Help in building a simple Shoping cart system

[Alucine]

Hello

I'm a begginer in web development, I'm sorry if my question is too basic, I wasn't sure if it was possible to ask this on this forum that looks so professional, but well, you'll tell me

 

I need to develop a personal website with a very simple shopping cart. I'm looking for a simple solution because I haven't learned PHP yet, just HTML and CSS and I've just used some pre-made PHP or JS code once in a while.

 

Visually, this is what I need (It's in spanish, but you'll get the idea):

 

 

It is a website for selling photos and other items to people that have been in the evets that I photograph.

It would have a photo gallery and a form next to it indicating the items that are available to buy, so the user would mark what they want to buy, and the quantities, and when the gallery ends, a file, very much like a receipt, should be generated with all that information (name of the pictures, quantities, prices, and all the sum of all the prices producing the final cost).

In this receipt the user should be able to enter their information (name, phone, adress, etc) and send it to their email and mine, so I can go get all the prints and items and let him/her know that they can collect it at the studio and pay it there.

I'm not going to use online payment (creit card, paypal..), just offline payment when the user colects their items. So the system shold be very simple, I guess. Just compile all the info in a receipt, sum the prices, adding the user information and send it though email.

 

 

Note:

I've already consider more than 20 services that offer this type of app o website for selling images, but they have tons of functions that I really don't need, an also I want to be in control of the looks of the website, so I was wondering if you could orient me into some resources or ideas on how can I make this simple shopping cart functionality as simple as I've described. I'm lost in php and need some orientation to be able to build what I need

 

THANK you so MUCH for your attention and any help is very appreciated.

 

Alucine.

[scootstah]

because I haven't learned PHP yet

 

That sounds like a good place to start.

[Drummin]

There will be more to it than you might think.

login system

admin page/DB table(s) for entering/updating services, photo sizes etc.

admin page for entering client accounts. (First and last name and email gathered from the event  etc)

admin page for images for each account.

 

Move than likely you would use the client last and email gathered from the event to verify the user creating an account where they can then add a username and password for logging in to view images and placing orders.

 

Once you have the support systems in place, the cart itself is pretty easy.  Orders could be sent to you via email or viewed in the admin section.  A simple interface could allow you to notify clients that their order is being processed, or is finished, again by email or if they login.

 

---

Often people ask for a final "product" without realizing what all is needed to get the job done.

 

If you need help send me a PM.

 

[Alucine]

Well, deep inside I knew I'de get answers like these

I know it's not "a piece of cake", so I'm just looking for some orientation. I think the way to go is through some pre-made code or app or software that can achieve the functionality I need without having to code it from scratch, which I can't. I found opencart.com, I will give that a try.

 

Thank you Drummin for you reply, but I think that I don't need a login for every user, the gallery page will be private, protected with a password that the users will already know, and my idea is that when someone enters the gallery and selects the items he wants, the file could be generated at the end anyway, without every user having to register. Like the survey systems where you don't have to register, just answer the questions annonimously, and the file gets generated at the end with your responses or conclusion, you know? I hope it can be one that way, it's the easiest and simplest for the users. Is that possible?

 

Thank you very much again

[scootstah]

I think the way to go is through some pre-made code or app or software that can achieve the functionality I need without having to code it from scratch, which I can't. I found opencart.com, I will give that a try.

 

There are lots of open-source eCommerce solutions out there. OpenCart is decent but, it seems way overkill for your needs. I would look at maybe a WordPress install with WP e-Commerce, or Drupal with Ubercart. If you go with Drupal (and maybe even WordPress to an extent) you might even find a plugin that fits even better to your needs, since you don't actually need payment processing.

 

Thank you Drummin for you reply, but I think that I don't need a login for every user, the gallery page will be private, protected with a password that the users will already know, and my idea is that when someone enters the gallery and selects the items he wants, the file could be generated at the end anyway, without every user having to register. Like the survey systems where you don't have to register, just answer the questions annonimously, and the file gets generated at the end with your responses or conclusion, you know? I hope it can be one that way, it's the easiest and simplest for the users. Is that possible?

 

Hmm. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Are you saying that if one user knows the password, they can view everyone else's pictures? Also, unless you make the password a big passphrase or a big random string (which are both possibly annoying for the users, because they will likely have to write it down) it would probably be pretty easy to bruteforce if someone wanted to.

 

 

[Drummin]

I tend to make programs that interest me whether it's ever used or not.  It's a good exercise for me.  I have a version of this well underway.  So if you don't find something you can make work let me know.   

[Alucine]

Thank you Drummin