Integrate the shopping cart software with your website
Adding BazaarBuilder eCommerce software into your website is straight forward and does not require expertise in programming languages such as PHP or ASP. You also do not need to have knowledge of databases as all this is taken care off by the software itself. If you can build a basic website then adding BazaarBuilder will not be problem. Advanced users can use cascading style sheets, javascripts etc for even more flexibility during the integration process.
A key point to remember when integrating the BazaarBuilder software into your website is that BazaarBuilder is designed to integrate seamlessly into your web site's design. So once you have decided the design layout of your main website you would use this design to customise the "raw " pages that we supply for the shopping cart pages. To get an idea how good(seamless) the integration process is, have a look at the demo flower shop.
For most websites, there are approximately ten pages that will need to be customised to match your website. These pages are available for download from the " Build Shop" section of BazaarBuilder.
Note we offer free customisation of these shopping cart pages to match your site. Please do get in touch in case you like us to handle this aspect-its a great way to save time when you're trying to get your ecommerce website online as quickly as possible and means you avoid the initial learning curve associated with using any new software package such as BazaarBuilder
| Template Name | Tasks performed. |
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Display products dynamically within your website's own design template. Buttons will be added automatically to each product. ( Available with PLUS package only). |
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| details.htm | Provides more details of each product in pop-up when a " more info" type of link is clicked. ( Available with PLUS package only) |
| viewcart1.htm |
Acts as the cart basket page where customer adds his selected products before checking out. Allows allows customers to choose country of delivery, shipping method, currency etc. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| checkoutform1.htm | Checkout page where customer adds his billing / delivery addresses. Also can select username and password for easier future purchasing from site. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| bb_addorder.htm | Gives user chance to reconfirm his entered details before going to payment page Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| checkoutconfirm1.htm | Displays the total payment that will be charged for the orders and allows customer to attach special instructions for the merchant's attention. Also asks customer to accept terms and conditions of sale, and agree to accept marketing material from the merchant. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| messages.htm | Customer will return to this page after having made payment. This page will display details of the transaction and acts as a receipt for the order just placed. Returns customer to main website again. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| getvatinfo.htm | collects VAT details of customers based in European Union for EU VAT processing. VAT registered customer's based in EU countries will not be charged VAT on sale. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| calculatesshipping.htm | used only if you are arranging shipping through third party shipping companies. Otherwise leave. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| offline_card_payment.htm | Used only if you are processing credit cards manually rather than thru online, live processing. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
| paymentpage.htm | used only if you are using AUTHORISE.NET payment processing company. Read this article about how to customise this template. |
Full details of how each template can be customised can be found by clicking the template name link in the Help section. However the general process is same for all templates and is being briefly listed here.
Step 1: Getting unformatted copy From BazaarBuilder
Download the "default" copy from BazaarBuilder to start the customization process. The default templates are provided in a rough format and must be customized according to your website's own design layout. To get the template via e-mail;
- Select "Download Templates". Choose the default templates (unformatted) or one's you may have uploaded. Select your file.
- Enter your e-mail address where the default templates are to be sent. NOTE: On occasion some e-mail clients such as Outlook do not receive the e-mail attachments correctly. It is advised that you try using an alternative e-mail address from hotmail , yahoo or any other web based e-mail system.
- Press Download.
Step 2: Modifying The Templates.
After receiving the template via e-mail, open it in your favorite web design tool such as Dreamweaver and customize it till you are satisfied with its layout. You may already have a page built that acts as a template for your site. In this case simply "cut +paste" the downloaded page into your site and save it with same file name. This template can be uploaded as in step 3 and the process repeated further till you are satisfied with the design.
The default template contains special variables which look almost exactly like normal HTML tags. Each of these variables represents a data for the concerned products that was inserted in the Category Manager section. As long as these variables are included in your pages in their given sequence, you have complete control on how each of the pages is customized to match the rest of the website.
Note 1: Take special care with setting the directory paths to various images and style sheets that may be used on the page. By default ALL the images will be stored in following directory: /username/images/ (where username is YOUR own username that was registered with BazaarBuilder). Only GIF and JPG images are allowed. So if an image named globe.gif is used on the pages then the path would be /username/images/globe.gif. Some design tools such as dreamweaver automatically alters your directory paths so its always worthwhile to double check these before uploading the page.
Step 3: Uploading the modified Templates
After modification files are uploaded again to the server by following these simple steps;
- Select "Upload Templates". A list of templates is displayed. Select all the required templates and press "Upload".
- The online store will now work. Repeat Step 2 until you are satisfied with the result. Images and Style Sheets (css) can be upload in same manner by following steps 3 and 4 below
Step 4: Uploading Template Images
All images included in the template design are can be uploaded. All images will be placed in directory /username/images/ on the web server.
- Select "Upload Images". Select upto three images at a time to upload and press "Upload".
- Additional images can be uploaded by repeating the process as many times as required.
Step 5: Uploading Template Style Sheets
In case you have used any external style sheets (css) which need to reside on the server, they can be uploaded to the server by following these simple steps
- Select "Upload CSS". Select the style sheet and press "Upload".
- paths to the style sheets are /username/
