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Shopping Cart
Shopping Cart
Overview The
AlaCart Shopping Cart option is an
easy-to-use e-commerce utility you can install on your site.
It allows you to sell merchandise on your site and gives your customers
a user-friendly way to quickly find and purchase merchandise.
Additionally, new features for the AlaCart Shopping Cart are being developed
which will further enhance the capabilities of this resourceful tool. Please
note: Thee AlaCart Shopping Cart has a 25 product limit.
If you require to sell more than 25 products please upgrade to the osCommerce
system in your Control Panel. You can do this by clicking on the Upgrade CP
icon in your Control Panel.
Installing Shopping
Cart How To Install
the AlaCart Shopping Cart: 1.
From the Control Panel, select the Shopping Cart icon. The AlaCart Manager displays. 
2.
Select the Install AlaCart
button. A message displays indicating
that AlaCart will be installed within approximately ten minutes. 
Configuring the
Shopping Cart Once
you have installed the AlaCart Shopping Cart, you will need to configure it for
your site before you are able to administer and use it. How To Configure
the AlaCart Shopping Cart: 1.
From the Control Panel, select the Shopping Cart icon. The AlaCart Manager displays. 
2.
Near the bottom of the screen select the Setup AlaCart Configuration
link. The AlaCart Shopping Cart
Program displays at the Start Screen page. 
3.
Enter your AlaCart user name in the User Name field. This can be a new user name; it
does not have to be the same as your account user name. Enter a password for that user name
in the New Password field. Re-enter the password, typed exactly
the same way, in the Enter New Password Again field. If you make a mistake, select the
Reset button to clear all fields, then re-enter the information. 4.
Select the Update Password button. The Change Paths portion
of the Start Page displays. 
5.
Enter your domain name in the Your Domain Name field.  Warning: Remember
that your domain name does not include “www”.
I.e., enter mycompany.com as opposed to www.mycompany.com.
6.
The Path to Shopping Cart field defaults to s-cart.
This is the directory location of the shopping cart program and all of
its associated files on your site. Leave
the default value as is unless you have a specific directory you would rather
use. 7.
If you make a mistake, click on the Reset button to clear all fields,
then re-enter the information. When completed, click on the Update
Path button. A Thank You
message appears indicating the configuration was successful. 
 Note: The
Thank You message includes two links. One
link moves you to the setup page for the shopping cart; the second link runs the
shopping cart function. You may wish
to write down these link addresses for future reference.
8.
The Shopping Cart still needs to be administered (i.e., set up).
Continue with the next section. Administering the
Shopping Cart Note: This document interchanges the phrases
“Administer the Shopping Cart” and “Set up the Shopping Cart” to reflect the text
seen in the Shopping Cart program. |
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 |
How To Administer
the AlaCart Shopping Cart: |
|
| 1.
Follow the link provided in the final step of the previous procedure (located
underneath the statement To setup the Shopping Cart, go to:).
The link will contain the text: s-cart/admin/index.phtml. The AlaCart Administration Suite
page displays. |
|
  
Links
to the Administration Suite “Tool” Help Files |
|
Links
to the Administration Suite “Tools” |
| | |
|
| 2.
There are six tools available in the Administration Suite. The links across the top of the
page link to the tools. The links
in the table are help references for the use of these tools. Each of these tools is shown below.
To make use of any of these administration tools, single-click the tool
and follow the on-screen instructions. |
|  |
Note: |
|
| ·
Help is provided in the reference links in the Shopping Cart.
For detailed information on any topic, consult that tool’s help reference. |
The
“Look and Feel” Tool:
The
“Look and Feel” Tool allows you to control colors, text and images that appear
on your Shopping Cart.
The Other section allows
you to specify a background image, a personalized logo and a title for the Shopping
Cart. This is where you specify your
company’s logo and background image. | |
The
Messages section allows you to personalize or remove the three text messages that
appear in the Shopping Cart. | |
The
Colors section applies the selected colors to the various forms of text in the
Shopping Cart. | |
Click
on the Submit button to apply the changes you have made.
Click on the Reset button to restore all of the settings to their
default values. Single-click on the Help link for
more information on using this tool.
The
Categories Tool:
The
Categories Tool contains five main sections all shown in this section.
These sections allow you to create, delete and edit the product categories
within your Shopping Cart.
|
|
The
main Category page offers five links, which are ways of working with product categories
within your Shopping Cart. Note: A Category cannot be edited
(or listed) until it has first been added. |
|
As
with all tools in the AlaCart Administration Suite, help on this tool is available
by clicking on the Help link. | |
The
List Existing Categories page displays all of the categories and sub-categories
you have added to your Shopping Cart. | |
The
Add a Category page allows you to create categories and subcategories. If creating a Category, you
must specify if it is to hold products or sub-categories. If adding a Sub-Category,
you must specify if it is to hold products or other sub-categories and
you must select the Category to which it belongs. |
|
The Delete a category
page allows you to remove product categories and subcategories from your Shopping
Cart. | |
The
Edit a Category page changes the names of existing categories and sub-categories. |
|
To Edit Category Fields,
you must first select the Category name with which to work. Continue to the next screen. |
|
To
Edit Category Fields, you can either add fields, other than the ones listed on
the screen, or you can delete fields if you’ve already created them. |
|
Single-click
on the Help link (available from all of the pages within the Category Tool
for more information on using different features).
The
Products Tool:
The
Products Tool works similarly to the Category Tool, allowing you to enter products
that to offer for sale in your Shopping Cart.
The
Add a Product page allows you enter the product information for an item you are
going to sell in your Shopping Cart. Fields are: Item number, Category,
Item Name, Price, Weight, URL for the Picture. |
|
If
you created additional product fields when you set up your categories, you will
be prompted to provide that information for any products you enter under the affected
categories. | |
The
remaining options: Edit, Delete and List are all shown on the following page and
work identically to their counterpart options in the Category Tool.
The
Edit a Product Tool allows you to change information about an existing
item already in your Shopping Cart.
The
List of Products Tool shows you the products that are contained within
your Shopping Cart. (Note:
only one item appears in the screen below.)
The
Delete a Product Tool allows you to remove items from your cart one at
a time.
The
Shipping Tool:
The
Shipping tool allows you to set levels of shipping charges to apply to orders,
as well as determine the method by which shipping charges will be calculated. |
|
The
Tax Tool:
The Tax Charges tool
allows you to set taxes by name and amount. Tax charges are to be added to orders
placed via your Shopping Cart. | |
The
Order Options Tool:
|
|
The
Orders Options tool is an important one.
It lets you specify which credit cards your Shopping Cart will accept.
Typically, you must supply an e-mail address and a secure server
URL. If you do not provide an e-mail
address here, you will not receive orders. Using a Secure URL protects your customer’s
credit card number. | |
Running the Shopping
Cart
Once
your site has been configured and administered, you can run the Shopping Cart.
You may wish to do this periodically while setting up your site to verify
that the setup is operating successfully.
|
|
How
To Run the Shopping Cart: |
|
| 1.
Follow the link provided in the final step of the Configuration procedure
located under the statement: To run the Shopping Cart, go to:.
The link will likely contain the text: s-cart/index.phtml. The Your Shopping Cart’s
Shop Entrance page displays. |
|
| |
|
|
The AlaCart Shopping Cart is similar to many e-commerce utilities now in
use on the web. Essentially, your
customer either browses the catalog or searches for an item until he/she finds
the desired item. Once the item is found, your customer
adds it to his/her “shopping basket”. When ready to checkout, the customer
confirms the items in the basket, and provides the method of payment. |
|
| 2.
To view products in various categories and sub-categories in your catalog,
click on the Browse Catalog link. The catalog displays at the top
category level. You can drill down
into the various sub-categories. |
|
|
 |
|
| 3.
Once you reach a level beyond which there are no further sub-categories,
the list of products in the last selected sub-category is displayed. |
|
|
 |
The
following procedure can only be used if the AlaCart Shopping Cart has already
been installed on your site.
|
|
How
To Remove the AlaCart Shopping Cart: |
|
| 1.
From the Control Panel, select the Shopping Cart icon. The AlaCart Manager displays. |
|
|
 |
|
| 2.
Select the Remove AlaCart button.
A message appears indicating that AlaCart will be removed from your site
within approximately ten minutes. |
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