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Suggestions on adding eCart to previously developed html site...

Thread began 3/19/2009 5:49 am by chris373651 | Last modified 3/19/2009 7:44 am by chris373651 | 2436 views | 3 replies |

chris373651

Suggestions on adding eCart to previously developed html site...

I'm the first one to admit that when it comes to web design, I'm back in the 90's. I have to start doing it again because as a computer consultant, the only business I'm getting lately is web design! So please bear with me as I'm sure my question is really quite a simple one.

And to make this harder, this is for a charity and I'm doing this pro bono but they need it up for their charity event this weekend! Because at this once-a-year event, the website donate feature will be announced so people can go to the website and donate online.

My system tools:

  • WebAssist Super Suite (latest version)
  • Dreamweaver CS3
  • PHP 5.2.9-1
  • mySQL 5.0.77 (64-bit Windows)
  • IIS 7.0.6 (I'm thinking of canning IIS and changing to Apache, should I?)
  • Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit


Web host:

  • GoDaddy.com
  • Linux
  • PHP 5.2.8
  • MySQL 5.0 (I'm thinking this is gonna be a 32-bit db)
  • Chase Paymentech eCommerce merchant account w/ Orbital


I purchased a template from an online template factory to start the site a month ago. It incorporates some extremely basic CSS style sheets but no template. So each page has to be changed manually with each site update. I plan on re-developing the site but I don't have the time or expertise to do that right now.

Anyhow, what I am tasked to do is to add a simple shopping cart to accept donations in preset amounts and have a radio-button field for a user submitted amount. (i.e. $5, $10, $25, Other). If the user clicks the Other button, then they will have to put in a valid amount (no less than $5 and no more than $500 as they want all large donations to go through the office for some reason). I also need to have a simple checkbox validation field that they have to check to proceed. All the information must be captured in a database for future needs. We need to use this stored information for upcoming invitations to events, end of year tax reporting (they get a tax write-off for the donation), etc. And finally, we would like to send a thank you email and letter to the contributor. The letter will be done manually each month based on the database information. But the email should be automatic through the Universal Email program which I haven't learned yet...

And to complicate matters, they have asked me to add a recurring option. So that if they cannot afford to donate much, they can check an amount and have that charge the contributor's credit card no a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. Thankfully, this doesn't have to be ready by this weekend. (I have no clue how to even begin this one!)

What I need to figure out is where I start. Yesterday, I just figured out how to install a test server with PHP, MySQL, & IIS on my computer. It was a nightmare to get the 32 bit versions to cooperate with the 64 bit versions. Then, I had a horrible time re-installing my MySQL because the service got corrupted due to improper shutdown. After 4 hours (ashamedly, I am not exaggerating) I got it all done and was able to begin the eCart Getting Started Guide. That all made sense to me and worked nicely. So now, I need to apply what I've learned to practical application.

In short:

  • Do I need to redevelop my whole .html site to be .php or can I just have (for now) the shopping cart page .php?
  • What is the quickest way to get the databases I need? Do I have to manually develop all of them or are there pre-existing databases out there to use and just add your items?

    • Can I just reconfigure the WebAssist blue_sky_music database easily and use a T_SQL statement of some sort to recreate a charity_cart database? (GoDaddy doesn't let you copy databases from what I see, you have to manually create it on there site or use a T-SQL statement to create it)


  • Is it easy to add a different Payment Gateway to the eCart Wizard? Or is there a simple work-around for this? (I submitted a support ticket for this last night)
  • Is there something else that I am missing?


I appreciate all of your help. I am really trying to learn all of this and I'm getting a crash course, which I like, but it is stressful due to the client's deadline.

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chris373651

Converting site from html to php

I just found an online source that said I can just add a .htaccess file with the following code (AddType application/x-httpd-php .htm .html) in it and it will treat my .html pages as .php. Is this a good fix for now?

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Ray BorduinWebAssist

To do the payment gateway you will need the help of someone that knows php and how to write script and follow the Chase Paymentech documentation.

I'll tell you right now you are probably better off convincing them to use paypal if it is pro-bono and has to be done by this weekend.

GoDaddy also adds to the problem. You will need to post a support ticket to get some GoDaddy-specific code since it requires a proxy server configuration for curl requests unlike any other host we have encountered.

Rename all of your pages to .php, you don't have to "redevelop" anything.

You don't need any databases. What databases do you want. My suggestion is to do it without a database if you don't have experience with databases and want to have it up by this weekend. How many products do they have? With just a donate button and trying to get it done by this weekend, you are probably better off just adding a donate button from the paypal developers toolkit and save eCart and database work for a paid project where you have more time.

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Did this help? Tips are appreciated...

chris373651

Ok, the .htaccess file doesn't seem to be working correctly. But I've moved on.

First I saved a test.php file to the remote server that just had the <?php phpinfo(); ?> line in it and it worked. Then I saved a page as donate.php (it works) and I setup a cart object.

Then I created a database called ctm_donate using the MySQL Command Line Generator.
Then I modified the blue_sky_music.sql statement to a ctm_donate.sql statement and I removed or modified the items within to reflect my cart needs.

So that step looks good on my local testing server.

I'm setting up the cart now but I still have no clue on the validation, etc., that I mentioned in my first post above.

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