Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

davecuse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 20, 2004
419
0
NYC
I've been playing around with a few carts from SourceForge and I was wondering if anyone has had any real world experience with them.

So far I've tried OSCommerce and ZenCart, and I'm having trouble deciding between the two. Essentially I need to have a store that will be a sort of "Farmer's Market" where I can accept orders for a number of different vendors.

Any suggestions, ideas?
 

ChicoWeb

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2004
1,120
0
California
I've used OS commerce and CubeCart. Personally, I think OSCommerce is by far the best out there. There are all sorts of add-on modules you can get for it as well.
 

logicat2001

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2003
192
0
Minneapolis, MN
I spent a few months delivering a functional site using oscommerce. In late 2004 I found Zen Cart. Guess what? It's time to forget oscommerce and continue with Zen Cart; IMHO it's everything that oSC should be, but isn't.

For anyone who's recommending oscommerce, have you checked Zen Cart out? It's a branch off from the oscommerce project, except that it's got a fantastic Admin GUI (where you can actually edit the text of large portions of your site w/o grep'ing through several hundred text files), plus the visual side of the site is primarily implemented using CSS. That means: you can make sweeping look and feel changes simply by editing a few characters on a single line, in a single css document.

Big improvment. At the very least, do check it out.

Best,
Logicat
 

logicat2001

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2003
192
0
Minneapolis, MN
davecuse said:
Maybe I should just flip a coin
That's an odd response. Why don't you simply download both and try making some changes? Or, even download both and see if you can get them running on your local machine.

I imagine you'll have a favorite, whether it's Zen Cart or osCommerce. That'd be your solution: the one that you can work with more easily.

Best,
Logicat
 

logicat2001

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2003
192
0
Minneapolis, MN
I'm curious to learn what you meant by, "I've been playing around with..." and "So far I've tried..." What have you tried to do? Did you get them both up and running? Have you tried adding product to both ZC and osC? Have you tried editing the layouts of either package? Did you visit the administration console for each?

One beauty of open-source is you can actually spend as much time as you'd like with a package before deciding whether or not it's for you.

A followup: what do you use to edit text files? Are you comfortable on the command line? Do you ever use vi or emacs? Do you use BBEdit or something else (or nothing else)? Are you hoping to simply install this shopping cart package and walk away or are you expecting to tailor it to your needs?

Hope you don't mind the questions,
Logicat
 

jeremy.king

macrumors 603
Jul 23, 2002
5,479
1
Holly Springs, NC
brap said:
The biting sarcasm, and the new avatar just don't work together, y'know?

The sarcasm was intended. With something as important as a shopping cart system powering my site, I would probably rely on my own experience rather than just taking others' word for it...

So you like the tar? Its no Keira thats for sure :D
 

brap

macrumors 68000
May 10, 2004
1,705
2
Nottingham
kingjr3 said:
The sarcasm was intended...
Oh, as ever, but I just thought the usual sarcastic (and highly entertaining) retorts fitted better with Dogbert presiding over. :eek:
So you like the tar? Its no Keira thats for sure :D
Haha... anything's better than yet another bloody Keira 'tar! The face begins to annoy after so much.

Back on topic; davecuse, my host uses cpanel and fantastico. Makes it really easy to test out the three carts they've install scripts for - maybe there's such a system where you are.
 

davecuse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 20, 2004
419
0
NYC
I'm obviously going to spend the time to figure out which will suit my needs best. I have both ZenCart and OScommerce currently up and running in 2 subdomains with my host. I was just hoping to get some input from others who have had a chance to use them in a further capacity than I have had an opportunity to.

The part that I'm struggling with right now is deciding how best to allow multiple vendors to update their own retail offerings which will be integrated into a communal store.

On a side note, there's no need to get all sarcastic and higher than thou, I was just joking with coin toss comment. I hate being spoken down to
 

logicat2001

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2003
192
0
Minneapolis, MN
I was just joking with coin toss comment. I hate being spoken down to
But what if I'm taller?

Sorry that I have nothing to offer w/multiple vendors updating their individual sites. I do know that customizing Zen Cart was gobs easier than osCommerce.

Good luck. I'd love to know what you finally decide to go with.

Best,
Logicat
 

davecuse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 20, 2004
419
0
NYC
logicat2001 said:
I'm curious to learn what you meant by, "I've been playing around with..." and "So far I've tried..." What have you tried to do? Did you get them both up and running? Have you tried adding product to both ZC and osC? Have you tried editing the layouts of either package? Did you visit the administration console for each?

One beauty of open-source is you can actually spend as much time as you'd like with a package before deciding whether or not it's for you.

A followup: what do you use to edit text files? Are you comfortable on the command line? Do you ever use vi or emacs? Do you use BBEdit or something else (or nothing else)? Are you hoping to simply install this shopping cart package and walk away or are you expecting to tailor it to your needs?

Hope you don't mind the questions,
Logicat

I have had a chance to poke around the admin areas of each, they each have their ups and downs. At this point I am leaning toward ZenCart. Once I've made my choice I do plan to customize as much as I see fit. It's obviously going to see a new template, and there are a few other additions I would like to incorporate.

As I'm sure you can all understand time is at a premium, and as I think many here have valuable opinions I thought asking those opinions could save some of my time in this vision quest.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.