Alien Cart (tm) Feature Requests Brain Storming

Involved Joined: Sep 15, 2008 Posts: 352

Alien Cart(tm) is coming along nicely and it already has tons of features but I would like to know what you would like to be included.

Top 4 things a professional cart should have out of the box:

1. Secure
2. Fast loading
3. Features
4. Appealing to the eye

Standard features already included:

->Fully integrated with RavenNuke(tm)

-Product and Category/SubCategory Images
-Unlimited Products and Categories
-Category descriptions
-Multiple shipping methods
-Multiple payment methods including Paypal
-Highly configurable product options
-Guest checkout options
-Product reviews
-Product teaser, short description and extended description
-jquery product Tabs
-jquery admin menu tabs
-Customer receipts and customer account page
-Unlimited product media options (additional media like websites, pdf, audio etc...)
-Product images light box type zoom
-Product pagination
-Multiple currencies
-Shipping/delivery times
-Printable order receipt
-Editable credit card types
-Locations
-Tax classes
-Editable product status
-Manufacturers with images,link and description
-Configurable order status
-Configurable Checkout
-Product specials with expiration
-Full Search
-Product keywords feature
-Blocks - Cart, Manufacturer, Specials, Categories, Currency, Search

I may have missed a few but this will give you an idea of what's already included.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:00 am

Are numeric fields in the database numeric datatypes? When form fields are posted to a PHP program that processes them are they validated properly, for instance assuring that an integer form field is coming over as an integer? Do you do an explicit somefilter($_POST[someformvariable]) on all form fields being passed? Is the code for uploading images repeated over and over again throughout the system instead of being factored into a function that can be called?

The feature list looks great. But I would settle for a much simpler feature list with a program that is truly secure and reliable and maintainable. If you can accomplish this, it will be a great contribution to the *nuke community.

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:32 am

I use classes and functions throughout so I have a image upload function in place. No need to do more work then needed. I've done my homework on this one. Basically I'm creating a small framework to work from and it will be well documented in the future. The code is well documented.

I haven't done a full security check yet but will do that after all features are in place before Alpha 1 release which should be in about 2 months. I try to make it a good practice and validate everything that's coming and going. Which only make sense!

You mentioned helping a while back are you still interested?

AlienCart(tm) website www.aliencart.com will be live soon with the demo, trunk etc...

It's intended to work only for Raven Nuke(tm) but I may venture to all the Nuke Forks since our original direction has completely changed.

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:45 am

I am still interested in helping. I am very time constrained for the next two months but over the longer run I would love to work on this. If the issues we encountered back in the early days of developing RN 2.4 are mostly resolved and we can commit to fixing the rest maybe we can talk to Raven about putting the project back into the 2.5 development cycle. I think you need to get to at least the Alpha level first and at that point I would be happy to go through the code and make a recommendation to Raven.

Bottom line is that I would love to have a full featured Paypal (and other payment types) module that works well with Ravennuke.

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:54 am

Just thought of a couple of other questions. If you develop with error reporting turned all the way up (E_ALL) and display errors on, do you see any notices or warnings? If so, these need to be corrected. Also, do all the screens validate through the W3C validator or one of the validator addons for Firefox? These are kind of standards for Ravennuke now and are a good indicator of code quality. If you develop with error reporting turned all the way up it will eliminate the need to have to go back through and fix it later.

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:07 am

E_ALL is what I use so it's wide open. I'm slowly converting to xhtml and all single quotes.

I use firebug with firefox which makes validating a breeze.

Much to do but this cart is going to be awesome!

registered · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:30 pm

alien73, wow I think you pretty much covered it! at least for the user features Very Happy

I'm looking forward to see it in action!

jc

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:12 pm

Just signed up for Raven Hosting for the Alien Cart(tm) project.... It's finally coming to life. The site we be live in a couple of days.

www.aliencart.com

or

www.aliencart.org

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:51 pm

impressive list of features, looks very nice.
only ones I could add is:

coupons and gift certificates
user product reviews like on newegg
inventory control

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 2:36 pm

It has inventory stock control... and product reviews. Both features will be more powerful after the first or second stable release.

1. Coupons and Gift Certificates is on the to do list!

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 8:43 pm

Site is now live

www.aliencart.com

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 3:58 am

Paypal has 3 options to use so the choice should be available to activate 1 or all along with various othe payment types. Should also have ability to install and activate other payment choices (i.e. AlertPay, Egold)

Printable price list (catalog).
Populate program using tab or csv files.

Option to run as an affililiate store (substitute buy button for cart to buy button linking to vendor)

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 5:42 am

bobbyg,

Thanks for your feedback!

The brain storming list so far:

1. Coupons and Gift Certificates is on the to do list!

2. Printable price list (catalog).

3. Populate program using tab or csv files.

4. Option to run as an affiliate store.

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 10:45 am

HI,
is there an option to sell digital goods for example Scripts, Themes etc.?
After paying you'll be redirected to the site where you can then download the file you just payed for?
Every Pushase and Download will be recorded?
Upload unlimited files and screenshots to every item?

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 5:02 pm

It's a planned addition.....

Thanks

registered · Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 6:34 pm

Reviews for only people who have purchased an item.
Ratings for only people who have purchased an item.
Titles in the urls for products and categories.
Example: http://www.clanthemes.com/shop_item-162-free-wow-wrath-of-the-lich-king-theme.html

If this is a script you are selling then releasing it under GPL is not an option. You should license it by domain also if its a commercial script. If it is free, ignore all that.

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 6:51 pm

It's "Open Source" GPL License which was mentioned before.

registered · Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:10 am

Wow... impressive list of features indeed. So, here are my humbled additions/suggestions:

1. Is it going to be country/language aware and not just for the page labels, but also date and number formats. For example, different languages use different digit and 1000's separators than we do.

2. How many currencies will it support? Would be good if any one

3. Is the "clearing house" features going to be coded to where you could possibly add other "plug-ins" to address other payment methods easily? (I guess the real need would be being able to address the common types of payments such as PayPal, check, money order, credit card, but then also be able to add other types over time as they become available - sorry, don't have specific examples to share as I don't do eCommerce myself.)

What we really need too is a "light-weight" version (or just build upon Guardian's or Raven's NukeTreasury) as many RN sites just want a simple means for donations.

Good stuff!

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:26 am

It has a full admin currency section where you can add as many as you like and pick a default like USD.

The product section allows you to add or change separators number formats.

It also has multiple payments Paypal, check, money order, credit card, COD and more...

It also multiple shipping.. UPS XML, flat rate, weight based, base cost and more.. USPS coming soon...

Alien cart(tm) is geared for the individual or small business owner who plans on making a living selling online like I still do for over 12 years now.

No light version planned but you don't have to use every feature. Alien Cart(tm) is very easy to understand and to setup. Right Now English is the only language but I will hopefully pickup some translators along the way.

Alien Cart(tm)
www.aliencart.com

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:30 am

Very good stuff indeed.

I wouldn't worry too much about a light version. I agree with your targeted client base. We have several NukeTreasury versions out there that with a little work, could serve as more of a traditional donation/subscription type use model and leave Alien Cart(tm) for eCommerce.

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:14 pm

Check out Alien Cart(tm) when you get a chance.. There's tons to do, but it coming along nice and slow which is best method when dealing with such a large project. Less Mistakes!

I should have the Alien cart(tm) forums up soon.. Stop by and Hi sometime!

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:05 pm

Will do...

Worker Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 172

Some of these have been mentioned, but I'll throw my input in here if it helps:

Easy guest checkout
Cre-similar ability to take phone orders and process them through an existing nuke account OR create a new account on the spot
affiliate system allowing separate rates for separate affiliates and products would be fantastic. Even though I have my own products, I sell a lot of affiliate products as well, and it is a ever-growing way of making sales
order numbers, invoices (guessing already included), way to view orders based on customer account

That's all I can think of for now. I like a lot of the features of CRE loaded too, like separate pricing for wholesale accounts and things like that. But I don't see a huge need for that for the average person.