By jasonwhat on

I'm setting up a few ecommerce sites soon and am trying to decide which platform to use. The sites won't be that large or complex with their products. I've played around with OScommerce a bit, and used older versions of Drupal ecommerce. My initial reaction is that I am more familiar with Drupal and should use that, but am not sure if OScommerce has some features that would make it worth learning something new. What do you think?

Comments

vwX’s picture

vwX commented

The drupal ecommerce module is unusable until it gets two things, tax ability and product attributes. Instead of oscommerce look at zencart. Zencart is a fork of oscommerce and is actually maintained.

Have fun and check my Drupal Profile: http://drupal.org/user/519

druvision’s picture

druvision commented

I am in the process of implementing ecommerce to my new drupal site. I am not a drupal programmer (yet), but there is a simple configuration which partly alllows you to define product attributes.

For each desired attribute:

1. Define additional taxonomy dictionary.
2. Enable this dictionary for the product entity.

Two questions arise:
1. How to make the new attributes appear in the product details page?
2. How to make the new attributes appear in the product search page? (Is there a product search page?)

Amnon
-
My Sites:
sakeret.com | hitech-dolphin.com | small-business-web-hosting-strategies.com | levavie.com

Andy_Lowe’s picture

Andy_Lowe commented

I agree, Zencart is much better then OSCommerce. I would also look at this project http://forum.oscommerce-freelancers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32 The guys writing this new cart are top notch. I am looking to change to it once it is released.
-Andy
Restaurant Equipment

Andy_Lowe’s picture

Andy_Lowe commented

I have to revise my previous statement. The lead developer for that cart reconciled with the guys at oscommerce and is back to supporting oscommerce. I think development on that project is dead.
-Andy
Restaurant Equipment

chueewowee’s picture

chueewowee commented

zencart is definately maintained well, and I chose it above oscommerce after running both.
Specifically, the product attributes are well done, and that goes for weight and postage too, including an option for UK based zones.

Drupal's promising ecommerce stuff is maddening too:
We almost have attributes here for weight, with the weight.inc and shipcal, but I find that it is most confusing in that different files are going around, some work a bit, some don't. I have heard reports of it working, but I cannot get it to work consistently yet. Suddenly the weight attributes don't show in a created product. I don't know why. I wish I could programe better, but I can't and don't have the time for that sort of learning right now.
Shipbasic and Flexipay are alternatives that do not work at all yet. I couldn't get international.inc to work, although I am asured it does work. This script works with shipcal and allows for internatinal zones to be defined, outside of the USA, which is important. I oculd only get one charge to come through though, no matter were the product is posted. Dublin Drupallier who wrote it has got it to work, but I couldn't so there might be a conflict somewhere, I must do a clean installation.....but...

Inconsistencies abound:

With a new installation of 4.7.3 and ecomerce.cvs and ecommerce 4.7.0, latest builds, I get errors with settings/shipping: Call to undefined function: drupal_add_css() in /Volumes/files/chuee/Sites/mightyzero/modules/ecommerce/cart/cart.module on line 139.

I decided that Drupal is very good, and its ecomerce is promising, but they have cost me a lot of time (days ) with testing and searching and asking questions to do something that is rather simple with Zen, another php based cart. I learnt the stuff isn't ready, and my testing counts for little. I wish an integrated ecommerce report was made on one page, an ecommerce section. Like another writer, I would enjoy the integration of ecommerce with Drupal because of its powerful CMS, which Zen lacks.

Conclusion: it is well worth becoming familiar with zencart's code, because it is a very powerful set, and is well maintained. Moreover the programmers are enthusiastic and communicative. I am sure they may well lend a hand in places. In fact, a dialogue and collaboration with Zencart would be well in order.

matt westgate’s picture

matt westgate commented

The Drupal ecommerce package is better for sites that are more than just ecommerce sites since it inherits all the power of Drupal and it's modules.

It also allows you to define your own product types (and attributes) such as file downloads, shippable items, product bundles, etc.

There is also a tax component in the works for 4.6 (so there's a chance it might be useable for this release).

jasonwhat’s picture

jasonwhat commented

Any idea when the tax ability might be ready?

matt westgate’s picture

matt westgate commented

While I can't give an exact timeline, It is being worked on at the moment and is expected to hit the 4.6 release lifecycle.

chueewowee’s picture

chueewowee commented

For a whole batch of products , ship by weight is essential to fairness for customer and business. Ship by price of product is not the same. However, otherwise, tax ability and attributes accepted, it is very good indeed. These are the three main outstanding features lacking that I can see, and half or more shops would need immediately. with these, then it really would be quite a contender I am a user of zencart too. I could use Drupal ecommerce for certain products however without attributes, but not where choice in sizes and colour are offered.

-----------------------------------------------------
"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

chueewowee’s picture

chueewowee commented

Quite right, and that is why ecommerce is important for Drupal. But product attributes such as weight are essential for commerce or postage. I have a client who sells gems which themself are each priced according to weight. So is food which continues to be useful. To match commerce with other interests is one of the exciting things about web commerce.

Muslim guy’s picture

Muslim guy commented

Drupal ecommerce tied with its Drupal Membership + Niceities

Agreed on Matt's saying - if you want to make your e-commerce like a subscription based, Customer Loyalty Program, Customer Relation, Client Database, want to use nifty modules like Notify, Subscriptions, Newsletter (SImpleNews) and Webforms (create quizzes to encourage customers and Business Blogging, then go with Drupal.

Shipping, Fixed rate, rate by weight and price are a pain to do with Drupal ecommerce - you have to patch store.module and cart.module just to enable use of basic.inc (to replace UPS/USPS in contrib to work with Shipping module (which is actually just an API).

All the niceties and functionalities of Drupal can be integrated to its eccommerce - but be warned that Drupal ecommerce module is quite lacking or you have to add/patch/search for additional modules (basic.inc. flexicharge, etc....)

Good luck

zach harkey’s picture

zach harkey commented

If you plan on selling only one variation, size, color, etc. of each product; have minimal image/description needs; and have only one price per item(i.e. if you aren't selling something like a set of chairs: $1400 pair $900 single), then the e-commerce module might work for you.Otherwise you are going to be very frustrated.

: z

matt westgate’s picture

matt westgate commented

Zach is right in that product variations have to be setup one by one at the moment. Work is being done on streamlining this approach.

You can sell groups of items by creating a 'parcel' product and listing the ids of other products to sell as a set or group (i.e., a shirt and tie or group of chairs).

And one of the most powerful features that I'm afraid this person may have missed is that any node can also be a product, For example, you can download flexinode and create and design as many image slots and descriptions as you need, then click the product tab and give it a price. Voila! You've a got a product.

chansuresh’s picture

chansuresh commented

How does it compare now (in November 2005) to the others?
What about using Drupal for CMS and OSCommerce for commerce on the same site?

keym’s picture

keym commented

Hi,

Is there a website or particular forum where all things related to the ecommerce module is discussed?

ie. bugs, fixes, requests for new development, support, questions, sample sites using the product, etc.

In general, in the Drupal world, are there "home" sites for these modules (you can tell I am a newbie here).

Thanks.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

The home site is here. Each project has an issue tracker where bugs reports, patches submitted and feature requests can by made. Some contrib module projects might have development sites that are setup for specific collaboration purposes but very few do.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

kae’s picture

kae commented

we've requested an irc ecommerce channel. if you track my posts you'll find more info. i or ogredude will post a new thread when the irc channel comes thru.

i actually hope to have our own mailing list on drupal. if dries et al don't won't that maybe we can just do googlegroups or something. are you interested?

Ogredude’s picture

Ogredude commented

Drupal E-Commerce IRC channel is alive and active at #drupal-ecommerce on irc.freenode.net

I look forward to working with folks to make Drupal's ecommerce system good enough to replace all those other ones.

kae’s picture

kae commented

from
http://www.drupalecommerce.com/node/82

Mar 06: New Drupal ECOMMERCE MAILING LIST
Good news! there is a new official ecommerce developers mailing list. When Dries comes back this will be moved to drupal.org. To subscribe, go to
http://lists.heydon.com.au/listinfo.cgi/ecommerce-heydon.com.au

quineto’s picture

quineto commented

Does drupal e-commerce module is able to sale suscription to the site?

i know there exist another module specific for suscription but it has lot of problems with the framework of paypal since has to be updated to a newer version

thanks

Camilo Rivera

druvision’s picture

druvision commented

Yes, drupal's ecommerce handles subscription products

Amnon
-
Drupal Focused Search Engine | Drupal Israel | Organic Web Strategy Consulting

druvision’s picture

druvision commented

For the completness of this thread, please look at this newer drupal 4.7 thread: http://drupal.org/node/91847

Amnon

rafaeldwan’s picture

rafaeldwan commented

Please? Someone? It'd be helpful.

dreamwvr’s picture

dreamwvr commented

Hey,
I have been playing with the ecommerce module and wanted to know if there
was a credit card test module. I simulated a shippable product and go thru the
motions to make a purchase by credit card. It comes back with a invalid credit
card error. So which of the gateway module can one use to test the credit card
transactions? I was hoping there is a working 'test credit card number', test
expiry date, test CVV, test address to work with.

TIA

vwX’s picture

vwX commented

There are test credit card numbers.

http://merchantplus.com/visamastercardlogos.php or just search google. If you want to test with a payment gateway, most have test accounts you can use. Contact the gateway you will be using for more information.

Have fun and check my Drupal Profile: http://drupal.org/user/519