Forum OpenACS Development: ecommerce 2

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1: ecommerce 2
Posted by Jon Griffin on 06/22/06 06:07 AM
I know there is a plan to upgrade ecommerce. Is there any code to build on yet?
I may have a little money to contribute, but need to know what the status is. It looks a little to complex for me, but I may fund the product and shopping cart modules.
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2: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 1)
Posted by Torben Brosten on 06/22/06 11:38 AM

Hi Jon,

That's great news.

It would probably be best to start developing online-catalog first, since that package doesn't have any accounting package dependencies, and the configurator is an optional part that could be added some time later.

The ec G2 shopping basket functionality is part of the accounts-receivables package, which is dependent on accounts-ledger (a general ledger), which is dependent on contacts and inventory-control. There's (very) limited code available, but it's actively being developed. You can see accounts-ledger/www/doc for current status.

Current tasks:

  • normalizing the integrated ecommerce package and sql-ledger data models for the accounting packages
  • learning the api for categories and contacts,
  • familiarizing myself with package-builder
  • integrating translations from sql-ledger

The accounting packages will likely require Openacs 5.3, since it is rumored to be released this fall (and require tcllib).

"It looks a little too complex for me"..

If you have no interest in using the new feature set, you are welcome to upgrade the ecommerce package to work with openacs 5.2 (and pg 8 without oids), or create a stand alone shopping-basket package.

cheers,
Torben

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3: Re: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 2)
Posted by Steve Manning on 06/22/06 12:26 PM
Torben

I would tend to agree with Jon in this respect. Whilst I think the idea of OACS ledgers and an integrated eCommerce is a great idea, most of our clients are existing bricks and mortor retailers who want to add eCommerce to their existing line-up. They tend to have substantial ledger systems already in place and only require feeds to and from the eCommerce system.

How closely coupled is the Shopping Basket (and therefore ec G2) to the accounts packages? Would it be possible to make the new ec standalone if required? Perhaps we could create an eCommerce Lite from the new package once its closer to completion?

- Steve

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4: Re: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 2)
Posted by Janine Ohmer on 06/22/06 04:36 PM
If you have no interest in using the new feature set, you are welcome to upgrade the ecommerce package to work with openacs 5.2

Torben, I've heard (can't remember where) that the ecommerce package does not currently work, but I haven't heard why or how. Can you give a 30 second synopsis of how it needs to be upgraded? Thanks!

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6: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 1)
Posted by Jon Griffin on 06/22/06 05:40 PM
As Steve said, the whole integration sounds like a particular client issue which is fine, but I would venture to guess that most OACS users only want a shopping cart program.

Janine, I loaded up a version of ecommerce in my 5.2.3 dev server and will look at slowly fixing it. I think the main problems are the checkout stuff (at least for me). And I don't need much work with the products stuff except maybe integrate with search.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Otherwise I will proceed.

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10: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 6)
Posted by Janine Ohmer on 10/05/06 07:42 PM
Jon, did you ever get ecommerce working with 5.2?
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5: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 1)
Posted by Torben Brosten on 06/22/06 05:54 PM
Hi Janine,

Bug tracker tickets basically outline existing, known bugs for getting ecommerce to "work with 5.2".

Additionally, Pg8 no longer uses oids with tables by default, whereas ecommerce uses oids in some queries.

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7: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 1)
Posted by Torben Brosten on 06/22/06 06:16 PM

Hi Steve,

How closely coupled is the Shopping Basket (and therefore ec G2) to the accounts packages?

The shopping basket functionality in ec g2 is a part of accounts-receivables. There will be an api to connect POS devices. accounts-ledger/accounts-receivables basically standardizes the auditing and admin/order and admin/products and a few other features available in ecommerce now.

Would it be possible to make the new ec standalone if required? Perhaps we could create an eCommerce Lite from the new package once its closer to completion?

The point of ecG2 is that you only use what you want to use. If you just want ecommerce standardized to use the features OpenACS has added since.. OpenACS started (ecommerce was one of the first packages), then see ecommerce-2.

cheers,
Torben

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8: Re: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 7)
Posted by Steve Manning on 06/23/06 05:47 PM
Torben

That sounds good especially the API to connect POS devices. Are we talking scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers, customer displays and that sort of thing?

- Steve

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9: Re: Re: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 8)
Posted by Torben Brosten on 06/23/06 07:32 PM
Yes, that's right.
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11: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 1)
Posted by Jon Griffin on 10/05/06 09:17 PM
Janine,
No I didn't, I had no time to mess with it and it is really a pretty big mess. I used zen-cart and hope to one day revisit OACS.

As I have said in other posts, I really think OACS has grown in a bad way, with certain projects taking precedent over the core toolkit. dotlrn being the primary driver, which btw was rejected by UNLV after I setup a test server and had so many issues that they upgraded their webct.

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12: Re: ecommerce 2 (response to 11)
Posted by Jon Griffin on 10/05/06 09:20 PM
Let me clarify, I hope to revisit OACS for ecommerce at some later time. I still use OACS for other sites.