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osCommerce

The e-commerce.

html links to cart?


JF1

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Hey--it's my first post here, so forgive the new guy. I've read through the wiki support site, these forums, and as much documentation as I can find, but I can't seem to find how to do what I need to do.

 

I run a very successful online guitar store, but have outgrown Mal's shopping cart with 6000 orders a year, and I need a bit more control over things. I've installed OSC as a test, but what I really need to do is preserve the look, feel, and speed of my website. I need a shopping cart that acts like Mal's---only popping in once you click an HTML form or text link.

 

Is there a way to do this with OSC? I've seen a few example sites that have their own home/index page, but one click puts you in a standard shopping cart format. I need every page on my site to stay as is.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

John

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Well, this will be my one and only bump of the topic, since it's already way down on page 3...

 

I'm thinking that setting up the cart in a subdomain would do the trick---HTML form "buy now" buttons point to shopping cart pages in the subdomain's directory. That way the main site remains intact and speedy.

 

Does anyone anticipate any problems with this approach? I'm just trying to figure out if it's possible before I invest 20 hours trying to make it work.

 

Thanks

 

John

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Yes you sure can do it that way and it is what most do. You can make both sites looks reasonably similar to the users eye, but displaying your selection out of the OSC environment is the trick. Here is what I tell my clients and it's just my opinion:

 

To do it well, it will take one of three things:

 

1) An experienced php/mysql programmer to craft the store processes that adhere to your strict guidelines of form and funtionality (weeks/$$$$)

 

2) A person that has moderate experience with both html and php to blend a compromise between look-and-feel of existing site with OSC robust and powerful out-of-the-box functionality (days/$)

 

3) A patient person with minimal experience in any of these things, that will use OSC to get the most of it's features and accepting a reasonably similar look to existing site (hours/your time)

 

This is the same that you would face with ANY program, regardless of cost. "You can make a car a plane, but is it worth the time"? That's up to you.

"Aliiiiive, it's alive, it's ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!"

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Paul:

 

Thanks so much for your insight. I'll probably go for the latter solution, although I'm modestly experienced in HTML, so the PHP would be the only challenge. I hand-coded my entire website (but now manage the sprawling beast with Dreamweaver). You can see it at www.samusic.com---it's the oldest guitar store on the internet.

 

I actually don't need the shopping cart to be EXACTLY like the rest of the site in terms of form and function---all I need is the rest of the site to remain utterly intact. I get dozens of letters a day complimenting us on the ease of finding information on our site, and I want none of this to change. Displaying the selection outside of OSC will be no problemo, as the site is already designed to do just this.

 

And I don't think I need to make a car a plane in this case---I just need to match the functions of Mal's, but make them work a whole lot better and more intuitively.

 

Thanks again for your comments.

 

John

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