PHP shopping cart

April 15, 2006 5:16 PM

I'm looking for a PHP based shopping cart system that is easy to install, easy to explain to the person adding items to the backend and works with UK-based CC handlers. Any recommendations?
posted by toby\flat2 to shopping (5 comments total)

Try http://www.clickcartpro.com". It's pretty cheap and they have a UK-customized version available. It's also skinnable, highly customizable, and open source. If you have any specific questions about it, let me know.

The other obvious choice is OSCommerce, but I don't have as much experience with that program.

Happy hunting.
posted by taang at 5:24 PM on April 15, 2006

My advice: don't. As soon as you start handling things like money and credit card information on your server, your security problem goes through the roof. Not only are you more likely to face attack, but the trouble you get into if such an attack is successful is vastly worse.

The right answer is to let someone else do it who knows what they're doing e.g. Yahoo. This is a case where outsourcing is definitely the right answer.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:45 PM on April 15, 2006

Any reason why the shopping cart system you use couldn't plug into Paypal for the credit card portion of things? Seems like it'd be an ideal compromise with regards to security and ease of use (though I don't have a lot of experience with this area).
posted by chrominance at 6:56 PM on April 15, 2006

Steven: if, by "CC handlers", Toby is referring to 3rd-party CC processors (SECpay, WorldPay etc.) then surely he'll be safe since no CC details are stored on - or even pass through - his server?

I'll be interested to see the responses here: OSCommerce is, in my experience, a huge pain in the arse. Tons of external dependencies, extras and includes, way too complicated. Awkward to to customise. Anyone have any experience with Actinic?
posted by blag at 7:10 PM on April 15, 2006

OSCommerce, can be outsourced to 3rd party developers or hosts. My company, for example (this is not a plug BTW) does this, also Chain Reaction Web installs and hosts OSCommerce for you. It's so well known and understood, there's lots of help out there.

OSCommerce can be a bit of a pain sometimes, honestly. Not all code has been properly abstracted out so sometimes customization can be time-consuming. But I find the logic is pretty well standardized now and not too bad.

The support (3rd party) modules can be pretty good too.

HTH
posted by iTristan at 10:12 PM on April 15, 2006