[FX.php List] Shopping Carts - Keep in SessionVars or Add Recordsright away?

Wed Jul 29 10:43:35 MDT 2009

As a frequent online shopper, I like this idea.  I had over $100 of
merch in my cart at Khols online, accumulated throughout the day, and I
went away from my pc for a couple of hours to come back to an empty
cart.  I did not try to re-shop, so they lost the business.

-----Original Message-----
From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
[mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Dale Bengston
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 12:37 PM
To: FX.php Discussion List
Subject: Re: [FX.php List] Shopping Carts - Keep in SessionVars or Add
Recordsright away?

I agree that this is a client business rule, but there is very little  
penalty for saving records to a table, and keeping them as a status  
that is suppressed by the client-server UI. I am doing this for an  
order site. In my opinion, saving records also makes it easier to  
retrieve a shopping cart if the user quits and relaunches, or in  
another typical, natural way destroys their session.

Dale

  --
Dale Bengston
Streamline Studio, LLC
www.streamline-studio.com

On Jul 29, 2009, at 10:46 AM, Bob Patin wrote:

> For one client it was a half-hour; this wasn't a cart per se, but a  
> registration site. The issue for the client was to make sure that  
> everyone who completed the process was definitely sent an email  
> confirmation; eventually the other programmer in this project (I was  
> a sub-contractor on this) decided to write a script, and trigger it  
> every 60 seconds. It looks for abandoned registrations, and if it's  
> been more than a half-hour, deletes the temp record. If not, it  
> confirms that there's a credit card payment auth code and if so, it  
> sends the confirmation email.
>
> I don't use scripts much at all in web apps, but this was what the  
> other consultant wanted, and it does work pretty well with scheduled  
> script-triggering from Server 10.
>
> For this app we use a temp table, but for a smaller app on the same  
> site, where people are signing up for meetings, I store everything  
> in session variables until the end because there's not much to keep  
> track of...
>
> BP
>
> Bob Patin
> Longterm Solutions LLC
> bob at longtermsolutions.com
> 615-333-6858
> http://www.longtermsolutions.com
> Twitter: bobpatin
> iChat/AIM: bobpatin
> FileMaker 10 Certified Developer
> Member of FileMaker Business Alliance & TechNet
> --------------------------
> FileMaker hosting and consulting for all versions of FileMaker
> PHP * jQuery * ExpressionEngine
> Full email services * Free DNS hosting * Colocation * Consulting
>
>
> On Jul 29, 2009, at 3:49 AM, Gjermund Gusland Thorsen wrote:
>
>> What are your criterias for deleting the carts not owned by anybody?
>>
>> ggt
>>
>> 2009/7/29 Head Honcho <headhoncho at customikesolutions.com>:
>>> Hi Joel,
>>>
>>> I record them immediately, and run a script weekly to "delete" non  
>>> purchased
>>> orders.
>>>
>>> It also helps in the reporting to see what people have started  
>>> ordering and
>>> then dropped out, so to speak.
>>>
>>> As Webko said, this also allows for "pausing" an order and  
>>> resuming it
>>> later.
>>>
>>> HTH.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Michael Ward
>>> --
>>> Head Honcho
>>> CustoMike Solutions
>>> Member, FileMaker Business Alliance
>>> Member, FileMaker Technical Network
>>> FileMaker 7 Certified Developer
>>> FileMaker 8 Certified Developer
>>> FileMaker 9 Certified Developer
>>> FileMaker 10 Certified Developer
>>> 10 Wandoo Crt
>>> Wheelers Hill, 3150
>>> ph 0414 562 501
>>> headhoncho at customikesolutions.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 29/07/2009, at 9:24 AM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks Leo
>>>>
>>>> That's what I'd been thinking.
>>>>
>>>> It's good to see what different people are doing...
>>>>
>>>> -Joel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jul 28, 2009, at 4:18 PM, Leo R. Lundgren wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Yeah there's really a question of what features you want.
>>>>>
>>>>> The basic approach is to keep the cart in the session as session
>>>>> variables. There's really no need to put it all in the database,  
>>>>> use the
>>>>> session for what it's worth instead :)
>>>>>
>>>>> BUT, keeping the cart inside the DB will allow for certain  
>>>>> things, such
>>>>> as the client can put some stuff in the cart, mail his collegue,  
>>>>> and tell
>>>>> him "hey, look at the stuff I put in our cart", and the collegue  
>>>>> can do so
>>>>> from a totally different computer. They can collaborate.
>>>>>
>>>>> If that latter example isn't needed, I'd store it in the session.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 29 jul 2009 kl. 01.14 skrev Tim 'Webko' Booth:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 29/07/2009, at 9:11 AM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi all
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Anybody have any thoughts on *when* in shopping cart  
>>>>>>> functionality it's
>>>>>>> best to add items as records to the database?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My initial thinking is that it would make more sense to just  
>>>>>>> keep items
>>>>>>> in Session Variable arrays and only add anything to the  
>>>>>>> database at the time
>>>>>>> of Checkout -- to keep the DB from bulking up with unpurchased  
>>>>>>> items left in
>>>>>>> the cart.  But searching online, it seems that carts often add  
>>>>>>> records to
>>>>>>> the database as soon as they go into the cart.  (Might that be  
>>>>>>> different
>>>>>>> when using MySQL as opposed to FMP?)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> FWIW - Users on this site will average 1-4 items per order.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I tend to add them immediately - allows me to also re-show  
>>>>>> previous not
>>>>>> actually purchased items on request further down the track...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Webko
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>>>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -|
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> FX.php_List mailing list
>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>
> _______________________________________________
> FX.php_List mailing list
> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list

_______________________________________________
FX.php_List mailing list
FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list