css link colors

[AtroxAngel]

i changed the color of the body text for the footer in my css from black on white to white on black... but the links that are there are still black and i cant figure out where to change them. ive dug through the topstyle help files and cant find anything.
please help

[AtroxAngel]

ok i figured out that A is for the links.... anchor tag, i feel foolish for not realizing that. but i have a better question now. is there a way to make the links a different color for certain files IE: the infoboxes. or do i have to make a seperate style and give the class code for every link?

[doug]

Atroxangel I think you have once again answered you own question, well done.

[modom]

[AtroxAngel]

yeah, ive been doing that a lot lately. getting used to the code now... still not sure what all im going to change, the multi-language support design is really nice but way more than i need. same with a lot of the dynamic components, im not used to thinking that way yet

[doug]

Yeh, osC is a great project, even after 2 or 3 months working with it (more like wresting) I think that there are deficiencies in the architecture and that perhaps there have been shortcuts taken in externalising the design for expediency (and perhaps performance reasons too, not able to comment on that yet) but this means that customising the design is fraught with traps and pitfalls not to mention the large number of files required to change to simply remove for example the right column totally from your site!

I am not sure how I got started on this rant but I'll stop it now, maybe I should start another thread to see if I am alone on this thought or perhaps if you are an experienced PHP'er and osC'er then it all "might" make perfect sense to you.

Please don't get me wrong I am a strong supporter of the project (I also use the product) and only make these comments to give positive, constructive feedback for the good of all!

Just imagine (in another world perhaps or in a couple of months) using an option in the admin site every option, style, etc is easily editable and stored in the database or stylesheet as appropriate in an easily extensible format that can be supported by the many excellent contributions that are provided by the community members...

Cheers

[modom]

>>>
Yeh, osC is a great project, even after 2 or 3 months working with it (more like wresting) I think that there are deficiencies in the architecture and that perhaps there have been shortcuts taken in externalising the design for expediency (and perhaps performance reasons too, not able to comment on that yet) but this means that customising the design is fraught with traps and pitfalls not to mention the large number of files required to change to simply remove for example the right column totally from your site!
>>>

To remove that column just do a find and replace in your editor and find these lines:
<td width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" valign="top"><table border="0" width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<!-- right_navigation //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'column_right.php'); ?>
<!-- right_navigation_eof //-->
</table></td>

Make sure you find them first to see what files have the same listing and then replace with nothing...this removes the right column completely...takes about 10 seconds.

>>>
Just imagine (in another world perhaps or in a couple of months) using an option in the admin site every option, style, etc is easily editable and stored in the database or stylesheet as appropriate in an easily extensible format that can be supported by the many excellent contributions that are provided by the community members...
>>>

Harald has already said in one of his reports at oscommerce.com that they will be adding more classes.

Hope this helps you understand.

[AtroxAngel]

or you could just take my path and comment things out. everything i edit suffers from code bloat because of that, but i dont seem to have loading speed issues so im happy
now i need to get the account and checkout pages to work, they're completely doa from install

[michael_s]

A theming system is coming. This will make it much easier to customize the cart without messing with php, but just like all systems, you will then have to learn how to use it. No matter what you do, it will be painful for some people to learn.

At this stage, osCommerce is a developers script. It really isnt for the average internet end user. It has a lot more development ahead of it. In fact, the entire admin user interface, not to mention the install process needs a re-working if it were to be appealing to a mass market.

The entire development has been geared toward a more technical audience- web developers, programmers, and designers who already know how do do what they want to do (ie customize the look, create their own stylesheets, add features, etc...) So the development has focused on getting the nuts and bolts to work better rather than the aesthetics, although it does look quite nice out of the box.

A theming system and standards would be nice, but up to this point it has not been a high priority. Like any open source project, I am sure this is being worked on by many people and I have seen a lot of contributions that make certain customizations more automatic. It is just a matter of time. Alas, this is the price we pay for using an open source project that is still being developed.

Just as a side note, I thought osCommerce needed an instruction manual so I wrote one. hint hint...

[doug]

Thank you Melinda and Michael, I do know about the excellent oscdox guide available here and I know using a mass editing tool it is only a 10 second job (but I don't have a mass editor and using wordpad is a slow process to do something that should only be a configuration item).

I like the sound of the theming that you mentioned.

Also one of the troubles I have is that I know what I want and how I would do it in another language but I want to use PHP and osC the "right way" this is what is the most frustrating thing!