Use Zen Cart - but not the database - and other assorted questions

I know this is an odd question, and I've told the client I'm somewhat sure this cannot be done - but I wanted to ask and be 100% sure.

Basically, they wanted a shopping cart set up for their site. We had discussed using ZenCart, but when they found out how much getting a secure server and a merchant account would cost, then had qualms - as they aren't selling anything major at all.

So they were getting set up with a custom-written database (that's already 90% finished) to use to sell the items, and the plan was to use Paypal. However, of course one of the people that helps decide things on the website suddenly decided he doesn't like Paypal, and doesn't want to use it.

Well, seeing as how the custom database is written, and 90% of the products are already in there, the company that's handling the design wants to know if there's a way to use ZenCart, but have it pull in all the information from the already-written database.

I told them I was pretty sure that they would have to set up ZenCart and put all the products in to the ZenCart database - there's just no way around it - but they wanted me to be sure of this.

Also, if they do choose to use ZenCart, they wanted ot know about the "Add to Cart" buttons that can be peppered throughout the site. The site is already 90% complete when the client decided they wanted to use ZenCart. Which, I already know, that if the end user goes shopping and "steps away" from the cart to return to the static site, if they go back to the cart they lose everything (if ZenCart is put in as an "add on" - which it will be, at this point). We decided to circumvent this issue by having the site look for cookies placed by ZenCart and carrying it through every page the end user visits, so if they return they don't lose anything.

So they did a little research, and found that there's something you can place on the "search results" page that will allow people to just add something to the cart - but they don't know how well it works. Would anyone have information on that?

I'd really appreciate any help anyone could give :) Thanks!

Doodlebee, I don't understand. Why would they want to build another database, for ZenCart, when ZC's database works just fine with PayPal? Then the one guy decided he don't like PayPal, so, couldn't they just go with 2Checkout, our some other mod that ZC uses?
If thay want to sell anything online, they will HAVE to get some kink of merchant account, gateway service.
Tell them to just get their head out of their butt, and let you do your job, as apparently, they don't know a damn thing about what they want.:blink:

This simply isn't feasible. Even though it hides it away from most users Zen Cart is fundamentally a database-driven application. To link it to another database you would need to modify the other database to be compatible with Zen Cart and then re-write all the existing database accesses to be compatible with the revised new database. For estimating purposes, I believe that there are 2,157 of them, though I may have missed a few!

Exactly! Then after re-writing EVERYTHING, your going to end up with the same thing that's already included in ZC. Just doesn't make any since.
BTW, my database has 93 tables, with 2,893 records......and that's just on my local server, with just a couple of products for testing.
Ohhh, Doodlebee, what kind of idiots are you dealing with, anyway?

They're called "clients", and we love them really, 'cos they put roofs over our heads and dinner on our plates :yes:

kuroi:

They're called "clients", and we love them really, 'cos they put roofs over our heads and dinner on our plates :yes:

Oh, yea, I know, but sometimes they can be soooooo dumb, and what they're wanting is............well..........already included.
I was just running my mouth (fingers), anyway.

doodlebee,

If the concern is the 90% DATA in the clients database, you could export the data in CSV file(s) and import it into ZenCart using EasyPopulate.

That's quite doable.

Wow! Sorry it took so long to respond! I forgot to set myself up with email notification.

You all made me laugh. And yes, I agree with much of what you say here ;) But when I say I'll ask, I do - even if I already know the answer (you never know, sometimes I'm positive I know the answer, but I've been surprised a couple of times)

I'll pass along this information. I had a feeling that, if we wanted to use the custom database, we were going to have to basically re-write ZenCart just to use it. And I figured we could just use Easy Populate to convert everything and import it - so I'll pass this verification along.

Thanks so much :)