Customizability of Powerstore

I have a potential client who wants an all in one online store, including a CMS, so Powerstore looks perfect. Before I go buying it though, I need to know some things.

How much of the front end is customizable right out of the box? Can I completely redesign it or integrate it into an existing site?

Basically, I want to be able to make it look like they want (which is completely different than the standard design on the Demo page), and have the full CMS that comes with it. I'll likely be buying the Powerstore 'solution' as well as the Super Suite for all the other great things it has. Is there a tutorial somewhere or description on how to integrate the Powerstore or modify it?

My other option is Cartweaver, which is about the same price as Powerstore, has a CMS and can be integrated into an existing design. Cartweaver looks dated, but again, it's fully customizable and can be put into an existing site...

Any help would be appreciated as I plan to purchase something in the next couple days if the customer accepts my proposal.

CheopisIV,

I can tell you that PS is totally customizable. Here is what I did with it. (www.SoleusRunning.com)

There may be a better way, but it worked great for me.

What I did first was created a template and made it look like I wanted for the site and then I took the Powerstore pages and incorporated them into my new pages. Very simple to do. Basically copied the code and that's it.

When I created my template I created a DIV to match the DIV from the PS so it was truly simple copy. Then I copied all the PHP from the top of the page (and bottom), plus and javascript in the header and the spryvalidation. That's it.

I wanted to keep all the pages for Powerstore in original state.

For each page, I created a seperate page for the store and copied the code from the original page from Powerstore. For example, cart.php is from PS, I created a page (with my template) and called it soleus-cart.php. Same functionality, but with my look.

Hope this helps.

Terry

PS. Plus one really great benefit is that the folks at Webassist are 100% awesome on providing support. The forums are really top notch.

PSS. Also, if you do end up making new pages like I did and calling them something different than what the original files are called you will need to make sure they are changed inside the code. For example, if a reference was made to cart.php I had to change it to reference/call soleus-cart.php. There's only a couple of places that this needs to be done. (checkout.php, cart.php confirm.php)

That site looks great! So, more questions... Did you use any of the other software to modify or was it all done manually? Do you still have the CMS working for the site?

If it was just a matter of making an online shopping cart, I could hand code something efficient, but with a lot less features. I can probably figure out things by hand as I'm somewhat proficient with PHP and CSS.

My biggest thing is not wanting to code another CMS as I did one for another site, and it was mediocre at best. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I want to take an easier route this time, save myself some headaches with a proven package and save my client some money!

Regardless, I think my mind is made up about getting the WebAssist software over the other options.