I spent a few years using Agora Cart and this has been a refreshing change being able to work within the features of the cart as opposed to having to code everything special I wanted to do.
We are still getting things rolling and have lots of products to add but I really like it thus far.
I started on 2.06 and have made the moves up to 2.10 without any problems despite some customs I put in…that said the migrations have identified and advised of my changed templates etc…
As far as support goes, I have gotten my questions answered in the forums and have not used their support. I don’t think any of the carts are going to offer something like free phone support…
I mean it’s a $260 piece of software after all. I think the important thing is that the company is supporting via regular upgrades and bug fixes which is indicative of a a company that’s on the up and making money. From doing quite a bit of research on the web, it is clear their number of installs is growing rapidly.
[quote]From doing quite a bit of research on the web, it is clear their number of installs is growing rapidly.[/quote]Thats right. Here a screenshot:
This could also mean the bug tracking and people with update issues! 
ano[quote name=‘dustundag’]This could also mean the bug tracking and people with update issues! [/quote]
Yes, everything has bugs.
I can not belive my eyes! The product configurator is in the feature list 160.
May be extended in the next version. Great news if released for tne next versioni
[HTML] zeke
11-15-2006 04:15 PM
Quote:
1.) If a product that has product options attached to it is used in the configurator, there does not appear to be any opportunity for the customer to select which option they want. Without this feature, the configurator’s functionality is greatly lessened. For example, if I sell outfits, and the customer must choose a shirt, pants, and hat, they would have no way of choosing the size or color of each individual item.
Yes, you’re right - currect configurator version requires components without product options. Will be extended in next version. [/HTML]
I am wondering:
If I have product “A” and it has 3 variables with different prices such as
Product A in length from 50 to 100 inches in a drop down menu length 1 & 2 no extra cost, length 3 plus $5, length 4 plus $!0
Product A in width from 1 to 4 inches in a drop down menu width 1 & 2 no extra cost, width 3 plus $5, length 4 plus $!0
Product A in style 1 through 4 in a drop down menu style 1 & 2 no extra cost, style 3 plus $15, Style 4 plus $30
Plus rules such as if Style 3 then length must be 50 or 60 inches.
Can this be easily done with the configurator.
All products are made from raw materials and the data base does not need to track inventory for the options only the basic product “A”.
Also a text box for notes at the product level.
Thread Officially Derailed. Back on Topic Please!
[quote name=‘JesseLeeStringer’]Thread Officially Derailed. Back on Topic Please![/quote]
Jesse,
Don’t be so serious - smiling!
Yes , it can probably be done provided you get the current product configurator customized for the options.
I have asked the following and received the following quoted from cs-cart couple of months ago for version 2.x.
The main issue is that you have to pay them again if the future versions are not suitable for your customised change as it will not be in the core.
A-Product options reflected for the product configurator addon 440$
B-Product options compatibility for the product configurator 1000$
C- USD560. (I have the old version for 1.35)
Display prices in product configurator groups
Display configurator group and configurator product thumbnails
Initial amount of the product for the configuration
Now back to the main subject
[quote name=‘Traveler’]I am wondering:
If I have product “A” and it has 3 variables with different prices such as
Product A in length from 50 to 100 inches in a drop down menu length 1 & 2 no extra cost, length 3 plus $5, length 4 plus $!0
Product A in width from 1 to 4 inches in a drop down menu width 1 & 2 no extra cost, width 3 plus $5, length 4 plus $!0
Product A in style 1 through 4 in a drop down menu style 1 & 2 no extra cost, style 3 plus $15, Style 4 plus $30
Plus rules such as if Style 3 then length must be 50 or 60 inches.
Can this be easily done with the configurator.
All products are made from raw materials and the data base does not need to track inventory for the options only the basic product “A”.
Also a text box for notes at the product level.[/QUOTE]
[quote name=‘dustundag’]You may also use the category as parent and product under that category as child (options) depending on the type of products.
But if you have typical product say a plumbing valve starting from 1" to 12" then you have basically difference size, weight and price difference and it is not user friendly to clone the product per size difference under the category. Then the best method is most probabably to use non-category type parent-child structure. (similar to cs-cart product with options)
With current version of cs-cart, you can create options per products. But the options does not have capability of supporting or linking to the existing child products available in the database.
This also true for the add on “Required products” which does not support the
product with options.
This is also true for product configurator. Product configurator does not support product options available
on the database.
I have have only tested two shopping carts in the past. they are Virtuemart and Magento
- Virtuemart has nice display configuration feature for the parent - child structure (without the use of category as parent product)
- Magento has also product -child structure. Each child product is actually a product.
. You can also appoint a feature to each child product (say size feature 1" upto 12"). you will then a short display for the seperate products as options.
If you are not going to plan to use product configurator or required product and also alot of typical product with large number of product options at the same time,. you will not be disappointed with cs-cart.
I am not in position to recommend you other product and I am sure that cs-cart currently is one of the best choice for overall and price. But this may not be the case for me if I find a suitable alternative cart with typical better organized parent child type configurable product and also product configurator and I am ready to start from the scratch.[/QUOTE]
In fact your assessment is wrong, you need to open your thinking abou this. Cs- cart actually handles this better than any cart out there - is just isnt overt, I wrote another post about this - magento - tries to implement this and actually had the right concept but fell way short on two accounts with excessive need of scripting to add products to the cart button.
As a summary, are you saying Magento is slow because of the features of the parent -child-feature structure. Interesting!
See also Virtuemart product parent -child display option which I feel much better than
current cs-cart display for category list, compact and compact.
As you will notice alot of people are currently missing multi add to cart function . Some saying multicart add is not suitable as user should carefully read first before adding to cart. But this should not be dependent on the general setting or the version. with the virtuemart display option, you can use one or multiple add to cart and etc. Highly configurable! You also add availability of the product . 3 days , 1 week etc.
For cs-cart, you have the set exact dates only ! Nonsense.
Well, why I am not using virtuemart and magento on my case although I have demo sites?
There is currently no product configurator for the virtuemart, that is the reason, I am not currently using virtuemart although I have demo site.
I am not now using magento because magento currently has no product configurator compatibility classes and the contend management is not user friendly, and also slow.
[quote name=‘plumbingdeals’]we are nearing the end of our free trial period and generally like what we see with cs-cart.
we would like like some honest opinions regarding cs-cart and v2.08 or v2.10.
our site currently has about 5000 sku’s, and we are adding all the time.
we have followed the forums closely for the last number of weeks, and have seen what people think is the good and the bad, but as we near making a decision, we would like some honest answers/opinions, such as…
if you had to do it again, would you use cs-cart?
is it the right choice for a site with over 5000 sku’s, and growing?
is their support as bad as some seem to say?
if not cs-cart, what?
any, and all opinions wanted, and welcome…
btw…our current site uses SunShop, which we have been disappointed in, and is located at www.plumbing-deals.com
thanks in advance…
walter[/QUOTE]
do not worry about cs-cart handling 5000+ skus …
I have 54000 loaded at my site …
you can click one of the links in my signature if you would like to know how it performs …
I really like where CS-Cart is going and am currently using Volusion. I am looking to move two sites to a new cart, but am not finding all the functionality I need. Specifically, I need the ability to associate attributes to child SKUs and have them linked to a parent SKU. Not having child/parent sku relationships can create a nightmare for fulfillment, inventory control and accounting. We could just list a massive amounts Child SKUs, all with their own descriptions and features, but this results in duplicate content which SEs generally do not like.
Any sophisticated shopping cart must have child/parent sku relationships for things to work in sync with fulfillment center and accounting systems. If you sell on Amazon or Buy.com, you will see that they have this simple structure in place.
Hoping CS-Cart will step it up. I would switch in a minute if this were available.
PS - Pinnacle Cart offers parent and child SKU relationships, but surprisingly there is no way to import inventory updates for child SKUs! They say this is coming…