OUR SHOPPING KART DOCUMENTATION - THE ON-PAGE USAGE
The Basics:
The shopping cart is controlled from your html pages.
Each item has two required elements, the Quantity text field and the Add To Kart button.
Quantity
The quantity text field can be visible or hidden. The Add
To Kart button can be a submit or a graphic and can say whatever you want it to say.
 
The html values of the quantity text field and Add To Kart
button are where the shopping kart code is entered. The shopping cart instructions are pipe | separated. The pipe
on your keyboard is usually the key above the Enter Key.
Q_sku|base price|weight in ounces|voulme pricing
I_sku|kart description|mime type|electronic delivery
filename
Each page should have at least one View Kart Button. It can
have as many as you wish. It is an html submit button or graphical button named VIEW.
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About the SKU:
SKU means "Stock Keeping Unit". Manufacturers often
assign a unique SKU to identify a particular item. You can use manufacturer sku's or make up your own item identifiers
(sku's). The only shopping kart requirement is that the SKU defined for the quantity text field matches the SKU
on the Add To kart button. Also, there cannot be two items with the same SKU on any page. It is best if you assign
SKU's for your items that are totally unique for your stores.
If a sku is "Test", you would enter:
Q_Test and I_Test. The Q_ and I_ must be upper case. The
SKU can be either upper or lower, but must match EXACTLY on both the Q_sku and the I_sku.
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About the Pipe:
Each shopping cart command/definition is separted by a pipe.
Q_sku is followed with a pipe. Q_sku|. Or I_sku|.
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About the Base Price:
The base price is the retail price of 1 item. If an item
sells for $9.95 then you would put 9.95. Do not enter Dollar Sign. There is a time when you might want to set this
to 0.00. We will discuss this later, but for now, the Test item will be 9.95.
Q_Test|9.95| Note the pipe after the price.
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Weight In Ounces:
The weight in ounces must be entered if you are calculating
shipping charges based on the weight of the package. If you are using another method of calculating of calculating
shipping, nothing needs to be entered here. On the other hand, if you know the weight, and may want to charge by
weight later, we suggest entering if from the beginning.
So, our Test item weighs 3 lbs. That is 48 ounces (3 * 16).
Q_Test|9.95|48| Note the pipe.
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Volume Pricing:
You can specify up to 20 different volume pricing levels
Let's say our Test item is $9.95 for 1-5, $9.50 for 6-10,
and $9.00 over 10.
This is entered this way:
2-5,9.95|6-10,9.50|11-+,9.00
Note: Volume pricing is optional. If volume pricing is used,
it MUST end with the + entry so the shopping kart program can calculate an end to volume pricing. You can alternatively
end with a pipe. If you do, the last pricing level becomes the limit.
Q_Test|9.95|48|2-5,9.95|6-10.9.50|11-+,9.00
Q_Test|9.95|48|2-5,9.95|6-10.9.50|11-20,9.00| This is equivalent
to the example above.
Q_Test|0.00|48|1-5,9.95|6-10.9.50|11-+,9.00 This is also
equivalent to the 1st example because the volume pricing starts at 1 instead of 2.
The kart allows up to 20 volume pricing levels.
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Wholesale
Pricing and Discounts:
You can have as many levels of wholesale pricing as you wish.
This is done as a discount at the time of checkout. A discount is a percentage of the retail prices defined here.
There is a discount chart where you define discount codes and percentage values.
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ID Required:
Let's say this kart is for a student store. Each item can
be designated as ID Required. Say a student ID card. This is done with a sku prefix.
If the sku starts with an asterisk, an ID will be required
at checkout.
Q_*Test| Means ID required. Note: the I_sku must also start
with an asterisk.
Q_*Test| and I_*Test|
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Non Taxable Items:
Any individual item can be non sales taxable.
If an item is non-taxable, a minus sign (-) is used as the
sku prefix.
Q_-Test| is a non-taxable item.
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Electronic Delivery:
Any file in digital format can be sold on your website and
delivered electronically.
If an item is digital like an ebook in pdf format, a cd track
as an mp3, a video, a word document, software, etc. This is designated with ! as a sku prefix.
Q_!Test| designates a downloadable file. The I_ section defines
the file type and file name. This will be discussed more later.
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Add To Kart Button
Values:
The html values for the Add To Kart button start with I_.
The cart matches this up with the quantity field Q_ data. This can be thought of as extended data for the cart.
I_sku matches the add to kart button up with the quantity
and pricing information. The sku must be an EXACT match. It IS case sensitive. The I_ must be upper case.
I_!Test| is an electronic delivery item with the sku of Test.
Note the pipe.
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The Item's Kart Description:
The next part of the I_ data is the shopping kart description.
It is what shows there.
I_!Test|My Test CD Track shows in the kart as:
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Note:
EVERYTHING FROM THIS POINT ON IS USED ONLY FOR ELECTRONIC
DELIVERY ITEMS
If the item is not an electronic delivery item, end with
a pipe.
Mime Types Simplified:
For delivering data files, the kart needs to know the Mime
Type of the file. The types are:
audio, video, and application. This means a Word Doc, a Spreadsheet,
a PDF, software, etc is the application Mime Type.
Audio is any audio extension such as mp3, wma, etc.
Video is any video extension such as swf, flv, mov, wmv,
etc.
Application is anything else. Be sure to try out the audio
and video files. If they do not play as they should, use the application Mime Type.
I_!Test|My Test CD Track|audio|MyTestCDTrack.mp3| Note the
ending pipe.
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The electronic delivery file
name:
The electronic delivery file names CANNOT have spaces. Use
underscores or remove the spaces. My Test CD Track.mp3 must either be My_Test_CD_Track.mp3 or MyTestCDTrack.mp3.
Of course, the uploaded file must match the filename defined here.
I_!Test|My Test CD Track|audio|MyTestCDTrack.mp3| Note the
ending pipe.
The I_ section MUST end with a pipe.
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OPTIONS
If your item has options, you can define up to 24 of them.
An option is something like Color or Size.
The options start with Onumber_. The number is the option
number EG: O1_, O2_, etc.
Options are always drop-down lists.
These lists can be anything, but cannot be multiple choice.
If the first option says Select, Pick or Choose in English,
or selecto, selección, or elija if you are using the Spanish version of the shopping kart, these items require
that a selection is made.
If these keywords do not occur in the first item, it becomes
the default option.
Options CAN modify the base price. However, if used, volume
pricing cannot be used.
Any drop-down option that has a $ followed by a price denotes
a base price modifier. This amount is added to the base price. If the base price is 0.00, these modifiers become
the base price.
Example: If Red costs $2.00 more than White and the base
price is 9.95, selecting Red makes the Red item cost 11.95 and the White one 9.95.
.
If the base price is 0.00,
is equivalent to the previous example.
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The Continue Shopping
Button:
After an Item has been added to the kart, the person may
wish to continue shopping instead of checking out now. The kart needs to be told where to take the buyer when this
happens.
This is accomplished with a hidden field named "returnhere".
The html value of the returnhere text field is the complete URL of this page. EG: http://www.yourdomain.com/thispage.html
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Form Parameters:
Each html form has a beginning and an ending designated as:
<Form ..........> and </Form>.
Forms cannot be nested (html requirement, not a shopping
kart requirement).
The opening form statement syntax is:
<Form action="https://secure.ourshoppingkart.com/shop/your domain name/kart3.cgi" method="post" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" >
The ending form statement is </Form>.
All shopping kart items must be between the opening form
statement and the ending form statement.
The method must be Post.
The enctype must be application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
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Affiliates:
If you have affiliates who have websites selling your products,
they can duplicate your shopping pages and design them to fit their site's look and feel. The link to the kart
is the same as yours. The returnhere is to their site. There is one additional hidden text field needed. It is
AF. The value (contents) of the AF field is their affiliate code.
By default this affiliate code shows on the checkout shipping
information page as a Promotion Code. You can make this field hidden if you wish or leave it visible for word-of-mouth
affiliate codes. Say you meet a friend at a party and tell him/her to use Promotion Code "friend" at
checkout. That way, you know that person ordered and anyone else he/she may have told as well.
Promotion Code:
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Seminar or Event Group Signup:
This is a separate program that is a pre-processor for the
kart. It signs up one or more people for an event. You can assign the prices for each person and what you want
the kart to display.
Your shopping page form goes to the signup program and the
seminar signup program goes to the kart. You can edit this program in the administration area.
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The View Kart
Button: Each page should have at least one
View Kart Button. It can have as many as you wish. It is an html submit button or graphical button named VIEW.
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- Read Our Shopping Kart's feautures. >
- And, what we don't
hide, read what Our Shopping Kart doesn't do. >
Read both to find out if our Kart will do the
job you need.
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