Comments on: Can open source eCommerce contend? http://xavisys.com/can-open-source-ecommerce-contend/ Control Your Internet Sat, 17 May 2008 04:36:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Affordable Ecommerce http://xavisys.com/can-open-source-ecommerce-contend/#comment-1342 Affordable Ecommerce Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:03:14 +0000 http://xavisys.com/can-open-source-ecommerce-contend/#comment-1342 I have gone through the exact same process as yourself, being a bit of an oscommerce veteran, i decided to look at creating some simple generic templates for potential customers to save time and effort (i'm just starting out on my own as a web design sideline). Oscommerce is extremely difficult to expose the HTML from PHP and has HTML littered in many different files making it almost impossible to template easily. Next i thought i would try Zencart which has an overide system whereby you can keep your customised files seperate from core files, so in the event of an upgrade to Zencart you can easily just overwrite the core files. However yesterday I stumbled upon Magento! - after reading the developers notes and looking at the stock site, you can see this shopping cart is very polished and not amatuer looking like the oscommerce variants. It looks very easy to customise and is very well organised and logical, as well as using valid CSS/HTML i think this is really a no brainer in the long run. The only downside being that there arent many mods for this as yet but most of the decent marketing tools are such as discount codes, 2 for 1 etc. I have gone through the exact same process as yourself, being a bit of an oscommerce veteran, i decided to look at creating some simple generic templates for potential customers to save time and effort (i’m just starting out on my own as a web design sideline).

Oscommerce is extremely difficult to expose the HTML from PHP and has HTML littered in many different files making it almost impossible to template easily. Next i thought i would try Zencart which has an overide system whereby you can keep your customised files seperate from core files, so in the event of an upgrade to Zencart you can easily just overwrite the core files.

However yesterday I stumbled upon Magento! - after reading the developers notes and looking at the stock site, you can see this shopping cart is very polished and not amatuer looking like the oscommerce variants. It looks very easy to customise and is very well organised and logical, as well as using valid CSS/HTML i think this is really a no brainer in the long run. The only downside being that there arent many mods for this as yet but most of the decent marketing tools are such as discount codes, 2 for 1 etc.

]]> By: Harold http://xavisys.com/can-open-source-ecommerce-contend/#comment-995 Harold Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:30:35 +0000 http://xavisys.com/can-open-source-ecommerce-contend/#comment-995 I have to agree with Aaron. While ZenCart may be easier to develop for, it's not as easy to learn to run. If you have to invest a much larger time into learning how to use the system, it might be worth it to spend a little on a simpler system. However, I'll admit that I have not yet seen the manual. I have to agree with Aaron. While ZenCart may be easier to develop for, it’s not as easy to learn to run. If you have to invest a much larger time into learning how to use the system, it might be worth it to spend a little on a simpler system. However, I’ll admit that I have not yet seen the manual.

]]> By: Scott Wilson http://xavisys.com/can-open-source-ecommerce-contend/#comment-939 Scott Wilson Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:37:59 +0000 http://xavisys.com/can-open-source-ecommerce-contend/#comment-939 I have heard this criticism before of Zen Cart (that the Admin panel is unintuitive), but I've never really understood it. It's a large system and it takes time to learn it, but once you do, you know where to find things. There are a million tunable parameters in Zen Cart, and that's why the admin section is so large. Also, there is now a manual on Zen Cart, which eases the learning process somewhat. I think Magento could be compelling in the second half of 2008. I'm seeing other things like StoreSuite and AlphaStore which are also extremely attractive and very modestly priced (a few hundred bucks should not be an obstacle for a serious business). I think what remains interesting about Zen Cart though is not so much that it's free as that it has such a huge following and so many developers. Speaking as a developer, there are so many constraints on writing software for Cube Cart that it's not worth my while to pursue it when there's so much Zen Cart work out there. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about your shopping cart adventure; thanks for sharing! Scott Wilson, That Software Guy http://www.thatsoftwareguy.com I have heard this criticism before of Zen Cart (that the Admin panel is unintuitive), but I’ve never really understood it. It’s a large system and it takes time to learn it, but once you do, you know where to find things. There are a million tunable parameters in Zen Cart, and that’s why the admin section is so large. Also, there is now a manual on Zen Cart, which eases the learning process somewhat.

I think Magento could be compelling in the second half of 2008. I’m seeing other things like StoreSuite and AlphaStore which are also extremely attractive and very modestly priced (a few hundred bucks should not be an obstacle for a serious business).

I think what remains interesting about Zen Cart though is not so much that it’s free as that it has such a huge following and so many developers. Speaking as a developer, there are so many constraints on writing software for Cube Cart that it’s not worth my while to pursue it when there’s so much Zen Cart work out there.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about your shopping cart adventure; thanks for sharing!

Scott Wilson, That Software Guy
http://www.thatsoftwareguy.com

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