A quick Google search online for e-commerce solutions will garner a huge number of software solutions available for free or commercial use. Among the free solutions available, and slowly losing its initial popularity, is osCommerce. osCommerce is an extensive and quite possibly one of the most thorough out-of-the-box pieces of software you can find. However, as all-encompassing as it may be, it is in severe need of a major overhaul to place it at the same level as its peers.
How it all began
osCommerce got its start in March of 2000. Created by Harald Ponce de Leon and originally called “The Exchange Project”, osCommerce quickly began to grow in both initial popularity and capabilities. The software is created with PHP and uses MySQL for its database core. It can be installed on any server that utilizes these two pieces of programming. For the past nine years, the program has been in the development stage. Officially, as of March 2009, osCommerce released its production ready alpha product. This release, Merchant V 3.0, includes a template system, an object-oriented backend and the ability to define the administration user name and password upon installation. To date, the osCommerce site claims over 12,000 online stores currently using their product.
The current problems
While it is a very good and all-encompassing shopping cart program, osCommerce is not without its issues. Installation of the program by a novice may prove to be a daunting task as a basic knowledge of MySQL as well as other web server technologies should be at the ready. The default SSL option is initially and automatically set to “no” which is practically an open door to nefarious entities trying to gather secure information on customers. Adding new shopping cart products is no simple task either – there are several options and features that need to be dealt with before adding in a new product, quite possibly the quickest way to creating a lot of confusion. When you do have the program installed and your cart up and running with all of its products, adding any additional modules or templating takes quite a bit of work and may end up breaking the core of the program. Not to mention the creators of the software do explicitly state that additions to the core are not always endorsed.
One of the best ways to avoid a lot of this hassle is to either have a seasoned osCommerce professional install the program for you or, if your web host has this option, have it installed by your hosting company.
Conclusion
If you are in need of a shopping cart program that is capable of being search engine optimized, fully featured and very robust, osCommerce is a good choice. However, it still needs quite a bit of work in as far as installation and add-on capabilities before it can be considered a simple ecommerce program of choice. OsCommerce is ideal for the knowledgeable and seasoned web developer, not for the novice nor the faint of heart.
