Using ZenCart as a backend

I want to use ZenCart for my websites e-shopping requirements. However, (judging from the questions/FAQs/tutorials I have read so far), it would seem that no one is using it the way I am thinking of using it (which is slightly worrying).

Basically, I do not have an entire catalogue of products for sale - rather a few products and services, which I intend to sell online. Consequently, a lot of the (client facing) user interface is superfluous (i.e. unnecessary) for me.

What I want to do, is to be able to embed "call to action" points in my web pages - for example "Buy Product XYZ now" - which will be presented as a button, and when clicked will bring up DATA (text + images) from the ZenCart regarding Product XYZ. I will use PHP/CSS/Javascript myself to format the retrieved DATA, to position it correctly within my web page.

In other words, once I have set up my products, categories etc (via the admin pages). I want to be able to know which ZenCart API functions to call (in my php scripts) to be able to do things like:

1). Fetch information (description, price, image, associated "accessories" etc) from ZenCart for a specified product
2). Add the Product + any selected "accessories" (if applicable) to the shopping basket
3). Remove an item from the shopping basket
4). Empty the shopping basket
5). Proceed to Checkout
6). Fetch a list of related products - "other users who bought this also bought ..."
7). Process the checkout and return a success/failure code back to my php script.

I will be VERY grateful for tips on how to "embed" ZenCart in the manner I described, as I ahev not as yet found any material that shows me how to do so.

I think it would be easier to use zencart as your main website anyway... Using the EZpages functions, and the ability to "hide" components to quite a flexible degree (via admin, and css mostly), it's possible to have quite an extensive "information only" website, but full e-comm functionality when you need it.

Your proposed method is likely to create huge amounts of work, and risks going pear-shaped - not something you want when customers are trying to give you their money!

Oh... and there's the issue of session tracking...

Your method will cause HUGE headaches when people try to pay online - unless you can keep track of the session on the ZC site, in tandem with your own site!

You may be inventing a real nightmare for yourself here... but I'm not that skilled technically to say this will be the case - perhaps get a view from one of the gurus on this forum.

fairestcape, I think you put it quite nicely.

Takashi, it sounds like you're trying to reinvent the wheel. I suggest you play around with Zen Cart and try different settings from the admin. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get the results you want - or close to it - without doing the extra work outlined.

Your entire list of desired front-end functions is built into Zen Cart already, and even though you may not have many products, your needs cover the general range of e-commerce, which a team of skilled developers has spent years refining. Do you think you can do it better/easier by yourself?
One reason for so many switches in the admin panel is so you can turn off whatever you don't need - I have probably disabled 3/4 of the built-in features for my shop with a couple hundred products in dozens of subcategories. If I decide a feature would be useful, I can quickly turn it on again.

I am using the Symfony framework to devlop my website, so in anycase, I cannot "simply use" the ZenCart user interface as has been suggested earlier.

I DO know what I want (even though it may seem unconventional), so in as much as I appreciate people taking the time to respond to my question - I'd rather find out how how to solve the problem, rather than hear that "it is difficult" or reinventing the wheel - without any technical justifications for such an assertion being proffered.

The Symfony framework (http://www.symfony-project.org/) uses the MVC "design pattern" and is thus responsible for the GUI layer - (and without getting sidetracked) - all I need to do is to supply the data, and the framework/CSS etc takes care of the actual display - and yes, by the way, I am aware that ZenCart has its own templating engine etc.

I sincerely hope that someone knowledgeable (about the ZenCart API and/or db schema) responds to my question with instructions on how to go ahead, along with pointers to the (inevitable) gotchas, pros and cons involved with "hacking" (for lack of a better word) into the ZenCart internals.

Ofcourse if there is a way for me to retrieve the DATA without hacking into the internals (for example there is a ZenCart SOAP API?), then I will be just as interested in that. To an extent, I don't really care about the technical implementation details - I just need the functionality I described above, in order to extract data from ZenCart into my web application framework.

If you're determined to do it this way, you need to study the developers section of the wiki (link above) and learn something about how it works. The devs have spent their time on building a complete solution, not a backend, and have not published a lot of information on using it as a backend.

gjh42:

Your entire list of desired front-end functions is built into Zen Cart already, and even though you may not have many products, your needs cover the general range of e-commerce, which a team of skilled developers has spent years refining. Do you think you can do it better/easier by yourself?
One reason for so many switches in the admin panel is so you can turn off whatever you don't need - I have probably disabled 3/4 of the built-in features for my shop with a couple hundred products in dozens of subcategories. If I decide a feature would be useful, I can quickly turn it on again.

Just to clarify - I WILL be using the admin side of ZenCart as it is - i.e. for setting up product categories, products etc. That does it job very well - and as you pointed out earlier, has been put together by a team who have been doing this for years. That works and I dont need to fix it - besides no one sees the admin panel etc, besides myself. The part I need to integrate into my web application framework is basically the user interaction. At the risk of repeating myself, I need a mere subset of the data that is presented to a shopper via Zencart, and (most importantly), I need to INTEGRATE this into my existing web framework.

Have you approached the Symfony Community for help? They may be in a better position to assist. As your request is unique, I'm not sure if people on this forum will have the time to fully investigate the options. Glenn (gjh42) above, makes probably the best suggestion.

I'm sure that if you offer to pay for expertise, there may be takers.

Good luck with your project - it sounds fascinating!

Takashi Im sure you have read this,
ZC is not designed for this,
you will be much better off finding something else that will suit your needs,

There is no formal Zen Cart API, SOAP or otherwise. Some functions, such as displaying a products information page or putting it straight in a cart can be achieved by mimicing the URLs that Zen Cart generates (we use that to move back and forth between a flash front end and a Zen Cart back end at https://www.goateesaver.com), but there's no real documentation on this since Zen Cart is designed as an integrated package.

The database scheme can be found here.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I have had a look at the underlying code + db schema, and it really is not worth the effort involved to integrate the two that way.

Regrettably, I have decided that the "lesser evil" is to "roll my own" (a Symfony plugin to handle all of my e-commerce requirements). This will simply slot into my existing Web app framework. This is slightly less work than my previous intent - however, at least it will not be hack - so maintenance should not be an issue going forward.

Once again, thanks for your help.