AgoraCart Free User Forums

Hello All! - my first post after reading through the forum over the course of several days. I installed Agoracart on my ISP's test area, so far I've got everything working. But. . .

I currently have a web site consisting of over 500 pages, we've been online since 1995. Windows server, SSL for offline card processing.

What I cannot find, is a means to display products as they currently are on the site. So many shopping carts seem to follow the same overall format, as if they were designed by people that do not actually sell online (just my opinion FWIW, just like I think dishwashers were designed by people that actually don't wash dishes...).

A typical page on my site:
http://www.sheetmusic1.com/a14a.henle.beethoven.html
(view source for how forms are processed, feel free to place bogus order all the way through, can't hurt anything)

I would like to have actual categories, as the above, no (or few) graphics. I have all of this now, but no cart system where the final checkout page lists items a customer can add/delete.

Can Agoracart be adapted and configured to an existing site like mine? Is what I need in the "pro" area, should I sign up for it and then I'll find solutions?

Any feedback would be very much appreciated. I've been beating my head against a wall (so to speak) for a long time on this issue, as the web site has grown way past what it originally was, and people do expect a shopping cart system. We receive around 4,000 unique visitors per day, orders are stored on SQL database via .asp and retreived via .asp on SSL, income from this site has become my full time job.

Agoracart looks great, a lot of folks have given much time in developing this cart! And Perl makes a heck of a lot more sense to me than asp or .net VBasic.

I would gladly build an entire new site on Propellerhead. Certainly a lot cheaper than what I currently pay, and it is set up for Agoracart. Should I??

hell-o
well, you came to the right place.
first, agora wont run on a windows server.
second, agoracart is highly adaptable and customizable.
third, toss the dishwater out with that observation LOL
you can run a "static" store. but your best bet is to run a dB store for complete control and functionality. you can use your existing pages for SE friendly products pages. provide a link to the product in the dB (not category) then once the client is in keep em there until the purchase is done. this will assure there will eliminate the possiblilty of errors in maintaining state (losing cart contents and etc).
there are a variety of productPage.inc files (layouts to display your products) of which are several you can incorporate and customize for image free display. you can even call the ppinc of choice through coding or through links.
you can customize every aspect of agoracart to match your current layout and design.
the approach i would use is info out side of the store as you have it. but use your store as clearly a means for selecting and purchasing the music. in other words the client reads all about what you have to say and offer outside the store and when they're ready to purchase they know to go into the store browse and select according to category then check out.
the trouble with "add to cart buttons" is maintaing state. by going in and out of the store as a matter of course there is only one means to track the client's cart contents, cookies. if they have cookies blocked then all is lost when they leave the store directory.
my personal opinion is not to have a domain on a windows server. windows servers are the focus of attacks even more so than linux systems. further, there are often unpredictable results with many program written for internet use.
you most certainly may use "buy now" buttons. here is a store i'm mentoring which utilizes this method:
http://www.avedastore.com
it works very well but has some minor problems as it's still under deveopment. in addition there are many stores on the net that use agoracart in this manner.
regards,
dan

Dan, thanks for the response and ideas. I've been working at The Cart, and it is impressive. There seem to be many capabilities that I kinda understand exist, but it will take a while to explore and figure out.

Took a look at your web hosting. Looks real good, I'll be signing up once I get a Cart that I'm happy with. What's with such low rates? :shock:
I've been paying $100 per month for hosting, looks like maybe I've been paying a bit much for the past 10 years. Guess I'm loyal to my ISP, and, maybe this is a typical rate per month for Windows NT/IIS/SQL.

Actually, I decided to build the cart based on one of the product categories (piano benches and supplies) that I have on my current Windows hosted site. I own several domain names, don't see any reason why not to use one that is specifically tied to the product.

As a true Klutz, I found a helpful means to get a grasp of Agoracart. I have Adobe Acrobat (the old purchased version that makes pdf out of any file), and spent half an hour making pdf copies of all files in the demo site folder. So. . . when I come across any phrase or script that is puzzling, I just do a search with Acrobat, and it shows me every file that contains the search phrase. Helpful for the "whatthehelldoesthisdo" challenged.

I need to clarify something in the above, in case someone thinks the Acrobat idea would be helpful. Don't want someone to spend time on something, only to not have it work!

I have the Adobe "Catalog" for Acrobat, which indexes a folder, allowing a search which will cover all pdf files within a folder. "Search" via Acrobat then lists all files within the folder that contain the word(s), so it's easy to see how one particular phrase effects what happens on another page. I use this same process for my web site. When one of the thousands of items I sell goes out of print, I do a search and can tell which static pages on the web site contain the item. The same product (music collection) might be on several different web pages. This allows me to remove the collection wherever it exists. (for example, the same Elton John collection might be listed on the Elton John page, on an Easy Piano page, on a Rock page, etc.). Getting off subject here, better go. . .

hell-o
thanks for checkin out my hosting. no complaints yet. well...nobody lived long enough for them to pass them on. :-))
why so low? if ya really want i can charge ya 50 bucks a month. save ya 50% heh heh.
i started cartsolutions.net after getting involved with agoracart. my mission is to help those who really don't know a lot about html, ecommerce and the net in general. i see so many people with so many hopes with so much energy and i want to help them. so does mr ed. so do all the contributers in the forums.
there are a lot of land mines out there. i have seen many heartbreaking situations. there are a lot of hurdles. a lot of unethical people. i do what i can when i can as much as i can while i can. LOL
anyways, anytime you're ready just holler.
merry christmas!
dan