First we need to do some configuration. Log in to your store admin, click to the “Configuration” box and then click “Download.”

Explanation of these settings:

• Enable download – do you want to offer downloadable products
• Download by redirect – leave this to true for now, you may need to change it later based on your server’s setup
• Expiry delay (days) – this many days after purchase, the customer can no longer download the product. This is a default setting that can be changed on a per-product basis.
• Maximum number of downloads – after this many tries, the customer can no longer download the product. This can also be set per product.

UPLOAD YOUR PRODUCTS

If you have Blue Note’s “upload your downloads” package installed, you may be able to skip this step.

Your downloadable files must be put into the “downloads” directory inside of your catalog directory. Upload them using the FTP client of your choice. If you have Blue Note’s “upload your downloads” package, you can upload your products through the admin screen in the same way that you upload images. It is recommended that you keep the filenames to only letters, numbers and underscores. For example:
This is a good song!.mp3 – that filename will cause problems. It has spaces and a special character.
This_is_a_good_song.mp3 – much better. Spaces are replaced with underscores and the exclamation point removed.

ASSIGN DOWNLOADS TO PRODUCTS

If you have Blue Note’s “upload your downloads” package, this is already done for you – when you upload your file through the admin screen all of the attributes are automatically created. If your file is too big to upload through admin, you can upload the file via FTP and it will automatically be loaded into the dropdown menu.

Without that feature, you have to set up product attributes. Click to the “catalog” box, then click “Products Attributes.”

The first step, if you have not done so already, is to create options. Options are general categories such as “size” or “color.” For this purpose, we will create an option for “delivery” – the name is not important, call it what you want. Fill in the name you choose (in each language, if necessary) and click the “insert” button.

Once you have an option, you can have an option value. An option value is a specific selection like “blue” or “large.” Here we will use two options, “ship this product” and “download this product.” You are not required to use both option values for all products. If you have products that can only be downloaded, you will not use the “ship this product” option on that product. Again, the name does not matter – call it what you want.

Now you’re ready to assign options to products.

From the “product name” dropdown, select the product you’re dealing with. Choose the option for “delivery” and the option value for “download.” If you want to adjust the price of the product up or down, enter a + or a – and an amount in the next two boxes. In the “filename” box, enter the name of the downloadable file. This name must match EXACTLY – including capitalization and punctuation. Note – with Blue Note’s “download dropdown” package, you will see a dropdown of all available files in the download directory – ensuring that the filename will be correct. The expiry days and download count are filled in based on the options you set earlier, you can change them here and it will affect only this product. When everything is set, click “insert.”

If you want to also offer this product as a physical shipped item, you can add another attribute to the product. Choose “delivery” and “ship this product.” You can also adjust the price here (ie, add $2 for the cost of the CD).

WHAT DOES ALL THIS DO?

You’ve just finished assigning options to products. Now when your customers view your product they will see a dropdown where they can choose how they want the product delivered.

IMPORTANT!

osCommerce only knows that a product is a download if you assign a filename. It does not matter if your option value is called “download,” “delivery” or “moocow.” If there is a filename, the product will be treated as a download. If there is NOT filename, the product will NOT be treated as a download.

WHAT ABOUT SHIPPING?

osCommerce is pretty smart about shipping. If everything is set correctly, a customer who only orders downloads will not be charged shipping. A customer who orders a mix of downloads and physical products will be charged shipping only on the physical products.

PLEASE NOTE, HOWEVER – if a product has a weight of 0, osCommerce will assume that the product is a virtual product and will not charge shipping (or allow the customer to provide a shipping address).  Please ensure that ALL of your physical products have at least SOME weight – even .01 is enough.

QUESTIONS?

If you need further help or information, please contact Blue Note Web Services.

The following instructions are current as of the time of this writing. UPS may change the layout of their site, in which case some links or other information may become outdated. If you find that these instructions do not match the UPS site please let us know.

Before you can obtain an XML key you will need to open a MyUPS account. Start here:
http://www.ups.com/

If you already have a username and password, sign in to your existing account. If not, click the “register” button to create a new account. You will need to provide some contact information and agree to some terms and conditions.

Once you are logged in to MyUPS, click on the “Business Solutions” tab. On the page that comes up, click on “OnLine Tools” then “Get OnLine Tools.” The tool you need for osCommerce is Rates and Services, click the link to get that tool. You will need to confirm or fill in some information, including your UPS account number.

If you do not have a UPS account you will need to open one now. NOTE: Depending on what options you select, UPS may suggest that you bill charges to a credit card rather than opening an account – but to use the online tool you must have a UPS account number. Even if you are not personally shipping packages (ie, you use a drop-shipping service or a separate shipping warehouse) you must have an account number to obtain the necessary keys and passwords. Later in the process, you will have the option to use a credit card as the payment method for your account if you prefer. You must, however, get a UPS account number for the shipping module to work properly.

When you complete the form for a developer’s key it will be sent to your registered email address. Make a note of your developer’s key, as you will need it to obtain your access key. Make sure you obtain an XML developer’s key for the Rates and Services tool.

Once you have all of the necessary information, send it on to your website administrator. The checklist of information is:
-UPS account number
-MyUPS username and password
-XML Access Key for Rates and Services

What sort of password prompt do you see when logging in to your admin screen?  The most common would look something like this:

99% of the time, this password prompt is being generated by the server.  You will need to contact your server administrator or web host to find out how to change it.  There is a contribution available for older versions of osCommerce that uses PHP to generate the same sort of password prompt.  If you have this contribution installed, your password is hard-coded in the file admin/includes/configure.php.  Be careful editing this file!  If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can break your entire admin panel!

Newer versions of osCommerce have PHP-based password protection in place.  The standard password prompt looks something like this:

If you have this sort of password prompt, changing your password is very easy!  Log in to osCommerce using any current admin username and password.  Once you’re logged in, click the “Configuration” box in the left-hand column, then click “Administrators.”  Select the admin user you want to change and click “edit.”  Enter the new password, new username if you choose, save and you’re done!

Next question – what to do if you’ve LOST your username or password?

Resetting an .htaccess password is accomplished through your web host.  If your site uses the newer osCommerce PHP-based authentication and you’ve lost your password, resetting it requires editing the values in the database – which is outside of the scope of this post.

If you’re not comfortable handling a password reset on your own, Blue Note offers password reset services for $25.  This service requires that you have your hosting control panel password – if you don’t, contact your host and have it reset.  Contact Blue Note Web Services for more information.

When should attributes be used?

Product attributes are used when you have a product that has options – ie, t-shirts might come in different sizes and colors. With the standard osCommerce attribute system you can adjust the price up or down with various attributes.

When should attributes NOT be used?

The biggest shortcoming is a lack of stock keeping – the 2.2 attributes system does not keep track of how many large shirts were ordered or how many blue, only how many shirts were ordered. If you need to track stock levels of the various different options, product attributes are not for you.

The product attribute system also cannot handle a situation where not all combinations are permissible. For example, if ‘large’ shirts are available in white and blue, but ‘extra large’ are only available in blue, there is nothing in place that would prevent a customer from ordering an extra large white shirt.

If either of these poses a problem for your product line we have a variety of solutions available to you. Please contact us for options!

How does all this work?

Product attributes can be set up through your osCommerce admin screen. Before moving forward we need to define some terms:
Product Option – an option is a category of choices to be made – size, color, etc
Option Value - a specific choice – red, blue, small, large
Product Attribute – a combination of a product, an option and a value

In your admin screen, click on “Catalog” then ‘Products Attributes.” This will take you to a screen like this:

Create your product options first, then your option values. When those are ready move to the “Products Attributes” section. Select a product, an option name and an option value from the dropdowns. If this particular choice will change the price, put a number in the “value price” field. In the “prefix” put a “+” if this choice increases the price or a “-” if this choice decreases the price.

This interface is also used to set up downloadable products. For more information on downloadable products please see the downloadable products how-to.

If you have many products with attributes, this interface can quickly get tiring and out of hand. Here at Blue Note our specialty is making things easier for you, the store admin. We have put together several packages to help you set up attributes quickly and easily when editing your products without any need to work with this attribute interface. For more information on this or any of the services we offer please use the contact form or call us at 940-239-5225.