Thank You for purchasing Quikstore!

This page describes some of the basic information about the differences between the types of stores that can be built using the Quikstore program and also some information about how to create links to display the products. This is just very basic information. You can find much more detailed information about the setup and configuration of the program in the Quikstore Help System that was installed to your PC when you did the local program install.

NOTE: This page is currently set as the store_front_page=quikstore.html in your qs_main.cgi configuration file and should be replaced by your default store front page that you are using on your web site. It's just here to provide you with examples of how to link to the various functions of the program.

NOTE: Quikstore versions 2.11.00 and above use Cascading Style Sheets to define the look of all of the template pages. Click on the link above for more detailed information on this. It's very important to the design of your site...

There are two different types of stores you can setup using QuikStore.

1. An HTML Style of store using standard HTML pages.
   
2. A database driven store that uses a template page to display line items from the database.

Listed below are examples of how to create pages and/or standard HTML links for both types of stores. You can use these examples to access specific information from your web site when using this program. These are just basic examples.

Here is an example of a product page built using the QuikCode Wizard. It includes the quantity input box, a set of options for the product, and the Add To Cart button. It is also a good example of  how to use "Quantity Based Pricing"; a new feature for Quikstore in versions 2.10.07 and above. 

Example Product Page

Opening The Database Search Page:

This is an example of linking directly to the database store search page. The default name of this page is now "search.html" which is set by default store front page ( store_front_page=search.html ) in the qs_main.cgi configuration file. This search.html page is located in your document root (www) directory by default.

NOTE: The name of the home.htm used in past versions is now called search.html and has been moved to the document root. All pages except the templates, have been moved to the document root.

The program will display this page by default anytime the quikstore.cgi is called up without any arguments. So, if you were to enter: http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi in your browsers address bar and hit enter, the program would automatically bring up the database search page by default.

The database search page is used to find specific products from the "products.dat" file which is located in the cgi-bin/database directory by default. You can search the database for products by Categories or Keywords using this type of page.

Here is the link: http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi

Database Search Page

Arguments are how you tell the program what to do. It reads these arguments as name/value pairs. To define an argument to the program it is entered in the address bar of your browser or in an html link like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?NAME=VALUE

Notice how the arguments start using a question mark:   quikstore.cgi?

Then, each argument is entered as the name/value pairs with an equal sign between them like above.

You can also pass multiple arguments to the program like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?NAME1=VALUE1&NAME2=VALUE2

Notice how they get tied together with an ampersand above. This tells the program that there is more than one "Set" of name/value pairs that the program will have to test for in order to return the proper results to the user.

Listed below are examples of typical links using these name/value pairs to retrieve information from the database.

You may also link directly to a specific product from the database. The following is an example of linking directly to product no. 4 from the product.dat file:

The database row looks like this:

4|a_test_category|40.00|Product 4|This is ...

Here is the link: http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?product=4

Link to a Specific Product

The following is an example of linking to a group of products using categories or keywords.

Keywords:

Here is the link: http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?keywords=3

Search for products using Keywords

Categories:

Here is the link: http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?category=robot_test_category

Search for a specific category of products

Link To the View Cart Page:

You can link directly to the view cart page by entering the following arguments:

1. The name of the page you are coming from: page=quikstore.html

2. The Type of store you are using: store_type=html  (required for html stores only)

3. And the function you are trying to do: view_cart=yes

Here is the link:

http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?page=quikstore.html&store_type=html&view_cart=yes

Link to the View Cart Page

• Database Search parameters:

  • search=yes (should always be used with any of the values below)

  • page=mypage.html 

    • (should always be used with any of the values below. 
      This is the return page when the user click the Back to Product page button.)

  • category=t-shirts (display a specific category of products)

  • keywords=anything (search for products with keywords)

  • case_sensitive=on (case sensitive search)

  • exact_match=on (keywords must have an exact match)

  • Example: quikstore.cgi?search=yes&page=mypage.html&category=t-shirts

• Cart Parameters:

  • view_cart=yes&page=mypage.html (show the cart page)

• Misc Linking Parameters:

  • checkout=yes (go to checkout)

  • store=abc (when using more than one store)

  • store_type=html (for html store types. Default is database.)

These are the basic arguments that can be used in conjunction with each other as described above. Others are listed in the Help System.