A fake "catalog"

[Kami]

Standard preface about how I'm not a coder, etc etc.

Some parts that concern me, however, about this being "simple" is particularly the add to cart button (one of the things that I currently work with on a frequent basis in my current role xD).

1. An add to cart button would need to document item, quantity, and incremental price based on quantity.

2. A cart function would, as noted, need to also calculate total cost. Luckily you don't need tax or shipping

3. Add to cart also means that they need to have the remove from cart functionality ie: set the item # to zero AND remove the item from displaying on the cart.

4. Obviously you also need to store the data on what items are available, their prices, and whether or not it's sold out. "Sold out" isn't as easy as adding a simple class if # of items is zero, you would need to still store the data as to how many of that item has been purchased, how many are in the user's cart, etc).

Additionally, how would you expect the plugin to handle multiple people in the catalogue at one time?

You're also asking for popups leading to specific areas AND fills out a post with their "receipt". This is, effectively, asking for an entire e-commerce platform , and is not a small ask from my perspective. This is legitimately a huge industry (shopify, magento, etc). The individual items are small, but this is large when put together even removing the need for actually having a customer management platform / shopping history and the removal of taxes and additional fees.

[Kami]

Nov 4, 2019 9:34:32 GMT -8 ₪» ⅀ ƪ Ƒ «₪ said:

Got it.

Made a small edit to my post above (:

I'm not saying you won't find someone to code this, but I work with both Shopify and Magento on a daily basis at this moment, and I used to work with Salesforce Content Cloud when I was working at Banana Republic online, and the things you are asking for to me aren't as easy as they seem on the surface.

An actual plugin dev may have a different perspective from me, though, so I'd sit tight.

Peter maybe you can weigh in?

[Kami]

So here would be my thought process from a QA perspective:

1. How does the plugin store the items?

2. How does this correlate with how the plugin UI works?

3. How is inventory per item stored?

4. How is inventory per item edited?

5. How does the plugin handle multiple users?

In theory, if you had a plugin that was just created additional divs with some plain HTML content in them (minimal text, an image), that could serve as a 'catalogue' of sorts. I don't know what kind of time sink that would translate to, but even so it would still need to store this data somehow and there is where you start running into issues about how the data will be handled.

If you're talking about 80+ items that are only being stored as text, HTML, and image URLs, there's still a finite amount of data that can be stored inside a plugin so the plugin creator would need to take into account at minimum the # of characters that can be accepted for each item (assuming you're manually editing stock after each user's purchase).

For your original ask, the problem with a "shop catalogue" is that you are effectively creating a database of items that correspond with numbers and user-initiated actions. Those actions would need a number of checks (for example, what if there is a single item in stock and two users add the item to their carts simultaneously and press buy simultaneously?; what happens if someone returns an item?; what happens if someone adds the item into their cart but doesn't complete the purchase?; what error messages should appear if someone attempts to buy an item that just went out of stock? etc etc) that go well beyond "just" having mathematical operations or "just" having CSS target specific classes.

Paring it down in terms of function removes a lot of these questions, but you're still effectively left with "how will users on multiple levels (ie: an account with edit powers versus a regular user) interact with this functionality (from front end and the plugin backend)" which can translate into a lot of manhours for a "simple" plugin. You're creating functionality that doesn't already exist in the software, so basically any ask like this would be as if you're coding from scratch.

[Kami]

I'm not particularly concerned with CSS at this point since that can be handled separately from the plugin, for the most part.

My question for your next suggestion, though, would be then what is the point of having a plugin? If you're only updating ID X = 4 (or whatever) then what functionality is the plugin providing? You could definitely create an empty div with a unique ID and have the plugin insert the number, but from a practical perspective is that functionality something a plugin author would want to do? (I'm not saying they would or wouldn't, it would just be something to think about).

On top of that, would that be adding much value to your initial task of "updating the shop", since your original goal of automation is nonexistent? (Again, not saying that it does or doesn't, but something to think about).

I want to be very clear that I'm not discouraging you from making this ask. Literally everything you're asking for is possible in theory.

However, any time you ask for a plugin that effectively creates a database, it's not an "easy" or "simple" request and I wanted to provide perspective as to why. That is all I meant by my posts.

[Kami]

Nov 4, 2019 10:25:53 GMT -8 ₪» ⅀ ƪ Ƒ «₪ said:

It would keep me from having to sift through an absurd amount of data to update a single number multiple times a day for years, as I'd instead update it through the plugin. Removes the risk of accidentally deleting something essential. Thank you for your input. I'm sorry I called it simple.

That's totally fair! Again, I want to be super clear that I am in no way discouraging you from making any of these requests (even your original one, which I think would be a great idea! I know Peter isn't totally thrilled with the current shop anyway, so those ideas would be fantastic for the next iteration).

You don't need to apologise for calling it simple. Not everyone has experience in this and I don't mean to come across as berating, but rather more "food for thought".

In truth, I would recommend you keep your original request unless you are pressed for time. Otherwise, I think your idea of having the inventory amount updated by ID in a plugin is a good temporary alternative until the larger request is filled.

[elli]

I'd like to echo Kami. While a very fun idea that I'm sure many users would enjoy, what you're effectively asking for is a complete e-commerce platform. The features you've requested would require database and back-end functionality, which are outside the scope of ProBoards plugins. It might be possible to create something like this with a massive amount of JavaScript, but A) I don't think it could fit in a single plugin unless minified, and B) I don't think keys could cover the number of states being stored.

While apparently simple on the surface, this is a very complex request. If someone were willing to fill it at this point in V5, it should definitely be a paid project.

[Peter]

Can someone post what the original request post was please (I assume it was more that what is in the title)?

Just so I can formulate my own opinion, then take on board what people have replied with.

---

To the original poster:

In future please don't delete your posts when people are responding to you. I read through the posts here, but I still would like your replies to stay intact otherwise it throws it all over the place.

[hdd]

Nov 5, 2019 6:00:11 GMT -8 Peter said:

Can someone post what the original request post was please (I assume it was more that what is in the title)?

Just so I can formulate my own opinion, then take on board what people have replied with.

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To the original poster:

In future please don't delete your posts when people are responding to you. I read through the posts here, but I still would like your replies to stay intact otherwise it throws it all over the place.

I think the request is of a advanced Shop linked with your monetary system.
This shop will have many features, items.

[Kami]

Hey y'all, let's drop this. Elf deleted their posts for a reason, and it's probably unwise to @ them back into this thread.

[Lynx]

Nov 5, 2019 7:55:24 GMT -8 Kami said:

Hey y'all, let's drop this. Elf deleted their posts for a reason, and it's probably unwise to @ them back into this thread.

I only did that because Peter had asked for the original request to be posted. I tried checking archive.org first to see if I could find it, but I came up empty.


EDIT: Deleted my post where I @ tagged.