Chapter 11: Shopping Cart Creator Pro...

Features, Tools, and Funcionality

What Are the System Requirements Necessary to Run Shopping Cart Creator Pro?

To run the software efficiently, your computer and server systems should meet the following requirements:

Operating System – Windows Vista/7/8/8.1
Disk Space – 30MB free disk space available
RAM – 128MB (256 recommended)

What Are the Server Requirements for This Software?

To use Shopping Cart Creator Pro on your Windows or Linux server, PHP 4.4.7 or higher, cURL extensions, and PHP sessions must be enabled. If you are not sure if your server has these items enabled, contact your hosting provider, and they will be able to assist you. You can also use the code below to check to see what version of PHP is installed on your host. Open Notepad and copy and paste this code into the document:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Now go to File > Save As and save the file as phpinfo.php. Make sure you change the Save as Type to All Files. Now you will need to upload this file to your server using an FTP client. Once the file is on the server, go there with your browser, and all the PHP information about the server will be displayed.

If all that is too confusing, contact your host, and they will be able to tell you if you have PHP 4.4.7 running on your server.

How Do I Upgrade the Software?

When upgrading your software, you will need to log into your CoffeeCup user account (http://www. coffeecup.com/login/) just as you did to download the registered version of the software. When you download the upgrade, it will be a new full version and not just an upgrade to the existing software on your system. To install an upgrade, we recommend that you uninstall the previous version of the software and restart your computer. This is because installing over a previously installed version can cause some functions to not work correctly. Therefore, it is best to install a fresh copy.

How Many Products, Categories, and Subcategories Can I Add to my Shop?

You can add up to 300 categories and subcategories and 3000 products to your shop.

What Are the Optional Fields and How Do I Configure Them?

Under the More Options tab, you’ll find the Optional Fields area. You can use this area to set multiple values for a product. For instance, if you were selling T-shirts, you could use this option to designate different sizes or colors. Here’s how to create a new optional field:

Click the green plus sign icon. This opens the Enter Name window.
Enter a name for your field, and then click OK.
Under the Optional Fields area, you’ll see a chart with the default text “Enter field options...” Erase this text, and then enter your first option and the corresponding price. Repeat this step for as many options as you want to create.

To delete a value, select it and click the red X icon, and to move it around within the list, use the up and down arrow icons. You are allowed up to five optional fields with as many values as you want. If you would like to apply an optional field you have configured to all the products in a given category, select the Enable optional field sharing checkbox.

Can Shopping Cart Creator Pro Manage my Inventory?

Using the inventory tool, you can keep track of your inventory and transaction history. For more information about how to use these tools, read Managing Inventory. Please keep in mind that although this tool is a great way to help keep track of your orders, it shouldn’t be your only means of keeping track of your inventory. Your payment providers have excellent tools you can use to keep track of your business.

Can Shopping Cart Creator Pro Handle Downloadable Products?

Shopping Cart Creator Pro is equipped to handle downloadable products in the same way it handles physical products. This gives you, the shop owner, the most control over your inventory. Here’s how you can handle downloadable products with Shopping Cart Creator Pro:

Set up your products within the software.
When a customer places an order, you will receive a notification.
Respond to the customer with a download location for the product. We recommend using a secure service such as YouSendIt (http://www.yousendit.com) to send your customer the download location.

You may also want to provide a special shipping option for users who purchase downloadable products. First, make sure all the weight of your downloadable products is set to 0. Next, set up an option in the Weight-Based Shipping area for products weighing between 0 and .01 weight units and call it “Download.” With this option in place, your users will have a clear option to select when they purchase a downloadable product.

Customization

What HTML Tags Can I Use in the Long Description?

Most HTML tags can be used in the long description. Just be careful when adding scripts, as they could conflict with the cart itself. If you run into a problem, simply remove the scripts and/or code and reupload your cart.

Can I Remove the Text “Shopping Cart Software by CoffeeCup Software” From my Shop?

This is possible in the registered version of the software. Click the Your Shop button, select the Footer tab, and remove the following code:

<a href=”https://www.coffeecup.com” rel=”external”>Shopping Cart Software</a> by CoffeeCup Software

Can I Use a Theme Not Included in Shopping Cart Creator Pro?

You cannot edit themes from inside Shopping Cart Creator Pro, but you can with Shopping Cart Designer (https://www.coffeecup.com/shopping-cart-designer/) or Shopping Cart Designer Pro (http:// www.coffeecup.com/shopping-cart-designer-pro/). This equally intuitive application allows you to modify your shop with such options as applying custom color schemes, styling text, and customizing backgrounds.

Payment

How Do I Manage Orders and Payment?

Shopping Cart Creator Pro is not used to manage orders and payments. These aspects are handled through your chosen payment provider (PayPal, Authorize.Net, Google Checkout, WorldPay, or 2Checkout). For more information about how your payment provider handles orders and payment, consult its documentation.

What’s the Maximum Price I Can Charge for Something?

There is a maximum price limit of 999,999.99 in any currency. However, many payment providers place limits on transactions, so you should do some research to find out the maximum amount your payment provider allows you to charge.

Do You Support Any Other Merchant Accounts?

At this time, Shopping Cart Creator Pro supports PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, WorldPay, and 2Checkout. We chose to support these options in particular because of their reliability. With more then 164 million user accounts and support for multicurrency transactions, PayPal is one of the web’s leading payment processors. Google Checkout offers your customers a fast and reliable checkout process, supported by a trusted brand. Authorize.Net is one of the largest payment gateway providers on the Internet, and allows your users to pay by credit card easily and safely. WorldPay and 2Checkout are synonymous with easy, secure international transactions.

What’s the Difference Between PayPal Website Payments Standard and Express Checkout?

If you use PayPal Express Checkout, when your customers check out, they will be directed to a page that requires them to log into their PayPal account or create a new one. Therefore, this is the best option if you anticipate that most of your customers either have a PayPal account or will sign up for an account on checkout.

It may also improve sales; according to PayPal’s website (http://www.paypal.com), the Express Checkout button “can increase sales by 14% on average*” and has “conversion rates [that] are 23% higher than standard checkout at some of today’s largest online retailers.**”

* Q1 2006 PayPal phone survey of small- and medium-sized businesses with at least $120,000 in annual sales online

** comScore, PayPal Express Checkout Study, August 2007

If you use PayPal Website Payments Standard, when your customers check out, they will be directed to a page that allows them to log into their PayPal account or pay by credit card without having to sign up for a PayPal account. This is the best option if you anticipate that most of your customers will not want to sign up for a PayPal account.

Do Customers Need to Register With PayPal to Make a Purchase?

Regardless of whether you are using PayPal Express Checkout or Website Payments Standard, your customers do not need to register with PayPal before they make a purchase.

Website Payments Standard does not require that your customer have a PayPal account. Instead, when your customers check out, they will be directed to a page that allows them to log into their Pay- Pal account or pay by credit card without having to sign up for a PayPal account.

PayPal Express Checkout does require a PayPal account, but this will automatically be created for the customer upon checkout. Please note that if you have logged into PayPal before on your computer, a cookie will be set on your system, and your checkout box will look different from the checkout box a non-PayPal user will see. To verify that your non-PayPal users will see the correct screen, you can delete your PayPal cookies or test in a different browser that you do not use to access PayPal.

I’m Using 2Checkout. How Do I Redirect Users to my Shop?

By default, your customers will not be redirected to your shop after they make a payment through 2Checkout. If you would like to redirect your customers to your shop after making a payment, log into your 2Checkout account and go to Account > Site Management > Approved URL and Pending URL. In the provided fields, enter your website URL appended by /relay2co.php (e.g. https://www.mywebsite.com/ shop/relay2co.php). If you do not use the Approved URL and Pending URL options, stock and inventory control will not function, and the cart will not be cleared out when your customer returns to your shop.

Error Messages and Troubleshooting

I Am Unable to Update the Quantity of Products in my Cart.

When I am at the checkout page for my shop, I see the quantity is set to 1 for a product that I just added to my cart. When I try to change the value to another number and click update quantity, it still stays at 1.

The reason this is happening is because you have set the default quantity for this product to 1. This means a user can only purchase one of this product per order. If you would like your customer to be able to purchase more then one of this product, open your shop in Shopping Cart Creator Pro and select the product you wish to change. Next, click the More Options tab. At the bottom of the tab under the Quantities section, change the option from Use default quantity to Let buyer choose quantity.

If you have only a limited quantity of this product, make sure to monitor your sales so you do not oversell this product.

When I Published my Shop, it Overwrote my index.html Page.

Shopping Cart Creator Pro saves its shops with the filename index.php. This won’t present a problem if your shop has its own unique domain name, such as shop.mydomain.com, but it may be an issue if you want to incorporate your shop into an existing website (www.mydomain.com/shop). To prevent your shop from overwriting your index.html page, make sure to save it in a separate folder from your document root folder.

When I Check Out Using PayPal, I Get an Error. What Gives?

You will receive the following error message if there is a problem with your PayPal account:

PayPal has returned an error!
Ack: Failure
Correlation ID: 81f242f06f3ec
Version: 3.2
Error Number: 10002
Short Message: Security error
Long Message: Security header is not valid

Double-check that you have added the correct API username, password, and signature under the Payment tab in the Shop Settings window. It would also be a good idea to log into your PayPal account and verify that it is active.

I Get a PHP Error When I Try to Check Out in my Shop.

You’ll see the following error message if you don’t have cURL PHP extensions installed:

Warning: array_search(): Wrong datatype for second argument in [SERVERPATH]/ccdata/php/servertest.
php on line 93

To correct this problem, contact your hosting provider and ask them to install cURL.

When I Check Out Using Google Checkout, I Get an Error. What’s Up?

There is a problem with your Google Checkout account if you get the following error message:

Google Checkout has returned an error!
Ack: error
Message:
Post:

Double-check that you have added the correct merchant ID and key under the Payment tab in the Shop Settings window. It would also be a good idea to log into your Google Checkout account and verify that it is active.

If your default currency type does not match the currency set in your Google account, you’ll get the following message:

Google Checkout has returned an error!
Ack: error
Message: The currency used in the cart must match the currency of the seller account. You supplied a cart
with GBP and the seller account is associated with USD.

Go to the Payment tab in Shopping Cart Creator Pro and double-check that your Google Checkout and Shopping Cart Creator Pro currency values are the same.

When I Try to Add a Product to my Cart, Nothing Happens.

This issue is caused when your web server isn’t properly configured to handle sessions. Sessions are how PHP remembers important information such as what a customer puts in their cart, subtotals, totals, etc. Some server administrators elect to turn sessions off by default, but will enable them upon request.

Please contact your web server administrator and ask them to enable PHP sessions for your website, and then try to use your shopping cart again.

After you create a cart and upload it with our software, we have a test script you can access to doublecheck that your server is compatible. You can access this script at: http://[YOURCARTPATHURL]/ ccdata/php/servertest.php

When you go to the above script, if you see an error that looks like the text below, contact your hosting provider and give them the above information:

Session Data
FAILED - this server cannot store cart data for users.

Miscellaneous

Is This Software SEO- and Web Standards-Friendly?

Yes. Everything is made with web standards and search engines in mind. Every page created with our software follows W3C (http://www.w3c.org) markup standards. In addition, with the Pages tool, you can add meta keywords and descriptions to the individual pages in your shop.

How Do I Move my Cart to Another Computer?

If you work on your shop on multiple systems, you will need to copy the data to each computer you work on. To do this, open your existing shop and go to File > Save Shop As. Create a new folder called Shop Backup, and then save your shop into this folder. Now simply copy the Shop Backup folder to each computer you’d like to use to modify your shop. Please note that whenever you make any changes to your shop, you will need to repeat these steps again.

Can I Use an External FTP Client to Upload my Shop?

Yes. Go to File > Export Shop for Upload, and then select the location on your computer from which you’d like to upload your files.

Can I Use Shopping Cart Creator Pro on an Existing Website?

Shopping Cart Creator Pro generates all the files you need to run your online shop, which means it can be used as a standalone website. Additionally, the Pages tool gives you the option to add up to five custom webpages to your store. These can be used as a shop homepage, a FAQ, a refund policy page, etc.

However, if you already have a preexisting website, you can easily incorporate your online shop. This is a two-step process:

Step 1: Uploading Your Shop

When you upload your shop, you’re going to need to tweak your normal FTP settings slightly. This is because you want to upload your shop to its very own subfolder. You get to name this subfolder whatever you want — we recommend using a name like “shop” or “store,” but it’s up to you.

How do you create this folder? Well, that depends on your hosting provider, as well as your remote folder. The most common way to create a subfolder for your shop is to append your remote folder with /subfoldername. Subfoldername is the name of the subfolder where you want your shop to be stored. Here are a few examples:

public_html/shop
www/store
/webshop

If you’re still unsure of what exactly to put in these fields, or if you’ve tried these options and your shop still isn’t uploading correctly, contact your hosting provider. Ask them what you should do to upload your files to a subfolder.

Step 2: Integrating Your Shop

The first step can sometimes be a little tricky, but you’ll be happy to learn that the second step is as easy as creating a link on your webpage. If you’re using an HTML editor such as CoffeeCup HTML Editor (https://www.coffeecup.com/html-editor) or the code editor in CoffeeCup Direct FTP (http://www. coffeecup.com/direct-ftp), you’ll use this HTML:

<a href=”Shop URL”>Text you want to appear as a link</a>

Shop URL is the URL for your shop. You can use a relative or absolute link. Text you want to appear as a link is the linked text your visitors will click on.

If you’re using Visual Site Designer, create and highlight the text or object you want to make into a link, and then click the Link button in the Toolbar. Check the Use Link checkbox, make sure the WWW radio button is selected, and enter the URL for your shop in the WWW field.

If you’re using menu-building software, such as Flash Menu Builder (https://www.coffeecup.com/menubuilder), you can create a new menu button and link it to the URL for your shop.

Unsure of how to determine the URL for your shop? No worries, it’s not that hard! If you appended the name of your remote folder with the name of your shop subfolder, it’s as simple as http://www.yourdomain. com/subfoldername. Here are a few examples:

http://www.mywebsite.com/shop
http://www.mysite.com/store
http://www.mydomain.com/webshop

If you contacted your hosting provider and they gave you a super-complicated method of adding a subfolder, you might want to ask them how to easily find your shop URL.