AgoraCart Free User Forums

I tried to find an Agoracart Support phone number to call, but I guess I wasn't looking in the right place. I run an online store (Bigstep is my current host) with online ordering, shopping cart, credit card processing, etc. and I am thinking of switching web host services to Lunar Pages. They use Agoracart for their shopping cart, but I have a couple of questions:

1. I contacted Lunar Pages and they said that I had to design my website and pages right down to the product, size/color selection and even the "Add to Cart" button. Is that as far as I need to go to use Agoracart?

2. Do I need to create my own "Order Forms" and checkout pages? Or are these done by Agoracart?

3. My merchant account is currently with Card Service International and I use Linkpoint to process credit cards. I see that Agoracart uses Linkpoint as one of their gateways. What will I need to do to process credit card orders?

Any answers are appreciated. I wish there was one place to go that said "This is what you need to do to run an Online Store." but I have not found one, so I am asking questions as I go.

Thanks,

The Rodmaker

well i will answer a few of your questions as quickly as possible.... as for the designing and integrating into your store.... there are a couple basic files you ahve to edit... you'll have to edit the store header and footer files which will then be used on the all pages genereated by the cart... also you can update the productpages to the layout of your choice... if you have options with each item then you'll have to created an option file as well.... which can then be inserted (via the cart) into the productpage.... so once you complete editing those files to your liking then when agora runs it takes your header file then puts in the product stuff and any options then the footer (for pages which are displaying products).... basically you have free rain of how you wanna create your design.... i don't think there has been a design that agora hasn't been able to be integrated into... as for the gateway file... there is a basic linkpoint payment gateway.... you can use the stanard setup or you may customize it to your likings.... as for the steps of processing orders with linkpoint i cannot help you there as i have yet to run a store with that payment gateway... i use Offline and ProPay on the stores i've setup and in that cause i use the Offline payment gateway then collect the info from the order log and/or the email and then submit the transaction though ProPay manually....

now if you don't want to integrate your design into the store you can contact Mr. Ed (the keeper of the code) and i believe he has an option in the store for integrating agora into your site for a minimal fee.... but i would recomend going at it yourself.... may take a little bit of work but it's worth it in the long run....

your best bet is to download the setup files by clicking on the Download Now link to the left and just install it on your webserver and just play around wiht it a bit... look at the html/form, html/html-templates, and the files inside of the html folder to get an idea of everything.... thats hte main location of the files you'll end up editing.....

hope that helps you out some.... and hopefully we'll be seeing more of you in the forums.....

Best Of Luck!!!!

You might want to take a look at the following tutorial. It will show the basics needed to get a store operational.
http://www.allisonsonline.com/training/agora.cgi