Thread: shopping carts

hello, I have recently started to build my site again and i am having trouble with the shopping cart, I know how to configure all of it and I have read and watched all the tutorials but i think I am missing something. My cart is for portrait purchases online, I have built a page for ordering in which my clients can look at thier portraits in the my albums page then go over to the order page to select the size or package they want, my problem lies here, how do i have them tell me the portrait number they would like in the size they would like it in. If i do not figure this out i am going to end up taking payment for a whole lot of wallets and not knowing which pose they are wanting. Is there a way to do this and if so how. Please any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated, it is the last page I need to complete. cyoungman with oncephotography.net

cy

Can you add an editible text box for the size? Im not currently working in OSC, so Im in the dark here, but, can you add a second variation?

Karen

I have no idea, this is the first time I have ever tried something like this and to be honest, I have read all the tutorials but basically i put my whole site together by just playing around, I think it looks good but, I did just trial and error. Now I am at a loss.

What shopping cart are you using? If we know that, we might be able to help you.

I am using the carts in soholaunch,

OK, you put this in the oscommerce thread - and I didn't think it was the oscommerce cart. It's been awhile since I used Soho - but Karen is using it for a site - when she comes back on, she should be able to help you.

Cy

When you are in your Soho admin section/cpanel. Click on shopping cart, and here is where you add your categories and products to the actual cart. When building or editing a product, soho has a tab Price Variations. Now you dont have to change the price, but you can add featured variations there as well. Simply type in what you want those to be. There is a very good tutorial on this in the soho launch section to give you the basics, and if you still cant get it... Just ask, Ill try to help you further.

Karen

OOPS forgot the link to the tutorials!

http://www.vodahost.com/soholaunch.htm

Karen

Cy,

One more thing. Each portrait or portrait package should be an individual product. You can make different categories for different styles of portraits and then place the combos under the category. Once you do this you can go back and make outer pages like i did at www.grannyscountrynook.com and display up to 30 products on a page that link to the shopping cart. Also, I believe you can add comments on the check out page, and you can direct them in your product descriptions to comment any variations they'd like that arent listed on the order form.

Karen

ok I am a retard because i did that and watched every tutorial there is i am still not getting it. I am to the point where i am just taking the stupid page out and just having them e-mail me with there order and I will drive wherever they are at to collect my payment. I am on the verge of tears here. i do not konw what to do.

I was having the same problem so I made a subdirectory and opened a new site called mystore using soholaunch and it is perfect! gives your cart tons of options, colors sizes anything you want. Best of all it was all free with bluevoda! I had to read 2 tutorials on how to set up a sub directorory and install soholaunch since I am a total novice but its worth checking out. EZ shopping cart with options. Good Luck

Slow down, calm down - you'll get it - you have soho already installed, correct? The problem is how to configure it so they select the correct options? Let's make sure we have the exact problem - then I'm sure we'll get it configured -

Soho is installed and all of my socalled set up for shopping cart is done. I have 10 catagories with 33 products. All my packagesare the 33 products. i have gone into the shopping cart main menu, put in the tax rate basically everything. Here is where the problem is. It currently has a buy now button do now want that so i tried to cahnge it to quantity button. but it does no good to have this option if I do not know what portrait they want. so i tested it the way it is and it says "page cannot be displayed." and there is no checkout button. i have been working on this page for 3 days i am about to throw it away. I am just not getting it

I even tried to do what karen said to do in the last two threads she posted in response to me, and it is still not working.

Cy

The quantity button should appear on the actual product page anyway. It sounds like you have tried to reconfigure one of the php include files to do something differently, and that might be part of the problem. go to the shopping cart and click on edit products, then scroll down to find a product or type in its name. when you get to that product, click on modify, then the original screens pop up where u added the product. On the third tab is price variations, and even tho is says 'price" you can put other things in there. Are u in the US? if you are you can pm me your number and I can try to walk u thru it. Honestly, I think your customizing things MAY have thru things off kilter. Whats the link to the store, ill try looking from there.

Karen

the link is www.oncephotography.net then ordering then from there good luck. I seriously think it is pointless. but if you can help me to get it to work i would love you forever. I am desperate to get his site running.

cy

Ty for offering your undying devotion! I took a peek or two and your links from your products to your cart is a customization error. Did u do this customizing or did you pay to have it done?

In all honesty, youd be better off removing the customization and using the soho itself, as The stark black pages with the lil purple box for navigation is extremely hard to navaigate. And adding your product straight to the cart, which is a GREAT built in option, took away your ability to add MORE or display variations, in my opinion. Im no expert, but, i think your customization has caused your problem. Instead of linking straight into the cart, I think you should link to the product and do away with the BUY NOW that you are trying to customize in there. I think you would also do better customizing the template, than to customize and do away with a feature you need. On the one page i went into, or that i could get into without a password, there were only three products there. Anyway, if you have made this page outside of the cart, which im not sure if you have done i believe its your links

<td colspan=2 align=left valign=top class=text BGCOLOR=WHITE>
<a href="shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=1&=SID"><img src="images/" width= height= border=0 align=left vspace=2 hspace=3 alt="Click Here for Product Details!"></a><FONT STYLE='font-size: 8pt;'>Grow with us package 1 child 1 package per month for one year and includes all session fees.<BR><DIV ALIGN=LEFT>
[ <a href="shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=1&=SID">More Information</a> ]</DIV></FONT>

You are going to need to change those to full links as opposed to relative links :

<a href="http://www.oncephotography.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=18=SID>

If you can change your links to your full url i think you will be ok. And if you want to continue to use the splash page, I would fill it up with pictures of product. ONline sales are extremely visual!! Hard to get them to punch that button without SEEING, and given the perception of FEELING!

What scares me, is what are you trying to HIDE in the sign in pages that is so graphically disturbing that you cant present to the general public? If they are that graphic, I would just talk about a gallery of private works is available upon request and not link to it at all from the navigation.

Karen

Coby

Dont forget to email or contact support for your cPanel login information and your server information so when I come over on saturday I can help you get all of this fixed.

Karen