JavaScript shopping cart

is this a REALLY bad idea?

[ixlives]

first off, i am sooo glad i ran across this site. wish i had found it months ago. i've been playing catch-up for the past couple of days reading dozens of post. anyway, here it goes. BTW, this is my first commercial website.

the owner of a small business approached me about building a site for his business. he's been putting this off for months, but now he is ready to go. being my first paying job, i don't want to get in too far over my head, and i am trying to keep his initial investment to a minimum.

i am going w/ the free shopping cart from NOPcart. it requires JavaScript and cookies. we won't be accepting credit card orders for the time being. i plan on using CGI to e-mail the orders to him, w/ no personal info on the servers. another option is the customer can print out the order form and purchase info and fax it to him. it's basically an online catalog for customers to peruse and get an idea of what they want and the cost. the orders will be confirmed by phone.

is this TOO SIMPLE to work? i know there are issues w/ JS and cookies, but am i being foolish in thinking i can tell the users how to enable them on their browsers? please tell me your thoughts. thank you, and sorry for the long post.

[Ove]

Check you sticky mail on the top of the page i have sent you a url very simple site but it works greate.

/Ove

[tedster]

> am i being foolish in thinking i can tell the users how to enable them on their browsers?

Cookies and javascript are enabled by default in most browsers, so those who have turned them off had their reasons. Mostly they should already know how to enable them if they choose. Your challenge is to give them a compelling enough reason and enough confidence in the site to do this.

[ixlives]

i do like it. is that Norwegian? what's the name of the cart? i have been looking more into CGI, but here's the main problem.

my client doesn't have that much experience w/ the internet. up until now, he checks his e-mail about once a month. with this type of cart, he will need to access the orders on the server, right? (i'm new to CGI, so bear w/ me) that is not an option.

the orders HAVE to be sent to his e-mail. thanks for your reply. other suggestions are welcome, too.

[Crazy_Fool]

hi ixlives and welcome to WmW

i did a javascript cart on a site once and it worked fine on most browsers - there may be some compatibility issues to overcome.

personally i'd suggest going for an off-the-shelf CGI (Perl) or PHP or ASP solution. there are loads out there. you don't need to know much coding to install them and you might find one that your client can easily add, edit or remove products to or from. using a server side solution instead of javascript can make things a lot easier if he decides to move on in the future and add card processing etc.

[ixlives]

>>>personally i'd suggest going for an off-the-shelf CGI (Perl) or PHP or ASP solution

can you name any free CGI carts that you've had experience with? i have been to CGIresources.

let's say that i stay w/ the JS cart for now, can anyone recommend a form submission script? i have read about issues w/ formmail.pl.

thanks again.

[Crazy_Fool]

i'd suggest you download and try a few carts - each will be different and some may suit your client's site better than others. you might also like to try osCommerce (www.oscommerce.org) if your client has PHP and MySQL. this is a complete website with shopping cart with an admin interface to allow your client to add, edit and remove products very easily. its fairly easy to install and configure, even for a beginner - just follow the instructions. there are also pretty good support forums.

[ixlives]

thanks a lot. i'll give it a try.

[txbakers]

There are web based carts available too, which don't require you to download anything. You just link to them.

One of my favorites is cartmanager. I also use the PayPal shopping cart for some clients. Very clean and it always works.

[tedster]

I love web-based carts. Total freedom to move the site, independent of your host. The good ones have so many customizable features that it's a joy.

[tbear]

Hi ixlives
Try Matt's script archive. The formail instructions got me through ok (just about there).

[ixlives]

Matt's script was the first one i found. i also read about it being used for spamming.

does anyone have any thoughts/opinions on the formmail.pl scipt?

thanks for your help.

[txbakers]

I like Matt's script. I use it.

To protext from spamming, just rename the script when you install it, and be sure to change every instance of the name in the script itself.

Spammers look for "formmail.pl" in code.

[ixlives]

that makes sense. thanks for everyone's help.

[william_dw]

Hiya,
FYI, the newest version of formmail.cgi fixes the whole spam problem, we got hit hard for 24 hours until we could code up an alternative, but that's another story.

If your client dosent check his email often enough, I have a solution or two which might be of interest.

Try the http://www.tpc.int/ site, which is essentially a email to fax gateway, you send an email to remote-printer.recipient_name @fax_number.iddd.tpc.int and it then faxes the contents to that number. Assuming he's within a service area & has a fax machine (and checks his faxes more than once a month) that might solve it for you. Check http://www.tpc.int/verify.html for service areas.

Plus it's cool :)
HTH,
Dw

PS. There was a site last summer which did this absolutely superb xml>phone service, you could send them a XML packet and thier system would call the number and read the details, it could even have branches, ie: press 1 for more details, 2 for blah, 3 ...

Those were the days, i cant track it down anymore :(