Using the Store Manager

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Accessing the Store Manager

To access your store manager, type in the URL for your web site but change the end to: /protected/manager.cgi For example if your have a the store address http://www.iMegaMall.com/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi, then you would change it to http://www.iMegaMall.com/cgi-bin/store/protected/manager.cgi to access your store manager.

If you have already protected your store manager section with .htaccess you will get the login screen above. If you are using your store manager section for the first time and/or you have not performed the .htaccess function yet, you will get the logon screen as seen in the image below.

If cookies are not enabled on your browser, you will need to enter your credentials twice: Once to access the directory, and a second time to access the program (the logon screens show in both images seen above and below).

logon-2nd.gif - 2043 Bytes

Main Store Manager Menu

Once logining into the store manager, you will be presented with the following options:

Add Product: use this section add products to your store's database as well as upload product images for each individual product listing.

Edit Product: Use this section to edit individual products, pricing, links to extra information pages, links to larger or detailed images, list product options (such as color, size, etc) and change the product's images.

Delete Product: This will delete a product from the store's database permanently. Caution: Once you click on the delete button, even by mistake, the listing is deleted. If you delete by mistake, you will have to re-enter the product from scatch using the add product section.

Cart Display: This section allows you to change the display of the cart contents table that the customer sees at checkout (and view/edit cart functions) as well as cart content items that are included/excluded in the confirmation emails that you and they receive. In other words, this manages the individual cells of the cart contents table and also manages what to include in the confirmation emails. To change the background colors for the cells of you check out area or cart contents table, see the store layout manager.

Commando: This section is for more advanced users and allows you to use Unix commands in cases such as when you do not have telnet of SSH1 (or SSH2) access. It's not guaranteed to work, but it does come in handy. Use with caution! We are not responsible for damages caused by this function/section.

HTACCESS: This section will set up .htaccess protection for you store manager section (basically the protected directory). Click on the link to set this up. This will setup the usename and password for the directory protection. Note: username is limited to 8 characters or less. You will still have to modify the manager.cgi file manually to change the password and username in that section as needed.

Orders: This is the online order log that tracks the orders generated by your store.

Database: This section allows your to update the database's numbering length (pad length) after products have been added or a database has been uploaded. This is were you export your database to .csv format so that you can edit your database in programs such as MS Excel and Lotus spreadsheet programs. Import functions are also available for .csv and pipe delimited databases.

Program Settings: This section comprises three separate areas: Main Settings, Shipping Settings, and Tax Settings. These sections allow you to administrate many functions regarding the gateway youu wish to use, taxes and shipping costs, shipping modules and many other store administration options.

Payment Gateway: Here you will be able to setup the specifics for the main gateway you chose in the main settings section of the Program Settings menu.

PGP/GPG: Setup and install PGP/GPG functions. Used to encrypt email orders sent to you and/or to use secure email reading capabilities. The iTransact nor the AgoraPay payment gateways do not require this section to be setup unless you are customizing for advanced report back functions. Authorize.Net SIM, 2Checkout, Standard PayPal, eWay, Linkpoint Basic (aka LinkpointHTML), PayFlow, Intellipay, PlugnPay nor PsiGate do not need this area configured. If you do not upload a key and use Offline for payment processing your emailed orders will only contain half of the customers credit card number. The other half will need to accessed from your "Store Manager". Uploading a security key will allow you to view the complete credit card number after decrypting the email. GPG provides plug-ins form most email clients that make this a very easy one-click task.

Simple Options Editor: This allow you to create and edit simple options files. First you can create option files and palces them automatically in the "html/options" directory or your store. Once you have created or edited the desired option files, you then go to the product add or edit managers and select the options file desired for each individual product you with to include them within. NOTE: this will only edit option files originally created in this manager. Variable and/or complex option files must be created manaually and uploaded to your html/options sub directory of your store.

Store Layout: Here you will be able to setup the store layout, such as background colors, text colors, messages found throughout the cart (except on order pages those are handled in the payment gateasy managers), body tag attributes, "cart contents" table attibutes, and many other items related tothe general store layout. Headers, Footers, the main store page, and productPage.inc files are still edited either with store header/footer managers (standard headers and footers only) or done manually. See the Store design and layout section of this manual or the Cool Tips & FAQ area for more information and great tips.

Tracking: This section allows you to see the various URL entry points for your store that people first visit your store at, as well as the site they came from they came from and what type of browser they use. Information is generic and does not track individual users or their personal information. Error Log: This section allows you to see errors generated by the program during the course of operation. It comes in handy when trying to figure out many errors or why certain aspects of AgoraCart don't seem to function properly.