Large Project, Need Advice!

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SlantS
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Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:08 pm

Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by SlantS »

Hello, I am currently working at a business that is wanting to build a fairly complex website that will be offering thousands of different products.

The design and basic php coding are not the problem. The real question is about the content on the pages within the website.

Does anybody know of any programs or advanced php scripts that are cost effective and will easily integrate with one another to complete the following objectives


Manage 1000+ products including their information and prices

Search website - Search Engine that will search products based on keywords within product pages

Allow Checkout - Advanced shopping / checkout cart connected to a my sql database that is capable of giving estimates, calculating coupons/ coupon codes, calculating shipping, creating invoices , displaying the status of current orders, and displaying previous orders

Log these orders in an ftp database, and send an organized invoice copy to an email that will be specified.

Export archived orders so they can be opened and saved with quickbooks

We would like this website to be very similar to newegg.com

We were looking at a program called printsmith that does all of this and attaches to almost any web server, but their quote was $15,000 - $20,000 more than we are looking at spending.

There are an overwhelming amount of scripts and programs to search through to get all of these features on the same website, not to mention there are far too many features to consider building these programs from the ground up.

I would like to try to eliminate as much trial and error as possible.


If anybody knows of a good program/script that has one or more of these features, please recommend it to me, I am very open to suggestion.

Any other input would be greatly appreciated.
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Christopher
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Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:54 pm
Location: New York, NY, US

Re: Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by Christopher »

There are a number of opensource e-commerce packages like osCommerce and many more commercial packages. The problem always is finding one that closely matches how your business works. Since you are considering an add-on to a printing package I am assuming that you may want the integration. If you are already using the package you mention then using their add-on may be the best way to go.

The question still comes back to how close to your specification do you need? And how much you want to spend. For example, it looks like newegg.com started with Microsoft's example cart and did all the work to customize it to their needs. Shopping carts are actually pretty easy to build. It is the detailed business process functionality that is specific to your business that is difficult.
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Eran
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Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:36 am
Location: Israel, ME

Re: Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by Eran »

Zen Cart is also a nice open source one - http://www.zen-cart.com/
For commercial packages, XCart is pretty nice - http://www.x-cart.com/
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stakes
Forum Commoner
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Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:05 pm

Re: Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by stakes »

blueyon
Forum Commoner
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:53 am

Re: Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by blueyon »

If you want something simple that is easy to code for then I recoommend opencart.com
SlantS
Forum Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:08 pm

Re: Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by SlantS »

http://www.magentocommerce.com/


This is definetly more than I was expecting.
We looked at a few programs with very heavy price tags that still do not offer all of these features.
I have been reading reviews and watching demos. This seems to be on top.
And it is free.
Thanks!
dev008
Forum Newbie
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 3:34 am

Re: Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by dev008 »

Hello Sir,

I am working since laste 3 years on xcart i have gone thought all the versions of xcart. Currently new version of xcart is far far good than any other shopping cart software. The admin panel is easy controllable by any user in the work, it is very much flexible to customize according to the template...
Latest Features of xcart : -

1. Ajax based no need to go to cart page it will automatically added and updated there only you can check the result on the mini cart just located on the right side menu.
2. Customizable localization: multi-language, configurable currency symbol and weight/dimension measurement units, configurable list of states/provinces

XCART rating : 9.9/10 :D :drunk:

regards,
thephpexpert
blueyon
Forum Commoner
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:53 am

Re: Large Project, Need Advice!

Post by blueyon »

Why has no one mentioned opencart?

magento is to bloated and buggy. it wil tke you 9 hours to fix simple bugs!

oscommerce - zen-cart is very old and the projects are pretty mucvh abandoned.
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