The Basics - For ALL shopping cart flavours

  

First Things First

We assume that you have your shopping cart up and running. If you don't then you need to go to your chosen shopping cart source and follow the procedures there for installation and setup of a working cart.

Can we recommend:

http://www.zencart.com and http://www.oscommerce.com/

The Basics

You will need access to your store to install the administration interface to AdvertSolutions Dynamic Adverts.

You need to get a decent FTP software package if you don't have one, such as FileZilla (free), FlashFXP or another FTP software program to transfer files back and forth from your computer to your webserver.
Note: webserver meaning, the computer on the internet where you have your domain hosted.

Many people have had timeout and other problems when using programs like SmartFTP and CuteFTP. We recommend that you do NOT use these problematic programs.

Done all that?

Now head to the section in our help specific to YOUR shopping cart for further step by step information about how to finish the installation.

Installing ZenCart AdvertSolutions module

What folder do I upload into?

Each web host has his/her own preference in naming folders for use in running a website.
You can have many files that don't even get shown to the public. The ones that are available for access via a browser are usually in a folder called something like:

- /home/YOURNAME/public_html
or
- /var/www/YOURNAME/httpdocs
or
- /usr/accounts/a/b/YOURNAME/httpd
etc, etc, etc

If it's unclear where the publicly-accessible files are to be uploaded, talk to your webhost for assistance.

OUR MODULES must be unpacked into the root of your shopping cart.

The modules will expand out into the correct places to provide you with our interface.

The Administration interface (to select the products/bestsellers or category for our adverts) is found under "Extras" "Adverts"

Installing OsCommerce AdvertSolutions modules

What folder do I upload into?

Each web host has his/her own preference in naming folders for use in running a website.
You can have many files that don't even get shown to the public. The ones that are available for access via a browser are usually in a folder called something like:

- /home/YOURNAME/public_html
or
- /var/www/YOURNAME/httpdocs
or
- /usr/accounts/a/b/YOURNAME/httpd
etc, etc, etc

If it's unclear where the publicly-accessible files are to be uploaded, talk to your webhost for assistance.

OUR MODULES must be unpacked into the root of your shopping cart.

The modules will expand out into the correct places to provide you with our interface.

osCommerce requires you to edit a few files to get contributions to integrate to the administration pages PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY

1. Upload the included files to the root of your webstore, maintaining the directory structure (no core overwrites)
2. Download and open admin/includes/filenames.php file from your webstore to your computer
3. Append the following line to the filenames.php file:
   define('FILENAME_MGEXPORT', 'mgexport.php');
4. Upload admin/includes/filenames.php file back to your webstore
5. Download and open admin/includes/boxes/tools.php file
6. Add the following line to the tools.php file after the BOX_TOOLS_WHOS_ONLINE (or whichever is the last):
   ' . BOX_TOOLS_ADVERTS . '');
7. Change ); of the BOX_TOOLS_WHOS_ONLINE (or whichever was the last) to
   like the lines above it
8. Upload admin/includes/boxes/tools.php file
9. Download and open admin/includes/languages/english.php file
10. Add the following line to the english.php file after the BOX_TOOLS_WHOS_ONLINE:
    define('BOX_TOOLS_ADVERTS', 'Adverts');
11. Upload admin/includes/languages/english.php file

The Administration interface (to select the products/bestsellers or category for our adverts) is found under "Extras" "Adverts"

Zen Cart - Install Adverts into your Order, Shipping or Newsletters

Want to include the AdvertSolution Dynamic Adverts in your Zen Cart Order, Shipping or Newsletters?

There is a great description of what you need to do here:

www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?p=501826

UPDATED * I do not want TAX shown in the prices - ZEN CART * UPDATED

UPDATE: Latest plug-in component now displays prices EXACTLY AS YOUR STORE DOES

For older versions (NOT RECOMMENDED)

We programmed the AdvertSolutions plug-in to add tax on to the price returned to us. We are working on a more standard way to get prices back, but until this is programmed it is really simple to change the component to ignore tax:

In the root directory of your store, open up (or download and open) the file mgexport.php

On line 140 of this zencart module, look for the following code fragment:

while (!$rows->EOF) {
$price = $rows->fields['products_price'];
if ($rows->fields['tax_rate'])
$price += ($price * $rows->fields['tax_rate']) / 100;

Comment out the two lines regarding tax like this:

while (!$rows->EOF) {
$price = $rows->fields['products_price'];
// if ($rows->fields['tax_rate'])
// $price += ($price * $rows->fields['tax_rate']) / 100;

Now, when your advert gets rebuilt the prices will reflect this change. Because the adverts are generated dynamically, you will need to view your banner advert (which will show the OLD prices) and then refresh the image and our server will within two hours (most often instantly) reflect the price changes.

THIS CHANGE WILL ONLY AFFECT THE ADVERT SOLUTIONS BANNERS

UPDATED * I do not want TAX showing in my advert - OSCOMMERCE * UPDATED

UPDATE: Latest plug-in component now displays prices EXACTLY AS YOUR STORE DOES

For older versions (NOT RECOMMENDED):

We programmed the AdvertSolutions plug-in to add tax on to the price returned to us. We are working on a more standard way to get prices back, but until this is programmed it is really simple to change the component to ignore tax:

In the root directory of your store, open up (or download and open) the file mgexport.php

On line 140 of this zencart module, look for the following code fragment:

    while (!$rows->EOF) {
        $price = $rows->fields['products_price'];
        if ($rows->fields['tax_rate'])
            $price += ($price * $rows->fields['tax_rate']) / 100;

Comment out the two lines regarding tax like this:

    while (!$rows->EOF) {
        $price = $rows->fields['products_price'];
     //   if ($rows->fields['tax_rate'])
     //       $price += ($price * $rows->fields['tax_rate']) / 100;

Now, when your advert gets rebuilt the prices will reflect this change. Because the adverts are generated dynamically, you will need to view your banner advert (which will show the OLD prices) and then refresh the image and our server will within two hours (most often instantly) reflect the price changes.

THIS CHANGE WILL ONLY AFFECT THE ADVERT SOLUTIONS BANNERS

UPGRADE TO THE LATEST DRIVERS AND YOU DONT NEED TO DO THIS