General Discussions

**iScott79** · 06-24-2009, 05:51 PM

Okay, I have very little experience building websites. I have built 1-2 of them years ago. But they were basic sites. Not anything for a business to have a shopping cart.

Since I know basically nothing about web design, I do not know code. I would use Dreamweaver, GoLive, Frontpage and just use the design portion and basically drag/drop images, retype text, etc. It worked well, but again, not a business site.

Now that Im wanting to build my first business site, Im way overwhelmed. I signed up and tried out Magento and OScommerce, but both have be very confused. I think I can figure out how to add products, etc... but I cannot figure out how to change text/images within a page. Im assuming I need to know code? It seems all online based and not used with Frontpage, etc... so I dont know how to change text, images, drag and drop, etc...

so, that has me here asking this question... what should I do? I have seen many templates I like online for magento, oscommerce, etc... but none of them are exactly what I want. Id have to customize them too.

Does anyone know of an easy drag and drop process? A friend uses Homestead for their family photos website and it is basically what Im looking for, but more professional like all these templates I see online. Plus, I want to have a shopping cart..

thanks

**iScott79** · 06-24-2009, 05:58 PM

i downloaded a free template off of templatemoster that is specially for oscommerce. I then opened it up in GoLive and went to design view and its all messed up. I want to be able to make changes in design view... any ideas?

**iScott79** · 06-24-2009, 11:49 PM

anyone? I have cs4 dreamweaver and I cannot edit the php files in design view. Is there any program out there that will let me do that?

**stevej** · 06-25-2009, 12:49 AM

Well, I have a lot of recommendations for you, but here's my first:

Do not EVER EVER EVER use design view on ANY application. Please. I gives extraordinarily messy code, and you rarely get what you want. What you need to do is learn how to write and understand code. Kill the design view.

So with all that said, quit using FrontPage and GoLive. They also create messy code. I've spent many a long hour trying to clean up code that was generated by one or both of those two applications. It was very fun. No, actually, it wasn't. So, just stick with the code view on DreamWeaver.

So, now to the main point of your question - you want an E-commerce system? Well, right now I'm creating two sites that requires that, and won't be finding any decent CMS that allows you to edit the content by the code. I'm using Drupal and WordPress, both that have their content stored in a mySQL database. These are generally created for users that do not know code, so therefore generally user-friendly. At any rate, you'll be editing using the software's interface, not the code. And - you know what? Just do a little research download a CMS or two, play around with 'em and try to figure out how it works.

**Scarthingwell** · 06-25-2009, 11:53 AM

^^^^What he said. If you get nowhere with code oscommerce can be a pain to change the look of. Look at wordpress and an ecommerce plugin, there are loads using things like google checkout or paypal. you can change the look with themes of which there are thousands available and these can be customized still further with a little research or you can buy custom themes.

Don't get too hung up on the design being exactly what you want get it something like and learn as you go. Chenge a little at a time so you can unchange it if it doesn't work. It all takes time though it is worth it in the end.