Drupal Integration & UK Setup

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Hi
I have set up my website using Drupal and tried their Ubercart ecommerce shop which was really easy to install, but seems difficult to customise. I asked a question on their forums about 6 hours ago and it still has not been answered. The zencart forums seem busier but questions seem to be answered quickly too so I am thinking Zencart may be the way to go. I don't want to make a mistake choosing my cart because I expect to be putting a lot of time and effort into making it work how I want it to.

So on to the specifics.

1) Does Zencart have a Drupal integration module? I came across one on drupal.org but it was out of date. What would the cost be to get this working with the latest version of zencart (I am not a coder).

2) Is there a tutorial and list of modifications needed to make Zencart compatible with the UK?

3) I sell mailing addresses, meeting room space and hire people desk space by the hour. I also give a discount to clients who are members of specific business networks. If it is a new client they need to first choose their product/service, then the address from which they want to work, then the system automatically adds any setup costs, extra charges and deducts any discounts. I also need it to collect information which can be used to fulfill their order.

I have two types of client - one buys the mailing addresses and the other pays to sell their mailing address on the website.

Say for example a client wants to purchase a mailing address package with mail forwarding once a week. I need the system to add the setup costs, postage advance deposit etc, then allow the client to choose the address from a list. Each address could cost extra (so a London address could be an extra £60 per year, a Leeds address an extra £40 per year etc). Optional extras such as purchasing a telephone number and scan/fax service should also be available from a pull-down menu.

I then need to collect pertinent data from them such as where they want the mail to be forwarded etc.

Can anyone tell me which is the best way to set all of this up in Zencart? Do I set the mailbox packages as the product and the addresses as an attribute or do I set the addresses up as a product and the mailbox packages as an attribute? How do I then get the data I need collected?

Is all of this within the capability of Zencart and my limited knowledge of how it works or do I need to hire someone to help me achieve it? If the latter how much would I expect to pay?

Sorry if this is all plain and obvious but it isn't to me. Thanks for any help and advice.

Sorry for the long post but the answers will help me to choose where I need to put all of my efforts and which cart to use.

Thanks in advance

[kuroi]

As you will see by clicking on the new posts link above, most new threads get answered very quickly in this forum. But occasionally one comes along that is virtually impossible to answer.



Yours achieves this by requiring somebody with a high degree of technical knowledge of both Zen Cart and Drupal, is most likely UK based and has time to wrap their heads around a complex and quite specific set of requirements. The seal off the impossibility you add a couple of unanswerable questions that would require somebody to know your skill level in Zen Cart and be able to estimate the cost of implementing an incomplete set of requirements.


But let's see what can be done with it.

1) Drupal and Zen Cart. There is a bridge (well sort of) between Zen Cart 1.3.7 and Drupal 5. It has the components required for both Drupal and Zen Cart. It works, or at least does what it says it will. Some people have also been able to make it work for 1.3.8. We, Kuroi Web Design, haven't tried yet, though plan to do so shortly.

There is no bridge between Drupal 6 and Zen Cart of which I am aware. But that's not really a hardship at the moment. We've recently retrenched from Drupal 6 as many of the key mods aren't yet available for it.

2) For UK setup, I believe you have been advised elsewhere.

3) For your specific requirements, I don't see anything there that couldn't be handled by Zen Cart, though it would almost certainly require some customisation. How much is difficult to say without rather deeper analysis.

You suggest two ways of structuring the products and with Zen Cart attributes, either sounds feasible. However, which is best, is a bigger question and would require more detailed analysis of your customers building processes.

So I'm guesisng that it would challenge your knowledge of Zen Cart, but as I don't know you can't be definitive about that.

I certainly couldn't tell you how much it would cost to hire somebody to do this. There are too many unknowns. Not least what the interactions between Drupal and Zen Cart would be - a particularly tricky area.

I can advise you to be very careful about hiring somebody to do this. There are lots of people on the freelance sites touting for work on the basis they'll work it out as they go along. Don't hire anybody without ensuring that they have a good knowledge of programming in both applications (and can show you evidence of work done in them) and ideally have done this sort of bridge before.

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Thanks for taking the time to reply kuroi. I was not aware what I was asking was complex. Who would have thought selling a mailing address had so many complications. Maybe zencart is not the application I should be using for this after all.

Thanks again for the insightful comments

[kuroi]

LOL. So I confirm that Zen Cart can do what you want, and either way around, but there are some external, real-world complexities, and you conclude that because of the external, real-world complexities, the cart that can do the job may not be the one for you!

Nevertheless, credit to you for thinking as much as you have about what you're trying to achieve. Many struggle to get to the level of detail that you've already achieved. Good luck with finding another viable solution.

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LOL. So I confirm that Zen Cart can do what you want, and either way around, but there are some external, real-world complexities, and you conclude that because of the external, real-world complexities, the cart that can do the job may not be the one for you!

Nevertheless, credit to you for thinking as much as you have about what you're trying to achieve. Many struggle to get to the level of detail that you've already achieved. Good luck with finding another viable solution.

I have not quite given up on Zencart yet but I rightly or wrongly interpreted your post to read "It can do what you want but not without lots of work and customisation involving lots of money being spent".

If what I am seeking can be achieved, the obvious question has to be how much will it cost and how long will it take? Already I am concerned at the lead time involved in customising the basic zencart to work for the UK, then creating a template to match the Drupal site - all this before I get around to setting up the products and services.

Thanks for the compliment - I am trying to give this as much thought before starting the work and spending money. I don't want to get further along with the project to find another system would have suited this project better.

Also, many thanks for your insights once again