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looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]Brokenegg.wb[/eluser]
Hey guys and gals,
I'm building a site that requires a storefront component, and as Ive already used CI for the admin aspects of the site, i figured that it would be relatively simple to keep things in that arena for the storefront. That said, I'm a little out of my depth when it comes to building one from scratch. so i guess i have two questions realy:

1)does anyone know of a tutorial/source code for a storefront?

2) would it be possible/worth my time to figure it out myself? i get the basic premise, and for my purposes i would be calling data from the database, then sorting it into sets of 12, and displaying them in a catalog form with a basic search functionality built in as well as the ability for users to click on an item and get a more in depth look at the item, and from there purchase it.

Thanks,
Watson


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]Mantishead[/eluser]
Hey,

This tutorial shows the basics of building a PHP based cart solution:
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/build-a-shopping-cart-with-php-and-mysql-new-plus-tutorial/

But you could simply make use of the CI Cart Class:
http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/cart.html

However, the actual cart is the least of your issues - linking it up to a gateway is going to be the hard part. There are code examples and fairly flaky instructions from most gateway / merchant banks.

For something like this I would weight the development cost up against purchasing a pre-built solution. Is this just an intellectual exercise or are you building a commercial grade solution for a client? If the latter then I would seriously consider using a complete solution - I would recommend TradingEye as it's fully XHTML / CSS compliant and is easy to skin. It also has a great control panel.

It's also written MVC so it would be quite straightforward for you to mod given your understanding of CI.


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]Brokenegg.wb[/eluser]
It's a little of both, my former boss is funding the venture, however not very well, so i would hate to get into something to the tune of over $50, expecialy if there is a workable solution that i can set up myself for free.


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]Mantishead[/eluser]
You could always take a look at Magento.

TradingEye, I think, is around 300GBP - however, there is a localhost development license available that would allow you to present the project for further funding.

In my experience unless you have a solid development background and a clear roadmap and the time to execute the development, a self built solution will never come to completion. All too often the case when us tech heads get romantic about the development and completely ignore the business case.


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]m4d3 Gun[/eluser]
Hey,...
u can try <a href="http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=information/download"> OpenCart.</a>


MVC php application shopcart,
i think is good one and free....


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]Brokenegg.wb[/eluser]
ya, Ive been looking at this article, so I'm playing the sorting game right now, I'd rather not have to start from scratch as far as a re-skin goes, mostly because I've sunk quite some time into learning CI for this purpose, so I'm going to see if i can integrate something with what i already have... any suggestions?


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]BrianDHall[/eluser]
I know of no already existing storefront/ecommerce solution built on CI, though I sure would like one.

One thing I can say though, is handling custom payments to gateway is way easier than it sounds. Generally I find they want XML post-backs and such, which you just use CI's curl and XML libraries for. Took ahwhile to figure it out, but once I had those tools it was just a few days to get it working.

The big advantage you have is you don't need to build payment handling for every supported feature of the gateway.

Now, if you just want a basic shop I think you might just want to...go ahead. For sorting them into sets of 12, look at the pagination class in CI. Look at Image Manipulation class for thumbnailing, File Upload for uploading photos of products if you want (you can just use FTP with naming conventions like item 1001 automatically looks for an image named 1001.jpg - one less bit of code to write)...and for handling the purchase if you want really simple just use PayPal Pro. It's not a bad thing to use someone else's cart to start with, and you can always write your own later and just keep PayPal for purchasing.

For inventory management PayPal offers "Instant Payment Notification" with a pretty easy to understand syntax, and if you are happy with PayPal's built in order notification and you don't need inventory management then hey - less for you to code!

Basic ecommerce isn't hard at all - its building a "ecommerce solution" that takes years because they are bloated with so much crap it takes months of training on them just to use a tenth of what is available.


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]got 2 doodle[/eluser]
I have done a couple of stores in Magneto, the product is really good but very complex.
It really takes a while to get your head around the way it's put together (I'll let you know when I'm there :roll: )

Server requirements are high, it doesn't perform on a crappy server also the requirements just for install are pretty rigid.

Make sure
* You have MySQL 4.1.20 (or greater)
* You have PHP 5.2.0 (or greater)
* You have the curl extension
* You have the dom extension
* You have the gd extension
* You have the hash extension
* You have the iconv extension
* You have the mcrypt extension
* You have the pcre extension
* You have the pdo extension
* You have the pdo_mysql extension
• You have the simplexml extension
• You have the InnoDB data engine

I know someone is working on a CI based ecommerce package.

But it's still in development.

doodle


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]renownedmedia[/eluser]
[quote author="m4d3" date="1253282145"]Hey,...
u can try <a href="http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=information/download"> OpenCart.</a>


MVC php application shopcart,
i think is good one and free....[/quote]

I, too, recommend OpenCart, it's MVC and VERY easy to work with (Personally I hate the complexity and bulkiness of Magento).


looking for a CI based PHP Storefront - El Forum - 09-18-2009

[eluser]got 2 doodle[/eluser]
sounds like I need to look at OpenCart Smile

doodle