Community Add-Ons

Change line 253 to look like this:
$from_str = "from (" . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd) left join " . TABLE_MANUFACTURERS . " m using(manufacturers_id) left join " . TABLE_SPECIALS . " s on p.products_id = s.products_id, " . TABLE_CATEGORIES . " c, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_TO_CATEGORIES . " p2c";

Should take care of the "unknown column" error. Thanks to MySQL5 and it's wonderful JOIN updates.

NOT FULL PACKAGE

If you need to move your site to a new address, and you still have the possibility to keep the old address reachable for a couple of months, you might use that hidden "feature" of OSCommerce:

On your old side, change the folder settings of "configure.php" to your new address.

-----------
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://your-new-shop'); // eg, http://localhost - should not be empty for productive servers
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://ssl.your-new-shop'); // eg, https://localhost - should not be empty for productive servers
define('ENABLE_SSL', true); // secure webserver for checkout procedure?
define('HTTP_COOKIE_DOMAIN', 'your-new-shop');
define('HTTPS_COOKIE_DOMAIN', 'ssl.your-new-shop');
-----------

If a visitor access the old address (possibly through a search engine result), he will see your old shop, and have all the embedded links pointing to your new address.
The first click will throw them to your new shop.

Isn't OSCommerce really great?

;-)

Enjoy
Michel Firholz

A custom error page that searches for the missing link.

Description:
This contribution allows you to setup a customer error page that takes the URL and searches for matching products.
When you upgrade to a new Oscommerce site your page name will all change and the search engines will link to the old files for sometime. This contribution will help users find what they are loking for.
Consider this:
Original site www.mydomain.com/mywidget.html
The contribution takes mywidget.html removes the .html and searches the database for a match. Any matches are displayed along with an area for helpful instructions to finding the broken link. The criteria for how to split the URI are customizable in the file.