Oscommerce

seaner

Hi
I'm using OsCommerce to run an online shop. Thing is at this stage I think i've either got too many products up, or my version of OsCommerce is out of date and slow. It also could be the hosting crowd I'm with.But in any case loading time on my site is ridiculously slow.

Does anyone know of anyone that deals with Oscommerce stuff specifically? I've been in contact with lots of ppl but they're never in Ireland. I'd like to give my business to an Irish company.

Mainly I need help in speeding the site up etc. I've done most of the work myself so far, but definintely needs a pro's touch, before its too late!

If you know of anyone can you PM me?

THanks a mill.

Sean.

daymobrew

What version of osC do you have?

Zen Cart is a fork of osC i.e. they took the osC code and added *loads* of enhancements. It is also actively maintained, unlike osC. It might be worth moving to it.

The Zen Cart FAQ has an item on speeding up your site. Although it is for Zen Cart, the ideas will also apply to osC, though achieved differently e.g. turning off the manufacturers sidebox is done in the admin in Zen Cart but by editing includes/header.php in osC (comment out the include(DIR_WS_BOXES . 'manufacturers.php'); line).

seaner

Hi
I've got osCommerce 2.2-MS2. Have it up and running about 2 years now. But its getting slower by the day. I recently got a bit of a clean up and had some of the loading time shaved off, but its still terrible.

Im also with Hosting 365, shared. So this could also be my problem. the thing is , i don't know enough about this stuff to really get into the nitty gritty of it! I'd just love to be able to talk to someone who knows what they're on about, and who can say, right you need to do X, Y, Z. And it will cost this much..etc

The prospect of setting up a new cart is daunting to me too! However I'd say that the database could be interchanged for both OsCommerce and Zen? Seeing as they are so close. I'll look into Zen for sure. Thanks

daymobrew

seaner wrote: »

Im also with Hosting 365, shared. So this could also be my problem. the thing is , i don't know enough about this stuff to really get into the nitty gritty of it! I'd just love to be able to talk to someone who knows what they're on about, and who can say, right you need to do X, Y, Z. And it will cost this much..etc

Yes, shared hosting could be an issue. Is it always slow or just certain times of the day?
I could implement the Zen Cart methods in your osC installation.
I wouldn't be a X, Y, Z person but more a "try the recommended stuff and then ask on a osC/Zen Cart forum" type.

seaner wrote: »

The prospect of setting up a new cart is daunting to me too! However I'd say that the database could be interchanged for both OsCommerce and Zen? Seeing as they are so close. I'll look into Zen for sure. Thanks

Try the import instructions to make a copy (local or on your hosting setup).

daymobrew

I found this note when setting a Zen Cart install, it is about SQL caching:

SQL Cache Method

Some SQL queries are marked as being cacheable. This means that if they are cached they will run much more quickly. You can decide which method is used to cache the SQL Query.

None. SQL queries are not cached at all. If you have very few products/categories you might actually find this gives the best speed for your site.

Database. SQL queries are cached to a database table. Sounds strange but this might provide a speed increase for sites with medium numbers of products/categories.

File. SQL Queries are cached to your server's hard disk. For this to work you must ensure that the directory where queries are cached to is writeable by the web server. This method is probably most suitable for sites with a large number of products/categories

So, maybe getting File caching will help you though I don't know if this is available in osCommerce.

di11on

Hey Daymo,

My sites are OScommerce, but heavily modded by me.

How many products do you have?

It may be image processing that is contributing to your site being slow. The default oscommerce installation will always have to download the full sized image regardless of what size it's displayed at. An on-the-fly image thumbnailer will speed up this side of things immensely and will also greatly improve the quality of your images.

There are many contributions which do this - you can find them here

As mentioned, caching should also help.

Hosting could be an issue - do you know where your servers are physically located? Depending on your target market, servers based in Ireland might also help.

pauldiv

I too considered the image sizes might be a issue.

Thumb generation still requires a processing overhead however.

Can you not just create a thumbnail and a larger version of each product image then upload them? Put these images through a good optimiser such as the Photoshop Save for Web feature and you will have the smallest file sizes possible.

daymobrew

pauldiv wrote: »

Can you not just create a thumbnail and a larger version of each product image then upload them? Put these images through a good optimiser such as the Photoshop Save for Web feature and you will have the smallest file sizes possible.

In the Wheelworx Bikes store small and medium versions of the product image are created when the product info is added to the catalogue. I wrote the code myself.