E-commerce framework

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Hey all,

I'm looking for some feedback, input and general thoughts on the usefulness of an e-commerce framework built on CodeIgniter. I've used and looked at countless shopping cart systems and they all have either too many or too little features for the needs of my project. I usually end up creating my own systems but the basic data structures (ie. products, orders, customers, etc.) are always the same.

The purpose of this application would be to create a basic e-commerce framework consisting of a universal database structure and an library to interface with that database (probably a model). It would serve as a "starting place" to build a full blown e-commerce system (inventory control, sales reporting, etc.) or small custom catalog/cart with a handful of products.

so, we might have a db table (product) consisting of:
product_id
sku
product_name
weight
is_active
is_hidden

and a model with some basic functions like:
get_product_id
get_product_sku
get_product_details
hide_product
show_product

... with similar functions for customers, suppliers, orders, etc.

The important thing is that we create a solid foundation for development but leave functionality and UI of the actual catalog/cart/admin to the designer or developer.

Let me know what you think.

[eluser]quexal[/eluser]
Hey Chris,
This type of application framework (built w/ codeigniter) would be extremely helpful for me.

About 70% of the work I do involves setting up cart-based ecommerce websites, and they definitely run the gamut from simple (all I need is a picture, a price, and a buy button), to very complex (integration with brick & mortar inventory control, POS, & Shipping systems).

In fact, (and I know I'm not alone here -> http://www.michaelwales.com/2008/01/my-c...-dev-pack/), I've already got a codeigniter base package with my auth-library and a couple of other helpers that I've found useful to speed up development time.

I think that the next shopping-cart system that I create I'll have to take a look at doing this and making it part of my personal dev-pack.

Anyhow... I think it's a great idea... wish I had time to do it!

[eluser]Total Shop UK[/eluser]
An old post I know but for the basics of a shopping cart based on CodeIgniter you could download the code from http://sourceforge.net/projects/totalshopuk/files/ it contains the very simplist of code yet fully working and the most easiest to modify. If the client only needed PayPal for example all that needs to be changed is the paypal email address! Complete Demo can be found at http://www.totalshopuk.com