Speedsoft :: Online Shopping Tutorial Part 2 : Electronic Commerce

: Online Shopping How-To II

See Also

Store Tutorial
Product Generator

If you have not read through the Initial Store Tutorial, please do so now before continuing on with this second tutorial.

Beyond creating your product information directly on the web page, there is a second option for using our "Product Generator" database system to keep your web site up-to-date with product information and pricing. See the Product Generator How To page for information on using this system.

This page covers the following:

Backroom Order Manager

When customer places an order, a copy of the invoice (minus credit card information) is sent to the store manager's (your) email address and the customer's email address. Additionally, the order invoice with billing information included (credit card info) is stored on the main Speedsoft server (www.speedsoft.com) in an inaccessible directory to be retrieved by you at a later time. Using the Backroom Order Manager page, you may view and delete these orders or leave them on the server for as long as you want.

When you click on a "View Order" button, it uses secure socket layer to transfer this information to your browser, where you may print out or copy this information for billing purposes.

Multi-Product Ordering

Taking the Online store one step farther. How about if we want to allow our visitors to order more than one product at a time? This section covers this.

Previously it was emphasized that the Product ID was the most important item of the order form and that is what is used to track the item. For multi-product ordering, the ID is still the tracking guide, but it is no longer entered in a hidden field by the name of "ID". It is now included on each form tag. This way the form tags are identified as belonging to this particular item. To clarify, let's look at an example.

Returning to our Candy Store example site, let's place a page which contains multiple items. Example 5. Here is what the code looks like for the form:

<form action="/ssstore/cart.html" method=post>
<input type="hidden" name="site" value="candy">
<input type="hidden" name="ID" value="C201">
<input type="hidden" name="C201:name" value="Additional Gumballs">
<input type="hidden" name="C201:price" value="3.00">
<input name="C201:quantity" size=3 maxlength=2 value=1> Additional Gumballs
<input type="hidden" name="C201:shipping" value="2.00">
<input type="hidden" name="C201:surcharge" value="1.00">
<P>
<input type="hidden" name="C202:name" value="Machine Cleaner">
<input type="hidden" name="C202:price" value="22.50">
<input name="C202:quantity" size=3 maxlength=2 value=0> Machine Cleaner
<input type="hidden" name="C202:shipping" value="8.00">
<input type="hidden" name="C202:surcharge" value="0.00">
<P>
<input type="hidden" name="C203:name" value="Machine Stand">
<input type="hidden" name="C203:price" value="8.00">
<input name="C203:quantity" size=3 maxlength=2 value=0>
Machine Stand <input type="hidden" name="C203:shipping" value="5.00">
<P>
<input type=submit value="Place Order">

Notice that each form tag carries the ID and a colon without spaces in front of each form tag name. You can still use the Product Generator with this type of order form. However, you cannot use the simple <Oid> tag, you have to use the individual product generator tags for each form tag.

Making the "Shop Some More" go somewhere else

When you go to the checkout, delete your cart, or simply order an item, a link is presented along the top of the page that says "Shop Some More". By default this link takes you back to the page you were last at when you placed the order. This link can be changed by including a hidden form field tag named "back" in your order <form>. This would look like:

<input type="hidden" name="back" value="http://www.mysite.com/mypage.html">

Links you may want to bookmark

Replace anywhere you see YOUR_SITE_NAME with, you guessed it, your site name and HOME_SERVER with the server your site is on such as "lyn.speedsoft.com". To find out which server your site is on go here.

Site Configuration

http://HOME_SERVER/store/usercfg.pl?site=YOUR_SITE_NAME

Product Generator

http://HOME_SERVER/pg/pg.pl?site=YOUR_SITE_NAME

Backroom Order Manager

https://www.speedsoft.com/store/backroom.pl?site=YOUR_SITE_NAME