mind.

[akmac]

Lorax-

It's no stretch for me to say that you're more knowledgeable than I concerning PHP and OScommerce. Thus, what took you 20 hours to do would likely take me over 100.

At this point, it's more cost effective-and SEO wise-to lower the PHP learning curve by adapting oscommerce to my static html. Not ruling out a solution similar to yours in the future.

So, without changing the direction of the thread:

Who has experience adding oscommerce to an existing ecommerce site without replacing your existing category pages-and how did you do it?

[lorax]

akmac
At the risk of taking this thread further astray I'll just add that I think you'd do well to forget osCommerce in this particular case. It's a rather large animal to get setup as a stand-alone package -- never mind taking it apart and only using one or more pieces within in an existing ecommerce site.

[akmac]

Lorax

I don't mind shifting directions-but only if I'm in a rut. Is it really that hard? I've installed and configured it by itself before-is what I'm trying to do with it (just using part) really that diifficult?

If it is-what would you reccommend that would have comparable features and be simpler to integrate? Support? Free?

Oh-and congratulations again!

[lorax]

>> is what I'm trying to do with it (just using part) really that diifficult?

It could be. Judging by your reaction (and without benefit of knowing your abilities) to my post on the SEO modifications above, I'd say it'll could be intimidating. Impossible? No.

What I understand you want to do is to keep your existing front end and add on a back end for product pages and checking out. Yes? Which means that if you want to use osCommerce you'll need to cut the cart in half - namely remove the parts that reference and link to the cart's categories, manufacturers, and top page. It's not overly difficult but it's not a walk in the park either.

What you have to your advantage is that the cart is modular. All category and manufacturer pages are created using code within index.php. You'll need to find these and remove/comment them out as well as modify the column and header includes.

Then you'll need to do some snooping to make sure there are no other on page calls back to these sections like the Continue Shopping button.

Like I said, I don't know your abilities. You're the best judge.

[akmac]

Thanks Lorax,

These are the exact answers I'm looking for. I'm gaining familiarity with PHP and OScommerce. Regarding my abilities-they're growing. Posts like your last one are extremely helpful-specific. I think I'll bring part of this conversation to the oscommerce forum now that I know it's possible.

Will it be necessary to remove all references to the categories-or can I just build them in oscommerce to mimic my current architecture?

[lorax]

That's really up to you. You can mirror your directory structure if that's what you want to do. The osCommerce cart can be edited to suit. How far is your choice.