imorting data from a form into cart

[Guest]

I have a complex order form I have designed using formspring for customers to purchase custom built radiator covers. It works great for what I need it to do and formspring makes creating and editing the form extremely simple. I am looking for a shopping cart solution which will allow me to input the created items information using a url redirect. The price of the product is the most important, but I would also like to have a description formed using the information in the form as well, mainly for the customers reassurance. I have the forms ready to go, but can only have one order per transaction through paypal without a shopping cart to manage the items the way it's currently working. I need to incorporate this into a shopping cart to allow for multiple custom products to be combined within one order, as well as to have a managed customer database and be able to run promotions.

 

Does oscommerce have any sort of functionality or plug-ins that will allow me to use a url redirect to fill in the price the item and enter some details about it? Any sugestions or tips for getting around this? I was even thinking along the lines of how a donation can be made by a customer, but instead have it tweaked a bit to allow the figure from the form to be filled in and a description of the item placed in a second box. The form does some somewhat complex calculations, taking the sum of customers dimensions and multiplying it by a value given by certain options they choose, then adding any additional features to come up with a final value. I also have the form set up, so only certain options are available depending on the customer's previous input. It is a multiple page form and would really like to be able to use it as it is very simple for customers to use.

 

Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks, Jay

[box25]

The way I achieved something similar, was again create an order form, that then passes the form data once posted to a set of database queries that creates the product, and populates the relevant database tables, as per the customer information, then adds the product to customers cart automatically..

 

This allows the customer to add 'normal' store products, and use the standard checkout procedure.

 

It was done using the V3 release of oscommerce, but should be just as easy to accomplish with rc2.2

[♥FWR Media]

jayty97

 

osCommerce is highly featured software that has gone through years of testing by thousands of users.

 

Can I suggest that you may get far more benefit by listing exactly HOW you want your cart to function and gaining feedback as to whether someone else has done it exactly your way/ if not if there's a contribution already written that does it.

 

The reason I say the above is if you try to use external coding and attempt to apply it to oscommerce you will probably face unnecessary difficulties as the solution probably already exists .. somewhere here.

[Guest]

The way I achieved something similar, was again create an order form, that then passes the form data once posted to a set of database queries that creates the product, and populates the relevant database tables, as per the customer information, then adds the product to customers cart automatically..

 

This allows the customer to add 'normal' store products, and use the standard checkout procedure.

 

It was done using the V3 release of oscommerce, but should be just as easy to accomplish with rc2.2

 

 

Thanks for the reply! As far as I can see, there is no way to create a product without logging into oscommerce. How can I get around that? I need a fully customer created product to be added to a checkout. When it's all said and done, there may be thousands of different products which can be created from the form.

[Guest]

jayty97

 

osCommerce is highly featured software that has gone through years of testing by thousands of users.

 

Can I suggest that you may get far more benefit by listing exactly HOW you want your cart to function and gaining feedback as to whether someone else has done it exactly your way/ if not if there's a contribution already written that does it.

 

The reason I say the above is if you try to use external coding and attempt to apply it to oscommerce you will probably face unnecessary difficulties as the solution probably already exists .. somewhere here.

 

Thanks fwr media, for the reply!

 

 

 

Here is the breakdown of what I need to do:

-

-The customer chooses the general style out of 3-5 types (right now, these are on separate forms)

-a wood type is then chosen

-if paint grade, a paint option comes up, custom colors add to the final price

-the customer enters a width, height and depth, as well as a couple of other figures which do not effect price, but need to be recorded

- a notes box, as well as file upload space is provided in case the customer has pictures which are relevant to the project

-the customer chooses trim options, some of which effect the final price

-a choice of grill type is then chosen, with additional options given for certain selections, some effecting the price

-an option for add-on bookcases and cabinets is given

-if above is yes, a similar process above is given for the specs of the bookcase

-Finally, a calculation is performed to come up with the final cost:

[(value depending on wood type chosen and style)* (width+height+depth "of cover")]+[(value depending on wood type chosen and style)* (width+height+depth "of bookcase")]+option values given which effected price.

 

This needs to be done is a way that is easy for customers to work with. That is why I figured it would be easier to build a form, which has multiple pages as well as dependent attributes, which is set up with instructions along the way. If there is already a solution worked out for this or something similar, I would love it........I have been searching for almost a week for a solution. I think I've read through every mod I could find to no avail! It just seems that the few places I have seen similar stuff, all had custom scripts written for them. I am not at that knowledge level just yet..... hopefully will be in time!

 

I really like the system that they use on http://www.onedayglass.com .It looks like the designer of the site developed the system just for them. That is very similar to the type of process I am looking to have. I could try to take the code from their site and rework it for myself, but to be honest am still learning my way through and think it's a little beyond what I can do at this point.

 

Problem is, I also want the normal functionality of a shopping cart, with normal items and the bells and whistles that come with it. I can set up both a cart and order form and have them run correctly........ just not together...... hence this post!

 

My idea.... at least where my thinking lies now is; figure out how to set up a generic item for the particular type of cover with a variable price input (as if I was taking a donation) and a text box where add. data about the item can be inputed. Can that be done? Then simply by redirecting the form data, the price is filled in and the product details are dropped into the text box. This could be automatically put into the cart, creating a "customized" item. This will allow the customer to be able to see the product data they entered in the cart as well as give them an option to open up a new form and ultimately create as many items as they would like. I also have a few other products I would like a similar system for.

 

Thanks, Jay

[avatar1919]

yes i need forms on my site as well so wil be curious to see a solution for this