VP-ASP Shopping cart is one of the most comprehensive e-commerce solutions available anywhere and for any price.  VP-ASP has hundreds of facilities that you can turn on as you them using our extensive browser base shop configuration.

See  www.vpasp.com/virtprog/vpasptechnical.htm for a summary of the hundreds of Shopping cart facilities you can use.

Installation should only take 5 minutes.

When you receive VP-ASP it will be in the form of a zip file. You will need a utility such as WinZip to uncompress the one file into 200+ files.

All are files stored in a single folder. The steps to install are:

1. Unzip files to a folder of your choice on your PC or web host. 

2. Tell Windows where you just installed the files if running on your own PC.  

3. Optionally update file shop$config.asp to tell VP-ASP the location and type of database you plan to use.

Install is complete


Documentation

The Detailed Design Guides are packed with information.  The design guides can be downloaded from the web.

Windows PC Install - Access Database

ASP (Active Server Pages) is Microsoft's programming language for the Internet. VP-ASP is a combination of ASP files and plain HTML files. To use ASP you need a web browser and the correct set of Windows software. 

Since you are reading this document, you already have a web browser.  But do you have the correct Windows Software.

First determine what Windows operating system you have and then determine if you have the appropriate Microsoft prerequisites.  

Steps to install VP-ASP on your local PC

1. Unzip the files to a folder on your hard drive
2. Tell IIS or PWS that this is a virtual directory. See Windows 95/98/NT PWS or Windows XP Set-up for the proper way to do this if you have never done it before

VP-ASP is installed

 VP-ASP must be used from a web browser. Do not use your Windows Explorer
 The next step is to run VP-ASP

1. Start your browser
2. Type http://127.0.0.1/shopping or http://localhost/shopping
3. You should now see the default VP-ASP home page 
4. Click on the shop button and you should see the demo shop  categories.

What can go wrong?

The most common problems are these:

1. Instead of seeing the shop categories, a program tries to load.
This is caused by an incorrect setting of your virtual directory. Please see
http://www.vpasp.com/virtprog/info/faq_helpme.htm

2. On Windows NT/XP an error occurs trying to write to the supplied VP-ASP Access database. 

This is because the correct permissions have not been set that allow people from a browser to update the database. Use our diagnostic tool diag_dbtest.asp to test the database and then see our help file at  http://www.vpasp.com/virtprog/info/faq_databasesetup.htm

3. The Database cannot be opened, You get errors such as
ADODB.Recordset error '800a0e7d' The application requested an operation on an object  with a reference to a closed or invalid Connection object. 

This means that VP-ASP cannot open the database.  First run the diagnostic tool diag_dbtest.asp  Then check our FAQ at http://www.vpasp.com/virtprog/info/faq_setup.htm

Windows Install on Web Host - Access database

If running on your web host, make sure they have the necessary pre-requisites. See www.vpasp.com/virtprog/info/faq_hosting.htm

1. Create a  folder on your web host. Copy the files from your PC to your web hosting company using your normal FTP tools. such as CuteFTP or WSFTP. 
   
2. Copy the supplied Access database, shopping500.mdb, to a special directory your web host supplies. It cannot be in the same folder as the rest of VP-ASP.  Most web hosting companies supply a special database directory since normal directories on a web host are read only.
   
3. You must edit shop$config.asp to tell VP-ASP where the database is located. See www.vpasp.com/virtprog/info/faq_databasesetup.htm
   
4. To use VP-ASP and see  demo shop, use your browser and type www.yoursite.com/shopping. The shopping is the folder you copied the VP-ASP files into on your web host.
   
5. Now run our supplied diagnostic tool, diag_dbtest.asp. Make sure the database can be read and written.

SQL Server is a complex Microsoft software product.  From the VP-ASP point of view it is very simple to use.  The steps in using SQL Server are:

1. Create the SQL Server database. This can be done using SQL Server's Query analyzer or it may have been created for you by your web hosting company

2. Add the VP-ASP Tables

3. Load the configuration table with default values

4. Optionally add the demo shop values

Creating the SQL Server – Query Analyzer 
The database needs to be created using SQL Server Query Analyzer or your web hosting company sometimes creates the database for you. Query Analyzer comes as part of the Microsoft SQL Server Product and is not supplied by VP-ASP.

 YOU CANNOT USE THE UPSIZING WIZARD TO BUILD VP-ASP TABLES


1 Query Analyzer Creation
Simply start Query Analyzer. Open the file create500sqlserver.sql and run the script. It should take about ten seconds.  The database and the tables are now created. Continue in the step to load default Configuration

Updating Shop$config.asp
The shop$config.asp settings should be as follows: 

Xdatabase=yourdatabasename
xdatabasetype="SQLSERVER”
xSqlUser=”youruserid”
xSQlpwd=”yourpassword”
xSQLServer=”www.yoursite.com” or IP Address in form “124.77.090.90”

OR

Web Hosting company has created the database
If your web hosting company has already created the database and you DO NOT have the ability to use Query Analyzer, then VP-ASP supplies a tool called convertsql.asp. This tool can be used to REPLACE query analyzer for doing some tasks. It cannot create the database.

It can build the tables and load the default configuration. It can also load the demo shop if required.

To use convertsql.asp, you must first tell VP-ASP where the empty SQL Server database is located by changing these lines in shop$config.asp

Xdatabase=”yourdatabasename”
xdatabasetype="SQLSERVER”
xSqlUser=”youruserid”
xSQlpwd=”yourpassword”
xSQLServer=”www.yoursite.com” or IP Address in form “111.22.333.90”

Regardless of which method you have built the tables (QUERY analyzer or using convertsql), you must now load the tables with the VP-ASP base configuration values

Building SQL Server Tables

Type in the filename
Create500sqlserver.txt

You will see messages being displayed telling you the tables that are being created. If you get an error that the database cannot be read or written, check the shop$config statements above. 

Loading the Configuration File
The next step is to load the default configuration options.  Now start convertsql.asp by typing the location where you installed VP-ASP  www.yoursite.com/shopping/convertsql.asp

Type in file name below. This loads the initial configuration and language file

Create500admin.txt

Loading Demo Shop
This step is only necessary if you want to “play” with VP-ASP demo shop. Otherwise it is not necessary. Use convertsql.asp and type in the filename create500demo.txt. This loads the database with the demo shop.

Administration

Shop administration is for the merchant or web developer and not for the customer. The administration facilities include: Details of Administration are in the VP-ASP Merchan'ts Guide and VP-ASP Developers Guide.

Two userids are defined:

admin with password admin 
vpasp with password vpasp

· Add, delete and modify products
· Add, delete and modify any other VP-ASP table
· Define administrator userids
· Define menus and tasks for each administrator
· Restrict administrators to viewing or updating specific tables
· Display sales reports
· Perform searches of the database
· Export data from tables
· Mail to selected customers
· Configure most of VP-ASP options
· Send messages to customers via order tracking
and much more

The first step is to verify the shop works by clicking on the shop. This should bring up the demo categories if the demo store is installed.  If you simply want to play with the demo store, it will run immediately and no further configuration is required.

To log into VP-ASP Administration, click on the Merchant Administration hyperlink. After you login go to Shop Configuration. Administration is used to:

• Change the store name and address, e-mail address and more
• Configure options for taxes, shipping, discounts, product layout, and many other options
• Which categories and products you have
• To run sales reports
• To update any table
• Turn on or off the hundreds of VP-ASP features using the Shop Configuration
  

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Customizing VP-ASP

VP-ASP "look and feel" are controlled by these files. The VP-ASP Developer's Guide goes into great detail on how to make VP-ASP look any way you want.

shoppage_header.htm will be displayed as your top and or top/left navigation bars and logo.
shoppage_trailer.htm will be displayed as your bottom navigation bars.
shop$colors.asp has much of the HTML generated by VP-ASP
shop.css is the style sheet used 

Shop Configuration
The shop configuration is browser based. This means that you can login to VP-ASP Merchant Administration, Select Shop Configuration and start changing the options you require.  See www.vpasp.com/virtprog/info/faq_configuration.

Diagnostic Tools

The diagnostic facility, diag_dbtest.asp, can be used to determine if your database and mailing system are working. The fields displayed come from the configuration file shop$config.asp. You can play with different values. If you move the database, we recommend you run this diagnostic tool to verify the database can be read and written to.

If diag_dbtest works, you should receive a message such as:

Read Failures

The possible causes are:

1. xdblocation="abc" is not correctly set and VP-ASP is looking in the wrong location.

2. The directory where the database is located does not have read/write permission

3. You are using ODBC connection and the name in the configuration file 
   xdatabase="odbcname" is spelled incorrectly.

Write Failures
Always occur with read failures. If the database can be read but not written then possible causes are:

1. The directory where the database is located does not have write permission.

2. See the reasons outlined in the section before this.
   Check the FAQ at www.vpasp.com/virtprog/info/faq_databasesetup.htm