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Shopping Mall system


Aodhan

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I've sent out several emails on the developers and general list, and gotten 1 reply (Someone offering to contract.)

 

I can (Admittedly slowly currently) do the programming myself, all I need is a couple of pointers as to what files to look at.

 

I have a new table in the database to hold store owner information, and two new pages created (stores.php in admin and languagesenglish). I can get the new/edit screens to work.

 

Where I am having difficulties - getting a new "top" category to require a store_id. Ideally this would be a drop down box, populated from the stores table.

 

Once I get it set up to where the stores/categories appear correctly and update correctly, then I'll work on notification emails to separate owners upon purchase, and displaying stores/categories/products in proper order on the catalog side.

 

If I need to phrase this differently, please let me know and don't just ignore the post.

 

John

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Where I am having difficulties - getting a new "top" category to require a store_id. Ideally this would be a drop down box, populated from the stores table.

 

Not sure what you mean by this :?

 

Why not make the top category the store name??

Mark Evans

osCommerce Monkey & Lead Guitarist for "Sparky + the Monkeys" (Album on sale in all good record shops)

 

---------------------------------------

Software is like sex: It's better when it's free. (Linus Torvalds)

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Why not make the top category the store name??

 

I thought about this, and I would still need the table for the owner information.

 

What I am looking at doing is hosting stores for other people. So, if a customer shops and buys things from three different stores, I need to split the payments between them. I'd like each store owner to get an email showing what was purchased from their store, myself and the purchaser to get an email showing the entire purchase.

 

I thought about making the top level category the store name, but was unsure about how to correlate the category/store with the information in the store table. I figured it was about 50/50 which was easier, and decided to try the addition of the two pages (stores.php, languagesenglishstores.php), and require any "top" category (Not a subcategory) to have a corresponding store_id.

 

If I go the way of making the category the store, then how/where would I look to associate a particular store with its owner information? Like I said, all I am looking for is a nudge in a direction. I've got good programming skills, just new to PHP.

 

Aodhan

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I wrote a multiple store system based on a store_code assigned to categories and products.

 

This, however, utilizes a single database with only one set of store owner information.

 

It was designed for a company to use on multiple domains, subdirectories, or pointed domain names. Each store is then assigned a store_id code.

 

Only products matching the current store_id could be seen on any given store.

 

Then, a single Admin is used to handle everything.

 

As the main store wanted all orders to be displayed for the customer regardless of which store they purchased from, Account History shows all orders.

 

The only difference between the store was the store face and the store names could be defined individually to appear on orders.

 

I do not believe this contains enough of what you are looking for as you want seperate store owner information for each shop.

 

But you can see this at:

 

http://www.thewebmakerscorner.com/allstores.html

 

The ALL store was setup to show all products using a store code that matched the others.

 

The other shops each have a unique shop_id.

 

Each Category and Product is then assigned one or more shop_id codes to determine which stores they can display on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Greetings, just wanted to bump this topic up and ask if there has been any progress in the development of a mall type application. I want to be able to have multiple shops under this one site and send each of them an email with order info and such.. thanks in advance!

 

8)

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I have been working over the past few months on setting this system up. Currently my system uses 1 DB, each store has it's own set of tables (minus some that are used by all).

 

each store has it own payment system, products list, clients list etc. as well as an admin section....

 

as well I am working on setting it up so clients can set up their own store via the internet. Most of this is done, with a few admin issues to be worked out.

 

I made an initial contribution outlining the work....

 

I am hoping to bring most of it to the current OSC snap shot soon, since I am using an older version (july snapshot).

 

I fpeople are interested in this, have a look at the contribution and email me for more info....

 

cheers,

Peter McGrath

-----------------------------

See my Profile (click here) for more information and to contact me for professional osCommerce support that includes SEO development, custom development and security implementation

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  • 3 weeks later...
I wrote a multiple store system based on a store_code assigned to categories and products.

 

This, however, utilizes a single database with only one set of store owner information.

 

It was designed for a company to use on multiple domains, subdirectories, or pointed domain names. Each store is then assigned a store_id code.

.

 

Are you making your code changes available? This is exactly what I have been looking for!

 

thanks,

 

-beb

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Linda,

 

I looked at what you currently have and it looks great. Do you think you could post the username and password so we can see what the admin side of things looks like?

 

What else do you plan on adding to this?

 

Seperate Store Owne*?fo for each shop?

 

Rich

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The original premis behind this version was to have one store owner with a lot of seperate stores. Each could have it's own look and feel to them, domain name, shared domain names or pointed domain names. The only stipulation was being on the same server.

 

They all then use 1 MySQL file.

 

There is a setting for a unique store name but that is just a title to appear on the orders and in email.

 

The current version also allowed a customer to see all their orders from all the stores and only need one login.

 

Everything was then run by 1 Admin.

 

I am debating on building in the ability to have seperate store settings as that leads to seperate stores and back to where I started from :shock:

 

I will have to give it a think or two and see how to approach this with seperate store settings but everything else the same. And, at the same time utilize the 1 mySQL database and 1 Admin.

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Ok, here is where I am at with my version of this.

 

Stores page(s) on the admin side is done. Ability to enter, edit, delete store name and relevant "owner" information.

 

Drop down menu on products page to select store association (Much the same as the manufacturers dropdown)

 

Currently the "top" level categories I am just creating with the same name as a store, and placing products appropriately. Store ID # is contained with the product information.

 

All tables (So far) have been created/modified.

 

Next step: Splitting email. Basically, each store "owner" gets an email showing purchases from their store, customer and site owner get email delineating all purchases.

 

Following upgrade(s) - Modification to admin side for reporting sales per month by store. This will be used to possibly charge a percentage of sales as part of hosting, as well as show traffic.

 

Aodhan

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Curious if when a person clicks into a store, will they get a page that has a the store blurb? Like a couple paragraphs on history, location, etc.....

 

Something like this...when you click in the store box on left:

 

http://www.livingincamp.com/catalog/default.php

 

What I need on that page is the ability to break the stores main page to have categories and sub-categories, etc....

 

 

Anyways, looking forward to seeing more of your work....

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This is a contribution that REALLY excites me. I have installed several OSC's for clients already, but I would love to feature them all in a mall.

 

Excellent idea that I think would benefit OSC greatly!

 

I have a couple of questions that I think some people are probably thinking about...

 

So is it or will it be possible for a user to browse and add products to their cart from multiple "shops" and then pay for them all at once, having the back-end split the payments out to the correct store? If so, will the email invoice let them know of this? In other words will the invoice itemize the total purchases by each store purchased from? I see this as an important aspect since the user will have not just one but several charges to their CC. Will this also allow shop owners to have different payment gateways?

 

Will this offer the ability to search products both by store and mall wide?

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Additionally.... and I don't know if you are going to like this suggestion but....

 

I think the mall system should NOT change the standard tables already in OSC. The reason for this is that I am concerned that it could impact the ability to update to newer versions of OSC as they are released. Rather, I think the approach should be to use what we have, and make the mall system call these functions as an external system. Don't know how it would be worked out, but it would seem to be a better method in terms of total design.

 

 

My concerns extend to other issues as well. Since it is still possible for a user to "kill" the db from within the admin, I would worry that a large mall system built with your current methods would be dangerously open to data corruption. If one person does something stupid it could possibly kill everyone else's store that is a part of the system. (maybe I am incorrect, but it appears quite possible). The admin unfortunately is far from dummy proof, as I have found out on several ocassions. I have had to spend countless nights "fixing" dumb mistakes by users (people I have installed OSC for) that are just "playing with functions".

 

So... really the way I picture an IDEAL mall system is....

 

- have each store install a sharing module that will allow the store to communicate with the mall.

- Have the mall system then communicate with the sharing module.

 

 

Just a thought but it seems that this method would make the mall system more scaleable too, since under this system you could ALSO include shops that are not on the same server.

 

Unfortunately this would mean all but scrapping your current work. :?

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So is it or will it be possible for a user to browse and add products to their cart from multiple "shops" and then pay for them all at once, having the back-end split the payments out to the correct store?  If so, will the email invoice let them know of this?  In other words will the invoice itemize the total purchases by each store purchased from?  I see this as an important aspect since the user will have not just one but several charges to their CC.  Will this also allow shop owners to have different payment gateways?

Will this offer the ability to search products both by store and mall wide?

 

The shopping cart is universal, and since these are "virtual" stores, rather than creating a separate system, it works the same as the regular checkout. The invoice to the customer will show all products purchased. I hadn't considered breaking it down by store, but I do like that idea.

 

There should only be one charge to the CC. The MALL owner receives the payment, and is responsible for distributing payments to the SHOP owner. I am still working out how the shipping charges will be handled.

 

And, since it is still basically the same shopping cart system, the search function should remain the same and be able to search store and mall wide.

 

Aodhan

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Just curious .....when do you think this code may be available?

 

Hmmm...the basics of it (What is currently done plus the email splitting) I should have done and ready for field testing in 1-2 weeks. The extended administration stuff (Store totals, etc) will take a bit longer, maybe a month after that, less if I get some uninterrupted time soon.

 

If anyone wants to just look at the raw, unpretty stuff, I could have that done in a day or two.

 

Aodhan

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The extended administration stuff (Store totals, etc) will take a bit longer, maybe a month after that, less if I get some uninterrupted time soon.

 

I should add, I plan on having my store live before I totally finish the admin stuff. Since it most likely will be low volume to start, and I am not charging my test stores initially, a lot of the monthly total stuff will start out being done by hand.

 

Aodhan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Linda,

 

Do you think there is any way that I could get a copy of the code you have written for this, I really want to try it out, and add to it. I have multiple domains and each store is similar, different look most products are the same though and I only need 1 admin instead of 13. It is a realy pain to be checking 13 admin sides a couple times a day ;)

 

Let me know,

 

Rich

[email protected]

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As soon as this is actually doing what it's suppose to then I can post the code. :D

 

I still have a number of changes/settings that have to be addressed before this is fulling functional.

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Additionally.... and I don't know if you are going to like this suggestion but....

 

I think the mall system should NOT change the standard tables already in OSC.  The reason for this is that I am concerned that it could impact the ability to update to newer versions of OSC as they are released.  Rather, I think the approach should be to use what we have, and make the mall system call these functions as an external system.  Don't know how it would be worked out, but it would seem to be a better method in terms of total design.

 

Agreed - Everything should be modular.

 

I have a demo system (non-osCommerce) that basically displays my SINGLE product inventory on 3 different shopfronts, while I have also added a 4th shopfront using a totally different inventory but within the same little group... and as you can imagine this is very complicated to admin!

 

What would be ideal is the ability to:

 

I spose this is just a big wish list...

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A lot of these things are already in the system I am trying to complete.

 

Some of these features would have to be customized later or there is a simple fix to make those things happen.

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