integrating ecommerce (catalog, cart, backend admin) with existing website.

Hi. I want to add an online shop to an existing website. I want to be able to fully integrate the system within my existing dynamic template and I need full control over the CSM - that is, be able the customise the CSM how I or my customer wants (and not how the eCommerce solution dictates).

(Note, I am building my first website for an friend and doing it for experience. I'm learning as I go and have no formal training. I am ok with HTML and CSS and just starting with PHP and MySql. I would be happy to try to build my own eCommerce solution over time, however I do have a deadline. So I'm looking to get some up and running quickly, then I will go back to studying the code later).

I installed osCommerce and thought I could simply integrate it with my site, however it has been explained to me that osCommerce is not meant to be integrate with an existing site, it is a complete site within itself and although I could just customise osCommerce's template to mirror mine and then link it, this is not what I want. Also it is quite difficult to manage the catalogue content on osCommerce as I can't change the fields to what I want.

My site is fairly basic, with a main nav consisting of Home, Shop, Articles and About us. The content of these pages is 'included' with PHP on the index.php. As it is only four pages, it is not a big deal to make them static, but I would rather keep them dynamic if I can, (if only for the exercise). So this means, whatever eCommerce solution I use, it would need to integrate into the site in this manner. Also I would like to be able to move any modules around (outside of the eCommerce solution's template) to any page as I see fit. Does anyone know of any (open source) solution that would suit me.

Basically I think I just need some basic open source code that can create a catalog, cart and backend admin where I can upload a csv file to populate the database.

Any ideas?

 

Hello,
I can help you in this work..

 

Hi, I apologise in advance if this is not what you mean, but if you are soliciting for work, than I am not interested. Otherwise, of course any help would be appreciated. That's why I'm here.

 

Search the forum to find a ton of custom scripts for eCommerce product management, shopping cart and checkout. You can also try WooCommerce. It goes well with existing sites.

 

Thanks AshRoy. Will check that out.

 

Hi Perfect Circle - it depends the level of customisation you want.

eCommerce systems are usually not the easiest to customise.

When I ran my web design company, I used to offer a shopping cart solution using a premade template for 2.5k. If the customer wanted a custom design, the cost would be 10k. It is very expensive to create a custom design because:

1. You have to design 5 templates - home, product listing (category page), product page, content page, cart/checkout
2. Once designed, each page needs to be coded into html
3. Once it's html, the code needs to be implemented into your shopping cart system

I believe your best option is a WooCommerce store with a great template that suits the industry you are working in. Then customise the template to make it personal to your clients business. I've made a product about how to do it actually. If you are interested, check out the link in my signature

 

Thanks for your replies.

I thought Wordpress was only for blogging sites. Can it be used to build 'traditional' style sites too, that is, sites with a home/splash page and nav to over pages on site?

I was thinking about using Joomla. Can I install it on my current site, then install whatever modules I want - like VirtueMArt - or must I use a Joomla template first, then customise it. If the later, are Joomla template fairly malleable, i.e. can I only just modify the CSS, or can I restructure the template however I want or will that break any new module's ability to install correctly.

I assume with Wordpress, since Holopainen, you said "consider on tailoring WordPress to your site", that I can install it on my current site, then install whatever modules I want. Is that right?

I know there will be many opinions on this, but which is better, Wordpress or Joomla, for building a site where the main objectives are branding and eCommerce. Aside from the products for sale, the other content is not likely to change often.

 

I think the best way to do this is to install wordpress, and build a theme from scratch the same as you existing design and then install plugins for ecommerce. If you consider using joomla then I would recommend you not to do so because I believe its the CMS that has been more hacked! so you dont want that if you are running an online business! the other option is to build your own cart system for the existing web site, but that is not the way you should go if you just started learning PHP & MySQL.