Would this scenario work?

If I were to buy PowerStore3, would this work:

Just use the admin as it is.

Not use the front end, as the design is way off the one I need to use. Just thinking it would be quicker to start from scratch rather than try to adapt the CSS.

Change the payment gateway to PayPal Payments standard (remote).

Yes I have access to ALL the WA extensions inc eCart5

I'm just thinking that it would be useful as a readymade Admin backend really in this particular instance.

Is that feasible?

Has anybody actually done this before?

John,

You mean to use the defaul admin pages but with a different(custom) front-end layout?

Originally Said By: Magic

  John,

You mean to use the defaul admin pages but with a different(custom) front-end layout?  

Basically, yes.

But I also want to change the payment gateway to remote PayPal standard.

I don't have that much experience to adjust PS3 settings regarding the payment gateways but you can definetely change the look of your shopping cart.

The easiest way to create your own index and maintemplate layouts and still keep the PS3 CSS files to adjust them when it's necessary.

After 40 hours work I was able to change the front-end layout completely incl. the site emails while the beatiful back-end still remains.

Hi John,

I think the answer depends on whether you'd rather spend several hours grappling with CSS, or several hours grappling with PHP.

My brain architecture is incompatible PHP, so I wouldn't want to mess with that, but I can tell when something looks good and so would do the CSS thing.

I do think that there needs to be PayPal standard built in to the next release of PowerStore. For the monthly cost of PayPal pro, see what you can get for a similar amount here (including PayPal Standard and a choice of 300 design themes) . Of course the downside to that is that you don't own the product, but I don't imagine a client would care too much who he paid the monthly fee to, and the ongoing responsibility wouldn't be yours.

I understand that WA will be adding templates to PowerStore at some point which will add considerable value to the package.

You need to hear from a WA person about your original post and queries.

Originally Said By: neilo

  Hi John,

I think the answer depends on whether you'd rather spend several hours grappling with CSS, or several hours grappling with PHP.

My brain architecture is incompatible PHP, so I wouldn't want to mess with that, but I can tell when something looks good and so would do the CSS thing.  

I'm not really good with either, that's why I use extensions. The front end, as far as I can tell is jut DataAssist plus CSS (plus eCart of course). I already have a design for the front end. It just seems a good solution for the backend. Saves having to build that.

Originally Said By: neilo

  I do think that there needs to be PayPal standard built in to the next release of PowerStore. For the monthly cost of PayPal pro, see what you can get for a similar amount here (including PayPal Standard and a choice of 300 design themes) . Of course the downside to that is that you don't own the product, but I don't imagine a client would care too much who he paid the monthly fee to, and the ongoing responsibility wouldn't be yours.  

This particular client has already agreed a price. The rest of the site is built and now all that remains is the store. So an additional monthly fee will not do in this case. I agree about PayPal Standard for the next addition or even another (separate) edition that concentrates on remote checkouts.

Originally Said By: neilo

  I understand that WA will be adding templates to PowerStore at some point which will add considerable value to the package.

You need to hear from a WA person about your original post and queries.  

Yeah, more templates would be good but I generally do custom designs and you can spend a lot of time adapting a template when, from scratch, can be quicker. They're OK if all your doing is changing a logo or something.

Yes, to hear from WA would be nice!! (hint)

Originally Said By: Magic

  I don't have that much experience to adjust PS3 settings regarding the payment gateways but you can definetely change the look of your shopping cart.

The easiest way to create your own index and maintemplate layouts and still keep the PS3 CSS files to adjust them when it's necessary.

After 40 hours work I was able to change the front-end layout completely incl. the site emails while the beatiful back-end still remains.  

Thanks Magic, that's encouraging.

I still need to hear that I can change the checkout to PayPal standard from within eCart though. Can anybody confirm (or not) that I can do that?

You could replace the checkout with Payments Standard but you will need to take into account the user login part of the checkout. Currently users are required to login to checkout and are forced to do so. If you wanted to keep the order history and other data intact you will also need to force the login.

In addition to this you will also need to make use of an IPN page to insert the order summary and order details to indicate the order was successful. You will want to model the store order summary and details after the ones existing on the confirm page.

If you do it like this you should still be able to use the functionality of the back end for order and user reporting.

Thanks Eric, I think I now have enough information.