@gugga7 - Good high level article. For a 1st release, I woud limit the capabilities of this addon to the Registration/Authentication and Social Sharing interfaces. The marketing side like special block presenting products that their friends have purchased or other geo-type recommendations would be a subsequent (possibly different) addon. The needs/desires around that functionality would vary widely depending on the site, what they sell and how much they want their customers to know what they know about them…
You snuk in the Export to Facebook store feature too… I don’t know of an API that exists for this and there are other providers who do this on a subscription basis (like $25/month). So I’d leave that out of first release too. An API could very well exist, I’m just not aware of it.
I’m thinking that each of these ‘types’ of integrations should be separate addons so people can mix and match. Since the “Like” stuff is basically an html block drop-in, it doesn’t seem like there’s much value in doing it via an addon since everyone’s styling needs are going to be different anyway.
The comments fall into the same category as the Like stuff. Would be a BIG deal to try and integrate into the existing comments/reviews. Sno is releasing a new comments/reviews that looks much improved. It might be a small stretch for him to ensure that comments are also sent to the FB user’s wall if they are a FB user.
Fanbox is also a drop-in html widget. Would think a single html block could hold both the Like and Fanbox widgits. The basic block could be provided as part of the addon so it won’t show if the user is not a FB user. But the actual “chunks” to have as the block content is probably best left to the user for styling and general format/features they want to provide that come from FB.
Thanks for the feedback, it’s helpful to get a sense of where people are coming from and how much they want to be entwined with FB.
Gugga & Tb,
I think you pretty much nailed it already.
For inspiration, you might want to check out how Bigcommerce and 3Dcard use social media, they both have very nice options.
Has any tried hacking any Wordpress plugins to convert them to cs-cart ? pretty sure the are a few that do things that might be handy and I think the are a few facebook login plugins too.
count me in for a FB plugin
I would be interested but I sure if anything but login intregation is added then it would cost too much for me.
Don’t get me wrong I would like everything;
Login with facebook
At each login - message sent to facebook & twitter - X is loving this site “site link”
At each purcahse - message to facebook & twitter - X found what they wanted at “site link”
I’m not concerned about product review and comments as I won’t get many of those.
@Tony
You may want to look at using Janrain ([url]http://www.janrain.com/partners/technology-partners[/url]) for this project. Note that this is the service X-Cart selected for their Facebook integration. There are many other big names in their partner list.
Glen
Hmm… Seems to be yet another layer of middleman. Will look further, but not seeing any advantate since all the integration on the cart end still needs to be done.
What was it that made it look attractive to you?
The biggest advantage I see with the Janrain solution is that they support a multitude of sign-in systems (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Gmail, OpenID, Yahoo, etc). So, only 1 integration to develop and presto, many login options available! I would also bet this future-proofs your addon from login API changes upstream.
Take a look at the x-cart demo video here:
[url]Social Login
Glen
Yes, I know it’s intended to be a platform or a framework… Unfortunately they don’t list any of their pricing and members of this forum are inherently cheap! 
My guess is that after paying them (either a lump or residual) that any addon that uses their framework would be far more than people here would be willing to pay.
My thoughts were to do a cheap authenticaion addon for facebook and then to build in the architecture to add other optional modules that would extend it… Still thinking it through. I had another developer who showed interest in a joint project, but they kind of disappeared like many do.
Good points. For reference, here is the Janrain “engage” pricing info: [url]http://www.janrain.com/products/engage/get-janrain-engage[/url]
The addon end-user is responsible for completing setup through the Janrain admin - which is where they upsell the non-free packages. I don’t believe the addon developer is charged for access to the API.
I’m only speaking from limited experience after having tested the Janrain Engage WordPress plugin.
Glen
Hmm… So you have to spend $100/month for login services to get white label and an api?
Not sure their model is a good one for small ecommerce merchants. Note that a smal mechant who’s been in business for 5 years can easily have upwards of 20,000 customers which would put their pricing out of reach for most.
Dear Friends,
We’ve released the CS-Cart Facebook Connect Addon and hope you like it.
[url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=23429[/url]
www.cscartrocks.com