CMS Made Simple Forums

As you may, or may not know... Ted and I have developed an e-commerce solution of sorts.

It consists of a number of modules
  Products (module)
    - Supports hundreds of products
    - custom fields (image, text input, text area, dropdown)
    - hierarchical as well as flat categories
      - hierarchical categories have an image and a description
    - summary and detail view
    - category view
    - hierarchy view
    - supports multiple image fields
    - product attribute sets (size, color, etc).
      - individual attributes can adjust the product cost
    - each product has a 'weight' and a 'base cost' attribute
    - supports seo optimized urls
    - supports search
    - more

    FlatRateShipping (module)
    - create flat shipping cost based on weight ranges

    WarehouseTaxes (module)
    - Adjust tax rates based upon warehouse locations

    FlatRate Taxes (module)
    - Simple flat rate tax manipulation

  Cart (module)
  - Supports edit quantity, and delete operations (probably more, I just can't remember)
  - all information is held in session variables
  - easily integrate an addtocart call with any page or template

  Orders (module)
  - takes a snapshot of user order
  - integrates with the FEU module
      PaypalGateway (module)
      - simple paypal payment method.

This set of modules was originally developed for a private sponsor, who has since not paid us.  However, another generous sponsor has come up and sponsored alot of the features you see above in the products module.  The products module will be released to the public when he has done his testing and says it is good.

The other modules will not be released until Ted and I receive payment for them.  Now this can be done by the initial sponsor, or it can be done from the collective.  I intend to setup a demo site for you to test with in the near future, so that you can judge for yourselves if it is worth contributing, etc.

After the modules are released, there will be a strict 'sponsor our time' rule for enhancements.

I just thought I'd post an update.

[edit] added a few more capabilities to the cart thing... not like we need to get into a pissing contest, multiple solutions are a good thing.

Wow, That is a nice list of features.
The modules that we have been preparing contain:
Shop:
- multi level categories;
- unlimited number of products within one category;
- one product can be connected to multiple categories;
- an image can be connected to a category;
- a category is active or not (and thus the under lying products);
- sequencing the categories (so not only alphabetic) will be available;
- a product can be marked as a featured product;
- the price is held per product;

Cart:
- items are held in cart in a session;
- a cart can be turned into an order with or without direct usage of module FrontEndUsers;
- the cart can be viewed based upon templates (you define yourself);
- quantities of items in the cart can be easily changed;
- items can be easily added and removed from the cart;
- shipping is done on information stored in FrontEndUsers properties;
- payment is currently under construction (will be upfront and paypal integration as first gateway);
- no tax calculation done;

I have prepared a demo website that shows the front end part. As you will see the shop is still starting (since there are not that much items in the shop yet  ). You can see the the shop here: http://www.mantox.nl/shop/.

Hope this helps in giving a shared attention to both the solutions (pledges welcome offcourse )

Duketown

The Products, Cart, Orders, and various addon support modules were released yesterday.

Another set of modules that can be used is:

• Cart Made Simple
  Allows adding products to a cart. The cart can be send to check out page that lets visitor enter address, shipping and payment information. After the confirmation, the order is handled in the back end via various statusses.
• Shop Made Simple
  Makes it possible to set up products with characteristics, images and connect them via a category. On the front end the visitor can select a category and then from a list of products see details on a selected product. An add to cart function (via Cart Made Simple) allows the customer to buy the product(s).

Duketown

Has anyone tested either of these solutions? I just tried to install both and had separate problems for each. It would be great to see an example... hear a testimony on them.

C

chuckienorton,

Thanks for taking the time to try the modules. It is not clear to me if you are trying to install both Shop/Cart Made Simple and Products/Orders.
Shop/Cart belong together and Products/Orders belong together. What I've noticed that if you try to mix them, you will get problems. Either use the first set (which I would prefer  ) or use the second couple (that has more modules connected to it).

Duketown.

PS. Please report the problems via the forge so the developers working on the modules can help you or others and 'upgrade' quality on the modules as well.

Thanks, Duke...

duketown wrote: chuckienorton,
What I've noticed that if you try to mix them, you will get problems. Either use the first set (which I would prefer  ) or use the second couple (that has more modules connected to it).

I did try installing first set, and when having problems, went to second set.

duketown wrote: PS. Please report the problems via the forge so the developers working on the modules can help you or others and 'upgrade' quality on the modules as well.

I've posted my errors in both development forge forums.... shop made simple & products (which, oddly enough, isn't located in Modules/E-Commerce). 

C

chuckienorton,

For the problems that you have check out the following tread:
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/topic,21317.msg105507.html#msg105507.

Next version 0.1.3 of Shop Made Simple is soon to be released. That version doesn't have the installation problem and more functionality.

Duketown

[edit]
SMS version 0.1.3 has been released yesterday (may 7th 2008).  Onward to payment functionality in combination with CartMS.
[/edit]

It would be really useful to have a extensive comparison list of the different e-commerce options available as there is little or no documentation that I could find anyhow in the modules downloads as to what exactly each option does.

Also something to bear in mind is that many retailers are also wholesalers so it would be very useful to be able to have different pricing depending upon which group a user belonged (i.e. set up a group using FEU module so when they are logged in they see a different set of pricing) and also have the option of payment by pro forma invoice.

The other important part of any e-commerce system should be the ability for the payment process to remain on site rather than having to go off site to someone like Paypal. If this functionality is already available then it would be useful to know.

I don't believe there is a module that integrates with PayPal Pro, though it would be great to have one.  I might contribute several hundred dollars to see it done.

There are some several Paypal solutions (in development) - not sure if they do what you want ...

http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/feupaypal/
http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/paypalgateway/
http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/checkout/