Online Store : Create Shopping Cart With WP e-Commerce Plugin

On the previous post, we already discussed on how to build a shopping cart using service from CoffeeCup. If your site is working on a Wordpress engine, there is an easy way to build a shopping cart using WP e-Commerce plugin.

Using Wordpress blog-engine means that you need not to worry about how to create your site from scratch. Instead, you only need to worry about the contents, as there are many plugins spread on the internet that will add the value of your Wordpress website.

Talking about an online store, means that you need to bring an easy way for your customers to buy anything from your site in an easy,  fast, secure and reliable manner. If your website is engined with Wordpress, a shopping cart using WP e-Commerce plug-in is the quickest solution for this problem.

WordPress e-Commerce is a WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin that is truly an industrial strength elegant easy to use and fully featured shopping cart solution suitable for selling your products, services, and or fees online.

Installing Wordpress e-Commerce Plug-in

First of all, you need to download the plug-in here. Or search the plug-in from your Wordpress plug-in installer menu if you don’t want to download it.

If you already download the plug-in. Unzip the contents of the zip file you download and place the "wp-e-commerce" folder in your WordPress plugins directory, like so: "wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/" Then, go to the Plugins screen in your WordPress admin area and activate the WP e-Commerce plugin.

If you decided to use the premium service called The Gold Module, you need to set up some more options. The Gold Module requires API activation. You enter an API key and Username, these are supplied to you upon a successful transaction.

1/ Your API key may be associated with another website? If so then you need to de-activate the API key from your test site so that it is free to use on your new site.

2/ Your server does not support cURL or fsockopen. Your server needs to allow these protocols so that your website can communicate with the WP e-Commerce API database. WordPress itself uses fsockopen to activate Akismet spam protection therefore if Akismet works then so should your WP e-Commerce API key.

If you don’t know what this means check with your web host or server administrator.

3/ Your firewall is blocking outgoing connections. When activating your API key your website will try and reach out and connect to the WP e-Commerce API database. You might need to ensure that our IP address 209.20.70.163 is added to your firewall.

4/ Your Gold files are in the wrong place. You need to ensure that your file structure is correct:

For WP e-Commerce 3.6 +, the gold files need to be unpacked and uploaded into the "wp-e-commerce/" folder like so:

"wp-content/wp-e-commerce/gold_cart_files/"

You also need to ensure that the gold_shopping_cart.php file is in the "wp-shopping-cart/" folder otherwise the gold tab won’t appear in your admin site. Ensure that this file is uploaded like so:

"wp-content/wp-e-commerce/gold_shopping_cart.php"

For WP e-Commerce 3.7, the gold files need to be unpacked and uploaded into the "wp-e-commerce" folder like so:

"wp-content/uploads/wpsc/upgrades"

5/ You have not uploaded all the files correctly. It is possible that an Auto update went wrong or perhaps when you were uploading your files they did not copy over properly. You should check to make sure the files sizes are correct.

Installing Additional Modules

Installing the Grid View

Grid View lets you change the way your site looks. You can display your products using a grid layout based on thumbnail images of your products. To install you must do the following:

1) unpack the files

2) copy "grid_display_functions.php" and "grid_view.css" into the "gold_cart_files" folder

Installing DropShop

DropShop adds the ability to drag and drop products into a new AJAX powered shopping cart that will display in the footer of your page.

1) copy the contents of the dropshop.zip file into your "gold_cart_files" folder.

2) select DropShop in the shop options page in WP e-Commerce

DropShop – Integrating with your Theme

With some luck (and a little more hard work) we will try to make it so that there is no theme modification necessary at all – if you are a CSS guru and you know of a way around this then please let us know.

But for now you must do the following:

1) Add this line directly under the "<body>" tag in your main theme template (normally in header.php) "<div id="page_container">"

2) Add the closing div tag immediately above the "<?php wp_footer(); ?>"

(normally in footer.php)

DropShop known Issues

When using the Audio Player and DropShop together Flash displays on top of the cart. This is a z index bug inherit in Firefox – fingers crossed they will fix it for us in Firefox 3. If you are a CSS guru and you know of a fix for this then please post it on our forums.

DropShop & WordPress compliant themes

If your theme is not a WordPress compliant theme then it needs to be. DropShop probably won’t work if your theme does not follow the WP theme development guidelines. All themes need a header and a footer. If DropShop works in your default theme it should work in your theme.

Installing Members Only Module

The Members Only Module allows you to create pay to view subscription sites – this is done by allowing you to protect single blog posts and pages.

The Members Only module is perfect for private Podcast sites, Image galleries, Movie Galleries, and Forums. Just use your imagination!

The authorize.net Payment Gateway utilizes the Abr “authorize.net” recurring billing option. It is not a WP e-Commerce option,  WP e-Commerce uses Abr by default.

To install the Members Only Module you must:

1/ Copy the members folder into the "gold_cart_files" folder

2/ Active by entering your members only API key in the Shop Options page

For this module to work you must configure some WordPress settings.

Users must be logged in to your site to purchase a membership or subscription – otherwise we cannot associate their subscription with a WordPress user account.

To do this you need to browse to the WordPress “General Settings” page and check the “anyone can register” check box next to the Membership option.

Now under the WP e-Commerce “Checkout Options Page” turn on the “Require Registration” option by selecting the “yes” option.

Now you need to create a members only page or post

1) Add or edit a WordPress page or post and check the “Members Only” check box

Now create a members only product

2) Create or edit a product.

2a ) Call it One Month

2b ) Open the Membership Control options and check the “Is this product a membership” check box

2c ) Select a period of One Month

3) Save your product and test it!

To test this you should logout and browse to your store. Find the One Month product and purchase this product. When you reach the checkout page you will be prompted to login which you can now do inline on the Checkout page.

Once you have logged in and successfully purchased the One Month product you will be able to access this protected page or post for a period of one month. Done.

The Product Slider

The Poduct Slider let’s you display the products from a category in a sliding gallery.

Future version will also let you feed in products that are on sale. It’s easy to install. Just put it in the gold folder.

To use simply use the following short code:

[wpsc_slider_category=1,2]

That’s it all, quick and easy. For more detailed information about this plugin, go to Instinct Entertainment website and talk to the plug-in experts there.