By chansuresh on

I am an entrepreneur looking to start an ecommerce business for alternative medicines which will be highly driven by content. I am not technical but want to understand what is possible in combining Drupal with other best-of-breed opensource Ecommerce software like OSCommerce or Zen Cart.

My website needs to be have equal emphasis on 1. Vendor content (several 100 articles, how-to tips, recipes, advice, password protected content, glossary, dictionaries, etc.) 2. User generated content (forums, reviews, ratings,etc ), 3. Product Ecommerce with all the ecommerce features (Products should be cross-sold from advice/content) and 4. Services Ecommerce (directory, referrals and online bookings for spas, retreates, clinics etc.)

To accomplish this it looks like I need both a full-featured CMS (like Drupal) AND a full-featured Ecommerce (like OS Commerce or Zen Cart). The Drupal Ecommerce module I believe is not full-featured yet for my needs -- international tax and currency, etc. Now my questions:

1. Can Drupal integrate with OSCommerce or Zen Cart?
2. What are the integration challenges, what are the solutions to those challenges?
3. What is the user experience? Is it seamless?
4. Can anyone provide reference sites and resources to understand this integration better.

Thanks very much for your advice and help.

Comments

gte451f’s picture

gte451f commented

Just a few thoughts....

The OSCommerce and Zen in my experience have been pretty bloated packages...that is to say that seem to require a lot of overhead to generate pages (sql quries in the hundreds) and are pretty complex to administer.

That being said, I imagine some sort of integration between Drupal and XCommerce package might be as simple installing both packages seperating and integrating the two user bases. I say "as simple as" when that really means finding a way to update one user base when the other package is taking user data. Or on a more superficial level, setting it so that when one click a link in drupal, their profile information is ported over to oscommerce.

I hate to be the guy that says you should use just one or the other when you specifically stated in your post that you were disatisified with both on their own. Still, instead of having to know the ins and outs of two packages, you might pick one package and extended it with the desired features you want.

vwX’s picture

vwX commented

Given that you are going to have to modify any package you are going to use, I would much rather modify Drupal than zencart or oscommerce. Don't get me wrong zcart and osc are nice packages, but they are a big PITA to modify. They have a lot of code and sometimes finding the place you need to modify is frustrating.

I haven't done anything with the ecommerce module, but I have setup some zcart and osc sites.

Have fun and check my Drupal Profile: http://drupal.org/user/519

rnsi’s picture

rnsi commented

If you get OSC or Zen working smooth with Drupal, please post back here. I'd like to see the details.

ñull’s picture

ñull commented

Since you are an entrepreneur, you might consider growing along with the ecommerce module set and actively contibute with your ideas. More and more people will be wanting to integrate ecommerce and ecommunity, since the one cannot do without the other.

I have been following the contributions in the ecommerce module a bit and it gives me the impression that only more people are using and developping it. I think it is very important that developers get input from users like you.

If I were you, in your cost calculation, I would compare integration of Drupal with another cart system with the cost of a developper making the tax and currency modules and anything else you would need.

When you make that comparison, keep in mind that the ecommerce modules will be always better integrated in Drupal then any other solution. Integration is not just a matter of joining two user databases, you would also need to join the login. In webdesign you would have the added complexity of working with two different design philosophies, which will generate work hours and cost, when you want both to appear as one.

I think in the end, when you only consider cost, you would be better off working with one system. You understand already that I would like to encourage you to invest in Drupal. Because when you invest, others will become more interested in the ecommerce modules. In return they will contribute their part and you will gain from that. People using your modules will discover and fix bugs that you did not find yet.

gte451f’s picture

gte451f commented

Just to throw another php shopping cart system into the mix, check out phpshop:

http://www.phpshop.org/

They seem to be a cart heading in the right direction. They seem to be less complex then oscommerce.

I noticed all the posts so far don't really answer your question with regards to integrating drupal and Xcommerce. This being the drupal forums I figure most of us are slightly biased!

kyuraz’s picture

kyuraz commented

Hi,

Were you able to make this come alive?
Was it successful.
If so, I would like to know.

I also wanted to do something like this so I could really use your info.
We could also work on something together.