使用购物车插件或预建系统

Question

Hi we're currently working on a system whose function is to support the core process of our department which is scheduling of classes.

Now, we need a store functionality for selling those classes. I currently need to decide whether to use a separate system for that or use a plugin to integrate a store module. I'm just weighing the advantages and disadvantages between the two approach.

With the incorporation of a module, I find it hard to decide what module to use. By the way, we're using cakephp so it's better if the plugin is compatible with it. I checked the ones available for cakephp like vamcart but it seems it hasn't been updated since 2 years ago. I'm also considering how easy it is to build on top of it. Also I think the main disadvantage of using a plugin is having the develop things on your own. Not like using a system like opencart or magento where you can addon plugins.

With the other option of using a separate system, I think the main advantage of this is the separation of concern. But the main problem is how will the two systems communicate or share data. I think the simplest solution is to make them share a database. It's a hack but as long as they don't break each others logic then this would be fine. The other way is to expose an api. This is ideal but takes more time. Or, I could potentially just customize it to incorporate the scheduling of classes I mentioned earlier. But not sure if it's easy to do.

What do you think? If I could just find a good plugin that would be fine. But in the ideal case, what store system can you suggest (magento, opencart, oscommerce, ...) that I can use. My main consideration for the ease of communication with the other system.

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

In the past, I've looked into CakePHP cart plugins, and I've done a couple of sites with Magento... I wouldn't recommend either.

CakePHP cart plugins: as far as I know (and I've looked into it thoroughly), there are none that are decent and regularly maintained. Forget that.

Magento: It's huge and slow. You end up using only a fraction of it's features. It's not too bad if you're doing exactly what it wants you to do, but the minute you want to do anything outside the box, it's a nightmare. (I'm sure it's easy for a seasoned Magento dev, but not for a CakePHP dev on their first or second Magento project!)

I haven't used opencart, oscommerce, etc, but I imagine it would be a lot of work to make them share a database with CakePHP and play nicely together.

So... what should you do?

Well, I've built a couple of custom web shops in CakePHP, and it's actually a lot easier and less time consuming than you might think. And the best part is that you have control over everything, and can build it exactly according to your needs.

In my opinion, there are three major daunting factors in building a custom solution (at least there were for me the first time):

1. IT'S A HUGE JOB. (No, it's not. You're not re-building something like Magento. You're building a system that caters to your specific needs only. There's lots of example database structures for simple eCommerce solutions online, and you can tweak them to suit your needs. You'll likely only need a handful of tables - 5 to 10 or something.)

2. COMMUNICATING WITH THE BANK / TAKING PAYMENTS. (It might sound hard, but it's not. The payment gateway's all provide decent example code for how to integrate with common programming languages, including PHP.)

3. CALCULATING VARIABLE SHIPPING COSTS. (This probably is a bit of a pain - luckily so far I've been able to get away with fixed rate shipping, so I haven't had to tackle it. And if you're selling classes, it sounds like you won't need to deal with shipping either)

I'm very confident building your own custom solution in CakePHP will be easier, and better, than integrating with some other system.

Good luck with it!