By lisa79 on

Hi Everyone,

Like many people out there, I am looking for a great ecommerce solution and CMS that will allow me total design/layout control over the pages in both the shopping cart area and the content/article pages... I know some limited html (I use Dreamweaver CS3) and no php/css really... I'm learning slowly.

Time is of the essence and I have about 2 weeks to get 1400 + products up, with a complete site re-vamp and layout that makes sense for the cart and regular content. This is my first "dynamic" site. (I definitely need something like a .csv mass uploader)

I have tried oscommerce, virtuemart, prestashop, zen cart, magento, etc etc.. but I found for the most part that it's all templates/ or pre-set options and that I can't seem to figure out how to properly modify beyond a colour-change here or there.

Do you think that this system of Drupal and Ubercart will best best suited for my needs?
- I just want an honest review so I can stick with a great solution.. I've been banging my head with Joomla! and Virtuemart templates for the past week... time is running out... lol

I use c panel with my hosting company,

Thanks!

Lisa

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

Do I think Drupal can meet your needs, Yes. Do I think will best suit your needs, maybe yes, maybe no. Can you by yourself achieve what you want, probably not (with or without Drupal). Can you get a site up with 1400+ products, possibly but while you can theme to your hearts content with limited knowledge of html/css and just starting with Drupal I would say 2 months is a more likely minimum time frame.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Yep-- I agree with nevets. Drupal can do this, and you might be able to install it, with an existing theme, and get your products loaded in two weeks-- but with no customizations. Your customization requirements with your 2 week time frame combined with your skillset is pretty unreasonable I'm afraid-- regardless of the system/technology you select.

If you do decide to go with drupal, in addition to ubercart, you'll want to look at the http://drupal.org/project/node_import, http://drupal.org/project/migrate, and http://drupal.org/project/tw modules.

TrinitySEM’s picture

TrinitySEM commented

With the exception of Presta I've worked wit all of the carts you've mentioned and numerous others. Magento is an excellent cart that I recommend for small (under $10mil annual revenues), hard-core eCommerce sites, but it's not quick and easy to develop with. It's also not easy for a non-programmer to theme. If speed is as important as you state, this otherwise very good cart may not be a good choice.

OSCommerce has released v3 but the project is very slow moving and was dead, then revived, a plaintiff in trademark litigation, now there's v3, then what? Zen Cart is a fork of OSC and is a much better option but it is also very "old school", feeling very dated. Virtuemart on the surface is very promising and stylish. However, it is easily the buggiest cart I've ever used. With all the Joomla themes available it would seem that building a VM site would be fast. However, getting it to look good and getting it to work are two different matters. You may think you're saving time but in the end you'll lose it and then some.

Again, I can't vouch for Presta but Ubercart is a great cart, very simple, solid, and easy to use and get running. And, it bolts to, in my opinion, the best OS CMS. Our last two projects involved Uber and VM. It took half the time to complete the Uber project simply because features such as payment gateways "work" out of the box. That wasn't the case with our current VM project or any other VM projects we've built.

One of the issues you bring up in your thread seem to indicate that CSS/XHTML may not be your strength. If that is the case, you'll have the same problems changing styles (colors, images, etc) in each of these carts. While it is possible to put up a site in two weeks, I agree with the other. It will take longer to get the site up than you think.

lisa79’s picture

lisa79 commented

Thank you all for the good information. I may just look into getting the products online and the content useable. I can always tweak the style later. Already I have to say that the number of modules and options for Drupal seems far superior to Joomla (at least for me).

I'm always up for a challenge, wish me luck! Looks like I'm going to need it as well as blood, sweat and tears...

Kind regards,

Lisa

WebNewCastle’s picture

WebNewCastle commented

There are various pros and cons to these and other programs - as a general statement, I would say Drupal and Ubercart together is the far more powerful option. Like many, I've used and/or developed with programs. I used to be a fan of Zen Cart - and it's better than many - but I don't use that any more either.

Node Import, as was already mentioned, is one way to help get your products loaded in a bulk and will help cut down the time it requires. As far as an overall timeframe, I think a lot of it depends on what design or functionality modifications you need for your products, cart, etc. If you don't require something very advanced/complex/"different" with your products or product attributes (and the same with the shopping cart), then there is a fair amount that you can probably get done in a reasonable time frame.

As a general summary based on my experiences, I've found that for very simple eCommerce sites, several platforms are fairly comparable on many counts (I still think Drupal/Ubercart comes out ahead in many ways). The more features, functionality, and customization that is needed is when I start seeing some tremendous differences in platforms. I've found I prefer developing within a platform that is made to bend, flex, and grow, rather than pushing and prodding other systems along.