osCommerce 2.2 and Authorize.net setup

Today I worked on setting up Authorize.net and osCommerce on one of the cell phone websites I have been working on.  I ran into many problems with the default Authorize.net module.  My final conclusion was that I was going to have to look for a better contribution. 

During my initial tests using the default Authorize.net module, I was able to submit transactions to the authorize.net account which were processed in test mode, however the user was returned to the home page of our site, asking them to log in again or create an account.  When we logged in again, thier shopping cart still had the product in there, and on the osCommerce side it looked like the actual order never took place. 

I searched high and low for answers.  Suprisingly there weren’t many on the web. I am currently testing this contribution ( Authorize Net AIM module (GPL) )

osCommerce Using Search Engine Safe / Friendly URL’s

I am currently working with oscommerce 2.2 and have search engine safe url’s set to false.  But also have ”force cookie use” to true, and feel comfortable that all of our unlocked phone product pages are being indexed by the main 3 search engines.  I have only checked google, yahoo, and msn thus far.  

There is one issue I have found so far, setting up cookies / sessions in this way does not allow you to use the default authorize.net module.  Something to do with session information not being passed.  Not that big of deal I guess, since the default module doesn’t have form field for the CVV code for credit cards transactions, which is a necessity these days.   I am currently testing this contribution ( Authorize Net AIM module (GPL) )
and getting better results.  At least now I’m getting orders processed on both sites, ours, and authorize.net’s and customers getting returned to the appropriate page…More to test though….

Be sure to fix up your meta tags for the search engines too!

Working with osCommerce milestone 2.2 day 2

Well I continued to work at making my meta tags more search engine friendly.  I found that cDynamic Meta Tags V1.5 is most beneficial for the product_info.php, and index.php pages.  Most other pages I believe would be best for your SEO’s if you manually went in and put the correct meta=title, desc, and  keywords.  Placing the cDynamic Meta tag code in all other php files that I tested only created generic meta tags which would be generically used site wide.    

Today I was able to finish up my links pages as well.  I did reinstall the files necessary to use Links Manager V1.14 and found that I was able to do most of what I needed.  By removing the click count, my reciprocal links now pointed to partner websites rather than a redirect page on my site.  I had some trouble, but with minor changes i was able to do almost everything I needed.   This tool is still not able to detect reciprocal links on partner websites.  I disabled this feature.  I wanted to manually review them anyway.  I still think this contribution is valuable.  Once you do approve of a link, all you have to do is click approve or disapprove in the admin panel rather than editing the code manually. 

Working with osCommerce milestone 2.2

Over the last few days I’ve spent some time with osCommerce 2.2.  I’ve been working on establishing a links directory, and dynamic meta tags rather than the default fixed meta tags.    I’ve found contributions for both of these as listed below.  I believe these additions are necessary for search engine optimizations.

For my meta tags I’ve decided to use: cDynamic Meta Tags v1.5 http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2895/ which seems to work okay with osCommerce milestone 2.2. It’s not perfect, but is easy to install and requires minor manual configuration changes.  Good if you don’t have all the time in the world to focus on optimizing each page of your catalog like most of us.  At this point I think it will do most of what is required to get the SEO benefits. 

For my links manager I installed: Links Manager V1.14  http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1256 which took a lot of manual file editing.  Unfortunately due to poor documentation, I’ve completely uninstalled this contribution thinking it wouldn’t do what I need, but later found out that it should.  However the first time around It couldn’t detect my test reciprocal links(which might have something to do with what is allowed by my web-host), but I’m not sure.  I would rather manually approve the links anyway to make sure I am linking to resources worthwhile to my customers.   I plan on giving it another go later this weekend.  It also appears not to link directly to partner websites, but yet redirects them using a redirect.php file.  I am not sure if google would frown upon this or not???

Also in osCommerce 2.2 the category page headings remain the same throught the site.  There doen’t appear to be a quick fix with the default installation.  Nothing in the admin control panel.  Hopefully there is as contribution or quick fix to make these pages more dynamic as well??   That’s the next major fix on my list, so I guess we’ll see.