Released: PadLoper (commercial eCommerce platform for ProcessWire)

[apeisa]

Hi Alex and thanks for your interest. Actually in my first PadLoper version (from summer), nothing was page. But the development speed, extensibility, familiar API etc makes the Pages way almost always a better choice and I have to say I am super happy with my decision to change into pages.

Not sure I understand why eCommerce is any harder or easier than any other kind of website in case of continuous integration? It's not easy to do with ProcessWire (or any system with flexible meta model and with systems that keep metadata and actual data both in same database). 

But in my opinion to really see big issue here (with using pages as orders) is that in your code you would need to reference your pages/templates/fields with ID, and I don't see that need very easily. Although I might be completely wrong though and I am happy to hear more about your process of maintaining local, staging and production server with ProcessWire sites and why you believe eCommerce makes it harder? 

Like with almost every other big theme, PadLoper tries to stay as close as ProcessWire way of doing things instead of inventing it's own. It tries to be as invisible as possible with your current ProcessWire workflow. It doesn't generate any markup (you can use it's helpers though), it uses templates/pages for data storage and process modules for admin views. It has few custom tables (for cart and downloads).

[Jeroen]

I just ran into Forward, a php opensource ecommerce platform. Looks great!

Might be interesting to keep an eye on. I haven't tried it yet

[douglas81]

Hi Apeisa,

Great to see you are approaching release of this. I'll be launching a site in Q2 2015 and can't wait to try out this module.

I'm wondering how things are going with the digital downloads? It would be great to hear some more info about how that works and how flexible it is.

Also, I'm hoping to offer high-resolution audio downloads, and these can be quite large files (500 MB plus). I would like to use Amazon S3 for delivery, and I'm wondering if that's going to be a possibility?

Cheers!

Douglas.

P.S. sorry I didn't get a chance to check out the beta. Actually, I've been away from coding for a couple of months, so everything in that regard has been on hiatus.

[Macrura]

I'm wondering how things are going with the digital downloads? It would be great to hear some more info about how that works and how flexible it is.

Also, I'm hoping to offer high-resolution audio downloads, and these can be quite large files (500 MB plus). I would like to use Amazon S3 for delivery, and I'm wondering if that's going to be a possibility?

yeah, i'm hoping to do the same thing, where the file is hosted on s3;

only issue i can think of is this would have to be done with a header redirect, and then anyone viewing the console would be able to see the raw s3 URL (?).. but i probably don't know enough to say for sure..

[douglas81]

I'm not sure the ins and outs of it. I have been using SendOwl, and it works flawlessly. You just provide your S3 KEY and SECRET and SendOwl does the rest. Here's their info page on it...

http://help.sendowl.com/article/23-using-self-hosting

Something like that would be perfect. I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes there though. I was very happy with SendOwl, but I'm very keen to get everything within ProcessWire admin.

[LostKobrakai]

There are only two options from the network perspective. Either you're giving the customer the real location in some way or your routing the whole thing through another server, which checks for access rights, but then the file has to travel though this server each time. 

[douglas81]

I don't think it's a huge problem for people to see where the file is coming from, so long as the link generated is time and download attempt limited.

[apeisa]

S3 works with tokens, that can be made expire like in 20 seconds, so that works of course.

I will definitely support S3 at some point, but not on the highest prio currently (not all shops need digital downloads and not all need s3 for that).

[douglas81]

That's a pity, but I understand it's perhaps a marginal feature. Although, for people offering large digital downloads, Amazon S3 is pretty much the standard way to do things.

Aside from that, any insight into how digital downloads are working? What's the checkout and delivery process like? 

[apeisa]

Nothing too fancy there: download links will be available right after payment (in the form of www.yourshop.com/d/?code=NXSAIJF129JD) and also in invoice email you customer receives. You can set how many times and how long links will work - if not unlimited.

[Macrura]

ended up using this:

http://css-tricks.com/snippets/php/generate-expiring-amazon-s3-link/

so i have a processwire page that checks to see if the url to the download is still valid (# of clicks, or date expiration) and then this one liner generates the link to the file on s3, which expires anyway in 5 minutes, and is authenticated.

$fileUrl = el_s3_getTemporaryLink($key, $secret, $bucket, $awsPath);

i would think it would be pretty easy to 'override' the local storage of a download in padloper with this function and then redirect the browser to the aws file url...

[Basil]

hi apeisa! first i want to say that i love processwire & now i am going to use it for my eshop thanks to your padloper!!

can you please advise me how to implement to PadCart a sizes field (page fieldtype) so when you add a product to cart it adds also the size you have choose,

the code i have in product template is

$cart = $modules->get("PadCart");
$content .= "<br>Price: " . $cart->renderPriceAndCurrency($page->pad_price);

$content .= "<br>In stock: " . $page->quantity;

// my field size is a multi page field
// this is what i need to get to display in cart and order
if($page->size) {
	$content .= "<br>Size: <select>";
foreach($page->size as $size){
	$content .= "<option>{$size->title}</option>";
}
$content .= "</select><br>";
}

$content .= $modules->get("PadRender")->addToCart();

$content .= $modules->get("PadRender")->editCart();

$checkout = $modules->get("PadCheckout");
$checkout->setPaymentModule("PaymentStripe");

$checkout->setInvoiceMode(true); // This means that actual payment phase will be skipped
$checkout->setShippingModule("ShippingEmail"); // This means that all orders will use this specific shipping module

sory to bother but i am trying to learn code.

[baymarketingco]

What does Padloper mean in your language? In mine it translates to roadwalker. Interesting name...

[Mike Rockett]

@blommie - The Afrikaans translation is actually path-walker (direct translation, however, is path-runner), in reference to the Homopus, a genus of small tortoises found in SA.

And welcome to the forums

[baymarketingco]

Shot thanks Mike.

[POWERFULHORSE]

I'm struggling to understand how product variations work with Padloper, can anyone help me with this?

So I've been using a custom cart module up until now, but am keen to switch to Padloper as it seems way more extensive. With my cart module I've been handling product variations with a repeater in the parent product template. So I could add any fields I wanted to this repeater and easily access them by looping and returning something like $product_variant->images for example. So each of these repeater fields essentially became its own product which could be added to the cart. I've tried to use Padloper in the same way but I cannot add a repeater field as a product, as it seems it has to be a page with a template. The only way around this I can see is instead of using a repeater, I use child pages of a parent product page to act as the variants.

Padloper seems to have "Padloper Modifiers", are these used for product variants? Am I right in assuming modifiers are attached to templates rather than pages? If I have 20 different products all with unique variants, how do I handle this with Padloper? Do I need to create a new template for each product?

 

[apeisa]

PageTable or Repeater should be both fine for variations - can you PM me with your issues?

And yes, modifiers are per template - they can be variations if just simple case (like size, color or some other option like that and no unique stock qty).

Others: hoping to open beta for wider audience in upcoming days - please subscribe at https://www.padloper.pw if you haven't already

[aaronjpitts]

Hey apeisa,

I've just started using processwire (switching from wordpress). I have an ecommerce project due to start soon and would be very interested in this module so I can develop the sholw site with processwire. I'm just wondering when you might have a stable release out by and if there are any updates?

Cheers

[apeisa]

Have you subscribed for the newsletter? Will send more invites soon.

[aaronjpitts]

Yes, I've already subscribed. Maybe one week ago. Perhaps this project of mine has come too soon to use Padloper, but I'd be very interested in it anyway.

Thanks

[Jozsef]

Hi Antti,

I just received the email about the release of your module and I have a simple ecommerce project at the moment and I'd consider to try your module for that.

Do you plan to implement other common webshop features such as discounts/coupons etc. in the future updates ?

Or is this something we have to hand code every time? I'd prefer the very basics out of the box.

The module sounds fantastic though, thanks a million for that.

Thanks

[apeisa]

I have all kind of plans (also coupons and discounts), but limited amount of time.

So always plan your projects with the features in use (or by having an idea how to implement those). Adding simple coupon discounts for Padloper should be pretty trivial task.

[pwFoo]

First (simple) tests with Padloper and the minimal install profile are done. Nice basic stuff

Can't wait to see some example shops and the full featured shop profile with improved UI and maybe cart handling.

Is it possible to save user information as pages or pw user? Logged in user could skip checkout form.

[apeisa]

If padorder template and user template use same fields, then checkout form is pre filled.

Full featured shop profile need to wait for a while. Now it's for those that want to build their own.

[Jozsef]

How would you approach the following subjects when building the shop?

1. Including a product photo in the cart edit template?

2. What is the redirect address for the PayPal payment?

3. Have a checkbox to save customer data for later (user registration)?

Sorry if I asked such trivial questions, I'm rather new to PW.