|
Post by Michael John on May 18, 2009 22:45:57 GMT -5
Well, I FINALLY got into my X10hosting account! Sheesh! I can get into the control panel, but then I'm totally lost. I have NO clue where to go from there, in order to start building my site. I think this might be one of those "genius" sites. I had trouble just trying to make passwords that were strong enough for their system's satisfaction!
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on May 19, 2009 7:06:22 GMT -5
If you need any help with uploading/setting up your web site, let me know.
I am signing up for an account with them to see what tools they offer. One thing I noticed in the Terms of Service, they require you to log onto their forum once per 10 days or they will suspend your account.
Dean
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on May 19, 2009 14:46:27 GMT -5
Thanks, Dean! Once every 10 days isn't a problem at all. If I can figure out how to get started, and learn from there, I'll be on there a lot.
They seem to offer a lot of tools. After I posted here last night, I found their templates. I guess that's where you start (?).
|
|
|
Post by NatureNut on May 19, 2009 15:03:14 GMT -5
I just signed up for one too, so I'm on the learning curve with both of you.
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on May 19, 2009 15:10:37 GMT -5
Ugghhh ... good luck! Following me isn't usually a real good idea. LOL
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on May 25, 2009 17:06:50 GMT -5
UPDATE: I gave-up on X10hosting. In a nutshell, they have some serious technical issues to fix, and poor customer service. The two don't mix well, either. I found another host which seems to offer about the same products/features, ATBhost. This weekend, they've been in the process of setting-up all brand new servers, and they expect to be back up tomorrow. Reading the forum, it's obvious that these guys are very hands-on, and the users love it. I have a feeling that this just might be the place for me. As soon as they have the new servers online, I'll be able to sign-up. I'll let you know what happens.
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Jun 5, 2009 11:06:54 GMT -5
OKAY! I'm set-up on ATB Host ... now if I only knew where to start. Anyone care to attempt to give me a nudge in the right direction? Seriously, I literally don't know where to start!
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 5, 2009 12:46:32 GMT -5
I set up an account with them so I can see what they have to offer and point you in the right direction.
Right now I can access my site using FTP but not via the normal website link xxxxx.atbhost.net, hopefully in a few hours that will work. Can you access your website by clinking the link that they provided in the email, the link with :2082 after it should some up with a full panel of tools to use. Once this works for me then I can start pointing.
Dean
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Jun 5, 2009 14:06:54 GMT -5
Yes, I can get into cPanelX.
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 5, 2009 16:25:26 GMT -5
I can get on now, since I know you are interested in setting up an online store, here are the bare bone instructions for installing the software via their control panel. I figure posting the instructions here will help other people also if they are looking at building a website also. I will look into what software they have for making a web page next. Feel free to ask any detailed questions you may have. Log into your cPanelX Scroll down to Software/Services Click on Installatron Application Installer Scroll down to e-Commerce and Business Click on osCommerce Click on Install this application Introduction: Click Next Location: Click Next Version: Click Next License: Click Next Database: Click Next Settings: Enter a username and a password then click Next Confirmation: Click Next Complete: Click Complete This next page you will need to make book marks after navigation to the pages or write them down to keep track of them. Go ahead and Clink on the administration link. Login with your username and password that you entered above. And you are now editing your store front. Click on Catalog: here you can add/delete categories and products Click on Configuration: here you can set up the store name and address Click on Modules: this is where you enter your paypal address for checkout along with shipping amounts. One thing I would take care of first is Localization -> Languages -> and delete all but English, it will make building your store easier unless you speak another language. Dean
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 5, 2009 17:25:59 GMT -5
For a base site it looks like My Drupal is a decent beginners site builder tool, install the same way as osCommerce and play with it for a bit.
This will give you a bare bones web site that you link your web store to and change colors, and news, even more once you dig into it.
Dean
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Jun 5, 2009 20:56:26 GMT -5
Doing this during "work breaks" today LOL. I got osCommerce installed and did the tweaks you specified. I installed Drupal, but haven't figured-out how to get into it to use it.
I went to the Drupal site and browsed through their templates, and none of them look like desert/southwest.
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 5, 2009 22:08:04 GMT -5
Drupal should be good as a jumping on point. You should be able to access via: websitename/drupal and then log in with the information provided. You should then see a menu on the left, click Administrater, this will get you into the setup screens. The main thing you want to do is: -> Site Building -> Menus -> Navigation -> Add Item From here enter the osCommerce website address ( website/oscommerce in the path box, this is one of the address that I had you save for oscommerce. Fill in the Title and a description if you want. Goto Weight and choose a larger number, this will put the link to your store on the left menu bar near the bottom of the list. To make it a bit more desert like for now: -> Sit Building -> Themes Garland should be the default theme at the moment, click configure. Here you can change the colors to make it more desert like, also you can upload a custom logo to get rid of the "teardrop face" or disable the default logo. Those are the main items I can think of to get your webpage working and looking a bit better. You can also click Create Content -> Page and post a desert image here. Another item todo, to get rid of the osCommerce error that is most likely popping up as a pink bar of the top of the page: Go back to your cPanelX, choose file manager and browse to oscommerce/includes, click on configure.php and press change permissions at the top, in the popup window make sure it reads 4 4 4, this will get rid of that error. One last thing, right now to access your web page the visitor would need to type website]/i]/drupal, this will fix that. On your cPanelX, click Domains -> Redirects Type: Permanent Where it show all public domains, pull down your website. Redirects to: enter your web address http://website/drupal like this www.dsmith.atbhost.net/drupal Then click add, now when you type in your website you will be redirected to the Drupal site you just modified.I hope this isn't too much information at one sitting. Dean
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Jun 6, 2009 1:51:04 GMT -5
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 6, 2009 11:44:27 GMT -5
Ok, I will write up some instructions for adding different themes, for the most part the variances are different fonts, positioning of menues, etc.
First thing is you will need to download and install a FTP program, do a search for Filezilla, that is one of the better free programs and I will base my instructions around that.
Dean
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 6, 2009 12:32:01 GMT -5
I will be using the drupal-desert-needles as the example for uploading and possibly modifying themes. First download, save, extract the theme to your computer in a known location. Start Filezilla Host: website addressUsename: cPanelX usernamePassword: cPanelX passwordThen press quick connect (after this works you can use the pull down button by quick connect to log in) On the right side under Remote Site, navigate to You should see a directory that has (includes, misc, moduels, … and themse) On the left side navigate to where you unzipped the theme (Drupal_-_Desert_Needles in this case) Depending on how you unzipped the file you may see one or two similar folder names one has _-_ and the other doesn’t. Now you want to drag the file that doesn’t have the _-_ into the themes directory on the right. You should now see Filezilla uploading the information to your webserver. On the right side, navigate into themese / Drupal – desert needles, you should see a images directory and a list of files. Remember the images directory, I will show you a little trick later. Now open up your web browser and go to your Drupal Administrator Screen, if everything worked under Administrater -> Site Building -> Themes you should now have your new Drupal Deseert Theme, go ahead and click, enable and default then scroll to the bottom and click save configuration. Your new theme should now be active. The bonus trick: On your computer go to the directory where you unzipped the theme. In the images subdirectory there is a file called Header.jpg that is 996 x 225 pixels. You can replace this image with another image of your liking as long as it is the same size. Then you can use filezilla to upload the new file to the directory I indicated about (Drupal – Desert Needles / images ) and your background image on your web page will change. You can also put a fancier website name in the image and diable the site name in the theme configuration screen to improve the looks. And it should look something like this www.dsmith.atbhost.net/drupal/Dean
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Jun 6, 2009 17:12:08 GMT -5
OMGosh, this stuff all just seems so ridiculously complicated! I'm reasonably intelligent and well educated, but this stuff just seems to defy logic. Why don't they make installers for themes and all these add-ons? In the themes folder, there's a Read Me that says: "This directory is reserved for core theme files. Custom or contributed themes should be placed in their own subdirectory of the sites/all/themes directory. For multisite installations, they can also be placed in a subdirectory under /sites/{sitename}/themes/, where {sitename} is the name of your site (e.g., . This will allow you to more easily update Drupal core files."I looked in sites\all, and there was no "themes" folder. So I created a file on my desktop, labeled it Themes, and placed the Desert Needles in it. I downloaded and installed Filezilla and successfully uploaded my Themes folder to drupal\sites\all. I then went to the File Manager and verified that my Theme folder is there. I then went the Drupal admin, and the theme isn't in the themes directory.
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 6, 2009 17:32:50 GMT -5
It looks like you need to make one small change, Themes needs to be all lower case (themes) html is very case sensitive for file names.
You can use filezilla to rename the subdirectry and you should be good.
Dean
|
|
|
Post by Michael John on Jun 6, 2009 19:00:49 GMT -5
Renaming didn't work, so I deleted the old Themes folder, changed the one on my desktop to "themes", plus I changed "Desert Needles" to "desert needles". Then I uploaded it to the sites\all folder using Filezilla. It worked! BUT ... lol ... now there are TWO desert needles on my Themes page! Ugghhh.
|
|
dsmith14469
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2009
Posts: 82
|
Post by dsmith14469 on Jun 6, 2009 19:09:15 GMT -5
I had two also, it is the developers mistake. To get rid of the second go into the desert needles folder and delete drupal_theme.info
Dean
|
|