Using modx to build a shopping cart. Zencart/Magento experiences?

I’ve just been having a look at Zencart and Magento a couple of open source shopping cart applications. Has anyone any experience with them?

I was wondering what advantage they would have over using modx to build one. Surely it wouldn’t be that hard in mod x to add a table of products and cart table, and build in the functionality?

Cheers
thingstodo.

Have not used Zencart and Magento.  They serve different purposes in a sense though from the full CMS functionality and Flexibility of MODx.  Their main purpose is obviously to do one thing: be a shopping cart.  A good friend of mine who uses MODx a lot also uses Magento and likes Magento for Ecommerce, but not for a CMS.  MODx plus Foxy Cart work great together though for a CMS that has an Ecommerce component to it.  I’ve lost track of how many Foxy Cart + MODx set ups I’ve done in the last year, but it’s easy to set up and implement.

Here’s an example of a mostly Ecommerce website I set up awhile back that has other CMS components to it (like a blog, educational informational section, etc.) that uses MODx and Foxy Cart:

http://greenpowercompany.com/

OK thanks for your reply.

That’s interesting, looks good, but don’t like the idea of the monthly payments when there is so much open source stuff out there.

I understand.  Like I always tell my clients: consider the advantage that using Foxy Cart allows you to keep your CC info secure as Foxy Cart is always updating their security patches and such plus they’re PCI compliant which is really nice.  With an open source system, you really have to stay on top of things (patches and such) which can be costly for the client to pay you to handle.  While Foxy Cart is $15/month, I guess I consider the alternative if an open source system has a problem you don’t update quick enough which leaves your client kinda hanging out there if anything gets compromised.  For my clients, it’s worth the very, very small monthly fee.  Good luck either way finding what suits your client’s needs!

Had experience with zencart - old legacy code, development is slow and controlled by a small closed group, its hard to modify, not user friendly and impossible to update. My recommendation is try to avoid it at any cost.

Magento is the new kid on the block, looks good but I have no experience with it, also came across opencart which looks promising.

Quote from: thingstodo at Feb 25, 2009, 12:43 PM

I was wondering what advantage they would have over using modx to build one. Surely it wouldn’t be that hard in mod x to add a table of products and cart table, and build in the functionality?

I can assure you, it’s probably 1,000 times as hard as you think it would be


Using a dedicated ecommerce CMS like Magento or ZenCart or CubeCart or OpenCart or X-Cart or Shopify or etc. has certain advantages to be sure, but they also have disadvantages. ZC or others probably have better "sale" type of capabilities (ie. "all t-shirts are 20% off"); they might have better search or compare capabilities ("find all items that are red and under $50" or "show me comparable items in a grid"); they might have built in inventory.

What they lack (for the most part) is the amazing flexibility and templating ability that MODx gives you, and using MODx you can likely duplicate any necessary pieces (like a category "sale" or product comparisons) with just a little time. MODx has TreasureChest, gCart, and Kiwee that are all "integrated", and FoxyCart like Kris mentioned (and that now has a user API to allow true user synchronization between FC and MODx). Yeah, it’s $15/mo, but if you start to look at what a truly secure ecommerce site entails and trying to handle that on your own you’re very likely looking at much more than $180/yr.

Then again, I’m biased towards FoxyCart

So very true. Once you get in to the detail of building an ecommerce system you will quickly discover just how complex and costly it can be.

Typical requirements:

* catalogue + search + taxonomy (ie products can belong to one or more categories)
* product options, volume discounts, weight calculation, shipping and tax costs, special offers, discount codes
* cart functionality that stores selected products and allows the user to change quanity & options within the cart
* secure checkout forms using SSL
* integration with a payment gateway
* if you take cards on your pages then you need to implement 3D secure and make sure your hosting architecture is PCI compliant.
* admin system for order, customer and product management (in addition to the usual CMS stuff)

So your clients costs are:
* Your design and dev time
* PCI compliant hosting and SSL cert
* Payment gateway transaction fees plus annual fee
* Bank charges for an internet merchant account
* Maintenance fee for keeping everything secure and up to date

The truth is $15 a month for Foxycart is an absolute bargain.

Quote from: etal at Feb 26, 2009, 02:53 AM

Had experience with zencart - old legacy code, development is slow and controlled by a small closed group, its hard to modify, not user friendly and impossible to update. My recommendation is try to avoid it at any cost.

Magento is the new kid on the block, looks good but I have no experience with it, also came across opencart which looks promising.

i have used both and both suit different purposes!

ZenCart (ZC) was a break away from osCommerce (osC) , and yes.. it inherited some of the problems of osC, but ZC is on version 1.3.8a now, with hardly anything left of osC in the functional code. Furthermore ZC 2.0 is being released this year, which is full OO code.

ZenCart is aimed at single store owners, sales of less than 1000 a month
Magento is an enterprise level system, sales of over 1000 a month, and for multiple stores!

as such, ZC runs well even on a shared host (if you have have had a slow ZC store, id re-evaluate your host! as i have never had slow stores on shared hosts.. you get what you pay for, never buy entry-level hosting!) As such, Magento will ONLY run on a VPS as a MINIMUM!!! and even then, entry level VPS’ can slow Magento down to a painful pace.

as for designing and skinning a ZC or Magento store... its a simple system of CSS overrides, i find it easy... and its not as ridged as you’d think!

i have never tried foxycart, im still new and learning MODx, but i will always favour the right tool for the job,,, i would always pick ZC or M (depending on the project) over a add-on, plug-in etc.

also, comparing ZC and Magento is like comparing MODx with TYPO3... both great, but for totally different levels!
IMHO

I was one of the original folks on the Zen Cart project; it’s good to hear Ian’s still going strong with it today. That said, I’d either do Magento or Foxy, depending on your needs for merchandising, cross-selling and promotion, etc.

PCI compliance is a very big deal, and getting it for a mere $15/month from FoxyCart is a bargain by any measure.

I’ll second for FoxyCart on a $ > £ value. Great product great support!  Good guy!