Use or don't use osC's File Manager to edit files?

[jimchicago]

This tutorial video says, "Do not use the built in File Manager in osCommerce to edit your files," because the file manager uses a command called stripslashes (sounds deadly):

http://www.vodahost.com/DemoDemo/osc/osc_edithomepage.htm

But in this other video it shows how to use the osCommerce File Manager to edit the left- and right-column files (column_left.php and column_right.php):

http://www.vodahost.com/DemoDemo/osc/osc_editleftright.htm

And this video shows how to use osC's File Manager to edit the header and footer of the page:

http://www.vodahost.com/DemoDemo/osc/osc_editheader.htm

So which is it? Should I NOT use the file manager to edit my osCommerce index.php file, but use it for editing the left-column, right-column, header and footer files?

Also, near the end of the third video linked above, it shows how to "comment out" images in the osC template that we don't want to appear on our page.

But once I'm at the File Manager page where I can insert the slashes to comment out images, how do I know where in the code to place the slahses?

[Vasili]

Re: Use or don't use osC's File Manager to edit files?

You can use the EDITOR in your Control Panel of your Hosting Account, after navigating to the correct file within the heirarchy of your osC template files.

When editing PHP, simply use the EDITOR and not the HTML editor or CODE EDITOR ....if you do, you will be rightly confused, so just CLOSE WITHOUT SAVING the page if you accidentally open the wrong one....


I strongly suggest until you are resonably proficient editing/modifying PHP and Template files, when you first open them COPY everything onto a Word document page and immediately SAVE it in a secure Folder, to keep a real true copy of the file as was originally written. If you ever make a mistake, or forget to save or restore a file, you can always "restore" it by simply re-pasting in the original file and starting over.

[jimchicago]

Re: Use or don't use osC's File Manager to edit files?

Thank you Vasili . . . I had not checked in on this one in awhile but good to get your expert reply on these questions.