Easiest shopping cart to develop

[chromis]

Hi,

I'm planning to build a glasses website which will include a fully integrated shopping cart, the shopping cart will most likely need development to include more details and more categories and need to be highly customisable. The shopping cart also needs to be in PHP. Can anyone suggest a suitable candidate that they have past experience in?

Thanks,

Chromis

[TheServant]

How you tried any of the free ones available? It is not easy to modify their code and maintain their security and operability. Long story short, I don't think it's worth your time making your own, and it's illadvised that you edit other company's software code... It would be much better to just find one that has suitable editting options as is. But let us know if you have tried any and I will get you some recommended ones when I get home later.

[chromis]

Hi TheServant,

Thanks for your quick reply. I would like to find a cart with all out the box features that I require but having looked at various solutions like ZenCart osCommerce and X-Cart I think I'm going to struggle on that front. One of the features I need is to be able to provide a step by step process for selling a product, the product (Glasses) will have various add-ons and variations and won't be a simple case of selecting and purchase process.

Here is the intended process for buying glasses:

1) Choose frames
2) Choose lenses
3) Choose tinted lenses
4) Choose extras (Cases, straps)
5) Enter prescription
6) Shopping basket
7) Checkout

Is there something you can recommend? I am a fairly experienced developer, so I'm currently looking to extend the functionality of X-Cart which seems to have a great deal of support in the community.
Have you completed a project like this before and if so what did you use?

Thanks,

Chromis

[TheServant]

Hi Chromis, sorry took so long to reply. Unfortunately I have not done any modifications like this before. Because noone else has replied I get the feeling that not many people here have done this very closely either. It is a shame because in the near future I will be wanting to do this, so if you remember let me know how your search goes.

I have heard ZenCart and osCommerce are the most popular, and although they don't have those features out of the box, it cannot be *that* unique a problem so I imagine someone has already addressed it. Your best bet would be to go to their support forums and ask for a solution to this problem.

I don't think it sounds like a hugely complex problem, there will just be a lot of conditional statement and/or clever programming so that the correct options are available after a choice is made. It might be possible to edit their code to impliment this if they haven't got some solution for you, but you will need to ask them if this is allowed.

Alternatively... You can maybe create your own selection process on your website and then send the request to one of their checkouts. I have never done this, but while on their forums you can ask how to send order requests directly to the checkout part of their software.

Sorry I couldn't be any more help, but if you have time and remember, let me know what you end up doing.

Reagrds.

[secmazec]

// on top of each page:
@session_start();
 
// somewhere in cart.php or so
 
$_SESSION["basket"] = "product1*price1||product2*price2"; // don't type this :)
 
$product_array = explode("||",$_SESSION["basket"]);
 
$i = -1;
while($product_array[++$i])
     list($name[$i], $price[$i])=explode("*", $product_array[$i]);
 

Have an ice day

[Markus]

There's no point in reinventing the wheel; go with something that's already been made. You'll save more time editing it than creating it from scratch.

[chromis]

Thanks TheServant, yes having looked at Zen Cart it seems to be a sensible option. I'll post on the forum and see what they have to say.

Secmazec, it wasn't altogether clear what you were trying to show me, your code example isn't complete and wouldn't be a great deal of use. Thanks for your input though.

Markus, I agree, I won't be creating my own shopping cart.

[secmazec]

The main idea of the easiest "php" shopping cart to develop. Maybe someone else clicked on this topic hoping to solve this problem.

But prolly won't help you mate, sorry.

[TheServant]

@chromis
No worries mate, hope to hear how you completed this.

[chromis]

@secmazec
Ah right i see, yeah prob won't be going down the roll my own route, but thanks anyway.

Of topic; You a fan of Adam Beyer by any chance?