X-Cart forums

[gregl]

Hi,

I have a new client who wishes to keep their existing site (not ecommerce), but where they currently have links to a html order form (generated by Excel Everywhere) they would like it to link to a page in a shopping cart. As I have built a couple of dedicated XCart sites incorporating the html catalogue, I'm interested if this request is feasible within XCart itself, and if so, is there a thread that I haven't been able to find, that may guide me in the right direction.

Thanks

Greg

[Jon]

Not quite sure what you mean, but perhaps this will help:

You can use a direct link to add a product to the shopping cart, something like: http://www.domain.com/cart.php?mode=add&productid=X&amount=Y

The link would then add the product to their cart and have them entered into the checkout process.

[gregl]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. Since I typed that query I've done a little more thinking and what I'm thinking is perhaps using the static pages option within XCart itself.What I'm looking at, I'll try and explain a little better.

I suppose what I've been concerned about doing was keeping the existing "feel good" pages for each dealer within XCart but that I imagine is what the static page module is for. Would you recommend embedding or keeping these purely html pages outside of the cart?

Background:

This client has 12 independant businesses that have formed into a group to offer product to the auto trade under all the common brands such as FORD, GM, Honda etc etc.
They have a website with a page for each dealer which is a "feel good page" ie who they are, what they do, where they are etc. On each of these pages they currently have a couple of links to their own specials pages which may have a variety of parts on special for that month for each brand. What they wanted to do was change the process where the customer clicked on a specials link which opened up a separate html page with basic order form that the customer can fill in what they require and either email or print it out to fax. No payment is necessary as all customers have trading accounts. I might add they require some decent reporting on which dealer is getting the best benefit, products sold etc etc.

This is time consuming each month and a very convoluted process each time ie create the order form (x 12 different brands) in Excel Everywhere, import into Dreamweaver to pretty up the html etc and post each one onto their site. Once the orders are submitted, it is a manual process to collate the data.

What I was thinking about, I know that XCart can create the necessary html code for each product if I desired, was perhaps linking each specials link to the corresponding category link in XCart ie each category link would be a dealer link instead of a product or subcategory link. Then when that dealer's "category" link was clicked the customer was directed to the items on special for that month. Then the customers uses the normal cart process to add items to his basket and proceed to checkout.

I know I'll still have a bit of work each month uploading the products each month, but it is to one program not three, and the addons such as points redemption, special offers etc can all be easily reported for follow up performance meetings.


Sorry about the longwinded reply

Regards

Greg

[Jon]

There are multiple ways to do it and only you would know which is the best method. Possibly you could add each dealer as a category or manufacturer, and then input the "feel good" information about the dealer as the category or manufacturer description, and add the products for that dealer to that category / manufacturer; then the information and the products are in a consolidated area.

[gregl]

Jon,

I'm glad I asked the question, I wasn't aware that I could put html ie the feel good page, as the description for a category or manufacturer.

That's perfect

Thanks again

Greg

[dunpeal]

Originally Posted by Jon

Not quite sure what you mean, but perhaps this will help:

You can use a direct link to add a product to the shopping cart, something like: http://www.domain.com/cart.php?mode=add&productid=X&amount=Y

The link would then add the product to their cart and have them entered into the checkout process.

Hi Jon,
The link in the above post doesn't work, could you fill me in on what it refers to? I am interested in creating a web app that would allow people to create a beer recipe online using our products. Ideally, this would then be able to import and order form with product IDs and SKUs into X-cart, which would automatically (perhaps magically!) put the order into the shopping cart so they could complete the transaction in X-cart. Is this a pipe dream?

Jason