My thoughts on GeekMart

[Bad Bunny]

So far I have just done testing with GeekMart by myself. But I do forsee myself using the product when it is gold on my site. It is very well thought out, and you really seem to have fun doing this. Which means a lot to me, since I don't want code made by someone/people who don't enjoy doing it. The way you slid in your humor into the script is what cinched it for me that you were genuinely enjoying making this product. A reference to Spiderman on the administrative end is so classic!

The templates are clean and to the point. I do find it odd that the user end has all these collapse buttons. I'm not really sure why someone would go to your online store and collapse the only navigation they have in it. It's truly minor though, and just seen by me as an oddity. Not quite a space oddity, so no worries.

On the administrative end, there are some terms and settings that seem sort of strange and unclear. For instance, what exactly does "Ordinal" mean? I am sure it is a real word, but maybe a little too "geeky" for me...har har. But then there are also Vendors. While the definition of a vendor is clear to me, the application of the word is vague in this case. Technically I would be the vender, wouldn't I? Does this mean I can have more than one store? Each with it's own paypal information?

I am confident all of this will be improved upon by or before the release of the "gold" version. Much is just a lack of documentation, which is understandable since it's in beta stages. :)

I want to thank you from the deepest regions of my big toe for making this script and saving me from the hacked up version of the subscription manager I was using! Yay for me and the hopes of a real store!

[The Geek]

Excellent comments. Im glad you are liking it. I do enjoy coding - sometimes far too much ;)

I know this is really about suggestions - but ill tackle a few of the questions you raised since there is a dire lack of dcumentation right now.

Your collapsable buttons is a very valid point. I dont know why they would either. Maybe I made it a little too collapse happy. If anyone feels strongly about it - Im happy to remove them but I agree with you - its not overly important at this stage.

Ordinal is a geeky way of saying 'the order'. Guess you cant take all the geek out of geeks ;) I have actually had this asked with other hacks before so I should have learned by now :)

Technically, you are the vendor (thats why the first entry is you!). I am sure that will fullfill 90% of peoples needs - however when I started making GeekMart - it didnt fullfill all of mine. Bascially, one of the many functions I have in mind for GeekMart is to sell books (which Im doing now), industry magazine subscriptions, and site crap (like mugs and such).
I cant be asked to buy all these things, stock them, take the order AND ship it out. I would rather code! Instead, I set up a vendor that actually does all of this. In this case, I set up a vendor for each company I deal with: a publisher for some of the books, another for 1 magazine, another for the other magazine and one for me.
When an order is paid for, a custom add on is run that groups the order items by the vendor at which point an email can be sent to the vendor to notify that they need to send out goods to a customer and invoice me for the amount.
Basically, it allows me to act as a reseller/middle man if I want.
The way its designed is so that you dont have to operate that way - but you have the option (even if its only for 1 item out of a store full of 1,000 items!).

Thanks for your great feedback, and thank your little piggie when it gets back from the market :)

[yoyo]

thanks for the explanation- I had some questions along those lines myself.

Have you ever tried Zen Cart? It is an offshoot of OSCommerce, but they have taken it a whole new direction. They have some good ideas in there that you could maybe adapt/implement in to the Geek Mart, such as froogle ads. I will add more input later on specifics as I use the Geek Mart more.