Drupal e-Commerce

I'm not sure if the e-commerce module is affected by this change/update but we just received this email the other day about some major changes on how Authorize.net is handling transaction id's. Not sure if a patch needs to be created or not.

Dear Authorize.Net Merchant:

In early October, Authorize.Net will be expanding the range of Transaction IDs issued by the payment gateway. Please read this e-mail thoroughly as it contains important information on how to ensure that your account is not affected.

The Authorize.Net Transaction ID is the payment gateway-generated number used to uniquely identify each transaction you submit for processing. The Transaction ID can be found in the transaction response and in the Search and Reports features of the Merchant Interface.

The Transaction ID field was originally developed with a maximum numeric value of 2,147,483,647. As the number of merchants using the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway has grown, we have identified a time in which the Transaction ID count will surpass 2,147,483,647. For this reason, we are in the process of expanding the range of Transaction IDs that the payment gateway can issue. Accordingly, we are communicating to all merchants to verify that your systems can accommodate a 10-digit Transaction ID greater than 2,147,483,647.

In most cases your transaction processing will not be affected. However, if you have an internal business application or solution that relies upon the Transaction ID field, your system may fail if it cannot handle a Transaction ID larger than 2,147,483,647. For more information, please review the Transaction ID FAQs located at http://www.authorize.net/transid.

It is critical that you contact your developer to verify whether your integration will be impacted. Specifically, please provide your developer with the following information:

The Transaction ID, or x_trans_id, is specified as a 10-digit integer and will only be affected if that value is represented as an INT data type, which has a max value of 2,147,483,647. If you have specified the Transaction ID as a string value, then your system will not be affected. Failure to accommodate 10-digit values larger than 2,147,483,647 will result in your system's inability to accept Authorize.Net transactions.

Note: If you need to make updates to your Transaction ID architecture, you should do so prior to October 1, 2008, to ensure that you will not be affected.

If you have any questions, please contact Customer Support at support@authorize.net.

Sincerely,
Authorize.Net

I thought I would post this in case it's a concern. If anyone knows if things are affected please respond and let everyone know ASAP because this change is pretty urgent and needs to be patched by October.

Hello,

The documentation mentions that subscriptions are supported. My site needs memberships (which sound like the same thing). The only difference is that we have 5 tiers of memberships instead of just one. I couldn't find out how subscriptions can be set up. Can anyone direct me to where this is laid out or explain how to do it?

Thanks..

Hi,

I know that not much has been happening in e-Commerce laterly, but I am stating to get back into it and have committed a new version of ec_charge module which will be much more powerful in that it will be able to replace a number of module like tax, and shipping, and also reduce modules like coupon, and allow global discount codes from import strings or cookies.

This will be a very powerful charging system, and most of the configuration will be done via ajax style interface, similar to panels. The configuration is the most important to get right as the actual implementation in the checkout is actually the easy part.

I have committed the first part which is the layout of the additional of charges, but I have not started adding the js to make the ajax and model forms work.

As it stands you will be able to see where I am going and things should start being added quite fast.

Gordon.

just thought I'd add a link to prestashop, which I discovered earlier.

http://www.prestashop.com

Like magentocommerce, it's open source and looks quite good. It's still relatively early in dev. but I like the ajax features with their shopping cart.

Just thought I'd share the link on here for others interested in ecommerce and keeping tabs on what's going on in the open source ecommerce area.

I am trying to setup ebook downloads and can't seem to get any sort of notification out of the system.

Files should be autoshipped/notified one payment completion and I can't seem to work this out.

I have looked through every option and am yet to find out how to have notifications sent. Even if I set a transaction to shipped (I hope I don't have to do this manually) I get no email with links etc.

Any help or documentation?

Thanks

Hi there,

I am looking for a (or the) simple (simpler) solution to implement a basic E-commerce facility in my little property website see http://www.Mega-Quick-Sale.co.uk

The idea is simple, I will receive leads from people who want to sell their property quickly and I will try to resell these leads to property investors (note I don't buy or sell properties just leads). I am considering using auctions to sell the leads to the highest bidders.

I think the flow of events on the website would look like that:

• received new lead (i.e. somebody completed contact form see Contact-us page),
• convert contact form into a product (hide property owner contact details),
• list new product on auction plateform,
• bidding finished after fix time (maybe 24hrs),
• website emailed complete lead (with property owner contact details) to the highest bidder,

Long term I would like to run special offers, affiliate reward schemes, .... and have custom email notification based on products search (email me all new leads in this area, ...).

My website currently runs on Drupal 5.7. I am ok with setting up basic Drupal modules (most advanced are Views and CCK). I tried last year to setup the E-Commerce modules but could not event get the very basics to run.

Can anybody suggest a good (i.e. reliable and relatively easy) solution to implement the above?

Thanks a in advance,

Kind regards,
Marc.

Hi,

I've been trying eCommerce and Ubercart for the past couple of months and still have the same problem. As I'm importing over 4000 users from my previous site http://www.filmmaker.co.za to my new site http://www.filmcontact.com, I need to be able to manually set the subscribed, expiry date and role for each user.

1. at importing, all users automatically to be given authenticated role with an expiration date in 2011 (to show in their account 'order history') so that it is not empty .. or run a script to do that?

2. admin to access a field in 'edit user' or 'create a transaction' where I can manually add/edit the 'subscribed' and 'expiry' date and role. Using ec-role and ec-recurring modules. Need to be able to change their expiration dates as their memberships on filmmaker.co.za are expiring throughout the year.

This is rather urgent, and look so forward to any quotes. Please send to lilian@filmmaker.co.za

All the best,
Lilian

Hi,

I've been trying eCommerce and Ubercart for the past couple of months and still have the same problem. As I'm importing over 4000 users from my previous site http://www.filmmaker.co.za to my new site, I need to be able to manually set the subscribed, expiry date and role for each user.

1. at importing, all users automatically to be given authenticated role with an expiration date in 2011 (to show in their account 'order history') so that it is not empty .. or run a script to do that?

2. admin to access a field in 'edit user' or 'create a transaction' where I can manually add/edit the 'subscribed' and 'expiry' date and role. Using ec-role and ec-recurring modules. Need to be able to change their expiration dates as their memberships on filmmaker.co.za are expiring throughout the year.

This is rather urgent, and look so forward to any quotes. Please send to lilian@filmmaker.co.za

All the best,
Lilian

We would simply like to be able to make reusable discount coupons in Drupal EC, Drupal 4.7, EC 3.x. At present this doesn't work and the patch described below also doesn't work for us, although we might have a database problem here.

Please don't tell us to upgrade as firstly coupons don't work in later version of Drupal or EC, second making a system that isn't backwards compatible is not a sensible software architecture decision and should be discouraged.

Thanks

Simon

See our notes below.

I am using drupal 4.7, with ecommerce 4.7 and a re-supplied coupon module
from september '07 (from here: http://veneodevelopment.com/drupal/coupon.zip
)

I can't get this to work.

The simple 'create single use
coupons'
function works well, (apart from when on the coupon overview page I click on
'cancel' next to an earlier created coupon, I get an 'authorization
required'-page although I am logged in as admin, so I cannot cancel the
coupon)

but when I try to use the function 'create discount
code'
(in order to create reusable coupons), I am having the following trouble:

• I enter 'Name of Discount Code:'
• I enter the 'Value of Discount Code:'

Next to the the field 'Only apply to specific product:', it says: 'Leave it
blank to apply to all nodes.', so when I do and click 'Create Discount
Code', the site brings me back to the coupon overview page, but doesn't
create the coupon as far as I can see.

When I try to enter some NID into this field though, numeric value like
'11631', I see a popup window with the following error message:

> 'An HTTP error 403 occured. .../store/coupon/admin/autocomplete

When I click on Create Discount Code' nonetheless, I get an error message
saying 'Node must be a name of a product'.

In total, I am unable to create a reusable coupon.

END

I would like to have a site developed that combines the following features: Digg-type ranking of text, image uploading, user groups and ecommerce. It is a social action-type of site. I would like to use existing modules for initial development to see if the concept catches on. If it does, I will invest in greater customization (including, for example, Facebook integration). Standard themes are OK. I have drawings which show the concept (although I am flexible with the actual look and feel).

If you can integrate modules with the above features quickly, please contact me. This may turn into a long-term position if interested.

I'll ask the site admin here about this later, but I figured I'd pose the question here first. Most of the time at g.d.o. there is a single group for an interest area, rather than for a single module. My question is: do you think this group should be retitled "e-Commerce Modules" or "e-Commerce and Drupal" and opened up to general discussions of e-Commerce implementations and the other modules (atm just Ubercart) that focus on e-Commerce? Given the almost complete lack of activity in the e-Commerce module itself, and the fact that the group already seems to be about Ubercart as well, it seems like a change of name and a slight change of mission is warranted. Thoughts?

So, you're a South African who's set up a drupal site and you want to sell stuff - and have your money put in a South African bank account. What are your payment gateway options?

Well, first off, you'll need to sign up for a merchant account at your local bank - who will want a business plan from you - and most banks charge you for the setup. Then you'll probably pay fees of around R100/month (?) for that account. The banks take between 5 and 7% per transaction ( ::sigh:: ). Then sign up with a payment gateway and you're ready to accept online transactions. The question is, which payment gateway?

I've only used Virtual Card Services (VCS) before, and the technical integration into a site is pretty simple. You'll pay R125/month for VCS privileges...and R1 + 0.5% per transaction. There's a module for ecommerce and one in the pipeline for ubercart.

I haven't used any other gateways. Some suggestions are:

• PayPal (except if you're in SA they won't let you accept money. These guys reckon they've found a workaround involving somehow linking a Master Card to a PayPal account - although you'll have to buy the $6 ebook to find out how.) PayPal will charge you $30/month and 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
• Authorize.net (who don't provide services directly to a client, but have a list of resellers who do. I referred a client to them, and after several months they were unsuccessful in getting an account - being in South Africa is apparently a problem.)
• Worldpay - one of my clients used them (on an html site) with success. 200 pounds setup, 300 pounds per month, 4.5% per transaction.

Google tells me that some other options for South Africans are:

• pricetag.co.za - R570 setup fee, R200/month, 5.7% per transaction
• MWEB - R590 setup, R350/month, R5.70 per transaction
• iVeri - couldn't find prices on their site
• Setcom - no monthly fees (HOORAY!), 4.9% + R4 per transaction. R8/withdrawal. [update: casperl says he uses it for smaller volume sites]. Here's a good breakdown.
• Paygate - [info from Max_headroom] - 4 packages. The Small package: R200 set-up (other packages free). 3 month contract. Min Monthly fee: R100. Per transaction: R1.00 + 0.5%.
• MyGate - 2 options:
  • Express (no merchant account): R250 setup fee, R150 subscription fee (whatever *that* is?), you don't need to set up a merchant account, and there is no monthly fee. 6% per transaction.
  • Standard - R200 setup fee, no subscription fee, no % per transaction (the only guys who do this, it seems), R1.50 per transaction.
• There's also MyGate 300 (R300/month, R1.50/transaction) and MyGate 600 (R600/month, R1.40/transaction) options.
• [added] PayFast - not yet able to accept credit card transactions, but will in the last quarter of 2008 (according to an email I got from them today).
• [added] AlertPay - someone directed me here, and they say they're compatible with SA bank accounts. No signup fee, 5% + R2.70 per transaction with no monthly fees. But users have had problems with them.
• [added] Netcash - R120/month.
• [added] Payment Express - costs are calculated on a sliding scale based on the number of monthly transactions. There's a setup fee of $50 or less, and $.50 per transaction, as well as monthly fees of at least $50. Integrates with most SA bank accounts.
• [added] 2checkout - $49 to open the account, no monthly fee, 4.5% per transaction value. $10 for the transfer to the SA Bank Account, minimum release level of $300 (source)
• [added] CCNow - $10 signup, 4.99% of gross sales plus $0.50 per transaction, monthly fees of $10 (unless you're selling more than $100/month). You *must* sell physical products.
• [added] ClickandBuy - used by iTunes. Looks really good, but I couldn't find any pricing on their site.
• [added] payment24.co.za - 2 options:
  • Credit Card Verification: once-off setup fee of R299, R129 monthly subscription, 6.9% credit card transaction fee, Payout Fee – First R5000 FREE - R15 per R1000 thereafter
  • Pay-As-You-Go Solution: once-off setup fee of R499, no monthly subscription, 7.5% credit card transaction fee plus R10 per order, Payout Fee R15 per R1000

[added] Workarounds:

• Open an offshore account (via Barclays, for instance, or a Swiss account like Credit Suisse or UBS, or a UK account with LloydsTSB (see instructions)) and link that into PayPal. Then wire the money into SA.
• Speak nicely to a friend overseas and get them to get a 'pay-as-you-go' credit card and link it into paypal.
• Sign up with some payment processor which accept payments and then mails you the cheque periodically. Some people get paid via Google Adsense like this.

So, who's using what and which one would you recommend to someone wanting to accept credit card payments in South Africa? One thing is clear - we need a PayPal-like company here!

[update: apparently it's illegal to have a "donate" button on your site unless you're a registered non-profit in SA]
[update: you have to declare all money you receive online if you're a South African-based business. Otherwise SARS will hunt you down.]

[added] POLi is really interesting. It's licensed by Setcom and allows anyone with a South African bank account to pay you directly, except POLi ties it all together in a neatly integrated package. In other words, it functions as a payment gateway, but with bank accounts instead of credit cards. It takes the buyer to their online internet banking account, where they log in, and POLi adds a "once off payment" page which they buyers uses to pay the seller. It then redirects back to the seller's site. Nice! Cost: 3.4% + R4 per transaction. The drawback is that you'll need to install an ActiveX control in Internet Explorer...non-doze users, sorry. ::sigh:: See this comment for more info.

Seeing that no session appeared to be planned yet for Szeged, I submitted one:

http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/program/sessions/developing-e-commerce

Feel free to comment, edit, submit something else: it would be a pity not to have at least one EC session at Drupalcon, would it not ?

I was looking at an easy paypal integration module for WordPress called Quickshop - it's a surprisingly easy way of adding simple shopping cart / ecommerce functionality to a WP site, and it made me think that there should be a similar way of doing this with Drupal. I've searched, but not found anything - the closest seems to be LM_paypal but it's only for subscriptions and donations I think.

Basically, the module replaces a token with an 'add to cart' button, which then adds the 'product' to a cart. But the product title, price and shipping is held only within the token, not stored in a database. So there's no need for a 'product' content type, the token can be added to any content. The tokens in the WP module look like: [quickshop:NAME_OF_YOUR_PRODUCT:price:YOUR_PRODUCT_PRICE:shipping:YOUR_SHIPPING_PRICE :shipping2:SHIPPING_PRICE_FOR_MULTIPLE_PRODUCTS_AFTER_FIRST:end]

Then cart then stores data using the session variables. When the user proceeds to the paypal checkout, the WP version emails the order to the site owner. They have to check their paypal account or get the paypal email to make sure the payment is complete.

Some examples of WP shops that use it are http://nicmc.com/nicblog/store/ or http://www.ozedeals.biz/

My question is: is there a module that does the same / similar for Drupal? And if not, would there be interest in one? I'd be happy to have a go at porting the WP version. The advantage would be that it is so much simpler than eCommerce or Ubercart, it would be relatively easy to install, configure and maintain - although of course it would only be suitable for very simple and small shops.

I'm just wondering if anyone could shed any light on the status of the brilliant ecommerce module for drupal. I'm currently building every new site from drupal 6, so am looking to guage a release date for a version of the module which is ready for version 6 of drupal.

Thanks in advance for any info,
chris
Listings Lab

Hi everybody,

I have been setting up drupal, using eC, on a job search and job posting website. It has gone along pretty well, and I have gotten under the hood far enough to adapt themes, make a little custom module that alters some forms ... basic things, but nothing fancy (yet).

Here is my question: we are using the ec cart module for purchasers to process transactions. But it seems there are multiple pages of steps, where there could be (in this case) many fewer. some of this is due to the flexibility of the ec and cart modules (for example, purchasers on this site would only be getting one item at a time- but there is still options to purchase many). Or, for example, after making a purchase selection, the user goes to the /cart/view page,then a /cart/checkout (select payment method- maybe that is because I still have two options there)page, then to a /cart/review/ (place your order). Plus there can be one further step for the user to login, if they aren't already.

So question today is what is the easiest way to simplify and shorten the checkout process?

Drupal integrated into X-cart pro 4.1 (mall).
Looking for someone who has done it before to consult for my in-house team.
What are the pros and cons.
What are some examples.
Development work.

Recently we were tasked with building an e-commerce solution for a client that has an old homegrown solution. We have been researching the e-commerce and ubercart modules - with still no clear decision.

A few key points that our clients expect:

• Easy inventory manager
• Ability for a customer to search every field in the product description (something we're unsure either of these modules allow - outside of drupal core search)
• Ability to "Express order" - for repeat customers that know what item # they are looking for, they can enter it in at a prompt and it adds to the cart.

We have seen some slick solutions with ubercart in combination with thickbox. Wondering if anyone is willing to share their experiences with developing more advance ecommerce solutions/recipes with us.

Thanks in advance!

Using ecommerce, is there a way to define shipping cost on a per product basis? I've got several different types of products for a site that I'm working on. All of them need to be shipped, but some don't need shipping charges while other larger products do.

I've tried using the Simple Shipping charge for the Flexicharge module, which seems to allow defining a shipping charge based on the weight of an item. This would a slight hackish way to deal with my problem (define the weight as 0 for items that don't need shipping), but the trouble is I can't find where to define a weight for an item. I've dug around in the code, and there doesn't appear to be anywhere to define weight for a tangible product. Am I missing something?

Besides that, is there a simpler, direct solution that I'm missing? I'm close to whipping up a quick module to provide a field for each product to define shipping, if there's no other option.

Hi!

I use the e-commerce module for a store and I have a question which I can't solve for ages now... Thus I am here to ask you:

How do I enable a drop-down with available shipping methods on my web site when users checkout from the cart?

I've attached the screenshots of how that would look like - the first red square marks the shipping drop-down. The selected shipping method should add up to the total purchase amount - second red square.

Your help is greatly appreciated!!!