Any osCmax templates availble on website

[Sean Bradley]

When I go to the osCMax.com website, I am able to view the oscommerce templates but when I go to the osCMax template store there are no templates listed. Are there really no templates or am I not able to view them for some reason? Thanks,

Sean

[pgmarshall]

The template provider stopped selling osCmax templates as they said "they were too easy to make and there was not enough to stop people doing it themselves".

I am considering setting up a template store soon - but I am working on fixing v2.5 at the moment.

It really depends what you are looking for from a template - most of them are pretty rubbish ... is there anything specific you are hoping to get out of the template?

Regards,

[spuhg]

hi

is there some sort of a manual that shows exactly how to make templates?

thanks

[pgmarshall]

If you are using v2.5 then you should see we have moved quite a few of the controls into the template menu (under configuration) - width, columns, etc.

Everything else is in the stylesheet.css in the template folders.

The wiki has a fair amount - http://wiki.oscdox.com/v2.5/install_a_new_template - but given that v2.5 is not released yet we are still working on the documentation. The stuff in the wiki for v2.0.x is still valid.

Regards,

[tcshadow]

I find the templating in oscmax to be the most frustrating part of using the package... it always costs me a packet because I have to outsource it and the results are always just barely good enough.

We need to somehow get more support from template makers... The cart needs at least 20 free templates for different niches and it would increase the uptake of the cart tenfold imo.

People who use oscmax do so because they like the fact they don't have to feck around with installing addons like in oscommerce. Then the fact that there are literally 0 themes available turns them off. It turns me off and I <3 OSCMax.

[michael_s]

I find the templating in oscmax to be the most frustrating part of using the package... it always costs me a packet because I have to outsource it and the results are always just barely good enough.

We need to somehow get more support from template makers... The cart needs at least 20 free templates for different niches and it would increase the uptake of the cart tenfold imo.

People who use oscmax do so because they like the fact they don't have to feck around with installing addons like in oscommerce. Then the fact that there are literally 0 themes available turns them off. It turns me off and I <3 OSCMax.

First, osCmax templating is easy. Silly easy. I am not sure why you would find it frustrating, unless you find working with html/css difficult.

It is as easy as this:
1. Copy the fallback_html template to a new template directory (name it something that lets you know it is your custom template).
2. Edit the stlyesheet.css to change the styles, colors, graphics.
3. Edit main_page.html using any html design you choose
4. Drop in the osCmax tags to add whatever osCmax features you want to your design.
5. If you need more customization than that, edit the content pages in your template's content directory, add custom javascript the the javascript directory, custom images to the images directory, etc.

You need no special skills to create an osCmax template beyond html/css. If you are capable of creating a html page, you can create a new template in minutes. There are no restrictions placed on how you design your html/css. One easy way is to find one of the many free CSS templates out there, copy it over to an osCmax template directory and add the osCmax tags. You will have a functional base template in minutes, which you can then fully customize and tweak from there.

Then the fact that there are literally 0 themes available turns them off. It turns me off and I <3 OSCMax.

Only if you look at it that way. Any free template on the internet can be easily adapted to the osCmax system with minimal effort and skill. There are thousands of free html/css templates that can be used pretty much as-is. Just drop in the osCmax tags where you want them to show up and tweak to your liking. The Compromise template in osCmax is an example of this. I took a free CSS template I found and spent 15 minutes adapting it. Another 15 minutes on a new button set and in 30 minutes had a brand new osCmax template.

Finally, I think the one thing that will get designers more interested in making osCmax templates is better documentation for the templating system. If they know exactly what it entails, they will be more apt to convert existing designs to osCmax since it is an easy process.

[oscmax456]

First, osCmax templating is easy. Silly easy. I am not sure why you would find it frustrating, unless you find working with html/css difficult.

It is as easy as this:
1. Copy the fallback_html template to a new template directory (name it something that lets you know it is your custom template).
2. Edit the stlyesheet.css to change the styles, colors, graphics.
3. Edit main_page.html using any html design you choose
4. Drop in the osCmax tags to add whatever osCmax features you want to your design.
5. If you need more customization than that, edit the content pages in your template's content directory, add custom javascript the the javascript directory, custom images to the images directory, etc.

You need no special skills to create an osCmax template beyond html/css. If you are capable of creating a html page, you can create a new template in minutes. There are no restrictions placed on how you design your html/css. One easy way is to find one of the many free CSS templates out there, copy it over to an osCmax template directory and add the osCmax tags. You will have a functional base template in minutes, which you can then fully customize and tweak from there.

Hello,
I wrote an online store in html/css and some php but it looks amateurish, I would like to use osCmax2.5 to improve the looks and have a more complete shopping cart.
I am not very familiar with the osCmax terminology:
As stated on the posting above: “just drop html/css in the osCmax tags”.
1) What is an osCmax tag?
2) Where in specific I would insert my html pages?
I am sorry for being such a newbie.
3) Also you mention to copy the fallback-html directory to a new directory.
I suppose you mean:
cp –R catalog/templates/fallback-html fallback-html-new and do changes in the fallback-html directory?

4) In one of the installation instructions you show: www.somesite.com/catalog/install/ but I installed without the catalog directory, such as: www.somesite.com/install/ and run install successfully, would site work without the catalog directory?

I developed and tested my web site in an Ubuntu 10.10 client and installed LAMP, would I have the proper tool to use osMax?

Thank you,
Mark

[ridexbuilder]

...and do changes in the fallback-html directory?

AAAARRRGH!



Take a long read....
http://wiki.oscdox.com/v2.5/oscmax_docs

If you use the fallback-html files as an example, then you will see the tags.

... I installed without the catalog directory...

You're a self-confessed newbie, so why change the defaults? Some people (you are not alone)!

I developed and tested my web site in an Ubuntu 10.10 client and installed LAMP, would I have the proper tool to use osMax?

I prefer Linux Mint m'self and use gedit, phpedit, SVNWorkbench, RapidSVN, Firebug and that's pretty much it. Though I do prefer not to slow down my laptop with running server services and use online hosting instead. Here, phpmyadmin and cPanel FileManager editting is used. I guess that I'm a luddite in not using an IDE but, hey, I've enough to learn without the intricacies of yet another application/suite.
EJ

[tcshadow]

3) Also you mention to copy the fallback-html directory to a new directory.
I suppose you mean:
cp –R catalog/templates/fallback-html fallback-html-new and do changes in the fallback-html directory?

4) In one of the installation instructions you show: www.somesite.com/catalog/install/ but I installed without the catalog directory, such as: www.somesite.com/install/ and run install successfully, would site work without the catalog directory?

3. NO - Never make changes to the /fallback directory. If you want to edit a template, make a new template directory, copy the file you want to change OUT OF /fallback into your new directory and edit that. You don't need all of the files, just the one you want to change. If oscmax doesn't find a file in your new template directory, it will use the appropriate file out of /fallback.

4. /catalog is the default oscommerce/oscmax install path. If you install the shop into www.yourdomain.com then that becomes your /catalog directory for all intents and purposes. If you install it in www.yourdomain.com/coolshop then /coolshop becomes your /catalog directory. It doesn't matter where you install it.

[aaanativearts]

You're a self-confessed newbie, so why change the defaults? Some people (you are not alone)!

I can think of a couple reasons to change the default. First, pages in your root directory get indexed by search engines faster than sub-directories. If you don't have anything else in your root directory that conflicts with your catalog, there is no reason why you can't put it there. There is a setting in your configuration file to define the path to your installation, so you can name the directory you install your catalog in anything you want. In any tutorial or instructions where they reference www.somesite.com/catalog/install or whatever just change it to www.somesite.com/install/ where www.somesite.com is the name of your domain and /install/ is the subdirectory they want you to do something in.

If you are going to install the whole catalog in a subdirectory, the second reason I wouldn't name my directory 'catalog' is because any hackers who target your site will be looking for the default structure. Better to name it some nonsense name like a series of random numbers and letters, so hackers have a harder time stumbling upon it in the first place. This is especially helpful if you are a noob and may have insecure chmod settings and such because you don't really know what you are doing.