MODx + Magento + AJAX

I think Magento is really slick and can’t wait until the production release in Q1 of ’08. However, I would prefer to manage my products and content through MODx. Now I was thinking that this could be done by setting up your products as documents, then simply adding a link that uses some Ajax Magic to have it processed by Magento. You could then use ditto and wayfinder for your navigation and catalog and use Magento to do the ecommerce stuff. Here is an example:

http://www.cmssandbox.com/MODx095/index.php?id=92

Now as you can see, just by changing the URL you call, you can add a certain quantity. You could even do the same thing with the main cart, and possibly the checkout form, that I am doing with the mini-cart on the example.

Now I know it wouldn’t work if javascript was disabled, and it is a little slow to update (it could be sped up by minimizing the pages, it remotely fetches, to only the necessary elements.)

Is there something I am not considering outside of those pitfalls that I should?

I have seen it, but I will need some more robust features like discounting rules, tax classes, ups shipping, Google Checkout, etc. Also, this will allow AjaxSearch to still work with your product listing.

Looks good, I have heard some good talk about Magneto. It did have a slight delayed response as you mentioned. I also noticed that it did not remember my cart when I returned to the site, it must be session variable based rather than with cookies or is it something else altogether?

On a general side note, I sometimes find it difficult to know when an action has been made in Ajax driven sites. I actually added the product to the cart a few times before I noticed it had been added. I find this to be a general problem with many Ajax functions...if you are not watching you may not notice it. Maybe make it flash a higher contrast color during the ’load’.

I definitely agree with you on the not noticing thing.  This was more proof of concept and mashed together.  I wanted to get some general feedback from people here and at Magento before I spent any serious time with it.  I would likely add a loading icon and then a highlighting effect to show where the cart changed.  The speed should easily be fixed too as I previously discussed. Regarding it not remembering your cart, that is related to the fact that Magento uses session variables instead of cookies.

Check:

http://demo.magentocommerce.com/

Add an item, close your browser, and return and the cart will be empty. I imagine they will add in functionality to handle it by cookie or session variable.

I don’t see how that behaviour is considered "wrong" or problematic.

I agree not a problem, just an observation.

I have gone into a few sites that not only remember the cart’s contents but will let me know that I did not complete that order during my last visit and offer to continue or start over. This does not bother me, as a visitor it offers a level of personal treatment (it is like being greeted at the door ’welcome back, do you want to continue’ is friendly not intrusive). I see this often with grocery stores and almost always see this in systems where you need to login before shopping (which makes it easy, you don’t need the cookies). Some shops will even send you an email asking why you did not complete the purchase.

From the business point of view it is a great statistic to see what people put in their carts and did not buy as well as the number of aborted shopping experiences.