Her

Home Web Design Basics Templates & Tuning CMS Overview

CMS Overview

Author: Igor Lognikov, Editor Author's URL: www.templatemonster.com More by this author
Added:Jan 24, 2007 Rating:   Level: All levels Software: n/a

What to choose

image 1If you are not acknowledged to online store based on CMS and want to start with something simple and convenient, then you will choose OsCommerce. The engine has a set of standard functions, necessary for the online store; it's easy in management and simple in usage. The design is already built in, all you have to do is to pick up a template, pass through several steps of the installation process and enter the list of products; that's all, the store is completely ready to work. OsCommerce is the most popular online store engine.

image 2If you need a flexible management interface and more advanced instrument for online trade, which at the same time should stay easy and intelligible, then we propose you to take a look at Zen Cart. It has everything essential for online business. The system will let you change its configuration without troubles, simply with the help of admin panel. A built in system of subpages (articles) will let you easily add the information about products and services, you offer, and the set of modules for operation with the most popular payment processors will ease the set up of online payment system. You can download Zen Cart engine here.

image 3CRELoaded is an advanced trade portal with plenty of instruments for promotion of your products. A huge amount of payment and shipping modules, affiliate system, sales maker, subpages system and many more, all these is CRELoaded.  In the original supply, you will find a full range of functions of a large online store for achieving the desired results. CRELoaded is the most massive CMS for online trade. The most popular modules and functions are implemented there. You can download CRELoaded engine here.

Package Content

 
 image 4
OsCommerce 2.2
image 4
CRELoaded 6.2
image 4
ZenCart 1.2.x/1.3.x
Package
image 4
Engine (MS 2.2) with design, HTML, PSD, sample database
 image 4
Theme, HTML, PSD, sample database
 image 4
Theme, HTML, PSD, sample database
image 4
Skins system availability
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
Design changing
image 4
Via changing of content displaying files or store resetting
 image 4
With the help of skins system (via admin panel)
 image 4
With the help of skins system (via admin panel)
image 4
Localization
image 4
There are 3 languages in standard package: English, German, and Spanish. There is a possibility of localization to other languages
 image 4
There are 4 languages in standard package: English, German, Spanish and French (our templates are localized to English and German)
 image 4
There is 1 language in standard package: English (our templates are localized to English). There is a possibility of localization to other languages (all presented at www.zencart.com)

Information Boxes

 
 image 4
OsCommerce 2.2
image 4
CRELoaded 6.2
image 4
ZenCart 1.2.x/1.3.x
image 4
Categories
(list of products by categories)
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
Manufacturers
(list of products by manufacturers)
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

What's New / Latest Products/ New products
(representation of one of the products recently added to catalog)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Quick Find / Search
(quick search of products by keywords)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
Information
(box of links to sub pages)
 image 4
available
(links only to standard subpages)
 image 4
available
(links to standard subpages and to pages, added by the admin)
 image 4
available
(links only to standard subpages)
image 4

More Information
(box of additional links to sub pages, is being replenished only in Zen)

image 4
not available
 image 4
not available
 image 4
available
image 4

Shopping cart
(box representing shopping cart's content)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Specials
(representation of one of the products, which is introduced into catalog as special, special offer)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Reviews
(representation of one of the products, on which a testimonial had been written)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Languages
(box of localization switching)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Currencies
(box of currencies switching)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Bestsellers
(list of the most popular products)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Featured Products
(representation of one of the products, selected by administrator)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Tell a friend
(box of informing of somebody about the store vie e-mail)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Notifications
(box, in which a client can subscribe to getting information about the product)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Affiliates
(information box for affiliates)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Articles
(box of links to CRE articles (news))

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Order History
(list of client's orders)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Banner
(banner, added by a client )

image 4
not available
(possible to add banner only under footer)
 image 4
available
(possible to add any amount)
 image 4
available
(possible to add any amount)
image 4

Downloads
(box for displaying of link to purchased product)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Manufacturers Info
(box of information about the manufacturer)

image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Donate
(box for displaying of "Donate" banner)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

FAQ
(box for displaying of links - answers to frequently asked questions)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Google Ad
(google adwords banner)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Pages
(box of links to informational pages)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Links
(box of outer links )

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Login Box
(user's registration box)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Who is online
(box representing the quantity of users at the given moment)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4

Whish List
(box of links to products, introduced to the list of desired by the user)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

EZPages
(box of links to sub pages, created with the help of EZ module)

image 4
not available
 image 4
not available
 image 4
available
image 4

Music Genres
(standard box for ZenCart, representing the list of music genres)

image 4
not available
 image 4
not available
 image 4
available
image 4

Shop by Price
(box of selecting products by price)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4

Calendar
(box with calendar)

image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available

Boxes management

 
 image 4
OsCommerce 2.2
image 4
CRELoaded 6.2
image 4
ZenCart 1.2.x/1.3.x
image 4
Boxes management
(Info Boxes)
 image 4
Only via direct code editing in column_right.php or column_left.php
 image 4
Via the admin panel, it is possible to change the header, the color of header, position in left or right column.
 image 4
Via the admin panel, it is possible to change  position in left or right column

Payment modules

 
 image 4
OsCommerce 2.2
image 4
CRELoaded 6.2
image 4
ZenCart 1.2.x/1.3.x
image 4
Authorize.net
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
Authorize.net AIM
image 4
not available
 image 4
not available
 image 4
available
image 4
Credit Card (cc)
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
Cash on Delivery
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
iPayment
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
Check
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
NOCHEX
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
PayPal
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
available
image 4
2CheckOut
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
PSiGate
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
SecPay
image 4
available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
Freecharger
image 4
not available
 image 4
not available
 image 4
available
image 4
YourPay API
image 4
not available
 image 4
not available
 image 4
available (1.3.x only)
image 4
Credit Card (CCV)
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
Electronic Check
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
EFSnet
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
GeoTrust quick payments
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
PayMeNow
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
PayBox
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
PayJunction
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
PayPalExpressCheckout
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
QChex
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
PlugnPay
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
World pay
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available
image 4
Quick Commerce Pro
image 4
not available
 image 4
available
 image 4
not available

Contributions
(additional modules designed by outside developers)

 
 image 4
OsCommerce 2.2
image 4
CRELoaded 6.2
image 4
ZenCart 1.2.x/1.3.x
image 4
Contributions
image 4
Quantity: 3721
View here
 image 4
-
 image 4

Quantity: 209
View here


Features of realization

OsCommerce

OsCommerce is the basic and one of the first mass online CMS store. The output system is arranged with using object-oriented approach (OsCommerce is partially object oriented, partially because only parts of the code, which are responsible for output are written with object oriented standard). It consists of 3 main parts: boxes, pages and modules, where the boxes are logically separate parts for output; pages are separate pages, which can display the content and they also include boxes and modules; modules are physically separate files, included into pages for content's output.

For example: product_listing.php is the module for products list output. The layout in OsCommerce is table-based.

RELoaded

CRELoaded is a modified OsCommerce. Actually, CRE is a combination OsCommerce's template system and the most popular contributions for OsCommerce, brought into one engine. This engine performs the redirection to the template. Many code parts, which are responsible for unloading / recording of information into the database, are inserted into the templates. The algorithm of CRELoaded is the following: upon the inquiry to one or another page, the engine defines the template that was selected, as main and switches on the page from the template for content displaying.

There is also a system of boxes management and it's possible to select a position of a box in the column and also to choose which one to use (right or left). The layout in CRELoaded is table-based as well.

Zen Cart

Zen Cart is a separate project with its own structure and program solutions. The main feature of Zen Cart is the template system, based on XHTML (in versions 1.3 and higher). The templates are only visual part; there are no parts of code, except for the content's output.

In the original package, there are some features, such as the subpages arrangement system and a possibility to turn off the side columns.



About the Author:

Click to Visit Author's Website

Igor Lognikov is an editor at Web Design Library, the author of many pamphlets related to the web design industry and a fully accredited card-carrying journalist since 1999.