Remote cart integration?

[kuroi]

For somebody with previous experience of sort of integration and knowledge of how the shopping cart is structured and managed in Zen Cart, it would be straightforward.

They'd write a custom handler to receive the XML data, parse it and populate the shopping cart, before directing the customer to the cart.

The customer would login or create an account and proceed through the checkout as normal.

When the order is confirmed as successful, the order id is passed to the checkout success page. this would be intercepted and used to read the order and provide the information back to the HLSM system, before taking the customer to the checkout success page (or redirecting them back to HLSM if that's more appropriate).

But there is a BIG caveat here. Although it's straightforward for the right person, somebody lacking relevant experience handling these sorts of feeds or sufficient Zen Cart knowledge will struggle and very possibly be unable to complete the task.

[Bacchus]

I am looking for that person...help !

[Bacchus]

how about some suggestions for good questions to ask that will help weed out the herd of people that will certainly claim they can do it..?

[kuroi]

Yes. I recognise the problem. Now that the commercial help wanted section of the forum has been closed down, you're rather at the mercy of the freelance sites.

You could take a look through the forum and approach people who seem knowledgeable in the area (note: not us, Kuroi, as although we are a commercial agency, our posts here are intended as impartial help and not to tout for business).

I would certainly ask for examples of similar integrations that they have done before specifically for Zen Cart. Ask whether they did them personally (a lot of the guys on the freelance sites don't do the work themselves, they just source it and front it up, so you don't know who's going to actually do it), and ask which bit was the most difficult to test their understanding.

I'd also ask them to demonstrate their Zen Cart expertise by referencing posts that they've made in this forum. You can follow up through private message to check that they're not just pointing to other people's posts.

[RodG]

how about some suggestions for good questions to ask that will help weed out the herd of people that will certainly claim they can do it..?

You'll not have much problem finding people who will claim they are able to do this, but personally I don't really agree with
kuroi that it will be "straightforward". I think that for even a seasoned zen-cart developer this isn't going to a task that can be completed in a weekend or two. It will take a lot of time and commitment. Certainly far more than *I* would consider spending on it, at least not without a substantial upfront payment.

No, I am not offering to accept the task, its not about the $$$, it is about the time that I don't have to spare.

The point of my reply though is to backup what kuroi did state in regards to having them to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in regards to zen development, and to also warn you against going for the cheapest estimate on offer.

Anyone that says they can do this for a few hundred bucks is either fooling themselves, or fooling you.

Cheers
Rod