Adding to an existing web site

[gjh42]

"They sell things that get engraved and the like and need that information sent to them when the order finishes getting processed."

Zen Cart has the ability for customers to input text and image files during product ordering, so this is not an obstacle.

[Adalast]

Apology accepted School, and I assumed that the comments were a venting dialogue directed at the world as a whole rather than just me. I have a tenancy to do to the same thing.

As far as the site goes, how exactly would it work for storing the text and variable data that are needed to be communicated with the product manufacturing process once payment has been processed. I guess that is one problem I am having with understanding what I should be doing. As far as expandability goes, I really don't need too much expandability as they have stated that they are not interested in adding any more products. If/when they do decide to, that will constitute a whole new contract and I can address the concerns then. Right now we are just trying to get them up and running so they can start selling.

I did just remember another complication that they have. They are partnered with hotels for events and need the ability to give the hotel a coupon code that will take off certain items. That is probably really easy to do, but as I've stated before, I'm new to all of this and it seems complicated.

[gjh42]

When Zen Cart processes an order, the information collecrted is stored in the database and sent to customer and admin in an e-mail. You could copy this e-mail to the manufacturer, or with more work set up a special e-mail that goes just to them with only the info they need.

ZC has a gift certificate system, and a user group discount system, so there is probably something that could be set up to work with the hotels. This will depend on the specifics of the situation.

[Adalast]

Ok, this is sounding more and more doable. Now to assess my other options and decide on the best one. What are those "bolt-on" carts that school was talking about? They sound like what I was originally wanting where I would just add them to the template I already have made. As I stated previously, the storefront will only have 3 items in it and is not likely to be needing any more added on. So if something would make it easy to just add a few buttons to each product page and send the items and information to the cart, I would think that would be the best course of action.

[schoolboy]

A couple of years ago I came across a zencart site that had been developed for customers to customize jewellery - diamond engagement rings to be exact.

In much the same way that many webshops now have flash-driven "t-shirt designers", this site allowed customers (using a graphical, flash-driven interface), to "build" their ideal engagement ring by selecting and assembling images of different ring shapes, clasps, diamonds, etc.

When the final custom ring was ready, they clicked "Add to Cart", and the whole system would magically "build" the product specs, price it accordingly and enable everything to be added to the cart and then checked out.

I did not bookmark the URL, but it shows what can be done.

About a year ago I had a request to build a Corporate Gifts site, where the requirement was for customers to upload a company logo (or any image) that could then be overlaid and re-sized on the company's products. (I immediately thought of that jewellery site, as I needed the exact same feature...

I approched a company (well-known and respected on this forum) to give me a quote... £7,000 to £10,000. I put this to the client but as you can imagine, did not get a favourable response...

This told me two things...

1. It is possible to integrate a flash-driven customizing tool in zencart...

2. It's not a cheap exercise!

[schoolboy]

What are those "bolt-on" carts that school was talking about?

cartweaver.com/

[Adalast]

I was looking at catweaver the other day actually and trying to figure out if it would be able to do what I need it to with minimal argument. I may have to revisit that and see how my clients want to procede. This project is for $3000 so it wasn't too underpriced considering what I have had to do up to this point, though the sales part is becoming a bit of a pain. It sounds like I have a few avenues to choose from, and once I figure out what it would take to do it with Cartweaver or the like, I will be able to speak with the involved parties and decide on how they want to procede.

I do have to say though, if I end up with ZC I will probably become quite annoying over the next couple weeks with questions and problems.

I do have to say thank you for all of the help thus far with my dilema. This has been the best experience I have had on any technical forum by far.

[schoolboy]

As Glen pointed out earlier, ATTRIBUTES can be used to do the "data collection" and "pricing" in the case of engraving is concerned.

If the engraving is alpha-numeric, and the store charges "by letter" or "by word", then you can create a text-field attribute formatted to append a cost to each letter (or word) entered by the customer.

I have this feature on a site that sells cakes, where the customers want a birthday greeting on a cake, such as:

Happy Birthday Barack

That is 19 letters, and we have formatted that attribute to price each letter at £1.25 - so 19 X £1.25 = £23.75, which is then ADDED to the price of the cake.

[Adalast]

Luckilly all of their pricing is flat rate, so what is engraved is not an issue. All products will only have one price each. I think I could get this working, if i could just figure out how to make it look right to fit into the site. Would I be able to make just the 4 pages that have to do with eCommerce with ZC and leave the things like their photo gallery and contact pages how they are? Would I be able to get the ZC pages to sit inside of the HTML site in any way? Perhaps with an <iframe>. If i can do that, I would need to remove the interface completely and just leave the individual products and their accompanying text fields without any of the navigation stuff. Somehow I feel like this should be a whole lot simpler than it is shaping up to be. Is there no way to just have ZC handle the cart portion only and accept input from other HTML pages with forms on them? That's all I really need, other than the flash output portion, which should be able to be accomplished with a PHP intermediary script that is called by the Flash application and hands the variables to the cart. I don't need an interface. I don't need any navigation, search or category functions. I just need a button that puts the information from the HTML form into the cart and lets people pay for the products. Does it really need to get all complicated or is there an easier way that I am just missing?

(Sorry if this came off as a curt, I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the whole prospect of how to get this working. It sounds like I should be able to do everything I need with ZC, but I would love it if I could clear the superfluous clutter out.)

[Kim]

If we could see what you have designed it would b e easier to give you good answers.