PHP Mall version 3 installation instructions and manual

1. Installing the website

2. Configuring the website
2.1. Configuration options
2.2. Changing the default system email address
2.3. Changing the user currencies
2.4. Settings the countries, states and tax zones
2.5. Store Packages
2.6. Changing the main product categories

3. User Stores
3.1. Users management
3.2. Store templates management
3.3. Adding advertisements on the user stores

4. Orders

5. Website management
5.1. Managing the structure and content of the pages of the main mall website (p. 18)
5.2. Changing the style of your website main (p. ) navigation menu (p. 20)
5.3. Adding news on your website
5.4. Languages and language files

6. Templates
6.1. Front site templates
6.2. Products middle and final result templates
6.3. Shopping cart template
6.4. Custom HTML tags


7. Tools and custom server side forms
7.1. Custom server side forms
7.2. Newsletter
7.3. FAQ Manager
7.4. Links Manager


1. Installing the website

You may find below information about the PHP Mall integrated setup, the description of all the steps, possible errors and troubleshooting information.

Step 1 - Welcome screen and PHP Mall End User License Agreement

In this first step you'll be able:
to see the general setup welcome message
to read the PHP Mall end user license agreement

In order to continue to the next step, you'll have to agree with the PHP Mall end user license agreement by checking the check box (I agree ...).


Troubleshooting

1. I can't find the Continue button and I can't proceed to the next step?
By default the Continue button in this step is hidden and it becomes visible when you click on the check box (I agree ...). If you don't agree with the PHP Mall end user license agreement, the Continue button will not show up and you'll not be able to proceed to the next step.

Step 2 MySQL server access information

In this step you'll have to provide the access information for the MySQL server (server name, mysql user and password) where you would like to setup the main PHP Mall database. The setup needs this information in order to connect to your server install the MySQL database on it.

In this step, you'll be asked for:

MySQL Server the server where you plan to install the database, usually localhost for most of the hosting packages / servers

MySQL User / MySQL Password a valid user account for the MySQL Server

If you are not sure for these settings, please contact your hosting provider or log in to your hosting package control panel, where usually this information can be found on a page called MySQL or Databases.

After you enter these values and click on the Continue button, the setup will try to connect to the MySQL server with the user name and password you entered. If any of these values aren't correct (the address of the MySQL server or the MySQL user name and password), then an error message will be displayed and you won't be able to continue until you enter the correct values.

Troubleshooting

1. After you click the Continue button, you receive an error message in red saying Server doesn't exist or access is denied.

If this is the case, please check once again the values you have entered. If the problem persists:
- make sure that your MySQL server is up and running and that this account is valid / has permissions to connect to the server and database
- contact your hosting provider and ask him for the MySQL settings for your hosting account

Step 3 - Setup of the main PHP Mall database

In this step you'll be asked if you would like to create a new database for PHP Mall or use an existing one. We recommend that you create a new database however some hosting packages are limited to only one database or don't allow PHP code to create a new database (they should obligatory be created in advance from the hosting package control panel), that's why we provide the second option - to use an existing database. Please note that the tables in the PHP Mall database are prefixed, so there shouldn't be any problems or conflicts if you already have other tables in your database.


If you choose the first option - to create a new database, you'll be asked to enter the name of the database. We recommend you to use a name which will be easy to distinguish, like for example php_mall. Be aware that when choosing this option, the MySQL user you have provided in the previous step should have the permssions to create new databases on the MySQL server. If this is not the case, the database creation will fail and such error will be displayed on the screen.

If you choose the second option, the PHP Mall database tables will be created in the database chosen by you. All the tables, which will be created will have a prefix websiteadmin_, no data from the existing database will be deleted.

Troubleshooting
1. I have selected the option to create a new database but when I click on Continue, I get an error message colored in red and I can't proceed to the next step, why?
- make sure that your MySQL user has CREATE DATABASE permissions on the MySQL server
- make sure that you don't have already a database on your server with the same name as this one you entered for name of the new database to be created

2. I have tried to use the second option - to use an existing database, but I receive an error message saying that the table websiteadmin_admin_users already exists
- this means that you have previously installed the script in this database, so you may either use a new database or delete the old script tables and then continue with the installation


Be aware that in this step the setup creates also the script configuration file. If the process running PHP on your server for your hosting package doesn't have write permissions in the folder where you install PHP Mall you'll receive the following message in the interface:

The process running PHP on this computer doesn't have permissions to create the configuration file in the main web folder. You need to create it manually the content will show up in the screen. You need to copy / paste it in a file db_config.php and upload it in the ADMIN folder of your website (the one in which you uploaded the php mall files). So you could either upload it with FTP or use the File Manager in your hosting package control panel to save the db_config.php file.

If you experience troubles when doing this or have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact our support center.


Step 4 Installation successful screen

If you reached this step, PHP Mall has been installed successfully on your server/hosting package and you could access your website on www.yourdomain.com and the admin panel on www.yourdomain.com/ADMIN with the default username: administrator and password: abc123





2. Configuring the website

In this chapter you may find information about configuring the different options on the website (like the time zone, default currency etc.) and learn also how to change the default states and countries, default system email address and other settings.

Please note that most of the configuration options can be changed from the admin panel from the Settings → Configuration Options and other pages as described below, however the script is using also a configuration file called config.php. This file is located in the main web folder - in this file also some of the most important settings are stored like the MySQL access information (server, user name and password), the system email address information etc.


2.1. Configuration options

The Settings → Configuration Options page in the admin panel can be used to manage most of the settings of the website. You could find below information about the different configuration options available on this page.



Default Time Zone
With this setting the administrator can change the default time zone on the website. The time zone coming by default for most of the downloads is Europe/London.
List of the supported time zones can be found on: http://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

Some examples of supported time zones are:

America/Buenos_Aires
America/Chicago
America/Los_Angeles
America/Mexico_City
America/New_York
Asia/Singapore
Asia/Tokyo
Europe/Berlin
Europe/Madrid
Europe/Moscow
Europe/Zurich



Default Currency Symbol
By default the value of this setting is set to the US dollar sign $, but you may change it to another one you prefer (like CHF etc.). This will change the currency symbol displayed next to the prices on the website.
Please note that the vendors are also able to choose their own currency on their store if they don't like to use the default one set by the administrator.


Enable SEO Links
The search engine optimized links look like static HTML pages and have keywords in the URL (which allows better indexing by search engines like Google).
In order to use the SEO links, the system requires the mod_rewrite module (for Apache or isapi_rewrite for Windows / IIS). If this module is not available on your server or hosting package, you could deactivate this feature by setting the value of this setting to NO.


Stores URL format
With this option, the administrator can select the URL format he prefers for the user stores.
Two options are available:
SUB FOLDERS (www.domain.com/user)
SUB DOMAINS (user.domain.com)
Please note that if you choose to set the sub domains URL format, you need to enable wildcard dns for your domain.


Prices decimal point
The administrator can set with it the separator for the decimal point for the prices formatting on the website


Prices thousands separator
The administrator can set with it the thousands separator for the prices formatting on the website


Maximum number of images per product
Sets the maximum allowed number of images for the products added by the vendors (the value needs to be an integer like 3, 5, 15 etc.)


Maximum allowed image size (bytes)
Sets the maximum allowed size of the images uploaded by the vendors (the maximum size has to be set in bytes).


Use GD to generate thumbnails
The PHP graphics library is used by default to generate thumbnails for the uploaded images, so the default value of this setting is YES. If however the server or hosting package on which the website is hosted doesn't have the graphic library GD installed or enabled, it's possible to turn off its usage by changing the value of this setting to NO.


Default thumbnail width
With this setting the administrator can set the default width of the thumbnails of the product images shown in the middle result when browsing the product categories or searching for products.


Maximum thumbnail height
With this setting the administrator can limit the maximum height of the thumbnails (which is calculated according to the default width in order to keep the image aspect ratio).


Date format
By entering a valid PHP date format string, the administrator can change the format of the date displayed on the website.
Full information on the supported date format strings can be found on:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

Here are a few examples:
"F j, Y, g:i a" // March 10, 2001, 5:16 pm
"m.d.y" // 03.10.01
"j, n, Y" // 10, 3, 2001
"H:i:s" // 17:16:18


Use captcha images
A good way to avoid automatic form submissions when creating a web form is to add some kind of human checking / verification. One of the best ways is to use an image verification, called also captcha. What it does is to dynamically create an image with a random string displayed on it. Then visitor is asked to type that string in a text field and once the form is submitted it checks if the string on the image matches the one inputted by the user.
The usage of the captcha images is enabled by default, but if you would like to disable it (for example if the PHP graphics library - GD isn't installed on your website), you could change the value of this setting to NO.


Multi language website
The multi language website can support more than one language and it shows the languages menu on the front site (allowing the users to choose the language they prefer).
For website loading speed optimization if you have only one language on the website, it's recommended to keep this setting to NO, otherwise you may switch to YES.
Setting the website to be not multi language will hide also the language selection menu on the front site.


Charge commissions
If set to TRUE, the system will calculate the commissions to be charged to the vendors on the orders placed on the mall website.


Website free for the vendors
Setting this field to YES, will transform the website in a free website the vendors will be able to have a store, add products and sell them online for free on the main mall website.


Enable stock management for the vendors
If set to YES, will enable the stock management functionality. If stock management is enabled, this will change the field Maximum items in the form for adding new products to Available items, so the vendors could enter in it the number of items they have for this product. Every time a customer purchases 1 item, the number of available items will be decreased with 1. When this number becomes 0, an out f stock message will be displayed for this product and the customers won't be able to place new orders for it.


PayPal account
In this field, the administrator/website owner has to enter the PayPal account (registered PayPal email address) he would like to use to charge the vendors for the service to have a store on the mall (depending on the package they selected).


PayPal currency code
The PayPal currency code if the PayPal system is enabled. By default it's set to USD (US dollars), but can be changed to any other valid PayPal currency code like EUR, GBP etc.


Cheques Address
In this field the administrator could enter the address, which has to be used for the cheques to be sent if the cheques payment options is enabled on the website.


Bank Account Information
In this field the administrator has to enter the full information for the bank account to be to be used when the bank transfer payment option is enabled on the website.


Validate vendor email addresses on sign up
With the value of this setting set to YES, the new users will need to validate their email address by clicking on an activation link, which is sent to them by email.


Send welcome emails to the vendors
If enabled (set to YES), this option allows welcome emails to be sent to the vendors when they sign up


Welcome email subject
The administrator can enable welcome emails for the vendors, they are sent just once when the vendor creates his account by filling the registration form. This setting allows the administrator to change the subject of the welcome emails sent to the vendors.


Welcome email text
The administrator can enable welcome emails for the vendors, they are sent only once when the dealer creates his account by filling the registration form. This setting allows the administrator to change the text of the welcome emails sent to the vendors.


Accept AlertPay
This setting has two possible values YES or NO. If set to YES, will enable the AlertPay payment system to accept payments on the website or with other words, will allow the website owner/administrator to use the AlertPay system to charge the vendors for the store hosting package they selected.


AlertPay merchant email
When the AlertPay system is enabled, in this field, the administrator/website owner has to enter the AlertPay registered email address of the AlertPay account he would like to use to charge the users on the website.


Accept 2checkout
This setting has two possible values YES or NO. If set to YES, will allow the website owner/administrator to use the 2checkout system to charge the the vendors for the store hosting package they selected.


2checkout seller ID
When the 2checkout system is enabled, in this field, the administrator/website owner has to enter the 2checkout SID (Seller ID) of the 2checkout account he would like to use to charge the users on the website. The seller id can be obtained from the 2checkout website (during a new registration for the new users) or from the admin panel for the registered ones.


2checkout product ID
Sets the 2checkout recurring product ID (the one which will be used to charge the vendors who selected this payment option)


2.2. Changing the default system email address

The default system email address is set by default to info@yourdomain.com and can be changed in the configuration file config.php, by modifying the values on the following lines:

//THE EMAIL ADDRESS FROM WHICH THE SYSTEM EMAIL WILL BE SENT
$SYSTEM_EMAIL_ADDRESS = "info@domain.com";

//THE "FROM FIELD" OF THE SYSTEM EMAILS
$SYSTEM_EMAIL_FROM = "Domain.com";

This email address appears as sender of the email notifications sent by the website to the users like the email notification for the new orders etc.
Please note that if you set an email address, which doesn't exist, on some servers this may cause issues resulting in emails not being sent.



2.3. Changing the user currencies

On their Home → Profile page the vendors have functionality to select the currency, which they prefer to be used on their stores. You can set or modify the list with these default currencies by modifying the following array in the configuration file config.php.

$currencies = Array
(
array("USD","US Dollar","$"),
array("EUR","Euro","€"),
array("GBP","British Pound","£"),
array("CHF","Swiss Franc","CHF"),
array("NOK","Norwegian Kroner","Kr"),
array("ZAR","South African Rand","R"),
array("CNY","China Yuan ","¥"),
array("JPY","Japanese Yen","¥")
);

Please note that you can also set the default currency on the website by changing the value of the setting available on the Settings → Configuration Options page.


2.4. Settings the countries, states and tax zones

The countries, states and tax zones are used on the website when the vendors create their shipping zones, define taxes and also when vendors and customers sign up and enter their address.
By default the list of countries includes the list of most of the countries in the world and the one of the states, the list of states in the USA. If you launch your website for another country or region in the world, you can modify these lists of countries and states accordingly to match your requirements.

To make changes or set new lists, you need to add new the entries one per line, then paste the list and click on the Save button to save the changes.



2.5. Store Packages


PHP Mall lets you create various stores hosting packages (free or paid) with different different number of allowed products allocated for each of them. When new users (store administrator) sign up they could choose for their website one of the packages you have created. The users can also switch between the different packages later from their admin space.

In order to illustrate how the packages work, let's consider that on your website you have created two packages the first one Basic with 10 allowed products and free of charge and a second one Premium with quota 1000 allowed products with price $10.00 paid every 3 months (for the billing, currently you may choose between 1-3-6-12-24 months).
When a new user sings up he could choose between:
1) Basic - since this package is free the website will be instantly activated and the user will be able to start using his website immediately and login directly in his admin space
2) Premium - in this case the website will be created (no other user will be able to sign up with the same username) but it will not be active until the user payment is received
- if the user has chosen to pay with PayPal, his website will be instantly activated when the corresponding PayPal IPN for the payment is received, if for any reason the payment fails, his website will be activated but the Basic package will be set for this website (not the Premium one, the user could upgrade later his package from his admin)
- if a user choose to pay with cheque or money order, his website will be activated as soon as his cheque/money order is received and validated from the back office by the administrator

If a user reaches the products quota set for his package, the page allowing him to add new products to its store will be deactivated. The user should in such case either delete any of his products or upgrade his package with a new one providing more space.
The user can upgrade his package from the Package page in his admin. The new selected package will be activated as soon as the user payment is confirmed (based on IPN for PayPal or by the administrator from the back office)

Please note that if you plan to run a completely free website for the users, you could use the setting on the Settings → Configuration Options page Website free for the vendors and set it to YES (this will disable the packages from showing on the website and will make the website free for the vendors).



When creating a new store package, the administrator has to enter the following fields:


NAME name of the package, please use short and descriptive names, such as Basic, Premium etc. (since the name of the package appears also as name of the product when using PayPal payments, if you set a too long name this could provoke an error in PayPal)

DESCRIPTION description of the website package, this description is visible for the users on the forms for selecting a website package


NUMBER OF ALLOWED PRODUCTS the total number of allowed products that the store administrator will be able to enter on his store

PRICE the price of package in the following format 14.99 , enter 0.00 if the package is free

BILLED (MONTHS) number of months, at the end of this period the user will be billed, if you enter 3 he will be billed every 3 months

ACCEPT PAYPAL if set to TRUE, PayPal will be accepted for this package

ACCEPT CHEQUES if set to TRUE, cheques will be accepted for this package

ACCEPT BANK TRANSFERS if set to TRUE, bank transfers will be accepted for this package


How to modify the information for an existing website package?

On the Stores->Packages page in the back office you could see the list of your existing website packages. Click on the Modify icon to change the current values for a given package and you'll be able to edit the information for it.




2.6. Changing the main product categories

The main product categories are the ones showing up on the main mall website they allow the visitors of the website to browse the products added by the sellers.
By default there are 2 types of product categories main or global product categories (set by the administrator and which can be seen on the home page of the mall) and user defined (created by the vendors and which can be seen on the user stores only).

To give an example - imagine there is a global category "Pants" and there a merchant selling jeans, for example Levi's Jeans, Calvin Klein Jeans etc.

On his store, the vendor could create categories like "Levi's", "Calvin Klein" etc. , which categories will be specific for his store. So when adding a new product, for example: pair of Levi's jeans, he will select for it Category: "Levi's" and Global Category: "Pants"
Other merchants selling pants can also add them in this global category while they still have the possibility to define their own categories according to the specific products they sell on their stores.


The administrator can be modify the main / global categories from the Stores → Categories page in the admin panel.
If the website is multi language, a new text area to enter the categories for every language will show up, so the administrator will be able to define the new categories he prefers for every language (in order that the categories change with the language selection on the front site).



3. User Stores

3.1. Users management

By default the vendors register themselves on the front site by filling the registration form and the required information.
On the Stores → Users page in the admin panel, the administrator can see the list of registered vendors and:
Delete any of them (by using the Delete check box)
Modify the information for a selected vendor (by using the Modify icon)
Reset the password for a selected vendor (the new password will be show on the screen and it will be also sent by email to the vendor; the vendor has also the ability to retrieve their lost password on the front site)
Activate or Deactivate a store (by clicking the last icon in the list green color icon means that the store is active, while red that the store isn't active at this moment)




3.2. Store templates management

The Stores → Templates Manager page offers functionality for the administrator to add more store templates for the vendors or manage the existing ones. When adding a new template, there are 2 options:
to add the template by pasting its HTML code
to add the template as a clone of an existing store (this option allows to clone the template of an existing store and make it available also for the other vendors; it can be useful if the administrator has developed or tested the template on a test store first, so when the template is ready, it's possible to make it available for the other users)


The existing templates are available as a list on this page, for every template in the list the following options are available:
Modify (allows to modify the HTML code of the template)
Settings (should be used to change the template settings like its menu colors etc.)
Delete (removes completely the template from the website)




3.3. Adding advertisements on the user stores


In order to use this functionality, you need first to log in as administrator and go to the Stores->Advertisements page in the admin panel.

You may add advertisements on the user stores in one of the main four zones:
Top (1)
Right (2)
Bottom (3)
Left (4)

In order to modify the advertisements, which show up in a zone, you need to select it by clicking on the map appearing on the Stores->Advertisements page.

Let's consider an example you would like to add a flash animated banner in zone 1 (the top area of the stores).

In order to do this, you have to:

- Go to the Stores → Advertisements page
- Select ZONE 1
- Then in the text area, which will show up, paste the HTML code for your flash banner
- Finally you need to click on the Save button in order to save the changes

Please note that there is also an alternative way to put advertisements on the user stores except the one explained above. You could save the advertisements code for the selected zone as file having the following name:
/include/[ZONE NUMBER].htm .

That means that if you would like to put advertisements in zone #1, you could save the code as /include/1.htm. The system will check first if such file exists for the zone, it will read the advertisements content from it and if not it will read it from the database (the saved value using the admin pane and the functionality described above).



4. Orders


By default it's up to the vendors to add their product, manage the orders etc. As administrator, you also have access to the orders placed on the different stores, you can approve or reject them, see statistics for them etc.
You can see the new orders and approve them on the Orders → Approve page. When you reject an order, you can click on the Reject link and enter the reason for that (like for example item not available etc.) and the rejected orders will appear after that on the Orders → Rejected page.

The Orders → Approved page shows a list of the approved orders, while on the Orders → Full List page you can see a list of all the orders placed on your store and search by amount, order ID, status etc. in them.


On the Orders → Full List page, you could see the list of all the orders placed on the mall. By clicking on the Buyer, Order and Shipping icons, it's possible to see the detailed information for the order, customer and shipping information.

The Orders → Statistics page provides information about the total sum of the orders, average value of the orders, the number of approved and rejected orders etc.

Please refer to the vendors manual for more information on adding products, managing the orders, customer loyalty program etc.



5. Website management

5.1. Managing the structure and content of the pages of the main mall website

The pages in the Website category allow you to manage the main mall website pages, add new or remove the existing ones or edit their content, manage the style of the main navigation menu and also add news on the website.


You may add new pages by using the form at the bottom of the page Add a new page to the web site. To add the page, you need to fill the following fields:
Link Text (the text of the link, which will appear in the main navigation menu for this page)
Page Type (if the page is a main page or sub page of another main page of the website)
Title (the title of the page, this title will show up in the title tag of the page)
Meta Description (the meta description of the page)

At the top of the page, you could see the current pages in the website as a tree showing their structure. To see the different options available for the pages, you need to click on a page to select it and then a menu with the following options will show up:
Set as default page (will set the page as default page of the website)
Deactivate (or Activate, will deactivate or activate the page make it show up in the main navigation menu or hide it)
Launch WYSIWYG editor (the editor allows to edit the content of the page; please note that this option isn't available if there is a custom php extension set to be executed for this page then to edit the content of the page, it's necessary to edit directly the php file set for it, which may be found in the /extensions folder)
Edit HTML code (makes possible to edit the HTML code of the page; also as explained above, if there is a custom php extension set for the page, this option won't be available)
Set Custom Extension (allows to set a custom php file to be executed for the page the php files need to be saved in the /extensions folder of the website)
Page Settings (on the Page Settings page that will open when you select this option, you'll be able to change the page name, its title and description and others. This option has to be used if you would like to set your own page titles and meta descriptions for SEO optimization and also when adding a new language if you would like to translate the page names in another language)
Delete Page (removes the page from the website)


5.2. Changing the style of your website main navigation menu

There are two types of possible website navigation menus:

- Standard (these menus are generated automatically according to the website structure defined by you - they are multilevel and you can customize their colors and appearance from the Website → Navigation Menu by clicking on Standard - Settings)


- Customized (it's possible with them to enter a custom template which will be used for every item in the menu)


The customized menus offers better flexibility since the menu item HTML template can be customized completely by directly modifying its code, so these customized menus can be used when more complex templates have to be integrated.


The Settings page allow to modify the settings of the standard menu and also the color settings of the sub menus for the customized menu.









If Customized menu is currently set for your store, you can see its template HTML code and modify it from the Customized Menu → Settings page.




Please note that when selecting a new template for your store from the Templates → Select a template page, this will set the necessary menu settings, so you could use these settings only if you wish to create your own custom template or customize the default ones.


5.3. Adding news on your website

The news show up in a special section News on your website. To add news on your website, you could use the Website → News page in the admin panel.


For every news you add, you need to enter:
Title (the title of the news)
Content (the content the news, which you can also format using the WYSIWYG editor available on the News page)
Active (with possible values YES or NO specify if the news is active, the news which are set as not active will not show up on your website)

5.4. Languages and language files

The language files contain the texts and words shown on the user interface front site and admin panel. For every language there is one language file located in the /ADMIN folder.
The name and location of the language file is: /ADMIN/texts_[CODE OF THE LANGUAGE].php
or for example /include/texts_en.php for English.

The language file contains the different messages as PHP variables, for example:

$M_WEIGHT="Weight";
$M_DOWNLOAD_LINK="Download link";
$M_MANUFACTURER="Manufacturer";
$M_HANDLING_FEE="Handling fee";


Translating the language file consists of translating the messages enclosed in brackets to the right, for example for Spanish:

$M_WEIGHT = "Peso";
$M_DOWNLOAD_LINK = "Enlace de descarga";
$M_MANUFACTURER = "Fabricante";
$M_HANDLING_FEE = "Coste de gestin";


In order to add a new language on the website, it's necessary to add the translated file in the /include folder and also the administrator has to use the form on the Language Versions page and enter the name of the new language for example Deutsch and the code for the new language, for example DE.
The language code shows up after in the page links and is also used to for the name of the language file (in this case the language file will be /ADMIN/texts_de.php) and it's important to be 2 characters (like EN, DE, PT, TR etc).



6. Templates

6.1. Front site templates

A template for the front site represents a standard HTML code mixed with some special tags - these tags are replaced after that by the corresponding content generated by the system.

Let's consider the following example:

<html>
<head>
<meta>
<title><wsa title/></title>
<meta name=description content="<wsa description/>">
<meta name=keywords content="<wsa keywords/>">
...

When the page is rendered, for example the tag <wsa title/> will be replaced with the page title, so <title><wsa title/></title> will become:
<title>Page title goes here</title>

Please note that presence of none of these tags is mandatory, so you could combine them in the way you prefer to achieve the results you wish. It can be possible also to create your own tags (from the Custom tags in the back office) and set php files created by you to be executed and the generated content to be used in real time to replace the tag with it.

You may find below the list with the tags coming standard with the setup and default template:

<wsa title/> - Title of the web page
<wsa description/> - Meta description of the web page
<wsa keywords/> - Meta keywords of the web page
<wsa menu/>- Main navigation menu of the website
<wsa languages_menu/> - The languages menu of the website
<wsa content/> - The main content of a page
<wsa form/> - The custom server side forms for this page if there are any

<wsa logins/> - The main login form
<wsa product_categories/> - The product categories
<wsa internal_menu/> - The menu on the internal pages when an user has logged in
<wsa product_search/> - The product search form

You can do changes in the template currently in use, or add another ones from the Extensions → Tags page in the admin panel.

In the PHP Mall admin panel you may find the following pages related to the front site templates management:

Templates -> Select a Template
The page offers the possibility to the administrator to select a template which will be used for the front site between the currently available templates. Please note that in order to be able to select a template for a given website, you need to add first the template (if it doesn't still exist)



Templates -> Add a New Template
This page can be used to add new templates to the website. The administrator have a choice to choose between the option to add the template using the WYSIWYG templates editor (which produces simple template) or to directly paste the template HTML code.



Templates -> Modify
On this page the administrator can see the available templates and modify a selected template. In order to select a template for modification, the administrator should click on the Modify icon and then a new text area having the full template code will appear.



6.2. Products middle and final result templates

These templates can be modified from the Templates->Products page in the admin panel. By modifying these templates you are able to fully customize the products middle and final results layout.

A sample products middle result template is given below:



table summary="" border="0">
<tr>



<td>
<table width="140" height="142" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" cols="1" rows="3" class="fpItem">
<tr><td height="27" class="title">
<a href="[PRODUCT_LINK]">
[PRODUCT_NAME]
</a>
</td></tr>

<tr><td align="center"> <a href="[PRODUCT_LINK]"><img src="[PRODUCT_IMAGE]" border="0" width="70" height="50" class=br></a></td></tr>
<tr><td height="50" align="center">
<span class="price">[PRODUCT_PRICE]</span><BR>
<a href="[ADD_CART_LINK]">Order now</a></td></tr>
</table>
</td>




</tr>
</table>




The list of the special elements is shown below:

- it should be used to limit a line in the products middle result table

- it should be used to limit a row in a line in the products middle result table

Let's consider the following example you would like to make your middle result to be a table having 6 products per page (2 lines X 3 columns)

product
product
product
...
...
...


In html the first line from this table in it will look like:

<table>
<tr>
<td> product </td>
<td> product </td>
<td> product </td>
</tr>
.....
</table>

this should be coded in the following way:

<table>


<tr>

<td> product </td>


</tr>

.....
</table>

Please note that the number of columns per row as well as total number of products shown per page should be set on the Products->Settings page

The other special elements in the products template are:

[PRODUCT_LINK] link to the product final result page

[PRODUCT_NAME] name of the product

[PRODUCT_PRICE] price of the product

[ADD_CART_LINK] link for adding the product to the cart

[PRODUCT_IMAGE] the image of the product



Products Final Result Template

A sample products final result is shown below:

<br>
<span class="price_style">[PRODUCT_NAME]</span>
<br><br>
<table summary="" border="0">
<tr>
<td valign=top>
<img src="[PRODUCT_IMAGE]">
<br><br>

</td>
<td valign=top>
[PRODUCT_LONG_DESCRIPTION]


</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br><br>

<span class="price_style">Price: [PRODUCT_PRICE]</span>

<img src="images/spacer.gif" height="1" width="20">
<a href="[ADD_CART_LINK]"><img src="images/product_cart.gif" width="56" height="19" border="0"></a>

<br><br><br>

Compared to the template given as example for the middle result, one can find in it the following additional elements:

[PRODUCT_LONG_DESCRIPTION] the long description of the product

Keep in mind that on both middle and final results one could also use:

[PRODUCT_SHORT_DESCRIPTION] the short description of the product




6.3. Shopping cart template

The cart template is used when rendering the content of the cart page. It can be modified from the admin panel, the Templates->Cart page.

Sample cart template is shown below:

<br><br>
<center>
<table width=95% cellpadding=4 cellspacing=1>
<tr height=28 bgcolor=#efefef>
<td><font color=#313031>Remove</font></td>
<td><font color=#313031>Product</font></td>
<td><font color=#313031>Price</font></td>
<td><font color=#313031>Quantity</font></td>
<td><font color=#313031>Total</font></td>
</tr>

<tr bgcolor=#e7eff7 height=28>
<td>[CART_PRODUCT_REMOVE]</td>
<td>[CART_PRODUCT]</td>
<td>[CART_PRODUCT_PRICE]</td>
<td>[CART_PRODUCT_QUANTITY]</td>
<td>[CART_PRODUCT_TOTAL]</td>
</tr>

</table>
<br>
<table border=0 width=95%>
<tr>
<td align=left>
<span class=price_style>[SUB_TOTAL]</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<br><br>
<table border=0 width=95%>
<tr>

<td width=120 >[CONTINUE_SHOPPING_BUTTON]</td>
<td>[CHECKOUT_BUTTON]</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>



Where is used to limit a line in the cart's table showing the added products.

[CART_PRODUCT_REMOVE] checkbox which can used to remove the product from the cart

[CART_PRODUCT] the name of the product

[CART_PRODUCT_PRICE] the price of the product

[CART_PRODUCT_QUANTITY] the quantity of the product

[CART_PRODUCT_TOTAL] the total price (product price X quantity)

[SUB_TOTAL] total amount for all the items in the cart

[CONTINUE_SHOPPING_BUTTON] a button allowing the client to continue shopping returning him to the home page of the store

[CHECKOUT_BUTTON] button which leads to the checkout page




6.4. Custom HTML tags

The system provides you the possibility to add your own php scripts and to extend in this way the available functionality. The mechanism of doing this is simple - the first step is to upload the corresponding PHP files in the [main web folder]/extensions folder.
You have then the choice to use your files for your custom defined tags or to set them as extension for a selected page. To set a file as extension of an existing page you have to set this from Website → Management. If there is a script set as extension of a page, it will be executed when the page is rendered and its output will be shown in the main content area. Additionally you may set your scripts to be executed for a custom defined tag.

The tag should be defined from Extension → Tags and then inserted in the template or in the page content. When the page is rendered all the custom defined tags will be replaced by the content generated by the script you set.



7. Tools and custom server side forms

7.1. Custom server side forms

The custom server side forms functionality is a feature allowing the administrator to create and publish on the front site forms (such as contact forms) with custom fields defined by the administrator. Adding a new custom server side form can be done on 2 steps - the first one is to enter the form name and a brief description and the second one is to add the form fields. For every field the administrator should specify its name, type, the text displayed near it, its size and if it's an obligatory field (available only for some of the fields) and the message which will show up if the user leaves empty an obligatory field.
The new forms can be added from the Tools → Create a new form page:



while the existing forms can be managed from the Tools → Manage the forms page in the admin panel.


The forms can be deleted, modified, copied (in order to copy forms on different pages on the front site) and also their settings can be modified.

The settings that can be modified are:
the form name (the name can be used for identification of the form, by default it doesn't show up on the website)
the form description
the text, which will show up on the submit button (like Send or Enviar etc.)
message displayed after the user has successfully submitted the form
and also the email to which the forms data will be sent, the administrator can fill in this field his preferred email address to which the data sent by the users will be forwarded (it will be also available in the admin panel on the Tools → Posted Data page)

7.2. Newsletter

The newsletter functionality allows sending of newsletter to the registered vendors and / or customers.

The following pages are available;
Newsletter (on which the administrator can create the newsletter by entering its subject and text)
Export (allowing to export the emails of the customers and vendors - the list is exported in text file, one email per line)
Send (on which the administrator can choose the newsletter to be sent and select if the newsletter should be sent to the registered vendors, customers, both or to some selected users only)
Log (showing the log of the sent emails)


7.3. FAQ Manager

The FAQ Manager can be used to create a FAQ Frequently asked questions page on the front site.

The administrator has to enter the question and answer for every new question added on the FAQ Manager page.
To make the questions and answers show up on the front site, it's necessary to select a page from Website → Management in the admin panel and then choose the FAQ extension to be executed for it.


7.4. Links Manager

By default it's possible to modify the content of the pages with a WYSIWYG editor, which includes adding links on them etc.
The Links Manager offers one more way to do this to create a list of links and group them in categories. To make these links show up after that on a selected page on the front site, it's necessary to select the page from Website → Management in the admin page and choose the LINKS extension to be executed for it.

8. Admin panel users management and statistics

The administrator has the possibility to create additional user groups for the main administration panel, add users in them and assign their permissions.
This functionality can be used if for example there are multiple persons working on the website (for example person A validating the listings posted by the users, person B responsible for the design of the website and templates management, person C adding news on the website etc.)

The User Groups page in the administration panel should be used by the main administrator to create new user groups or delete any of the existing ones.


To set the permissions for the sub accounts, the administrator has to go to the User Permissions page in the admin panel.

On the page, which will open, the administrator will see a list of all the pages in the admin space and a check box for every box to grant a permission for a selected page, he has to check the box for it and when the list is complete click on the Save button at the bottom of the page.

---