Open source programming is nothing short of a revolution in the computing world. Along with the increasingly widespread use of the Linux operating system during the late 1990s came the realization that by allowing programmers to read, modify, and redistribute code, progress in the adaptability, functionality, and improvement of software takes place at a rate far superior to that seen in the development of code closed to public manipulation. While open source programming was, by tradition, fairly commonplace in the realm of the World Wide Web, we are now witnessing its spread to the commercial sector as technological giants like IBM, Apple, Novell, and Sharp are jumping on the open source bandwagon.
            Open source has been well defined by principle proponents of the open source movement, such as the Open Source Initiative. In order to qualify as open source, software must be distributed freely and without impediment, and this distribution must be available in source code as well as in a compiled form. Any derived works must also be freely and openly distributed, and discrimination against persons, professions, specific products, and other software is not permitted.
            osCommerce is a package built along these lines. Operating under an open source General Public License, osCommerce stands tall as the leading solution for online storefront creation and maintenance. With no cost to them, osCommerce provides storeowners with exceptional functionality, from download to installation to implementation. Only five years after its introduction, osCommerce boasts over 85,000 community members, from users to developers—in line with the open source philosophy, this widespread use has since created a large osCommerce community, whose contributions to the further development of the software have resulted in over 3,000 “contributions,” or adaptations and additional functional modules, to the software.
           These contributions have aided osCommerce in becoming more powerful, more adaptive, and more capable of meeting the demands of online storefronts. The software can run without any special requirements on just about any platform and is fully customizable in terms of localization, appearance, and functionality; in fact, it is the surprisingly simple customization capabilities of osCommerce that make this package so incredibly attractive to so many international users.
           Now in version 2.2, the software is mature and ripe for the picking, so whether you are upgrading from an older version or are looking around for the right online commerce software to fit your needs, we are thrilled that you have decided to give osCommerce your consideration.
           This book focuses on osCommerce’s hallmark of customizability and, with detailed explanations, code samples, and informative, step-by-step graphics, will serve as an invaluable guide to your osCommerce experience, from installation to user-side customization. We hope that by reading this book, you will be convinced to join the over 7,700 live stores that currently take advantage of the endless opportunities that osCommerce has to offer.