Can I do the this? or not?

[Guest]

Hi Folks

 

complete newbie to OScom so wanted to know if the following is possible?

 

We currently have a website [html+css] which lists our products [approx 10 products]. We don't want OScom to 'act' as our site as we're only really interested in the cart features e.g. 'Add to Card' + 'View Cart' + 'Checkout' etc.

 

If we had our static site under the domain [xyz.com] and OSCom under [xyz.com/shop], could we manually add 'Add to Basket' buttons on our static site which would take the user directly to the 'view basket' page in OScom? We could also add links in our static site [e.g. in the header/footer] to take the customer directly to 'View Basket' and 'Checkout' pages.

 

Theoretically, I don't see why this wouldn't be possible in OSCom [by modifying the template files for Checkout, View Basket etc.] but not sure if I can 'link' add to cart buttons.

 

Workflow:

 

1. Customer lands on our site [xyz.com]

2. Sees a product he likes and clicks on 'Add to Cart' [which is a button we designed]

3. Customer is taken to 'xyz.com/shop/' which shows the product in the basket [i.e. rather than seeing the Product Page in OSCom, he sees the Basket Page]

4. Clicks on 'Continue Shopping' and is taken back to our site [xyz.com]

5. Adds another product to the basket and is taken to the 'view cart' page found at 'xyz.com/shop/' [probably some cache session issues here but lets ignore this for now]

6. Now he clicks 'Continue to Checkout' and for the remainder of the experience, he stays in 'xyz.com/shop/'

7. After that experience, customer is returned back to static site [xyz.com]

 

I know I can do this in ProductCart 4.1 [earlyimpact.com]. This has been puzzling me for ages - Romancart and MALS's are OK [ish] but are hosted so your taken 'away' from your site.

 

I am surprised that nothing as simple as the above exists and having searched for 2 weeks, I think there is definitely a gap in the market for such a cart. Either that or my googling sucks! Surely, there must be something out there for all those that have spent ages developing their own uniquely branded XHTML/CSS websites ????

 

Any feedback on the above would be appreciated.

[NodsDorf]

Quick answer is no. More experienced people maybe able to expand on this answer.

 

 

Here is why:

 

Oscommerce uses sessions to store the customers cart. By directing them out of oscommerce or not using OSC you will lose the session thus the cart when they try and checkout. There have been several users try and some maybe figured it out, to incorporate non-osc pages to the site, but the common problem always ends up being lose of sessions.

 

Solution:

 

You can use your current website and incorporate it into OSC by using STS (Simple Template System)

You can use your current website as a front end then direct customers to "Buy Online, Or Shop XYZ" which takes them into a shopping cart system.

-This is the most common solution I see on the sites I visit. They provide informational, blog, forum, wordpress etc front ends then link to a shop that sells their products.

 

Hope it helps,

 

Don

[TRNG98]

You should first set up osC to work with your products.

Then you must use a php page, and load the page start scripts, that

work with sessions and check if the customer has logged in.

 

So, your question is, if you can add in your own page (HTML part and CSS)

and include a "Buy now" button that go to a specific product.

 

My guess that some editing of a catalog/product display page, omitting all

the default stuff but keeping all the software running, should be moderately

difficult. Note that ALL your links must follow (use) the shop-script that

keep the session.

 

Install and edit the STS (Simple Template System) into your shop first.

 

Your pages will be php pages and not HTML pages, but they can still be "static".

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies: I've been playing around with OSCom for a few hours now and it does seem difficult to implement. Take a look at the following site and click on any of the 'Buy Now' buttons and notice the URL change [they're using ProductCart 4.1]. That's basically what we're trying to achieve - all the product pages are non-shop related and the buy now links are 'linked' to the shopping cart.

 

LINK: http://www.multiplemonitors.co.uk/dual-monitors/CustLOb.asp

 

[notice the URL changes to /shop/ and it takes you directly to the basket and also notice how you can go back and forth [from site to shop] without any session problems].

 

The problem is that ProductCart 4.1 is not cheap - almost 700 bucks!!

 

I am still amazed as to how nothing in the OpenSource world exists to accommodate for the above!!