Shopping cart

[danny2003]

Does anyone out there know the best shopping cart to buy or download? I need to integrate it with my SWiSH website. There are that many I don't have a clue what to purchase.

Cheers Guys

[jamble]

hi Danny,

check out the ones here at hotscripts.com and you can see user ratings and feedback for each one and you should be able to find one that suits your needs

[RazoRmedia]

are you set up as a merchant banker?

will credit card payments be taken ?

if so, you might want to use a third party. check these

[david petley]

....and danny,
please try not to post the same thing in different forums here.

Everybody gets annoyed and posts pictures of spam and tells you off and calls you a spam artist.



I have posted a whole site search result on your other thread, which is moved to the SwiSH Help forum.

thanks,
david p.

[danny2003]

I will be taking credit card payments but I don't have a merchant account. THe main thing that I stumped with is getting a catologue into my SWiSH website?

[RazoRmedia]

if you don't have a merchant account, then your better off with a third party such as ibill (see my thread).

Instead of viewing it like an online catalogue, all you are really doing in this case is sending a variable(s) to a part of ibills site. They will then handle the payment(s).

All third party merchant bankers work differently and it might be an idea to contact your chosen vendor to find out how they work. If it is technical questions you are after, you'd be better off in the swish forum (for swish related questions) or the scripting and backend forum (for passing of variables etc).

Good Luck.

One thing I will say though is that if your site is solely made of swf's, this could possibly be more difficult than using a html / swf combination.

[david petley]

Originally posted by danny2003
I will be taking credit card payments but I don't have a merchant account. THe main thing that I stumped with is getting a catologue into my SWiSH website?

Danny,
how did that search result go in getting you the information on shopping carts that you were looking for.

Help with SWiSH is better directed to a help forum (the SWiSH Help Forum)

cheers,
david p.

[danny2003]

The search gave me some useful options but I am so confused. I want a shopping cart which is going to look like my website and I just can't seem to find anything like that, they all have their own cheap look to them?

[RazoRmedia]

Originally posted by danny2003
The search gave me some useful options but I am so confused. I want a shopping cart which is going to look like my website and I just can't seem to find anything like that, they all have their own cheap look to them?

a shopping cart would normally use scripting or even a whole application layer. I doubt it could be solely done using Swish. If you can post a link to your website (or pm me), I can give you mroe specific advise on the routes you can take.

Regards

bruce

[david petley]

Danny,
I wrote this big rave here but saw RazoRmedia's post above....what he says. SWiSH cannot communicate directly to a database or server, which is what you need for a shop.

One thing about 'How-To' questions here in the boardroom, as soon as you start talking 'how', you should be in a help forum.

Bruce is a man

david p.

[RazoRmedia]

okay.

to put it simply, if you have a website, either :

static (html) or dynamic (php / asp / cgi etc)

and

either flat (images and text) or rich (video / flash etc)

to enable it to have a shopping cart functionality, it has to pass variables from page to page. This can be done in a variety of ways but would normally use a session variable.

this variable(s) would exist as long as the users session exists on that site. This means the user can browse the products, add to the cart and all the while these choices that the user has taken, are stored (temporarily) until the user checks out / leaves the site etc.

What we are talking about is dynamic content. Basically a web site is connected to a database that stores information (about customers, products, revenue etc). When the user visits the catalogue site, the information is drawn from a database using dynamic pages. Ie the pages are created 'on the fly' and are not static html (or flash) pages. This is useful because if you advertise a product on your home page that is sold out, with a static site, you would have to physically amend the html page. With a dynamic site, you could include coding to replace the product with another if there was no stock left (according to the database).

A good example of flash (swfs) talking to databases can be found here.

This is quite complicated stuff your messing with now though, you should really know your stuff before you create your own e-commerce site. There are things to take into consideration such as security, data protection, privacy, marketing etc.

Anyway, you should have a good knowledge of flash, actionscript and some kind of backend language before you attempt this. You'll also need to earn merchant banker status.

Alternatively, use a third party such as iBill, its easier and cheaper and the only tradeoff is that it looks naff.

[RazoRmedia]

cheers Dave,

although this is bordering on a help thread, I am gonna leave it here as I have a vested interest in third party merchant bankers at the moment and would welcome anyones views who has created a shopping cart for themselves.

[mx_kid]

Miva rocks.

[danny2003]

If I link miva to my flash site I am worried about the look and design, is it possible to make it look like my site?

[Musicman]

Hi,

I am quite happy with a paymentech solution. Your server collects the secret info from the customer and sends it off to the payment server, so there is no design issues to worry with. On the other hand, you definitely should pay for https hosting

Musicman

[danny2003]

Thanks for the info.

How do I do this?