CS-CART / WordPress Integration

I have seen several post where CS-CART/WordPress integration was discussed and there seems to be a lot of interest. However, I have yet to find any successful resolutions/implementations except for the site [url]http://www.barnlightelectric.com/[/url].



This site seems to have obtained a seemless integration with the blog having the same look as the cart.



I would love to be able to blend in the WordPress blog with CS-CART and feel there are others out there who share my same ambitions. I guess what I am asking is if anyone has had any success at achieving this, I would like to hear from you. I just can’t figure out how the site i mentioned above was able to accomplish what I am trying to do.



Any feedback would be welcome as blogging has become an important part of our online community and integrating this blog with CS-CART would be a benefit to us all. Before someone suggest it, I do not think “Site News” is the answer.



Thanks and I hope this generates some discussion!



David

I had success with this



because I’m the one who did it for Barnlightelectric.com



It’s not really all that hard, you just need to know wordpress (which I do) and css/html.

ETInteractive,



I want to compliment you on the job you did. It is really a seemless intergration and appears as if it came with cs-cart.



Is there any reason you chose to implement wordpress as a sub-domain. I was just curious if that has something to do with the success of the implementation.



Thanks

David

The implementation and use of sub-domain I had no part in, you would have to ask JesseLeeStringer, as this is his baby.



I was just brought in to make the blog design match the cart design.



Thanks for the compliments.

[quote name=‘tnchatmonk’]ETInteractive,



I want to compliment you on the job you did. It is really a seemless intergration and appears as if it came with cs-cart.



Is there any reason you chose to implement wordpress as a sub-domain. I was just curious if that has something to do with the success of the implementation.



Thanks

David[/quote]

1. SEO as the blog serves the primary domain with content. You’ll notice that all blog images redirect to the shopping counterparts.
   
   
   
2. Different operating environment that works independantly to CS-Carts allowing me to perform different SEO techniques without ill-effecting CS-Cart

ETInteractive/JesseLeeStringer,



I guess I just have a couple of questions to ask one of you guys. (1). Did you use the styles.css from CS-CART as your base .CSS stylesheet or the WP Style.css with mosifications for the blog and (2) Which index.php did you start with as from CART or from WP? I am just looking for a starting point and I am willing to go either way but I just didn’t know if you used the CART index.php and include module Logic or used the WP index and hard coded all of the quicklinks, logo, header, footer, and the like.



This will at least give me somewhere to start! I hope I am not asking to much as I will figure the rest out on my own but any direction would be most appreciated.



Thanks,

Used a combination of both styles, but we used WP index page. However, I edited every wp page to include the div id’s that CS uses for the central and side content. So that the divs were the same size and layout.



and then of course just copied the header/footer html to match the CS side of things.

[quote name=‘indy0077’]If you want to use both scripts then I would recommend definitely WP as the main page.[/quote]



I’m completely the opposite. due to the following reasons

1. Independant environments
   
2. Sub-Domains act as another URL generating content for the main site to link to. Allows customers an entire website to review your products only to then click through to purchase said product.
   
3. If your sole business is driven on sales from the cart, don’t make it harder for customers to purchase. “The path most travelled is the one of least resistance.”

Ok, to complete your questions:

1. If your store is established and you want just give to the customer a little bit more of information, then you should use CSC as a main site (as JesseLeeStringer said)
   
   
   
2. If your store is new on the web and you want to get “free” visitors and traffic at begin, then WP should be in the root.

Thanks Guys and Gals for all the input. CS-CART is my main driver thus I think I am going down the road of CS .css as my surviving style with WP mods to that as needed. As for WP and the pages within, I think I will go with WP as the driver and include all CS mods required to keep the same look and feel.



Hope this is the right approach as now the coding begins. Once again, thanks to all for their input and I am sure I will have additional questions and or input as the project continues. Hope this post helps other developers design their approach as to CS/WP integration.



Much Appreciated!

David

Gals/Guys,



One other question…When you build the blog and the customer registers, are you also registering him/her for CS cart also?



Thanks…

[quote name=‘tnchatmonk’]Gals/Guys,



One other question…When you build the blog and the customer registers, are you also registering him/her for CS cart also?



Thanks…[/quote]



No. We don’t have any requirements for customers to register nor commenting abilities on the blog. A wordpress bridge is something that can be built but isn’t necessary.

I had actually started something similar to this but put it on the back burner.



Ive got drupal installed at blog.mysite.com and Ive got wordpress installed at mysite.com/blog.



The plan was to use WP as a blog pointer to the site the way its described here and drupal was going to act as an rss feeder to other blogs I intended to setup on 2ndary domains/hosts. Sort of an automated blogging system that only required updating drupal and the other blogs would just grab the rss and post it.

[quote name=‘Tirade’]I had actually started something similar to this but put it on the back burner.



Ive got drupal installed at blog.mysite.com and Ive got wordpress installed at mysite.com/blog.



The plan was to use WP as a blog pointer to the site the way its described here and drupal was going to act as an rss feeder to other blogs I intended to setup on 2ndary domains/hosts. Sort of an automated blogging system that only required updating drupal and the other blogs would just grab the rss and post it.[/quote]



Why do you use both, WP and Drupal? Drupal as CMS?

[quote name=‘JesseLeeStringer’]No. We don’t have any requirements for customers to register nor commenting abilities on the blog. A wordpress bridge is something that can be built but isn’t necessary.[/QUOTE]



Jesse,



I’ve been thinking about this and how I would go about doing it. I keep coming back to intermittent cron job to sync the two tables. I’d like to think theres a better way of doing this.



Seems like you’ve thought about it before, what would be the best way to build this bridge in your opinion?



Maybe I’ll go ahead and do it so we have it for those interested.



-Joe

I’m quite enthusiastic for the following:



Shared login credentials →

Master: CS-CART

Slave: Wordpress



Skinning → Not 100% sure, as plugins will require their own specific area. I might advocate migrating skins, but nothing further as it’s too dynamic per customer.



If you are a programmer, please PM me since I’ve got WP plugin conversion that needs happening

I just found this thread, hopefully one of you may help me with this. Currently, I am adding CS-Cart to an existing blog for a client. Their site is run on wordpress currently, so I am keeping it as the main driver for the site and using CS-Cart in a subdirectory (e.g. /store/)



I was wondering if there was a way to keep the mini cart across all pages (even when they are in the wordpress part of the site)?



Or is this even possible?



Thanks!

[quote name=‘freshdarren’]I just found this thread, hopefully one of you may help me with this. Currently, I am adding CS-Cart to an existing blog for a client. Their site is run on wordpress currently, so I am keeping it as the main driver for the site and using CS-Cart in a subdirectory (e.g. /store/)



I was wondering if there was a way to keep the mini cart across all pages (even when they are in the wordpress part of the site)?



Or is this even possible?



Thanks![/quote]



Short answer = no

Unless you can post the cart into a new WP object it’s not simple, my presumption is that since you’ve asked this question it’s way out of our leagues. (I just removed the cart on my blog as it serves no purpose)

[quote name=‘JesseLeeStringer’]Short answer = no

Unless you can post the cart into a new WP object it’s not simple, my presumption is that since you’ve asked this question it’s way out of our leagues. (I just removed the cart on my blog as it serves no purpose)[/QUOTE]



Ah, thanks for the reply. I am new to CS-Cart (so far really liking what I am seeing). This gives me some ideas regarding how to do this (ala. custom Wordpress plugin). I just wasn’t sure if there was some kind of API I could interface with.



I will see if it is absolutely necessary to have the mini-cart across all pages.



Thanks!

I can assist in integration, I have a big WP experience.