

SimpleCart(js) - Javascript Shopping Cart - huragok
http://simplecartjs.org

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anykey
The website is beautiful, but I don't even think the notion of a "javascript
shopping cart" should exist. It's stupidly dangerous. This is real money we're
talking about! Wow.

Also, this confused me for a few seconds...I thought dials went clockwise ;)
<http://i.imgur.com/QEl7v.png>

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reitzensteinm
It's not a big deal. Just do a check on the backend. You can swap price tags
in stores too, and they most certainly will not honor it if they realize.

I've done a mid 5 figure number of transactions through PayPal for digital
goods, and I don't use the encrypted links (mainly because Flash doesn't
support them). There have been a remarkably small number of fraud attempts
(<0.1%).

One guy bought a game for $0.01, then initiated a chargeback when it didn't
arrive. I raised my eyebrows, issued a refund, and the matter was over.

Not being able to trust the client is intrinsic to JS shopping carts, but I
don't think this is a critical flaw.

Although I don't see what prevents merging the JS cart with a web based cart
on the checkout page. Send the contents, and the page with the big 'click to
charge card' button is generated server side.

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shousper
I think this is a great idea, despite its obvious flaw.

To make it a better offering, I would probably add sample custom payment
gateway "proxies" in common languages (i.e. PHP, Ruby, etc.) for security.

What I mean by proxy is provide some generic server-side code as a middle man
for the payment gateway which can confirm the details of an order (on your
server) haven't been tampered with before forwarding onto the actual gateway
(PayPal, etc.)

This way, the shops who don't mind dealing with dodgy purchases can run 100%
client-side, while more others can use this feature to prevent invalid orders
being created.

Am I talking sense, or day dreaming and missing a big inherent flaw?

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gingerlime
Great suggestion. This way people can use their existing server-side payment
integration if they need to, manage stock levels, sanity-check the customer
address, run fraud-checks or whatever they need to do before the order is
processed and payment is taken. It should virtually eliminate the js security
flaw. Or at least give the chance to eliminate it.

It makes implementing a cart on a website much simpler because you reduce the
interface points between the client and the server to one (at least as far as
the actual cart needs to keep itself updated).

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nlh
I got super-excited for a moment because I'm literally in the midst of a
weekend project putting together, well, a simple online store (I'm a novice -
yes, these things still take me a weekend ;)

But this is, alas, too simple. I'm actually taking the plunge and building a
Rails app.

Anyone have some good/great/awesome JS shopping cart suggestions that are
perhaps equally-simple in theory but a bit more robust?

I'm using Rails, ActiveMerchant and Stripe.js so far (been looking for a good
excuse to actually use Stripe - psyched to try 'em out).

Something between this and Spree, which is massive massive overkill for my
purposes.

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retube
> yes, these things still take me a weekend

I would think so. This HN myth that you can build and launch the
infrastructure you need to run a business in a weekend needs to die.

~~~
moe
What do you mean?

I launched two sites while typing this comment.

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spankyhoot
This seems to suffer from the source of prices being the html itself. This
implies trusting the client - I'm a web inspector away from choosing what I
want to pay.

~~~
ummjackson
When the incorrect payment price comes through to PayPal however, you just
wouldn't ship the schmuck the goods, would you?

For simple, small online stores, I think this could be a nice option.

~~~
shousper
Agreed. I wonder if you could put a clause in your terms of service that
states you will not give refunds for modified price amounts?

Then on your confirmation page, just have a nice "Thank you for your donation.
Unfortunately, you won't be receiving any goods. Please see our TOS for
details."

Probably illegal though >_>

~~~
blcArmadillo
One issue with this, besides the possible legality of it, is if they used
their credit card they could just dispute the claim. Stripe for example
charges you $15 anytime someone disputes one of your charges even if you
didn't do anything wrong. So you'd probably end up being out more than if you
just refunded the money. Not sure what PayPal, Google checkout, etc policies
are on this although I'd imagine they're quite similar.

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neotorama
I can change the price :0

<http://i.imgur.com/IjwEs.png>

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mintplant
...Which is why you do server-side validation?

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espitia
Can anyone help me email the contents of the cart when the user presses
'checkout'? I've spent over 8 hours trying to do this and have had no luck (4
last night, 4 today). I don't know much javascript so any help will be very
much appreciated.

My business doesn't need customers to pay online, they will pay in person. I
just need to receive orders through email.

Thank you.

~~~
hcal
The author's twitter feed mentions that they will be releasing an update that
does checkout-via-email.

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espitia
Any date set at all? China blocks twitter, thanks for the info.

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hcal
No specific date, just that they are working on it. It does currently support
checkout-via-post though, so it wouldn't take much php (or whatever) to make
it work.

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k2xl
Something super trivial, but I can see the down arrow on the Items toggle
button seep through... On Chrome 23.0.1271.64

Nice little library though. Interesting comments regarding changing prices..
Curious how paypal handles things like that (since on Paypal's side you don't
really create "products" do you?)

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junto
I noticed this too. Here is a screenshot: <http://i.imgur.com/dxdvT.png>

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JuDue
I like this idea.

If you can confirm the price tally in the final step of checkout it would work
well.

So server side integration still required.

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glennsayers
Their documentation has been hit hard by spam.

<http://simplecartjs.org/documentation/google_checkout>

Looks like a great library though!

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ChrisNorstrom
I've spent about 3 months looking for shopping carts on and off and this one
was one of the carts I was considering. I abandoned the whole javascript hard
coded shopping cart idea because it was simple in the short term, complex in
the long term.

These javascript hard coded shops are designed for people who feel comfortable
around code, re-sizing images, ftp uploading, and editing html files. But
those VERY same people who are comfortable around code are better off to just
install a managed store with a database (Word Press e-commerce), which will
streamline everything, keep track of inventory, etc... So they don't have to
hard code anything and their store can grow.

They can just install wordpress in 5 minutes, wp e-commerce in 5 minutes, find
a free theme they like and install that, and have a store ready to go. All
without touching code. They can drag and drop all their images and never have
to ftp files or edit .html documents to change prices.

I don't want to shit all over this beautiful little cart. It's perfect if you
already have an HTML site that ISN'T wordpress powered. But it's just not an
elegant solution. Or a logical one.

Here are the other solutions.

\- Gum Road.

\- Paypal Buy it now / Add to cart / View Cart buttons.

\- Word Press e-commerce, woo-commerce, marketpress, and all the other
competitors.

I tried out Plum Cart (another javascript cart) from codecayon.net, and it was
just such a pain in the ass to have to hard code everything. Let alone the
limitation of no USPS real shipping calculations or stock management. Setting
up wordpress was the best choice for a small little store.

I ended up going with WP e-commerce.

=== WP e-commerce ===

It's free, comes with everything you need to get started, does downloadable
items, and you can buy the stripe plugin for like $37. It has only 3 stars but
over 2+ million downloads, the team behind it got overwealmed by the usage,
and the USPS module is probably causing all the frustration. A lot of stores
run WP e-commerce. You'd never know unless you roam around the support forums
and see people post links asking for tips and code changes.

=== Woo-commerce ===

Pain in the ass to do variations. Very polished. Simple in many ways, complex
in others, not ready for prime time. Does downloadable items. I left it after
that.

=== MarketPress ===

$19 one time. Even less ready than Woo-commerce. Comes with Stripe module,
VERY polished. NO good shipping calculations if you store sells diverse items.
Does downloadable items. Does not have Paypal Payments Standard, only paypal
express (must upgrade to business account).

 _NOTE: if you're using ANY USPS shipping calculation module, your USPS
webtools api account must be set to LIVE product mode before you can recieve
quotes in your shopping cart. Test modes DO NOT WORK. USPS doesn't realize
this. You have to email them manually to get your account out of TEST and into
LIVE mode._

~~~
omd
WP-Ecommerce has three stars because the owner (who isn't a developer)
aggressively marketed the plugin and left it's users hanging out to dry.
Updates were done by several hired developers who ended up making a mess of
the code. Anyone who wrote a negative review about it was met with an abusive
comment from the owner.

This was two years ago since I last tried the plugin so I don't know how
support is now, but the way it's written is unsuitable as a reliable ecommerce
platform. I tried to set up a jewelry shop for a client who had bracelets in
different colors and designs. It wasn't until the website slowed down to a
crawl that I found that the system created 30 bracelets x 8 colors x 15
designs = 3600 records in the database. Every time you tried to update a price
all 3600 records needed to be updated. And as most people know doing anything
3600 times in WordPress is a pain.

Woo-commerce and MarketPress are much better, but at the moment there are no
good e-commerce solutions for WordPress. WordPress has become decent for use
as a CMS but if you're looking for an e-commerce solution your best bet would
be a stand-alone system like OpenCart or managed like Shopify or Magento Go.

~~~
ChrisNorstrom
A lot has changed in 2 years. There have been a lot of updates with a major
architectural ones just a few days ago. As well as 5 star ratings from
developers who have seen the project grow.

I tried opencart a while back and I just didn't get it. There's theme
templates in multiple folders, it's over kill for a store with just 4 or 5
products, and its design and layout was too set in stone. I never found a
theme I liked. I wanted something that I could install, strip down to the
core, and build my really simple, really minimal store from. Open cart wasn't
flexible or minimal in that sense. The user has to click, click, click, to get
anywhere. It felt like all the products where categorized and tucked away and
the user has to find them. Maybe it's possible to change via heavy template
modification but I haven't seen any template actually do that.

It's easier for me to start with something minimal like wp e-commerce and
build it up with modules, than to start with something overly templated and
featureful and try to tear it down to simplicity.

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nodesocket
Would love Stripe integration. Possible?

