I am begging for help please

[onLoad]

If you have access to your .htaccess file, add these lines in it:

php_flag display_errors on
php_value error_reporting 7

By doing that, instead of getting the white page, you will get the exact PHP error message, which should help you get back on track to fix the problem.

[michael_s]

Use the easier OSC

First, edee, he is already using 'easier' standard osCommerce - note he posted to the standard osCommerce forums here. Oh, you missed that?

This 'easier' software is stumping him because he has to edit php code. In osCMax, he would just have to login to his admin panel and use the visual editor to change the content. He doesn't even have to know HTML to do that. The last time I checked, the 'easier' osCommerce didn't have a wysiwyg visual editor included.

Standard osCommerce is in no way easier to modify than osCMax. It just isn't. osCMax's main page content and all other static pages can be completely modified without ANY changes to PHP files through the admin panel. Standard osCommerce does not have this feature.

osCMax's entire look can be changed by editing only 2 files. To do the same in standard osCommerce requires editing no less than 30 different files. If you think that is easier, more power to ya.

Here on MAX everyone talks tech, the original OSC site everyone speaks English (or some version of it)

Again I disagree, such a general statement is most certainly false. You will find a wide range of discussions ranging from highly technical to utterly unintelligible and all degrees in between, just like most software discussion forums. We have about 17,000 members, and I guarantee most of them are not very technical.

To all who think assuming our community members are smart and willing to learn, using correct terminology and code examples is a bad thing, raise your game.

The original OSC also comes with an easy to follow INSTRUCTION MANUAL that tells you where everything is and how to do a lot of it. It's 114 pages, but I read it in one night.

99.9% of the that osCommerce manual applies equally to osCMax. That is the beauty of osCMax, it preserves pretty much all features of standard osCommerce in their original state, and only adds features and function.

Most of my websites use the new original OSC program, believe me you will thank me later.

You will thank her until you need it to do some basic thing that it is missing like offer coupons, instant downloads, google checkout, stock tracking, modify the front page, move boxes around, etc... Then you will kick yourself for listening to such short sighted advice.

osCMAx's sole purpose is to save you time by having features you will most likely need already present and working, instead of having to spend hours modifying code.

Back to the original topic, if you don't know how to find your error logs, you need to back up and learn some basics first. Otherwise you will waste weeks spinning your wheels, no matter what software you use, osCommerce or osCMax.

[justedee]

Sir, two words “blood pressure”? Can we keep in mind that posts don’t have a tone of voice or facial expressions? Why don’t you reread my post thinking happy thoughts? Instead of assuming I was insulting the forum or MAX, assume I was trying to redirect him to use something a bit easier to start out - upgrading later is always an option. I didn’t mean any disrespect. What I saw in that thread was a frustrated person begging for help and posts telling him to give up and hire someone. When I started I also thought that a shopping cart program was just a back end program and I that had to create the front end look and feel. I still don’t know how to get a php error log, I don’t even know what it is, but my site is up and running and I’m a backwoods hick with only a 5th grade education and short term memory loss. I spend most of my programming life over my head, that’s how you learn to swim. I’m sorry that I find OSC easier, I guess you are right - I’m just stupid. I’m sure no one meant to discourage by telling him he was over his head – they were being realistic, but I thought I’d take a different approach and give some suggestions outside of MAX.

I was not implying that Tech Speak was bad, so don't assume that's what I meant. Here, more often than not, you will receive a technical description. The other forum will give you step by step instructions in not technical English. I was simply trying to redirect the gentlemen to something a little less challenging since it seemed this was his first time out. Again I found OSC much less challenging.

I refer to all OSC - including MAX as OSC, on other forums they do also. You say it's 99.9% OSC, he was posting here why would I assume he didn't have MAX? So sorry I missed that one.

But as to not inflict a stroke with anymore of my posts, let me warn you now: I may ask the same question 1000 times, it’s part of my disability. And I will ask questions that you feel I could have looked up – sometimes I’m not sure what key words to use. And I may be the biggest programming newbee pain in the butt that has ever walked your forum, but I cannot be discouraged, I am not giving up and I am not leaving. So unless you plan to ban me for stupid questions and encouraging a member to try something new, then please read all of my future posts with a nice sweet voice and think kittens.

~e

[michael_s]

Hey, you said what you said, and are entitled to your opinions. As for tone, etc, regardless of tone, I find your advice a bit misleading, and since this is a public forum, I wanted to make sure that nobody else reading this thread got the wrong idea from your reply. You misread my tone as well, there was no raised blood pressure, just a point by point clarification and disagreement. I simply rebutted your opinions as I disagree with them. Take the post at face value, nothing between the lines.

I want to make sure that everyone that reads this discussion does not get the wrong idea about this forum or osCMax. osCMax.com is not overly technical, and osCMax is not harder to use than osCommerce. The statements that you made to the contrary, in my opinion, are false and needed a proper rebuttal. I think you confuse a forceful response with an angry response. Life is far too short and this far to trivial to get angry over.

You say it's 99.9% OSC, he was posting here why would I assume he didn't have MAX?

Because he posted in the standard osCommerce 2.2 forums here at osCMax.com. Take a look at the forum titles. Each one is labeled for the type of osC that is to be discussed. There are a set of forums for osCMax 2, osCMax 1.7 and osCommerce2.2. Had he posted in the osCMax forums, then you could assume he was using osCMax, but this was posted in the forums for discussing standard osCommerce.

Next, nobody ever gets banned from osCMax.com unless they spam, unlike the other forums where you get banned for any number of minor spelling errors.

I like spirited discussion, and if anything, your reputation will only improve here for contributing to discussions like this. Keep posting.

[JohnW]

Okay, I'll chime in on this for a moment. First, I don't post much, I come and I go, and I'm hot and cold. Now, that I have that out of the way take a look at my join date and you'll see I've been at this for a while and my original member number on the osc site was 1912. I've spent a lot of time over my head while I've come a long way I should be further than I am but that's life. There was no osc manual at all until Mike wrote one and started oscdox. The other forum has grown tremendously, but the ban police did seem to work overtime but I guess that's life also. Seems like some good people were lost but I guess they had reasons that just were not apparent.

So, those were different times and in some ways osc has come a long way and in some ways it hasn't. I changed to Max in 2005 after playing with it for quite some time and it took getting used to but for someone starting out I think it has to be way easier if they go through the Admin panel line by line and see what al the functions are but many people don't do that. Max has a lot of contributions that over time really do come in handy IMHO and it works pretty well. There's a lot I could do better with my site but I've accomplished my goal of working from home and I do it all with the website and the toll free number I put on it.

So life goes on and OSCMAX is red now.