[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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