Free paypal shopping cart intergrated into raven nuke

Regular Joined: Jul 27, 2008 Posts: 50

do anyone know of any free paypal shopping cart that i can intergrate into my raven nuke installation? they must support australian dollars

thanx
rorie

Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6432

I used to use one called CCart, but I think it only supported USD, and the site appears to be gone now.

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 7:18 pm

kguske wrote:

I used to use one called CCart, but I think it only supported USD, and the site appears to be gone now.

i found that & tried to use it then i got database connection errors i was going to add aud myself. the site admin said i had to add it through phpmyadmin i asked him for more info & he hasn't repiled since. anyway i found zencart that is still being updated. if there is a way to intergrate that into raven nuke please tell me how to do so

thanx
rorie

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:56 pm

I just downloaded Zen cart from Sourceforge but it is still sitting in a zip file. Having a Paypal module that really works in RN would be great. At the same time, if you are only selling a few items and don't need all that much sophistication you can write your own starting with the Nukescripts Paypal download or even the PHP files that are available freely on Paypal developer central.

Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:51 pm

fkelly wrote:

I just downloaded Zen cart from Sourceforge but it is still sitting in a zip file. Having a Paypal module that really works in RN would be great. At the same time, if you are only selling a few items and don't need all that much sophistication you can write your own starting with the Nukescripts Paypal download or even the PHP files that are available freely on Paypal developer central.

is there a guide that will help me? i have never created php code by scratch b4 so a zen cart raven nuke tutorial on intergrating it will help me greatly

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:08 am

I also used CCart a long time ago but if it is no longer actively developed that is not going to be much use to you. There were a few good ones like PayPal Cart and E-Solution but again, they are no longer being developed.
The only good cart I know of that actually works and integrates well for selling none tangible goods is Digital Shop from [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] but it is not free. It isn't that expensive and I'm sure you would recoup the money with just a few sales but at least development/ support is active and I know it works with RavenNuke 2.x and also with the up-coming release v2.3 as I use it myself.

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:04 am

As to Zen Cart you will have to look inside the code and see how much documentation there is. You can also look on the Paypal developer forums. There may be some forums that specifically address Zen Cart. If you are new to PHP then integrating something like this into *Nuke is going to be a stretch. I doubt that there is any kind of tutorial about integrating the product; I doubt that it has even been done. You might do well to follow the lead Guardian gave and I know that I surely am going to look into it.

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 8:57 pm

Guardian2003 wrote:

I also used CCart a long time ago but if it is no longer actively developed that is not going to be much use to you. There were a few good ones like PayPal Cart and E-Solution but again, they are no longer being developed.
The only good cart I know of that actually works and integrates well for selling none tangible goods is Digital Shop from [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] but it is not free. It isn't that expensive and I'm sure you would recoup the money with just a few sales but at least development/ support is active and I know it works with RavenNuke 2.x and also with the up-coming release v2.3 as I use it myself.

i am necessarily looking at selling digital goods i am mainly looking at selling merchandise & mostly boxed games. can the digital shop be configured for that or do i need to keep looking?

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:30 am

I think you may need to pay to get a good cart that is still supported. If you are going to be selling stuff then I don't think it is a big ask to pay the developer something for the product. Wink

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:40 am

jakec wrote:

I think you may need to pay to get a good cart that is still supported. If you are going to be selling stuff then I don't think it is a big ask to pay the developer something for the product. Wink

fine then i will pay but it will have to be a reasonable price & nothing too expensive. any suggestions for software?

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:12 pm

The link that Guardian gave, to nukecoder, has the advantage that it leads to a Nuke module. However, (a) it costs some money (I believe $35) and (b) it appears that the code is encrypted. It looks like you can modify some parts of it that are based on Smarty Templates but it doesn't look to me like you can modify the PHP code. I haven't downloaded a test version to see so I am subject to correction. While I can understand the desire to "protect" their code my own personal choice would be to not use code that is not truly Open Source.

I have also unpacked the Zen Cart and read through the instructions and some of the Forums. It does not operate as a Nuke module -- it is a stand alone application. It has it's own database and it's own method of making database calls. I can't say how easy or difficult it would be to build a bridge to Nuke or integrate it fully, it is obviously not a simple task. Still, you might want to look at the Zen Cart since it appears to be both supported and Open Source (and free).

I believe it would be very desirable to have a Paypal module integrated into Ravennuke at some point in time. Some of the concepts that I see in the Nukecoder demo could underlie that: for instance screens to define items that can be sold as well as to arrange them on various selling screens. There is also code in the Nukescripts Paypal module that can be used as a basis for moving forward although a lot of that appears similar to the PHP code you can download from the Paypal developers forum.

I'm not sure that I think that there is going to be a "one size fits all" solution to these requirements. For instance, if you sell a variety of items you very well might want separate tables to track each rather than just one big master payment table. Likewise, if you do shipping you might need a table or tables to track shipping status whereas if you don't you might not want that added complexity.

From my limited experience with Paypal, one thing you really want to look for is good diagnostic capabilities to help when "things go wrong". In the Paypal environment when Paypal sends transactions back to your web page it can be very difficult to figure out whether they are working properly and updating your tables properly. Your application needs the ability to move flexibly between the Sandbox (testing) and real Paypal environments and as you start adding items or whole new categories of items you may need to have some items going through the Sandbox while the older items that are fully tested continue to go through the production environment. I'm not sure how either Nukecoder or Zen Cart deals with this.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:33 am

Sign up for Amazon, create your own "a-store" or other store where you can add your own products linked directly from your site and even use pre-configured mdse you pick yourself from Amazon's very long list. The buyer then adds the mdse to the cart and pays however they choose, PayPal, CC or other means. Plus, you get the added benefit of support .. all for FREE !!

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:05 am

I'm looking at Amazon now. Their web store costs $59.99 a month plus a 7% commission. Is that what you are referring to? I've spent 15 minutes looking around Amazon and I don't see where you can sell anything for "free". Maybe you could provide a link?

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:15 am

Sorry, I got confused by the products being sold. The FREE "a-store" lists products related to your site, not YOUR products .... sorry.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:46 pm

Just for clarification, the Digital Shop from NukeCoder.com is a stand alone script and some parts are indeed encrypted to protect the authors work. Fortunately it does (by design) follow the *nuke directory structure which enables it to work also as a *nuke module with a couple of hard coded settings changed.
However, thats all moot as it would not be the ideal software for selling tangible goods (at the moment).

As fkelly mentioned, you might be able to modify some other existing code but if that is outside of your comfort zone there are plenty of alternative (free) options but not many that will work hand in hand with *nuke.
Some good stand alone carts you might want to look at are CubeCart and OSCommerce, though as with most good carts, they can take a while to set up to fit your exact needs due to the plethora of options.

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:35 pm

I know this is starting to diverge from the original post in this thread and I am open to moving it elsewhere. But based on the original plus some work I am doing for my own sites and for a client I downloaded zencart and installed it on my test server at fkelly.org.

Now ... it is not integrated into Nuke. I'm not sure it could be integrated and I'm not sure that even if it could be that it would be worth doing that. It's easy enough to put links back and forth ... from your nuke site to zencart and from zencart back to your nuke site. I'm not sure why users would be so terribly inconvenienced by clicking on a link.

As to Zencart. It installs pretty much the way Ravennuke does. You need to do an hour's reading first. Edit some config files. Set up a database with a username and password. Change permissions, install, change permissions again, delete the installation directory.

It's a massive product, much like Gallery. There are a number of payment options besides Paypal. There is a sample database of products. Just like you edit blocks in Nuke, you need to edit blocks in zencart. The admin screens of zencart are much more involved than those in Nuke and there is a pretty big learning curve. Just like with Nuke there is a book about administering Zencart. Just like with Nuke hardly anyone will read it.

In about an hour tonight I deactivated all the standard (sample) categories and products and setup a sample product and for the client I'm working with (not working yet) and customized the boilerplate on the home page to be somewhat relevant to my site. You can see that at:
[ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

Long term, if you want a generic solution this seems to me the way to go. If you start to think about writing a generic Nuke module with currency support, the ability to add and modify categories and products, build product links and images, upload support for images, calculation of taxes and shipping, and storing sales history, shipping history and the like ... it's daunting.

And on a slightly off topic issue I've been looking at integration more generally. The integration of Gallery into Nuke is flaky and only partly supported. As far as I can tell there is basically one programmer who works on it and he's part time. Likewise PHPBB integration is questionable in my view. Look at the thousands of files we have to include in our distribution to make our themes work something like PHPBB's templates and think how much simpler it would be to just say, if you want PHPBB go get it from them and use their templates. We'll provide a user bridge and that's it.
I could see the same issue coming up with Zencart. I'd vote for leaving it alone with maybe a data bridge back and forth.

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 6:42 pm

i have decided just to use open cart & customize the code to reflect the layout & not to integrate into raven nuke

New Member Joined: Nov 26, 2008 Posts: 1

Hey,
sorry to wake a 2 week old thread but Im sure someone will have the same issues and well, there was no answer or resolution=D.

Anyway,
Doesnt NOSCart allow for Tangible goods and not just digital. NosCart is from the same writers as CCart.
And If I remember correctly It integrates into NUKE.
They ask for a 39.95 Dollar Donation. I thinks its worth it as they keep it updated and what not. Unless you want their install service along with it then you are looking at 60.00.

Nos Cart Demo (Actullay looks like a live store) [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

NosCart and CCart Pro Home [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

There was another cart that was out a few years back called OScommerce which I loved. It has since become NosCart as I think they bought the rights. Im not sure of the whole background but I hope this helps you.

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:09 pm

pfrancoit wrote:

Hey,
sorry to wake a 2 week old thread but Im sure someone will have the same issues and well, there was no answer or resolution=D.

Anyway,
Doesnt NOSCart allow for Tangible goods and not just digital. NosCart is from the same writers as CCart.
And If I remember correctly It integrates into NUKE.
They ask for a 39.95 Dollar Donation. I thinks its worth it as they keep it updated and what not. Unless you want their install service along with it then you are looking at 60.00.

Nos Cart Demo (Actullay looks like a live store) [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

NosCart and CCart Pro Home [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

There was another cart that was out a few years back called OScommerce which I loved. It has since become NosCart as I think they bought the rights. Im not sure of the whole background but I hope this helps you.

US$39.95? that is still over A$60. is there anything cheaper. i am not sure if i want to pay A$60 for e-commerce software but i might if i have to

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 9:57 am

Zencart is free.

As indicated in previous posts, the installation process is very similar to installing Ravennuke so if you can handle RN ...

There is a lot to learn to administer zencart but I suspect that's going to be true with any commerce package. At least there are resources, FAQS, A Wiki, Forums and even a book you can buy.