This has been an issue of mine for many years and the time has come that I need to find an overall solution so I am open to ideas of the best way to achieve what I need.
1. I have a lifetime CS-Cart license and have been using it since CS-Cart was first released. It is always buggy and has been a major cause of frustration, swearing and just overall depression every time I need to touch it. One thing to note is the saying that sometimes it is better the devil you know than the devil you don't. My installation is at www.clearprop.com.au selling pilot and aircraft supplies
2. I also have the largest recreational aviation forum site in the Southern Hempisphere. It uses the leading forum software called Xenforo and it is a pure dream to manage, administer, customise etc plus is extremely powerful with its addons. My forum site is at www.recreationalflying.com
3. I have an addon to my forum site for Classifieds. There is a big need to set the Classifieds up as a separate site. The classifieds section is at http://www.recreationalflying.com/classifieds/
The first biggest problem is no integration of the Xenforo forum userbase with my CS-Cart shopping cart. I have been quoted a large amount of money to achieve this. The concern I have is the potential everlasting costs every single time either CS-Cart or Xenforo release an update, I am at the mercy of what ever the developer wants to charge to keep them integrated. the problem would be more at the CS-Cart end as their updates always cause issues unlike Xenforo.
The next problem is I want to have the Classifieds out of my forum site and into my shopping cart site keeping both the Pilot Supplies and Classifieds together under the one name and site. This can easily be achieved by using an Xenforo addon that lets you run more domains from a single Xenforo installation. However having the Classifieds and my CS-Cart shop on the Clear Prop site, being what I want, would be silly as it would require two separate user account on the one site, i.e. the Classifieds userbase being integrated with the forums userbase but the CS-Cart shop requiring another registration and login.
My thoughts then went to Wordpress. There is an Xenforo addon that integrates the Xenforo userbase with Wordpress. I would use the cross domain Xenforo addon and have Wordpress and the Classifieds on my shopping site Clear Prop. I could then drop CS-Cart and get a Wordpress shopping cart. I would end up with users having a single registration and login across the Xenforo forums, Xenforo Classifieds and a Shopping Cart. I would only have to rely on the Xenforo to Wordpress bridge to keep being updated every time there is an update to Xenforo and Wordpress. As many other Xenforo clients use this bridge there is a demand for it to remain current.
Another option is for a CS-Cart addon developer to create the Xenforo and Cs-Cart bridge and get enough sales from both CS-Cart and Xenforo customers to make it worthwhile for them to maintain it. I think, especially with the number of Xenforo sites there would be a demand for it. I could pay the developer to develop it upfront and then get refunded from sales of the addon to the amount of money I put upfront. Note this would also benefit CS-Cart sales from all the potential Xenforo cuctomers to also use CS-Cart.
Perhaps there is a way to add user created Classifieds into CS-Cart as well???
Incidentally, I am currently using the great Xenforo latest posts addon from Cart-Power
I am really at a loss as what to do to achieve what I need and would like to get others to bounce ideas around on the best potential solution. I do need to find an answer to this dilemma as soon as possible