osCommerce is set up a little differently to a “normal” website. Put simply, this is because the “base pages” are the structure and “language pages” are pulled into the structure automatically.
- index.php
- product_info.php
- and all the rest of the pages
are your “structure pages” – these should only be amended if you are adding contributions or changing the actual design of your site.
Your “language pages” reside 3 levels “down”;
- /includes/languages/english/index.php
- /includes/languages/english/product_info.php
- /includes/languages/english/conditions.php
- and so on…
Can you see the relationship between the “structure page” and the “language page” ?
- conditions.php => /includes/languages/english/conditions.php
- and so on…
In other words, the TEXT for “your “Terms and Conditions Page” (conditions.php) is all contained in the following file: /includes/languages/english/conditions.php
The same for “contact_us.php”, “index.php” and so on.
However, there are a few exceptions!
You need to be aware of the fact that some TEXT is contained in MULTIPLE files (eg, the text in the footer of each page). Using the above file by file method, this would mean that we would have to repeat the same information many times (for it to show on each individual page). So we have one more OVERALL language page called “english.php”. It is located at /includes/languages/english.php
SO…whenever you are looking for text to change, the first place that you should look is in the individual language page and then in the overall “english.php” page.
If you can remember that MOST text is either contained in the INDIVIDUAL language file (always inside /includes/languages/english/*.php) OR in the OVERALL language file (always /includes/languages/english.php) you won’t go far wrong.
NOTE: If you don’t use “english”, then look in the folder that you do use, eg: /includes/languages/german/*.php … and the OVERALL german file at /includes/languages/german.php
That wasn’t so difficult, eh ?