phorSale

An eCommerce application for PHP and mySQL.
Version 1.0.8B - 06/2001
Copyright (C) 2001 Michael Kmiec <mike@shifter.org>

Requirements:

• PHP4
• MySQL
• UNIX/Linux/WinNT (see "Caveats" below)
• Net connection (see "Caveats" below)

Summary:

phorSale is a very basic Web/database e-commerce application. phorSale is based on many different e-commerce implementations and toolsets which I've seen and/or worked with. None are perfect and all need some degree of customization. phorSale is no different; in fact you may find that it needs more customization than anything out there.

While not fully featured, it has...

For the user:

• Session-based order ("shopping cart") with session variable stored in cookie and URL
• User recognition via unique identifer (stored in cookie and URL)
• Edit stored profile information (addresses, password, email prefs, etc)
• "Lost Password" functionality
• View placed order history
• Dynamic shipping pricing generated by product weight from UPS and Federal Express, or use of customer's own UPS/FedEx shipping number
• Product searching by keywords/descriptions/titles
• Product browsing by category
• Web-based contact form

For the site owner:

• Customizable HTML header and footer
• Password protected administrative interface
• Product management (add, edit, delete, activate/deactivate) via admin interface
• The ability to flag given product(s) with special pricing that overrides regular pricing.
• The ability to add (through coding) extra charges based on order criteria (art charges, handling, etc).
• Color management (add, edit, delete) via admin interface
• Various variables (email addresses, phone number, etc) customized in one place
• Customizable product categories
• Credit card number/date validation
• Notifying emails: order placed, contact info recieved
• Relatively simple database layout

Caveats:

phorSale was never intended to be a full-scale e-comm application. There are definitely areas which could use better coding/re-design/re-thinking, such as:

• With IIS on WinNT, HTTP Basic Auth does not seem to work. For this reason, on a WinNT machine, the administrative interface is a HTML form rather than the Basic Auth username/password box. It should probably be consistent across platforms.
• Less-than graceful error handling if the server loses outbound network connectivity (for shipping information and credit card validation.)
• No audit trails for administrative functionality.
• Only works with MySQL; other databases will not work with current state of PHP calls. Coding needed to make this work with another DB.
• Product display does not take full advantage of the features of color management. If the administrator uploads a "color chip" image, it is not displayed on the product page. This should be integrated better.
• Other than directly manipulating the DB script or DB itself, there is no way to add/change/delete product categories.
• Other than directly manipulating the DB script or DB itself, there is no way to add/change/delete administrator information.
• Email functions defer to UNIX/Linux. This is merely because I couldn't figure out how to get mail to work from WinNT.
• There's no way to access shopper information for modification/deletion, nor is there a way to access those shoppers who have opted in to recieve email. (In retrospect, this may be a good thing.)
• No real support of personalization.
• There needs to be better navigation through the administrative screens.
• Currently there is no computation of sales tax, hence no way to alter the tax percentage or the state from which the site owner does business.
• No way to validate UPS or FedEx customer-supplied shipping numbers, since I can't find a spec on this.
• Needs better (read that: less klugey) CyberCash integration.
• Only accepts VISA and MasterCard, although adding more credit card types is fairly easy.
• Only supports US Dollar as currency.
• Doesn't support countries outside the US with regards to: country names, postal codes, phone numbers, currencies, languages, etc. Not that I'm xenophobic, just lazy.
• These are just a few of the examples where code and/or logic may be improved. I'm sure there are more.

You can get the latest version:
For UNIX/Linux: http://shifter.org/phorSale/phorSale.1.0.8B.tar.gz.
For Windows NT: http://shifter.org/phorSale/phorSale.1.0.8B.zip.

For administrative information, see phorSaleDocumentation.html (also included with distribution).

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should receive a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.