> LçÉettçËäº Aredridel <aredridel / nbtsc.org>
> Aihe: Re: Slightly OT: Re: [BOUNTY] Shopping cart ...
> 
> > More to the subject, I believe such an application does not exist
> > because it is too easy to build your own version of it. Integrating a
> > third party shopping cart with a Rails application is probably bound to
> > be more difficult than just coding it up yourself. A shopping cart has
> > many dependencies to the web application framework and thus it is not
> > completely trivial to program a framework-less version of a shopping
> > cart  as the first post asks for. 
> > 
> > I would need to see a few (html) screenshots of such an application to
> > completely understand what is asked for here. 
> 
> Sounds familiar; A good example of right, or at least close, is Paypal's
> own shopping cart system.

Strange shopping cart, that :) 

class Cart

def store id item amt qty
@storage[id] << {:id => id, :item => item, :amt => amt, :qty => qty}
end

def retrieve id
  @storage.find_all do | s | if s[:id] == id end
end

end

Then just use CGI/WEBrick/whatever to parse the GET (or however 
you do it) to get the data for these requests and do authentication.

E

> Here's a conversation in #IOWA about what I'd love to see (And would
> happily shell out $100 for a working version of without even flinching.
> I wonder how many other people out in Rubyland would do the same, to get
> a small project like this off the ground.)
> 
> [12:21:02] swsch says ?I'm intrigued by the postings responding to
> Aredridel's BOUNTY offer... all "known" people say that it's easy but
> they won't do it .-)?
> [12:23:01] Aredridel says ?Hehe.?
> [12:23:08] Aredridel says ?That's the thing about shopping carts.?
> [12:23:18] Aredridel says ?It requires this firm, say-no-by-default hand
> to create a good one.?
> [12:23:24] Aredridel says ?It's a surprisingly hard thing to make?
> [12:23:40] swsch says ?lots of people said "no" already :-)?
> [12:23:56] Aredridel says ?Hehe, yeah.?
> [12:26:09] wyhaines says ?Yeah, the discussion IS interesting.?
> [12:26:56] swsch says ?why wouldn't you use a database? to avoid
> expensive hosting packages??
> [12:28:13] Aredridel says ?That's the idea, yes.?
> [12:28:16] Aredridel says ?Or moreso, to keep it simple.?
> [12:28:27] Aredridel says ?I don't want a product entry screen, I don't
> want a product database.?
> [12:28:38] Aredridel says ?I'd be quite content to just put that in the
> HTML.?
> [12:28:57] Aredridel says ?Paypal or CCNow style: Their shopping cart
> systems don't know about your product list at all.?
> [12:29:21] Aredridel says ?You just refer a client's computer to their
> cart with a token containing all the info.?
> [12:29:28] Aredridel says ?So your site posts to theirs, that's all.?
> [12:29:50] Aredridel says ?Tamperable? sure. I could place an order for
> Fooitem for $0.01.?
> [12:29:57] Aredridel says ?Problem? No.?
> [12:30:00] Aredridel says ?I just don't ship it.?
> [12:30:18] Aredridel says ?I call 'em up and say "Something's funny
> about your order; that's not the right price."?
> [12:31:58] Aredridel says ?And it works if nobody tampers. Big deal.?
> [12:32:35] Aredridel says ?All e-commerce engines fall in three
> categories: simple and works for small sites, complex but not having the
> right features (works for nobody), or high-end, expensive, and works for
> those who need it.?
> [12:36:16] wyhaines says ?Aredridel, take a look at this:
> http://napkinsbydesign.com?
> [12:36:23] wyhaines says ?Then click on, say, Table Runners.?
> [12:36:36] wyhaines says ?Is that the sort of "shopping cart" that you
> want??
> [12:37:00] Aredridel says ?Close. Not quite.?
> [12:37:10] Aredridel says ?That's paypal's cart  system ? that's the
> part I want.?
> [12:37:15] Aredridel says ?The product lists I can just do in HTML?
> [12:37:25] Aredridel says ?I'd love to (this is for Instiki,
> actually...)?
> [12:37:36] Aredridel says ?I'd love to hack instiki so I can just write
> markup like so:?
> [12:37:53] Aredridel says ?[[Product: Ruby Slippers; Price: $10]]?
> [12:37:58] wyhaines says ?Yeah, it leverages paypal's cart.  That's all
> user controlled there, though.  I don't have to touch it.?
> [12:38:18] wyhaines says ?It runs via a web form, but is kind of like
> what you describe.?
> [12:38:18] Aredridel says ?And have that render as a form that has a
> submit button, a quantity field, and two hidden fields: the item, and
> the price.?
> [12:39:10] Aredridel says ?And have it post to the cart handler, which
> would show the cart (basically, the cart is a thin wrapper for a session
> database), and then the checkout procedure takes their info, and then
> links to the gateway of choice for checkout.?
> [12:39:40] Aredridel says ?Basically, I don't want a catalog system at
> all. -Just- the cart.?
> [12:40:02] Aredridel says ?I want the link between the cart and catalog
> to be very weak.?
> [12:40:24] Aredridel says ?I want the post data to link one way. I want
> the cart to look like the rest of the site only by templating, not by
> any integration.?
> [12:41:01] Aredridel says ?and if the cart could link back with a
> "return to shopping" link that linked to the referer, so much the
> better.?
> [12:41:43] Aredridel says ?Basically, the only interface between the two
> parts of the site would be HTTP. No shared database, no catalog on file,
> nothing. The shopping cart just runs in a cgi-bin on some host, and
> that's it.?
> [12:41:56] wyhaines says ?That does sound pretty easy to do.  If my wife
> were a little farther along in her Ruby studies, I'd give it to her as
> an assignment.?
> [12:42:01] Aredridel grins.
> [12:42:12] Aredridel says ?The hardest part is keeping the thing
> featureless enough.?
> [12:42:40] Aredridel says ?Basically, I want SPOT ? but not by having
> everything generated from the same source, but by editing things
> directly.?
> [12:43:42] Aredridel says ?... wyhaines, the napkinsbydesign site is
> -fast-. Kudos.?
> [12:43:42] swsch says ?see? another "no"!?
> [12:44:11] Aredridel says ?Can I post this snippet of conversation in
> response to that thread??
> 
> 
>