"Stand Alone" Donation Page?

[hephaestus]

There's a FAQ page on setting up a simple donation system. No programming required.

http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...ct-or-Donation

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt and the coffee mug.

Works well, as far as it goes, and I do hope to re-use it as part of the solution to the current requirement.

That said, please reread my original post, especially my client's list of "fundamental requirements" (labeled a., b. & c.), which are what I believe will require the programming.

M

[lat9]

I've got a turkey in the oven, so I'm abbreviating here ... but will fill in details tomorrow if you need.

To make sure that the shopping cart can't contain the donation product along with anything else, you'll need to create a script in the /extra_cart_actions directory. Essentially, you'll want to check the current shopping cart for the presence of a donation product and deny any additional products (with appropriate message). On the other hand, if the cart currently contains a donation product you want to deny the addition of any other product (with appropriate message). One of the shopping_cart.php class' member functions allows you to check for the presence of a specific product, to my remembrance.

I'd use the link that swguy proposed (the right direction, of course); the customer can edit his/her donation amount easily if you also install the "Edit cart" plugin.

[hephaestus]

I've got a turkey in the oven, so I'm abbreviating here ... but will fill in details tomorrow if you need.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm about to put my turkey (loaf ) in the oven myself!

To make sure that the shopping cart can't contain the donation product along with anything else, ...

Thanks, but I have to stop you right there and ask you to do what I've already asked of swguy, namely: "please reread my original post, especially my client's list of fundamental requirements (labeled a., b. & c.)." And moreover, in this instance, the part of "c." that says "There should be no way for the donor to get access to the cart..."

The client isn't interested in any solution that exposes the cart to the donor (which, by the way, the existing checkout_confirmation page does, indirectly, via the "Edit" button in the "Shopping Cart Contents" section). In a solution that will actually satisfy the client, there should never be a circumstance under which the script you suggest putting in extra_cart_actions/ would run.

To be perfectly frank, the client doesn't even want the donor to be aware that they're dealing with an "online store" application at all, if possible. From the client's perspective, any mention of stores, shopping carts, "checking out", etc., will simply be confusing and frustrating to a person who has come to the site only to make a donation. (The reasons for wanting to nevertheless use the underlying mechanisms of Zen Cart, without exposing them to the user, are explained in this post.)

If you haven't tried one of the Acceptiva links in the original post, I'd encourage you to do so, to see how the client wants the interaction to flow. (Don't worry, clicking the "Proceed to Confirmation" button won't charge your card -- it takes you to a confirmation page where you can then abandon the transaction, if you wish.) No sign of a "shopping cart" in sight, and on the confirmation page, the only options offered are to either complete the transaction, or go back to the previous page and modify the information that's been entered.

I'd use the link that swguy proposed (the right direction, of course); the customer can edit his/her donation amount easily if you also install the "Edit cart" plugin.

Although the posts that I referenced in my original don't include the exact FAQ page that swguy cited, my intention was to point out that I have in fact already done precisely what he proposed -- hence my rejoinder of "Been there, done that..."

In fact, donation products implemented in that way are already in the client's store catalog, and the client has no problem with them as items that can be put in the shopping cart, even along with other products, in circumstances where the user is already shopping on the store site.

And, as I also mentioned in my response to swguy, I fully intend to use exactly the same kind of "donation product" implementation in addressing the client's current "stand alone donation page" request.


So... just to reiterate: what I'm looking for is an example of how & where to implement a PHP module that creates and processes an order (or does something similarly non-trivial with internal Zen Cart resources), in response to the submission of an HTML form that lives on an EZ-page (as suggested by Kobra), or a "define page" (as suggested by gjh42).

M

[DrByte]

Sounds like all you need is a simple "Donate" button via your PayPal account. Just create an HTML page on your site, dump the button's HTML code into it, and you're done.
And if it's a registered charity, PayPal will grant reduced processing fees, making it all the more ideal for a complete solution to your needs.

[hephaestus]

Sounds like all you need is a simple "Donate" button via your PayPal account. Just create an HTML page on your site, dump the button's HTML code into it, and you're done.

I failed to mention: that's exactly their current "stand alone" donation solution, and they don't like it. That's why they're asking for something that looks more like the Acceptiva solution. (And are expressing some dismay that Zen Cart isn't easily capable of being configured to provide such a thing.)

M

[DrByte]

(And are expressing some dismay that Zen Cart isn't easily capable of being configured to provide such a thing.)

Of course they are.

Zen Cart is an ecommerce system, architected to have customers pick from a catalog, put things in their shopping cart, and proceed through checkout.
Your customers are specifically requesting something that does NONE of those three things.

So, any dismay they have is simply because someone hasn't sat down to rearchitect a new solution specific to their unique wishes.

You can rewrite the checkout any way you wish. Just be mindful that the current checkout flow is written like it is for many reasons ... some of them legacy, some of them driven by technical needs to work in a framework that can be used globally. You can of course rework any of it for your own bespoke needs.

That said, several approaches are already discussed here, and while your client has turned their nose at all of them, perhaps some could be a good starting point for inspiration while you write the custom solution tailored to their specific requirements.

And hopefully they'll let you release the solution's code back to the community so others can benefit ... just like thousands of others have done so you could have Zen Cart in the first place.