Add a new category

In Occasional Tasks -> Categories -> Add Category you will find this form to enter the information for the category.

Edit Categories

By clicking Occasional Tasks -> Categories -> View/Edit Category you can see the current categories that you have.  Click 'Edit' to make changes to them.

Adding Categories

VP-ASP has two main tables related to products: categories and products.

VP-ASP requires a minimum of one category, but an unlimited maximum. You can have as many categories as you wish.

VP-ASP by default has the configuration option xmaxcategories set to 300. If you get errors because you have exceded the limit when adding categories simply increase this number.

Categories can have subcategories, and there is no limit on the depth of subcategories (sub categories can have more subcategories).

To add a category enter the Occasional Tasks in the administration and select 'Add Category'

Shared SSL

A "secure server" or "shared SSL" is an invention of your web hosting company. It is a way to use an SSL certificate without actually buying one. Every web hosting company that supplies a "Secure Server" facility does it differently. VP-ASP only supports this shared SSL to take create cards using our special sslshopcheckout.asp. This is true whether the "shared ssl" is just a separate folder on the same server or on another server.

VP-ASP and Shared SSL
With a Shared SSL certificate you cannot:

• Use some of our supplied gateways
• Use the VP-ASP Admin system in SSL Mode
• Use any other VP-ASP files in SSL Mode

Using SSLShopcheckout

To allow the SSL to be on a different server (or a different folder on the same server), we have created an interface called sslshopcheckout.asp. This code is allows you to take credit cards using a server with SSL using "shared SSL". Many web hosting companies provide such a free service.

This interface does require a number of VP-ASP files to be placed in your secure server. The database does not need to be copied.

This feature is useful but it has some restrictions. The SSL server must be capable of running ASP pages. See the Developer's Guide for details on files to be copied to the "Secure Server".
The sslshopcheckout.asp takes the credit card securely and then passes it back to the normal VP-ASP domain (encrypted), where it is stored for manual credit card processing.

Gateways and Shared SSL

There are essentially three types of electronic gateways.

1. Type one does not take credit card details on your site. The credit card is taken on the gateway site. In this case, you do not need SSL or shared SSL at all.
2. Type two is a COM based gateway, where credit cards are taken on your site. In this case you need your own SSL certificate or you can use shared SSL with our shared SSL enhancement.
3. Type three is a forms based gateway where the gateway requires that you pass the credit card to them from your site. In this case you do need your own SSL certificate.

Set-up of Shared SSL - VP-ASP 6.0
To use shared SSL, you must do the following simple steps.

1. Copy the following Files to the secure server or secure folder.
sslshopcheckout.asp
sslshophash.asp
sslshopsess.asp
shop$language_english.asp
shop$colors.asp
shop$config.asp
shop.css

2. Edit sslshopcheckout.asp
Change these two lines

const MYSITE="http://www.YourSite.com/shopping"
const xEncryptkey="agabAhjBcG"

The first line points back to where VP-ASP is installed on your main site.
The second is the encryption key. It must match the xencryptkey in your VP-ASP configuration.

3. In VP-ASP Shop Configuration set the follow
xssl="https://...........
xcheckout=sslshopcheckout.asp

xssl points to the URl where your web host has setup shared SSL environment
xcheckout tells VP-ASP to run file sslshopcheckout.asp to obtain credit card details

Technical details of "Shared SSL"

VP-ASP relies on what is known as Application Variables, to hold the Shop Configuration and Session variables to hold the current items in the cart. These are both domain dependent.
When you use a shared SSL environment you almost always chang the domain name. For example your web site may be http://www.mysite.com but the shared ssl may be something like https://secure.abc.com.mysite. The domain name changes when you go from your site to the shared SSL site.

Because of this domain name change, all application variables are lost. All session variables are lost and in many cases the ability to read and write the database is lost. This is the reason we only support one facility under shared SSL and why you cannot use the VP-ASP Admin system in SSL Mode.

Because the "shared SSL" is in a different folder than the rest of VP-ASP, it does not have access to many of your images, header and trailer files. So sslshopcheckout.asp looks "bare" by comparison to your normal site. If you want it to have a better look and feel, it is up you to copy any needed files and update the source of sslshopcheckout.asp.

In addition the specification of what options to use cannot be done via the normal Shop Configuration Options. So to se the credit card types and other options, you need to set the values directly in sslshopcheckout.asp. This is described in detail in the Developer's Guide. These values can be changed directly in sslshopcheckout.asp

const MYSITE="http://localhost/webs/vpasp"
Const Creditcards="Visa,Mastercard,American Express"
Const Otherpayments="Check,Cash,Phone Order"
Const AllowCreditCards="Yes" ' Select credit Cards
const AllowOtherPayment="Yes" ' Other payment types
Const AllowInvalidCreditCards="No" ' validate credit card information
const xcardissuenumber="No" ' for solo and switch cards