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ViArt v.3.3.2
Copyright (c) 2007 ViArt Limited
All Rights Reserved.

Frequently Asked Questions 

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* General Questions 

- What is Online Shopping? 
- What is ViArt Shop? 
- What are ViArt Shop features? 
- How ViArt Shop works? 
- Why ViArt Shop? 
- What server scripting languages does ViArt Shop support? 
- What web-server do I need to install ViArt Shop? 
- What databases does ViArt Shop support? 
- How to get ViArt Shop? 
- How and when updates are released? 
- How to report bugs or problems? 
 
* MySQL specific questions 

- It tells me "ERROR 1049: Unknown database '... 
- How to add a user for my database? 
- How to populate my database with SQL script? 
- How to make a backup of my database? 

* PHP specific questions 

- Database error: Invalid SQL: SELECT full_description ... 
- Warning: Access denied for user ... 
- Warning: Failed opening './includes/db_.php 

* Tuning ViArt Shop 

- How to change ViArt Shop look and feel? 
- How to access ViArt Shop web-administration? 
- How to add my products and categories? 
- Why I don't receive email notifications when my users submit orders? 
- How to place my text to the main page? 
- Is there a way of hiding menu items from header? 
- Is there a way of hiding menu items from footer? 
- Is it possible to remove VAT from shopping basket? 
- Why do Layout settings become active only after restarting browser? 

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* General Questions 

- What is Online Shopping? 
In just a few short years, online shopping has grown to become a multi-billion 
dollar industry. The projections for the future are for it to continue to 
grow substantially. For the uninitiated, online shopping is the ability to 
purchase goods and services from the comfort of your home or office via 
your computer. User simply connects to a company's website, browse offerings, 
selects the items that he wants to purchase by inserting them into your 
"shopping cart", and then proceeding to "check-out", just as you would do 
in a regular store. 

- What is ViArt Shop? 
ViArt Shop is an electronic commerce package available to install in PHP.
It supports MySQL and PostgreSQL databases as well as ODBC connected databases.
The goal of ViArt Shop is to create a system capable of performing all 
of the functions needed to do business online. 

- What are ViArt Shop features? 
ViArt Shop is distributed as three different packages Light, Standard 
and Enterprise. Therefore the list of features is different for each of them. 
See section 1.2 for ViArt Shop features comparison spreadsheet 

- How ViArt Shop works? 
User simply connects to a company's website, browses your offerings, selects 
the items that he wants to purchase by inserting them into your "shopping cart",
and then proceeding to "check-out", just as he would do in a regular store. 
See section 1.3 for ViArt Shop sales diagram. 

- Why ViArt Shop? 
ViArt Shop is has two main advantages: first it includes everything you 
need to build a serious shipping portal, second it's flexible and highly 
customizable. It means that you take ready-to-use solution and simply 'fit' 
it to meet your needs. And it also means that you don't need to do ANY 
programming at all - ViArt Shop allows changing everything via 
powerful web-interface. 

- What server scripting languages does ViArt Shop support? 
Currently only PHP (www.php.net) version of ViArt Shop is available to 
download. Future releases will include ASP and Perl versions. 

- What web-server do I need to install ViArt Shop? 
Actually any web server that allows running PHP scripts would be fine. 
We would recommend using Apache web server (www.apache.org) as most reliable 
one. 

- What databases does ViArt Shop support? 
Currently ViArt Shop has support for MySQL (www.mysql.org), 
PostgreSQL (www.postgresql.org) and ODBC connected databases. Future releases 
will include support for MsSQL and Oracle databases. 

- How to get ViArt Shop? 
ViArt Shop is distributed as three different packages Light, Standard 
and Enterprise. They are available to purchase at www.viart.com 

- How and when updates are released? 
Users who bought ViArt Shop automatically receive email notifications 
about new release. See also "Releases" section of Members Area at 
www.viart.com 

- How to report bugs or problems? 
You could submit bug report or problem via our 24 hours-online Support System 
at www.viart.com/support 

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* MySQL specific questions 

- It tells me "ERROR 1049: Unknown database '... 
Please check your "includes/var_definition.php" file. 
Variable $db_name should contain a valid database name, e.g. 
$db_name = "c2s"; 
Run your mysql client and perform "SHOW DATABASES" command and make sure 
that the database you choosen as ViArt Shop database does exist. 
 
- If the database does not exist then create it with "CREATE DATABASE" command. 
Read more about CREATE DATABASE syntax at www.mysql.org. 

- How to add a user for my database? 
You could add a user using GRANT command. Note that user should have rights 
to select, insert, update, delete. 
A MySQL Grant statement for this user would look like this: 
GRANT 
  select, insert, update, create, alter, delete, drop 
ON 
 database.* 
TO 
 user@localhost 
IDENTIFIED BY 
 'password'; 

- How to populate my database with SQL script? 
ViArt Shop distribution contains "DB" folder that includes SQL scripts 
with database structure: 
 - MySQL_VA_Shop.sql - for MySQL Database Server 
 - PgSQL_VA_Shop.sql - for PostgreSQL 
To populate your MySQL database with MySQL_VA_Shop.sql script run MySQL 
client like the following: 

mysql -u User -p Database < MySQL_VA_Shop.sql 

- How to make a backup of my database? 
You can make a backup for MySQL db using mysqldump program distributed with MySQL. 
E.g.: 

mysqldump --opt -u User -p Database > VA_Shop_Dump.sql 

It should create file VA_Shop_Dump.sql that will contain the dump of database. 
Read more about dumping MySQL database at www.mysql.org. 

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* PHP specific questions 

- Database error: Invalid SQL: SELECT full_description ... 
Please check if you populate your database with sql scriptsprovided by ViArt Shop distrubution. 
Read question above 

- Warning: Access denied for user ... 
Please check your "includes/var_definition.php" file. 
Variable $db_user should contain a valid MySQL user that has rights to select, insert, update, delete. 
Read question above 

- Warning: Failed opening './includes/db_.php 
Please check your "includes/var_definition.php" file. 
Variable $db_type should contain either "mysql" or "pgsql" value. 
E.g.: 
// database parameters 
$db_type = "mysql"; 
$db_name = "c2s"; 


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* Tuning ViArt Shop 

- How to change ViArt Shop look and feel? 
ViArt Shop allows changing the look and feel of the system in the following ways: 
You could change the layout via administration web-interface see section 7.9 
You could modify HTML templates as much as you want see section 6.2 

- How to access ViArt Shop web-administration? 
See section 7 for complete details how to use ViArt Shop web-administration. 

- How to add my products and categories? 
See section 7.8 for complete discussion how to add products and categories. 

- Why I don't receive email notifications when my users submit orders? 
Each step of "Check out" pro cess could send notifications to you if you 
specify your email in Sales Orders settings. 
See section 7.2.1 to read about setting email notifications. 

- How to place my text to the main page? 
You could place any HTML text to the Main or Categories or Product details 
pages by specifying the content for any custom block available from layout 
settings 
See section 7.9 for details how to change the content for custom blocks. 

- Is there a way of hiding menu items from header? 
Yes, header menu is customizable; you could hide/show any menu items you want. 
See section 7.9 for details how to customize header menu. 

- Is there a way of hiding menu items from footer? 
Yes, footer menu is customizable; you could hide/show any menu items you want. 
It's a bit different mechanism for showing footer menu. 
See section 7.10 for details how to customize footer menu. 

- Is it possible to remove VAT from shopping basket? 
For each order could be added a "Tax". The value of "tax" depends on tax 
settings for specific countries.Please check "Static Tables" / "Taxes" section 
of Administration. 
See section 7.4 for details about Static Tables. 

- Why do Layout settings become active only after restarting browser? 
For getting the best performance ViArt Shop store Layout settings in 
session. It means that to see changes at once you have to open both 
Administration and User part in one session. In IE you could open second 
window in the same session by pressing Ctrl+N. 