ober Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 So I've done my fair share of work around the web. None of it, for whatever reason, has been ecommerce. I'm always working on parts of an ecommerce site or nonprofit type stuff that doesn't need a store. I'm now on the verge of not only opening my own, but doing work for a few clients. So can you all give me tips/advice on what to use and what to avoid? 1) Shopping Carts: I've played with oscommerce... it's nice... I'm not crazy about it. I've heard about Zend cart or something... never used it. 2) What kind of security services do you guys use? 3) What kind of payment options do you use? (merchant accounts/paypal/?) 4) One client I work for takes credit card information but doesn't process it online... he just runs the info through an offline system. Would that actually save anyone much money? 5) Is it worth it to write my own cart? Any other advice would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Little Guy Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 I would write my own cart. In my opinion, osCommerce is a mess. If you wrote your own: - You would understand what is happening on each page 100% since you were the one to write the shopping cart system. - paypal makes it very easy to accept payments, and start up a payment system. - It would be easier to modify the look of the shopping cart system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ober Posted June 26, 2007 Author Share Posted June 26, 2007 I guess my reasoning for not writing my own is: 1) Time 2) Security I'd rather use something that has been tested and already developed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bilis_money Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 If you ask me i prefer zencart because oscommerce i think is too big to learn and takes time to study. and for the security you need to integrate SSL i think verisign offer a good SSL certificate. and for the payment gateway you can choose below, 1. paypal 2. 2checkout 3. authorize.net 4. psigate.com 5. secpay.com 6. trustcommerce.com 7. worldpay.com 8. nochex.com i also heard that some banks like HSBC accepts e merchant payment solution and php can be also integrated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Ober, really it would depend on the store. With something like OSCOMMERCE you are limited to making your site look like a template. I say build a shopping cart class, it isn't that hard. Check out paypal and authorize.net. You can sign up for a free testing account at authorize.net. Once you build your own cart (just a simple database really) you can send the payment info via form to the gateway. I just recently built my own cart class for the astrophotography site I did for my uncle, but have not completed the payment process yet, just collecting the cart info. This is a pretty old article on zend but I think is a good foundation to building your own shopping cart class... http://www.zend.com/zend/spotlight/php-shopping-cart1.php?article=php-shopping-cart1&kind=sl&id=5606&open=1&anc=0&view=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.