How to install ZC in a Freeway Pro designed site (Apple/Mac)

I have an ecommerce site I designed using Freeway Pro software. This is a WSIWYG software for Mac users. I currently use Mal's e-commerce, which I love. But I don't have a way to track inventory with Mal's. I'm looking for other cart options, and wonder if Zen Cart can work with Freeway Pro software. Has anybody installed it using Freeway Pro? Does it work????

Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!

P.S.
My site is hosted by Bluehost

You may want to do a search for Bluehost on the forum.

I'm interested in using Freeway and Zen Cart together too. Unfortunately, I don't think we can do it... please let me know if you find out otherwise. I'm considering having my information side of my site done on Freeway, then links to purchase will bump them into Zen Cart. It seems a little clunky to do it that way, though.

The answer to this depends on how you are expecting to use the two programs.

Zen Cart is not designed to work as a set of buttons, or shoehorned into another program's template. It can be, and commonly is, set up in parallel or in a /shop folder, and its template can be made to look just like your other site. One thing to watch is that if a customer (not logged in) leaves the shop for the other side for a while, their session will be lost along with anything in their cart. It is possible to code so that another PHP app can maintain the session.

What do you envision Freeway doing, and what do you envision Zen Cart doing?

gjh42:

To answer your questions - basically I have everything designed in Freeway. What I really want is some way to track inventory, which is what I had hoped Zen Cart would do. But it sounds like ZC is sort of overkill for what I need - and may not even work with Freeway anyway. I don't need all their email, coupon, etc. functions b/c I'm using Constant Contact to manage my mailing list. So....

I've also read that you can write a little PHP/remote call script to ping a mySQL database, and you can keep track of your inventory that way.

The main problem is that a lot of the things I sell are one of a kind, so I want to avoid multiple purchases. I would like to have some functionality that, when someone buys the last of an item, the site posts a "sold out" message in place of the "add to cart" button.

I'm using Mal's e-commerce, which I love. I wish Mal would add an inventory function! I would totally pay for it - maybe we can get a group together to lobby Mal for the upgrade!!!

Kim: your cryptic remark led me to do a search for Bluehost in all open forums.... I couldn't find anything bad. Were you trying to warn me about them, or just refer me to the whole Bluehost/Zen Cart combo they offer for free??? I hope it's nothing bad - I have had a good experience with Bluehost so far, but I'm extremely low maintenance. I just upload my site and that's about it. I don't really use any of their features.....