ZenCart: eCommerce Solution (Part 2 of 5)

Steve Waugh — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:25:03 +0000

Once you’ve initially setup your Zen Cart installation you need to start thinking about the products you plan to sell on your website. You need to have a relationship with one or more vendors whose products you will feature and sell. You can even be your own vendor and sell unique products that you’ve designed yourself. Part 2 of this series focuses on setting up Zen Cart for product data import scripts.

I began the data import phase by searching for a Zen Cart import module. My search led me to Easy Populate, a non-commercial module to manage “CSV” data imports. This was a great discovery as the software saved me dozens of programming hours that would have been required to write and debug a custom made script. You will still need to write a script for each vendor in order to format the file exactly to the right specs. Again, this is still much simpler than connecting to multiple SQL tables with a custom script if you don’t already have something like this in your code toolbox.

So, for each vendor I create a custom PHP script to get the product and image data ready for import. The idea behind this is so that the website owners can later go in and perform these inventory updates on their own if they choose to to that route. Ultimately I plan to integrate the data import scripts seamlessly with the eCommerce site. In the end the owners or site administrators will simply need to browse to and upload the correct file and then click on the “Import” button.

Keep in mind that most vendors include product images separate from the actual product inventory. Vendors typically use the product or SKU as the name for each image. I had to request an image CD as well as FTP access in order to get all of the necessary information from each vendor. Then, I created vendor folder under the root images folder, and pointed to the correct image file location during the import.

Data imports do not require advanced knowledge or skills, however, I would not recommend this step to a casual user. You will need a firm understanding on database programming fundamentals. Also, you should be comfortable with the programming language constructs required to assemble a script file. This is a good area to spend money on professional help to ensure that the presentation of your eCommerce site products look good in your customers’ eyes.

I began the data import phase by searching for a Zen Cart import module. My search led me to Easy Populate, a non-commercial module to manage “CSV” data imports.

ZenCart: eCommerce Solution (Part 1 of 5)

Steve Waugh — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:04:52 +0000

We were recently hired by a local client to build build an online, eCommerce shopping website. It didn’t take us long to dive headlong into this project to start researching, installing, and working with the chosen system. The culmination of our endeavors has led us here, to the path of zen, the open source Zen Cart solution. This will be the first of five articles devoted to the project’s evolution. It’s going to be an exciting few weeks for everyone involved.

It started with a meet and greet at Starbucks, and after some conversation and coffee, we were challenged with a simple request. Design an attractive online shopping site to increase sales, marketing, and brand identity. Luckily, that’s just what we focus on here at the shop. We’re actually very excited to be working with our newest client.

To embark on the project we analyzed all existing and future eCommerce systems. We’re used to consuming large amounts of information, mostly via documentation, each day around here so research is a welcome and embraced friend of the shop. Next, we asked our friends and associates questions, posted questions in forums, and generally just sniffed around to see what smelled the best. Our path led us on a peaceful journey. We walked down the path of Zen.

Zen Cart is an open source eCommerce software solution. It manages all facets of running an online business. This ensures optimum confidence when doing business in a 24x7x365 environment. It takes away the complexities and delivers exactly what you need to run an effective storefront. Even more impressive is the fact that development on the product continues to leap forward. There’s a buzz around it and it’s continued development and use is all but ensured for quite some time to come. We’re happy to be on that journey with other web developers.

OK, in Part 2 we will focus on product installation, configuration, and security analysis.

CrazyWebFoo Design Blog » eCommerce

ZenCart: eCommerce Solution (Part 2 of 5)

ZenCart: eCommerce Solution (Part 1 of 5)