This topic is a work in progress - I've just started at the beginning of March '11 and will continue to add content to this post.

++ Last updated 3 March 11

The intention of this topic is to provide some information & screencasts on the use of nopCommerce. It will cover several elements from the setup of the store software through to basic code development.

The information in this topic relates to v1.9. While some of the features may only be available in v1.9, many of the principles also relate to earlier versions.

You can find the official nopCommerce documentation here:
http://www.nopcommerce.com/p/168/nopcommerce-version-190-user-guide.aspx
(If you are a developer and are interested in UNBRANDED DOCUMENTATION to pass on to clients, please pm for further information.)

nopCommerce is FREE to download, develop and use but I urge you to consider becoming a community sponsor to help sustain the development of the project. See here for more information:
http://www.nopcommerce.com/p/41/the-nopcommerce-community-sponsorship-program.aspx

Please take a little time to participate in the community - helping others on this forum is a great form of support for this excellent project, and need not take much of your time.

You can also help guide the future development of the project by providing input through Codeplex :
http://nopcommerce.codeplex.com/workitem/list/basic

------

You don't need to be a developer to install nopCommerce, it is very simple to get up and running.

It is possible to install nopCommerce directly via the web platfrom installer found in the control panel of many hosting companies, but in my opinion,  it is as easy and more beneficial to download it from this site and deploy it to your hosting company yourself  - importantly, it is NOT  a complicated process to do so and there is a great deal of help to be found here on the forum.  I believe one of the main benefits of this approach for the newcomer is in discovering the ease of making minor modifications such as replacing the default logo with your company logo. The simplicity of performing such a task and the availablity of the code will boost your confidence in developing your store further and making it more unique.

The nopCommerce sourcecode can be downloaded from here:
http://www.nopcommerce.com/downloads.aspx

Watch this video to see how you can deploy a site to the internet in less than ten minutes:
video : installing nopcommerce


The following video shows how to install nopCommerce directly onto your hosted server using the websitepanel control panel - many other control panels exist, and different ones will be used by different hosting companies. We can't make different screencasts for them all, but I believe the principles will be similar.
video : setting up nopcommerce using websitepanel and WPI

Recommended hosting company  which uses websitepanel as seen in the above video.

------

Some of my own recommendations if you are downloading and developing on your own computer prior to deploying on the internet :

filezilla - FTP tool for uploading your files to your hosting provider ( FREE ):
http://filezilla-project.org/

peazip - useful utility for unzipping the downloaded nopCommerce package ( FREE ):
http://peazip.sourceforge.net/

If you are editing the style of your store ( the .css files ) I also recommend you download the firefox browser and instal the firebug plugin - firebug is an invaluable tool for identifying the css elements which control the style of your store. Firefox and firebug can be downloaded ( FREE ) from:
http://www.mozilla.com


If you plan to develop nopCommerce you will need to download either

-Visual Studio 2010 ( necessary for advanced development if you intend to edit the full source version of nopCommerce, making changes to the c# code - it's available for FREE under certain circumstances through the webspark program )  or

-Visual Studio 2010 Express ( useful and available for FREE - though you are limited in that you are only able to edit the NoSource version of nopCommerce and cannot effect changes in the c# )

You should also install sql server express and server management studio ( FREE ).

Both versions of Visual Studio also allow you to access the database, view and edit data tables and stored procedures,  copy/backup the database, run sql scripts/queries etc

Find and instal them for FREE using the web platform installer at the microsoft website :
http://www.microsoft.com/express/Web/


nopCommerce is built on the ASP.NET platform and much information on this can be found at
http://www.asp.net/web-forms/fundamentals

Hosting :
You need to find a hosting company who supports the necessary requirements for nopCommerce e.g. softsys hosting

------------------

Screencasts

As I said at the start of this topic, it's a work in progress so the screencasts will be added to over time

hint : Holding the shift key when you click the links below will open the video in a separate browser window


Running the store on your local computer :

Once you've downloaded the nopCommerce code ( either full source or no source,  you should open it using )
using Visual Studio Express or Visual Studio ( full version )

video : getting started with Visual Studio/VWDE  pt1
video : getting started with Visual Studio/VWDE pt2



Setting up the Store

video : creating and editing a category
video : creating a product
video : editing a product
video : adding attributes
video : editing a resource string

     video : adding a topic via admin ( older )
     video : adding attributes (older)
     video : nopCommerce language pack extension installation ( older )



Developing the store
     video : UPGRADING from earlier versions of nopCommerce
          related posts : click here

     video : adding a new topic page (using Visual Studio) (older)



========================

If you are stuck with an issue, you may find your questions have been already answered on the forum - try using the forum search function - it may help you get to the bottom of your issue without having to wait for a reply to a new post.

search all nopcommerce videos on youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nopcommerce&aq=f


Please post or PM requests for other screencasts and I'll do my best to acomodate them.

++++++++++++++++++++++

I would recommend creating screencasts for each part of the official documentation. That way all basic parts are covered. I think after that, it would be useful to delve into more complex things.

If you break each section of the documentation into it's own screencast, then when a new feature is added to that part of the documentation you only have to update the one screencast.

Sure, i agree, it would be great to have screencasts for everything eventually ( even for theme creation as per the other topic )

But the question is where to start, there's a lot of ground to cover - I'd like to get an idea of 'most required' just to get me off to a start so I don't spend time making ones nobody need/wants.

I think the first questions people have about nopCommerce is about new installs, permissions and configuration strings.  Let me know if you need a hand in this project.  I have some experience with screencast.

Chad

Hey Hayden,

Great Idea - In-fact I am working on a similar thing. I will post something here as soon as I am done.

How do I receive the documentation? I paid the 19.99 license fee, but where and when do I get a link or other method of downloading the document?

I've tried sending email, but have received no response for over 5 days!

Thanks,

lkristof@sbcglobal.net wrote:
Please login to your account (http://www.nopcommerce.com/Account.aspx), then go to your "My downloadable products" tab. You'll see "Download" link beside "nopCommerce User Guide" product. Click it to download the User Guide.
P.S. Your email (lkristof [at] sbcglobal.net) could not be reached for some reason (I've just found 'Message Delivery Failure')

Great Tool by the way !

What would be nice is a step-by-step for configuring a site for a few products (let's say 6, we have 4).

First things first.

1- Have scenarios for a few countries :
        A) Canada (bilingual, multiple currencies, my case)
        B) USA (unilingual and one currency, where my server is hosted)
        C) EURO (multilingual and multiple currencies) ...
       - Multiple Currencies needs to have some default currency ...
       - Multiple Languages needs better integration (read more full startup templates for many languages, translation is long ... and if you have to handle many ... even at 2 it is long ...) but hey, that is my problem (I thought it was the EU's problem too ... US is unilingual lol)

those are the three scenarios that I foresee as needed for countries scenarios.

2- Taxes taxes and taxes ... it can get ugly ...

        A) in Canada, its quite simple, charge either the HST or only the GST for any province not yours, and full PST and GST for your province, the rest is 0.

        B) For the states ... any level of government can add its own taxe ... multilevel taxes can be complicated and should be explained (by someone who knows them lol).

        C) I do not know how it works in the EU but I see some flags in the configuration relating to that so ... it must be already integrated into the nopCommerce framework :)

3- Aren't we supposed to be metric all the way ... it must be because our server is on the US soil ...

4- Shipping methods ... I set CDN-USA and International to ease my pains. It translates to Local and International. Is it enough for most of us ? We need to differentiate between local and international (or I misunderstood how it works)

5- Then let's have 4 to 6 products. You have to go through some talk about the categories with a few products. Probably not any manufacturer defined. And show why there is a need for the attributes ... and how to use them with so few products (would they be needed anyway ?)

This would allow many small  business (like us) to have confidence that they did not forget anything for their small shop and install it / configure it themselves.

Get something for the 5 points described above and adoption rate will bloom !

Mike learning how to setup a small shop :)

Folks,

I believe nopCommerce has the potential of becoming THE ECOMMERCE SOLUTION for ASP.NET based applications. I've been using it for a couple of years now and have mostly compliments to give. One HUGE covet I have to report is the LACK OF DEVELOPMENT DOCUMENTATION.

I've developed a couple of add-ons (extensions) and it's been a very painful experience. With a complex system as this, finding the right references and using existing features is not intuitive enough as to dismiss the need for documentation.

Please consider creating a complete development documentation so it's possible for developers to catch up quickly and learn how to take full control of all the amazing features in NopCommerce.

Cheers!

ccasalicchio wrote:


ccasalicchio, I've started putting together documentation on developing in the 2.x system. While I admit I had trouble figuring out how localization works with enumerations, the code does do a pretty good job of explaining itself to developers. For those without experience writing enterprise code I'll be publishing articles on different nopCommerce features as often as I can.

http://blog.csharpwebdeveloper.com/