[pmwiki-users] Lateral thought from a newbie
Marc Cooper
gmane at auxbuss.com
Tue Jun 27 14:34:11 CDT 2006
Slug Shrubbers said...
> A newbie writes: [apologies in advance]...
> Could PMWiki be used as a basic e-commerce/e-ordering application?
Yes, but...
(Man, my newsreader hates mailman posts :-( )
> For example:
>
> Create groups for PRODUCT (with categories), CUSTOMER and ORDERS.
Yes, to the first one. The other two I choose to keep on a database, but
most, if not all, the manipulation can be done via PmWiki.
> When a customer is loggedin, they can browse through the
> products, each page having a "Add to order" button plus a
> "Quantity required" option. If this is the first item of
> the session it would create a new order. Any items subsequently
> added would go to the same order.
A basic shopping basket is no problem. Just grab a script and PmWiki-ise
it.
> Optionally, after logging-in, they could examine previous ORDERS
Yes.
> and:
>
> (i) Copy previously completed order OR
> (ii) Re-open previously created order (not completed)
Again, the first I would keep on a db, the second could just be the way
that you build the shopping basket so that it retains state between
sessions - where security is unlikely to be an issue... unless you sell
arms or drugs, etc.
> After selecting all the products they require, they would have the
> option of "placing and confirming" the order from a button on the
> ORDER page.
A checkout is usually just a mechanism to format the order - sorry ORDER
- for the payment mechanism. That said, you might want to add previous
(Am: prior) customer discounts, discount codes (Am: coupons), post and
packing charges (AM: shipping), and such like.
> Each CUSTOMER and ORDER page would have read/edit rights only to the
> individual customer
Where's the fun in that?
> and the order administrator. Completed orders would deny edit rights
> to the customer.
No shit! ;-)
> Existing PayPal recipes could be used to close orders.
PayPal is the devil - for business - nice for donations and between
friends. A merchant account is cheap, secure and tells the world that
you mean business. (Happy to defend that statement too :-) )
> This may sound wildly obscure, but quite a neat little recipe
> "idea"????
I've only been using PmWiki for a few weeks and doing this - but mainly
db-based - was straightforward (ignoring my ignorance as I learn my way
around).
Go for it!
--
Best,
Marc
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