H.JLYNN Collection -- A Jewelry Store

Posts: 19
Joined: 12/19/2007

After three months development we're excited to finally see our first ubercart site be pushed out the door at http://www.hjlynn.com/

It's a small site in terms of products (only about 40, some of which still need images), but it has lots of great features thanks to the ubercart team and all the contributors.

When I was researching what shopping cart to use for this project I had three criteria: cost (free!), stability, and ease of use for both developer and store admin. I looked at the Drupal eCommerce project and Magento and Ubercart. eCommerce is good and I've used it in the past, but it doesn't seem to have the polish, AJAX features, or user community behind it (this website is a huge plus, IMO, for ubercart). Magento was (and still is) in beta and was not recommended for live use and it's a non-Drupal app which poses challenges. Ubercart, I decided, was the best tool for the job and having finished the site I am very glad we chose it.

Because I've found this sort of list useful when I was developing the site here is a rundown of the major modules we used for building the site:

  • uc_discount: for providing role-based discounts to wholesale buyers.
  • uc_aac: for updating the price dynamically based on what color they select.
  • uc_gift_certificate: for the gift certificates.
  • uc_wishlist: for providing the wishlist feature.
  • views: for creating all the "catalog" type pages. I basically replicated the stock taxonomy/term view for the Catalog vocabulary and then custom themed it to get the look we wanted.
  • views slideshow: for creating the rotating set of images on the front page.
  • thickbox & imagecache: these combination of modules made it so easy to show off larger images of the various colors and alternate images for a product. One snafoo I hit was creating a "View Larger" link which launched thickbox. I posted the solution here.
  • zen theme: can't say enough about how easy this theme makes my life on the design end. It provides a nice, empty, wireframe theme with all the major CSS classes defined for me which makes it super easy to build out a custom design
  • similar by terms: Provides the "Complete the Look" feature that you see here. Basically, the store admin tags related items with a unique term. To get it to look the way I wanted I just overrode the theme_similarterms() function.
  • taxonomy: specifically for putting items on Sale. I created a new term called Sale in the Catalog vocabulary. By tagging products with that term they show up in the Sale section. With a little custom theming I was able to make the original price (which we store in the List Price field) show up with the typical strikethrough look.
  • forward: for the "tell a friend" feature.
  • securepages: for SSL on the checkout pages.
  • simplenews: for the newsletter.
  • SimpleMenu, TinyMCE, Pathauto, LoginToboggan, Webform, and Taxonomy Super Select: all modules that make it easier for me and the store admin to use the site.

That's the bulk of it, feel free to offer suggestions or questions. Thanks to the ubercart team for all your work!

Posts: 659
Joined: 11/05/2007
Bug FinderFAQ ModeratorGetting busy with the Ubercode.

Very nice! Thanks for providing the list of modules and why you used them - I think that's tremendously helpful to new users who are trying to set up their store.

--

<tr>.

Posts: 16
Joined: 01/10/2008

Well done. When I added an item to the cart I was pleased to see I did not go to the cart. I like that. Please share how you did it.
But I also did not see a cue that I had successfully added to the cart. Did I miss it?
Again, well done.

Posts: 29
Joined: 08/08/2007
Uber Donor

Great site! And I'll second that thanks on the great description of how you built the site and what modules you used. Very helpful for me.
Thank you,
Sc0tt

Posts: 19
Joined: 12/19/2007

Good question. You should see a message about the item having been added to your shopping bag at the top of the screen when you add it. Definitely a bug if you're not seeing that message.

In terms of getting it to stay on that page, the setting is at: admin/store/settings/cart/edit in the "Add to cart redirect" setting. However, as far as I can tell that setting doesn't actually do anything. I've poked through the code and it looks like it should work, but no matter what I change it to adding an item always remains on the page. Anyone else experience this?

Posts: 659
Joined: 11/05/2007
Bug FinderFAQ ModeratorGetting busy with the Ubercode.

jrust@drupal.org wrote:

In terms of getting it to stay on that page, the setting is at: admin/store/settings/cart/edit in the "Add to cart redirect" setting. However, as far as I can tell that setting doesn't actually do anything. I've poked through the code and it looks like it should work, but no matter what I change it to adding an item always remains on the page. Anyone else experience this?

I have that textfield set to "cart", and it redirects properly to my cart when I add a product. It's worked in every version of UC I've used, from alpha 8 on up. I currently use beta 5. Perhaps you have a URL alias for the cart which is screwing things up?

--

<tr>.

Posts: 19
Joined: 12/19/2007

TR wrote:
I have that textfield set to "cart", and it redirects properly to my cart when I add a product. It's worked in every version of UC I've used, from alpha 8 on up. I currently use beta 5. Perhaps you have a URL alias for the cart which is screwing things up?

Hmm, good to know it works. I think it might be one of the other modules I have installed (maybe uc_aac) because I know some of them hook into the add_to_cart function and perhaps end up disabling that feature. I'll have to poke around some more.

Posts: 3744
Joined: 08/07/2007
AdministratorHead Code Monkey - I eat bugs.

I just want to reiterate that I really like this site. Smiling I looked at it at home and could see the design better which is spectacular. And you've done a good job making it easily navigable and presented the products extremely well. My wife approves, too. Eye-wink

If I get a moment in the morning I'll look into the cart redirect issue.