Web Design For Idiots

Here is probably the most important thing you should know when deciding how you want your oscommerce store to look like.

If you have used wordpress or any other blogging system before, you have been conditioned to think that templates are a great way to get a somewhat unique looking website without too much hassle and coding.

Well, in the world of OSCommerce, that could not be further from the truth! Templates can really kill your website!

1. A template will never be entirely unique. This may or may not be a big deal to some, but if your company is focused on being cutting edge and unique, you should stay away from the template.

The people who create templates can be very lazy. I mean, the only way to pump out so many “different” designs is to cut corners.

2. You do not know when that template was built. For all you know, that template can be using the oldest version of oscommerce available. This means you will have 2 major problems. You are open to all of the known security holes that have since been fixed by the developers. ALSO, a lot of the new contributions that will be what you depend on to add functionality will simply not work on the older installs. This issue can MOST of the times be fixed by going through the upgrade process, but wasn’t the reason you purchased a template to save you time?

3. People who create templates COMPLETE hack into the oscommerce code. It may look pretty, but it can be VERY messy behind the scenes. This will make it VERY frustrating when you are trying to look for that piece of code that someone told you to change in the forums to get a certain look, and adding contributions again, will be a nightmare.

4. FINALLY, templates rarely have the same layout as a stock oscommerce. The people who create templates will completely remove a file and add a new one in it’s place. They will change around the code so much that no one but the person who created the template will be able to help you. And guess what, THAT will always cost you money – if you can even get a hold of them.

I have seen templates that are completely devoid of the column_left.php or column_right.php.. Or sometimes instead of having a header.php it will have a top.php All of these things will really confuse a newbie when you are trying very hard to follow along in a tutorial or in the instructions of a contribution.

I have personally never used a template, but I have tried to help people who have them. In my experience, you actually have to be BETTER at coding than a the average person because you will REALLY need to look only at the code to be able to tell what is going on.

My suggestion to those who want a nice look but are completely lost when it comes to designing a website, CHECK OUT THIS E-BOOK. I even dedicated and entire post about it here if you want to see more. I have it, and i used it and i learned a lot from it.

That little book will give you a quick, step by step guide to creating an interesting looking layout that you an now completely customize. Also, while you create your website using that book, and occasionally read some of the posts here, you will get real world knowledge of the inner workings of oscommerce.

Most people are a LEARN BY DOING type of person, and if you are one of those, spend the few bucks and actually DO a customized website and you will learn A LOT.

So thats my little warning to you all.. PLEASE stay away from the templates. There are a few out there that are pretty good and have a solid core, but DO YOUR HOMEWORK! And if you really want a unique site that you don’t have to do any work for, HIRE A DESIGNER!

this post is dedicated to Chris

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Want to know who is offering this awesome content? Here it is! Someone who is relatively new to web design. I am new enough to still remember how absolutely frustrating it was to try and get anything done in this field, but have also been around long enough to be able to help those that are where I was a year ago. Aside from web design, I run the office of my dad's engineering business, and do book keeping by trade. I love my pets.. All 6 cats, 1 peg legged dogs, and 1 hedgehog. LOVE THEM!! Oh yea, and my husband. He lets me chase my dreams and I let him do the same. We are happy people because of it. Read more from this author

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 11:49 am and is filed under Design and Looks, OsCommerce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.