From: Aredridel Date: 2005-01-07T07:09:34+09:00 Subject: Re: Slightly OT: Re: [BOUNTY] Shopping cart ... > More to the subject, I believe such an application does not exist > because it is too easy to build your own version of it. Integrating a > third party shopping cart with a Rails application is probably bound to > be more difficult than just coding it up yourself. A shopping cart has > many dependencies to the web application framework and thus it is not > completely trivial to program a framework-less version of a shopping > cart as the first post asks for. > > I would need to see a few (html) screenshots of such an application to > completely understand what is asked for here. Sounds familiar; A good example of right, or at least close, is Paypal's own shopping cart system. Here's a conversation in #IOWA about what I'd love to see (And would happily shell out $100 for a working version of without even flinching. I wonder how many other people out in Rubyland would do the same, to get a small project like this off the ground.) [12:21:02] swsch says “I'm intrigued by the postings responding to Aredridel's BOUNTY offer... all "known" people say that it's easy but they won't do it .-)” [12:23:01] Aredridel says “Hehe.” [12:23:08] Aredridel says “That's the thing about shopping carts.” [12:23:18] Aredridel says “It requires this firm, say-no-by-default hand to create a good one.” [12:23:24] Aredridel says “It's a surprisingly hard thing to make” [12:23:40] swsch says “lots of people said "no" already :-)” [12:23:56] Aredridel says “Hehe, yeah.” [12:26:09] wyhaines says “Yeah, the discussion IS interesting.” [12:26:56] swsch says “why wouldn't you use a database? to avoid expensive hosting packages?” [12:28:13] Aredridel says “That's the idea, yes.” [12:28:16] Aredridel says “Or moreso, to keep it simple.” [12:28:27] Aredridel says “I don't want a product entry screen, I don't want a product database.” [12:28:38] Aredridel says “I'd be quite content to just put that in the HTML.” [12:28:57] Aredridel says “Paypal or CCNow style: Their shopping cart systems don't know about your product list at all.” [12:29:21] Aredridel says “You just refer a client's computer to their cart with a token containing all the info.” [12:29:28] Aredridel says “So your site posts to theirs, that's all.” [12:29:50] Aredridel says “Tamperable? sure. I could place an order for Fooitem for $0.01.” [12:29:57] Aredridel says “Problem? No.” [12:30:00] Aredridel says “I just don't ship it.” [12:30:18] Aredridel says “I call 'em up and say "Something's funny about your order; that's not the right price."” [12:31:58] Aredridel says “And it works if nobody tampers. Big deal.” [12:32:35] Aredridel says “All e-commerce engines fall in three categories: simple and works for small sites, complex but not having the right features (works for nobody), or high-end, expensive, and works for those who need it.” [12:36:16] wyhaines says “Aredridel, take a look at this: http://napkinsbydesign.com” [12:36:23] wyhaines says “Then click on, say, Table Runners.” [12:36:36] wyhaines says “Is that the sort of "shopping cart" that you want?” [12:37:00] Aredridel says “Close. Not quite.” [12:37:10] Aredridel says “That's paypal's cart system — that's the part I want.” [12:37:15] Aredridel says “The product lists I can just do in HTML” [12:37:25] Aredridel says “I'd love to (this is for Instiki, actually...)” [12:37:36] Aredridel says “I'd love to hack instiki so I can just write markup like so:” [12:37:53] Aredridel says “[[Product: Ruby Slippers; Price: $10]]” [12:37:58] wyhaines says “Yeah, it leverages paypal's cart. That's all user controlled there, though. I don't have to touch it.” [12:38:18] wyhaines says “It runs via a web form, but is kind of like what you describe.” [12:38:18] Aredridel says “And have that render as a form that has a submit button, a quantity field, and two hidden fields: the item, and the price.” [12:39:10] Aredridel says “And have it post to the cart handler, which would show the cart (basically, the cart is a thin wrapper for a session database), and then the checkout procedure takes their info, and then links to the gateway of choice for checkout.” [12:39:40] Aredridel says “Basically, I don't want a catalog system at all. -Just- the cart.” [12:40:02] Aredridel says “I want the link between the cart and catalog to be very weak.” [12:40:24] Aredridel says “I want the post data to link one way. I want the cart to look like the rest of the site only by templating, not by any integration.” [12:41:01] Aredridel says “and if the cart could link back with a "return to shopping" link that linked to the referer, so much the better.” [12:41:43] Aredridel says “Basically, the only interface between the two parts of the site would be HTTP. No shared database, no catalog on file, nothing. The shopping cart just runs in a cgi-bin on some host, and that's it.” [12:41:56] wyhaines says “That does sound pretty easy to do. If my wife were a little farther along in her Ruby studies, I'd give it to her as an assignment.” [12:42:01] Aredridel grins. [12:42:12] Aredridel says “The hardest part is keeping the thing featureless enough.” [12:42:40] Aredridel says “Basically, I want SPOT — but not by having everything generated from the same source, but by editing things directly.” [12:43:42] Aredridel says “... wyhaines, the napkinsbydesign site is -fast-. Kudos.” [12:43:42] swsch says “see? another "no"!” [12:44:11] Aredridel says “Can I post this snippet of conversation in response to that thread?”