Seller User Guide and Complete Site Navigation

This page explains how to operate the webstore from the seller and administrator perspective, how to publish products, how to use HTML descriptions, how to configure clickable payment information, how to display YouTube videos, how to maintain the storefront, and how to use the administrative controls without modifying the original storefront structure unnecessarily.

1. Opening and Using the Admin Panel

Open admin.php in your browser and sign in with the administrator username and password configured for the store. After successful authentication, the administrative interface provides the controls used to create, edit, duplicate, feature, and delete products as well as manage the store configuration and editable legal content. Always sign out when you have finished administrative work, particularly when using a shared computer.

2. Creating and Managing Products

To add a product, open the product editor in the Admin Panel, enter a product title, price, optional previous price, location, category, image URL, description, YouTube URL, and payment gateway information, and then save the product. Editing an existing product uses the same fields, so you can correct information later without recreating the item. The Featured option places selected products in the featured area when the storefront supports that display. Product data is stored in the store's persistent product file so changes made through the administrator interface remain available after page reloads.

Use a clear product title, an accurate price, a useful location, a relevant category, and a high-quality image. If a previous price is shown, make sure it represents a genuine reference price and is not misleading. Keep the product information complete so customers can understand what they are buying before following a payment link.

3. HTML Product Descriptions and Clickable Permalinks

The description field supports both ordinary text and raw HTML. This means you can write a simple paragraph when you do not need formatting, or you can provide structured content such as headings, paragraphs, bold text, lists, tables, images, and links when a more detailed product presentation is required. Existing plain-text descriptions continue to work, while HTML descriptions are displayed as HTML on the storefront.

Internet addresses written as ordinary text are automatically converted into clickable links. Links opened from descriptions use a new browser tab and include a safer external-link relationship. When using HTML, you may also create your own anchors with normal HTML such as an <a href="https://example.com">Visit this page</a> element.

Only place HTML that you trust in an administrator-controlled description field. Do not paste unknown scripts, malicious code, or untrusted HTML into the store, because raw HTML is intentionally supported for seller-controlled content.

4. YouTube Permalinks and Video Embedding

The YouTube field accepts common YouTube video URLs instead of requiring you to manually convert every address to an embed URL. Standard watch links, mobile watch links, short links, Shorts links, live links, and existing embed links are recognized and converted to the appropriate YouTube embedded-player address.

For example, a mobile YouTube address containing a video identifier, playlist information, and playback parameters can be entered directly into the YouTube field. The store extracts the video identifier and preserves supported playback parameters such as playlist, start, end, autoplay, controls, loop, language, captions, and related player settings when they are available. YouTube officially documents the embedded-player format and supported player parameters.

The following type of mobile permalink is therefore suitable for the YouTube field:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn6nGVtzJWI&list=RDCn6nGVtzJWI&start_radio=1

The v value identifies the video, while the playlist value can be retained for supported embedded-player behavior. Parameters that YouTube does not document as embed-player parameters may simply be ignored by YouTube, which is expected behavior. YouTube also provides an official workflow for obtaining embed code from the Share and Embed options.

5. Payment Gateway and Payment Information

The product payment gateway field supports both simple gateway names and raw HTML. If you enter names such as GCash, PayMaya, COD, PayPal, or Bank Transfer as comma-separated text, the store displays them as payment badges. If you need a clickable payment page, checkout button, hosted payment URL, or seller-provided payment instructions, you can enter trusted HTML containing links or forms and the store will render the HTML on the product page.

Gateway HTML can use product placeholders so one reusable gateway block can be adapted to the product being displayed. The supported placeholders are {{id}} for the product identifier, {{title}} for the product title, {{price}} for the formatted product price, {{currency}} for the configured currency symbol, {{amount}} for the formatted payment amount, and {{location}} for the product location.

For security and accuracy, use payment URLs and checkout forms supplied by your real payment provider or merchant account. A visible payment button is not by itself proof that a transaction was successfully paid; payment confirmation should always come from your payment provider or verified merchant workflow.

6. Store Settings

The Settings section controls the site name, announcement message, administrator username, home-page product count, search-result product count, currency symbol, default payment methods, advertisement HTML, developer information, and related editable store configuration. Save settings only after reviewing the values because these fields can change how the storefront is presented to every visitor.

7. Legal and Informational Pages

The editable legal-page controls allow the administrator to maintain developer information, terms of service, privacy information, disclaimers, and copyright information. Write these pages as complete statements that accurately describe your own business practices. If your legal requirements depend on your country, business type, payment provider, or customer location, obtain appropriate legal advice rather than relying on a generic template.

8. Advertising and Promotional Content

The advertising area accepts seller-controlled HTML so that you can display promotional banners, images, links, or approved advertising snippets. Because raw HTML is supported, only use advertising code from sources you trust and verify that external scripts comply with the policies of your hosting provider, advertising network, and payment or privacy requirements.

9. Security and Maintenance

Keep the administrator password unique and sufficiently long, avoid sharing administrator credentials, and use HTTPS on the production domain. Back up the product and configuration files before performing major changes. If you are using raw HTML payment or advertising code, review it periodically so that expired links, redirected domains, or obsolete scripts do not remain in the storefront.

The store uses administrator session protection and CSRF checks for administrative POST actions. These protections should remain enabled. Do not remove the authentication or security checks merely to make administration faster.

10. Troubleshooting and Common Problems

If a product does not appear after saving, verify that the product was saved successfully and that the PHP process has write permission for the product data file. If an image does not load, check that the image URL is publicly reachable and uses HTTPS when your store is served over HTTPS. If a YouTube video does not play, open the original YouTube URL in a browser and confirm that the video is available for embedding; some videos can have embedding restrictions that are controlled by the video owner or YouTube.

If a raw HTML payment button does not work, inspect the destination URL and verify that the payment provider expects that particular checkout format. If a description displays incorrectly, check for unclosed HTML tags and invalid markup. If the storefront reports a PHP error, record the exact error message and the affected file and line number before making changes, because the exact message is the fastest way to identify the underlying problem.