I dont really know where to post this so I guess here is good spot!
Having been somewhat disheartened by the ecommerce options for EE out there that get anywhere close to fitting my needs for flexibility, ease of client adoption & training, extensibility and 2 pages worth of other metrics; I’ve started to port an opensource CodeIgniter based eCommerce / shopping cart app to EE2.
The ecom solution I’m in the middle of porting is called GoCart http://www.gocartdv.com
My port is subsequently named “SoapBoxCart for EE” and I plan on forking it on github within a few weeks.
Dont get me wrong BrilliantRetail, CartThrob & Expresso all LOOK awesome but for my clients needs I don’t have the luxury of trying one of these solutions ( at a hefty cost mind you ) only to have to either suck up the cost and “make it work for me” OR fail early ( hopefully ) and then try again with another pricey solution.
And unfortunately the shopping cart shipped with EE is only allows for payment via PayPal which is a shame because it is very simple and relatively easy code to follow when looking at the source.
/** begin rant **/
The lack of a unified or centralized add-on market controlled and vetted by Ellis is a huge pain; and frankly the DevotEE marketplace should be acquired or otherwise financially augmented via ads, commissions, a partner program or something from EllisLabs; as ExpressionEngine out of the box is HIGHLY “functional” yet not “all there” until you purchase hundreds to thousands worth of add-ons to make the system do what you want. I am sure the micro-economy surrounding the addons market would bring in more than enough revenue to justify a “regulated” online repository for commercial & free third-party developers certified and curated by the company responsible for the cms…
I believe a “try before you buy” feature would be a great element of such a service; where you are able to demo addons on a hosted, time limited & security hardened EE instance for say 30 minutes to up to an hour. After the set amount of time elapses you get logged out & the instance is refreshed or is deleted and then respawned for each concurrent “demo session”.
Not a completely trivial project to undertake; however I believe there are valuable potential benefits for EllisLabs in such an endeavor. Not just financial benefits; but also it would be a wise strategic positioning decision for the product within the large vicious sea of the CMS industry.
The development effort, time & costs of such a service offering could easily be justified if you compared EE’s auxiliary service offerings to those of competitors in the same CMS class or lower.
/** end rant **/
Anyway….
Take a look at GoCart & if you have ideas, comments or other requests let me know.
gocartdv.com
/** I am in no way affiliated with the developers of GoCart **/