As featured on Slashdot:
"... David Mercer's book is the book you have been looking for and is available in either a beginner's or professional edition. It is written in a straightforward, easy to understand manner, yet does not compromise on technical knowledge and provides all the essentials of getting your website up and running with OsCommerce"

Building Online Stores with osCommerce: Professional Edition will teach you how to use, build and maintain a complex, powerful e-commerce website using osCommerce.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 14 Ratings

Good Beginner's manual - 2009-05-08
Reviewer Rating:
I didn't purchase the Beginner's manual, but I think this Professional Edition could be called a Beginner's guide. It worked pretty well to get me started as I'm not a programmer and had never really used osCommerce. Due to the title, I was expecting to get a little more information on the coding aspect.

POSITIVES - for beginners, it gives you a good overall idea of site structure and is written in language that anybody can understand. It suggests several add-ons to incorporate and shows you how to install them as well as provides hints on some of the customization.

NEGATIVES - I was hoping for something with a little more depth on the programming level.

Overall, I think this is a great book for a beginner who has never worked with osCommerce and has little experience with php & mysql. However, if you want something that will guide you in creating your own custom modules, I think you should look elsewhere.

Solid but now 2 years old... - 2007-08-25
Reviewer Rating:
Just finished reading this. Had I read this book two years ago, I suspect it would have been a 4 or 5. Even two years later the book is pretty solid. Who is this book not for? People who already know their way around osCommerce a little bit. You won't learn much new. Therefore, it is for newbies (such as myself) - right? The answer is kind of. Chapter 2 on the development environment may leave you a bit frustrated. If you are completely new to programming on the web and some its technologies, find another book that has a more current description of how to set up your development environment. If you don't mind struggling a bit or have ever developed code on your computer, you will be fine. Assuming you get through Chapter 2, the book is pretty good at providing just enough information to wet your palette. Certainly walks you through examples as well as leaves some for yourself...good way to learn.

Not for Professionals - 2008-11-21
Reviewer Rating:
I was very disappointed with this title. First and foremost, it, like the osCommerce project itself, is sorely outdated. While Magento is the sexy new blonde on the block with tons of quirks and baggage, osCommerce is the tried and true all-American girl. But with that, you get predictable, bland, and not a whole lot of control. I thought that this book being geared toward "Professionals" would teach you how to make osCommerce your own. Instead, it doesn't tell you hardly anything about how to actually customize the app, and spends tons of time telling you how to add products and set variables, the kind of stuff that is self-explanatory and easily found in the FREE online user guide and forums. So why hasn't anyone written a book on how to make osCommerce not look like your fat cousin. It literally looks like a website from 1994, and it takes tens of hours of work just to change whether or not there's a right hand column. I was hoping for someone to have better ideas on how to make osCommerce actually look like a professional app and not just a canned eCommerce solution. But this book in no way does that. Is it any coincidence that the Customization chapter is the shortest one in the book? I doubt it. As soon as Magento gets the kinks worked out, osCommerce is headed the way of the dodo, and just one author could write a valuable manual and change that.

A waste of time and money! - 2008-01-04
Reviewer Rating:
As someone who is not familiar with php, or any other programming I wanted a book something like one in Adobe's 'Classroom in a Book' series. That is, a book that step-by-step takes you through the process of setting up and using a program.

David Mercer's book does the opposite. He uses a lot of words and anecdotes that are of little/no relevance and make it hard to find the information you need (if it is there at all).

I bought this book because I needed to learn quickly how to set up osCommerce sites. Had expected that it would show me the process in a fairly clear and straight-forward manner, but found the explanations so confusing and lacking that I could have saved the money.
Ended up going to Zen Cart instead.
Which seems a lot easier to use, and has much better instructions.

Live and learn!

because of this book I have an online store - 2007-09-18
Reviewer Rating:
I purchased this book to help me get my online store going for the artwork i create. In a few short weeks after reading the book and using it as a guide for my site i know have a fully functional online store that can be found through search engines. Check it out if you are curious. www.paintedphotography.com

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