adding items to the cart via flash? anyone tried?

spence88mph · #1 01-11-2006, 07:01 PM

Hi Guys and Gals,

I want to add xcart to an existing flash site.

All I want the flash to do is add the items to the cart, then when someone wants to checkout they will go through a cuistomised xcart checkout.

Has anyone tried this?

Cheers

Spence

balinor · #2 01-12-2006, 04:12 AM

Flash is not recommended, as Search Engines can't read it, and people tend to disable it. But if you insist, you can probably use the html links for the add-to cart functionality. Problem is, if they go back and forth between the flash and X-Cart, they stand a good chance of losing their cart and/or login sessions.

spence88mph · #3 01-12-2006, 02:42 PM

Good Point about the timing out etc Padraic.

I have never been a fan of flash but many of my clients are demanding it now. It really is hard to ignore it's advantages presentation wise over html/php/asp, it's technology we are going to have to embrace or be left behind. Also Google can read flash now.

Spence

balinor · #4 01-12-2006, 02:47 PM

Oh don't get me wrong, I agree that it can be a great presentation tool...but in moderation and in key areas. Good uses of Flash in an E-commerce site:

- Header graphic
- Intro page graphic
- Detailed view of a product/item

Google can read Flash to a certain extent, yes. But if you put a Flash site up against a standard html/css site with the same content, the html site will out-rank the Flash site every time hands down.

spence88mph · #5 01-12-2006, 03:27 PM

yeah I agree, I'll alos always go for the html version of a site if given the choice because I just dont care about the animation etc, I got better things to do than wait for stuff to load!

do you know how to find out what the html links are that are being sent to the cart? I imagine it would be the product id, then quantity or something? all I see is an extra 'add' in the browser.

balinor · #6 01-12-2006, 03:32 PM

Exactly

As for the html links, you can generate them in X-Cart. Go to the 'modify products' screen, and search for something. On the results page, you will see a 'Generate HTML Links' option for a checked item. Test it out, you'll see the options given to you on the next screen.

Just learned about this myself the other day, looks like a nice little feature

spence88mph · #7 01-12-2006, 03:38 PM

awesome! thanks mate!

coylee · #8 01-13-2006, 01:52 PM

There ya go..... just do that....generate the html code. With that you can then load it into flash. Not sure how well the session is going to remain though as I haven't tested this yet myself.

eastman · #9 03-17-2006, 09:29 AM

Thanks for the referral to the HTML Links tool. I'm doing a similar project but in HTML not Flash. Can anyone tell me how I could modify the form that is generated to allow more than one item to be added into the cart with a single button?