Can Php be integrated into my BV site?

LaurieBee81 · #1 11-24-2007, 07:17 AM

Hi everyone,
I'm completely and ridiculously new to trying to set up pages, and of course I had to want to start an ecommerce store on my first try. I feel like I've been researching for weeks trying to understand my options here, and I really wanted to design something unique on BV instead of using the pre-made templates on Oscommerce or Soholaunch. Is there a way to integrate the tools provided by the ecommerce solutions/shopping carts etc. such as newsletters, stats and customer records with a personal design? I just can't seem to grasp how these things might be applied other than independently.
Thank you!
Laurie B
#19007

Karen Mac · #2 11-24-2007, 06:52 PM

Laurie

You arent limited to those premade templates in soholaunch. If you visit the addons they have 100's of new ones and many of them free. You can also easily customize menus, and Ive just made anew contact for flash headers and flash menus that will work with soholaunch.

The easiest way to do a mailing list and newsletter is to subscribe to a paid service. This eliminates some huge issues. One is integration.. you wont need to do a thing except login like you do cpanel. Second one is spam, opt ins and opt outs. Your isp can shut your connection down for sending 25 mails out at one time. Your domain can easily get black listed and blocked, so your mail wont ever arrive. Even if you used soho or something with it prebuilt its still advisable to use a paid service to prevent the spam issues. The range of services goes from 5 to 10 bucks a month to several hundred depending on the kind and volume of mail you intend to send and the bells and whistles you want. To start a lower end method would be a wise investment just not to have to deal with the spam issues. They will also handle all of your subscription issues.

Stats.. I use google analytics and stat counter.com and cpanel stats to track customers, browsers, keywords etc. All of them are easy to use and to integrate.. well ok.. google takes a bit of reading to understand, but you just copy and paste some code to your site.

You can adapt bv to php and use many of the scripts available with php such as forms etc and data base records, but starting out, its still going to seem rather independent as you have to apply it all to integrate it.

It all seems rather overwhelming to start. Take it just one step at a time. Before you go into in depth building.. really investigate what you want to use for the cart, what you can live or without and what you are willing to do and learn to use it.. then.. the HOW to build will follow.

The EASIEST way by far for the novice is soholaunch for ecommerce because alot is done for you and you dont need alot of html or coding knowledge. Take a peek at the addons site before you totally discard it.

http://addons.soholaunch.com/

Karen

Bethers · #3 11-24-2007, 06:57 PM

And, just to give you more to think about - yes, you could build the site entirely in BV - designing it exactly how you want - but only if you are willing to use a shopping cart like CartManager or Mal's. The stores in my signature are made in BV using CM.

navaldesign · #4 11-24-2007, 10:34 PM

Also have a look at http://www.udorts.com/nsutelevisions.html to see a cart built entirely in BV using php/mysql. Of course, the visual part can be completely cusomized to be excactly like the rest of the site, if you need it to look like that.

Karen Mac · #5 11-24-2007, 11:16 PM

Naval..

That looks great.. except for the customer sign in.. I have to do it again at paypal it doesnt populate it for me. I find that more customers like NOT having to register unless its for special pricing. If you could make it work without that.. that would be terrific.

Karen

navaldesign · #6 11-24-2007, 11:20 PM

It is possible, however that is a standard feature of most carts, so that returning customers don't need to fill in info each time. registering also allows the site owner to make special offers and mail customers about new products etc.

Karen Mac · #7 11-24-2007, 11:24 PM

Naval

Yes i know.. i shut it off everytime. When i shop i hate it, i know others do too. I have an opt in for that if i can or an opt in newsletter, and also on the reciept i have links to the opt in. In most cases you will find they dont like that.. and then.. if you are using paypal, you have to type it all in again as it doesnt carry over unless you integrate paypal with the api codes, then it will. So signin in this case really makes twice the work, just my opinion .. check around with other stores tho.

Karen

navaldesign · #8 11-24-2007, 11:33 PM

Karen,

i ONLY pass over to PayPal the order nr and amount. Then Using PayPal's API i recieve back the Order nr and Amount (as well as other standard PayPal info like customer email, name, country). From his point on, the script has already all necessary details. you DON'T need to provide any details in PayPal, unless you are not a registered PayPal user.

In any case, this is version 1.0 and will be improved over time to allow all those options that most known carts offer, as well as statistics and acounting data. As well as integration with my own IDC (Instant Download Cart) to allow for both physical and downloadable products. With time...

Bethers · #9 11-24-2007, 11:51 PM

Naval, most carts where that's a standard feature, it can be turned off, as Karen said. And you'll notice that you will not find very many big stores that require anyone to become a member or sign in first. I, personally, will only do so on one store - and that's because it's a member only store anyway :) - and I've been doing 99% of my shopping online for about 10 years now.

And, most of the world are not registered Paypal users. Paypal likes people to think otherwise, though :)

Your cart is great - and I'm not saying otherwise - especially if someone intends to only use paypal. But if they want to get a merchant account, will this cart be usable? I do recommend that most people, at some point, add a merchant account.

navaldesign · #10 11-25-2007, 12:03 AM

Beth, excluding the registration is as simple as a click. On the other hand, i will continue to offer the feature, as some site owners need it.

merchant Account: yes, one at a time. For the moment i have already my cart running on a spanish site with TVP merchant account (Deutche Bank). I will offer more options in time. I also found out that these APIs are easier than PayPal to integrate, so yes, i will be adding the most known ones as a standarsd feature for the site Admin to choose from.

As i said, thisis only v.1.0 so there is lot yet to be done. But, the fact that this is going to be a BV made cart means that the user will have practically full control over the site look, and will be able to customize it very easily.

Non VH users will be able to edit through a html editor, or, will be able to use the built in customization features (Logo, header, footer, text, font, colours, background etc)

Bethers · #11 11-25-2007, 01:23 AM

Kewl, Naval :)

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