While you do not need to know any programming languages like Perl, PHP or ASP, there are some general web design skills you should be familiar with to use this program.

The new Program Menu used in Quikstore version 2.12 greatly simplifies the installation and setup of the default Quikstore program. However, if you want to customize your web site, you may need to learn a few new things.

While intermediate and advanced users will find QuikStore easy to work with and very powerful, novice users may have to spend some time learning about how the system works and interacts with the web server. 

If you do not have, or are not willing to learn, the skills listed on this page, and you want to do a lot of customizing to the web site, we recommend that you look for a less robust system or contact an experienced Web Designer to help you setup the QuikStore system.

The person or persons installing, setting up and maintaining the QuikStore software and HTML pages for your web site should have or be willing to acquire the following skills and experience.

You should be able to:

• run basic Windows 95/98/2000/XP programs, like Windows Explorer
• understand the different types of HTML tags are and how they are used
• do basic/intermediate HTML page editing
• create HTML Forms
• create hyperlinks using URL addresses
• find directories/files on your PC and on the server
• set file permissions on a UNIX web server (not required but good to know)
• use an FTP program to upload files. (not required but good to know)

These individual items are explained in more detail below:

Using Windows 95/98/2000/XP Programs

You should be familiar with using Windows and its' associated programs. We do not provide support for Windows issues that are not related to the QuikStore add-on programs. Of course, if you have an issue with one of our Windows programs, such as the Catalog Wizard or QuikCode Wizard, we will support those.

HTML Programming

QuikStore owners should be familiar with HTML coding. Understanding the basic tags, how to create links, and work with forms is common practice with a shopping cart system. This is how your pages "talk" to the shopping cart program to tell it what is being added by the user.

Note: In some cases, you may have to edit the HTML source code directly.

HTML Forms

If you plan on creating new product pages for an HTML type store, you will need to create html forms with quantity input boxes, options, and Add To Cart buttons to allow the shopper to add items to their cart. The QuikCode Wizard helps to automate this process.

The typical HTML form code for adding a product to the cart would look like this:

<P><B>Widget</B> $5.95</p>

<form action="/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="store_type" value="html">
<input type="hidden" name="page" value="skills.htm">
<input type="text" size="3" name="item-101|5.95|Widget|small|2">
<p>Qty:<input type="submit" name="add_to_cart" value="Buy!"></p>
</form> 

Hyperlinks and URL Addressing

You should be able to create internet URL "links" to specific items or pages in the shopping cart system.

Should you decide to link to specific categories, products or pages, you will need to understand how to create these hyperlinks.

An example of this would be:

http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?category=test&search=yes

This link would open the QuikStore database and display the products in the "test" category. This is a typical example of a hyperlink used to call up pages, categories, and products from a database driven store built using Catalog Builder.

Directory/file structures

You should also understand how files are stored in directories and how to find a directory or file on your PC or on the server if need be. Understanding "where" things go will be very helpful in understanding how to move them if need be.

Setting Directory/File Permissions on UNIX Servers

The Quikstore Installation Wizard is designed to do the installation of the files to the server for you. When this program runs it will attempt to initially set all directory and file permissions for you automatically. If, after the installation (Step One) is complete, the demo store runs, then the permission settings were completed successfully and there is no need to worry about this.

Note: This auto-permission setting does not apply to NT/2000 Web Servers or UNIX servers which do not allow an FTP program to send the CHMOD command to set permissions. In this case you may have to have your ISP do it for you. It's a simple process for them.

Note: It is very rare that the Installation Wizard cannot automatically set the permissions on a UNIX server.

A complete list of the directory/file permissions are available here.

Using an FTP program to upload files

While the Installation Wizard publishes the files for you during the setup and publish processes, it would be good for you know how to use an FTP program, such as WS_FTP or Cute FTP, to upload additional files to the server if needed.

CAUTION: Uploading The QuikStore cgi or pl files through FrontPage is not recommended! FrontPage sends the files to the server in the Binary Mode. This is bad for cgi-scripts and its associated files. All files that go under the cgi-bin directory should be uploaded in ASCII mode using your ftp program. This is the main issue associated with trying to integrate the QuikStore files directly into a FrontPage web. The QuikStore program will not run if the files are uploaded in Binary Mode.

More information about using FrontPage with QuikStore