Hi,

 

I'm still learning web design, currently plodding through the photoshop tuts (website mock-ups) on the net.

 

I have done a website in xhtml/css for my local social club using notepad and now a friend of mine wants a website (with e-commerce) to give his flower nursery an online prescence.

 

I want to design him a more modern website than the social club using a mock-up in photoshop then convert to xhtml/css for the net. He understands it may take me a few months to make a design for him. I told him i wasnt sure about e-commerce and that i would find out more.

 

I'm trying to get my head around how i could implement e-commerce/shopping cart into my website design.

 

Say i did a mock-up in photoshop of a design for his future website and converted it into code ready for the net, how can you implement the e-commerce/shopping cart into it?

 

Do i add the php/mysql script to my xhtml code?

Do i download the script from a specialist e-commerce site i.e. zencart??

 

Sorry to sound a little naive but i really dont have the foggiest idea!

 

Heres hoping for your replies

 

Slinky

Rather than reinventing the wheel I'd suggest using an off the shelf shopping cart system. Choosing the right system for the job will take a little research, so don't just use the first one you find. Avoid the temptation to go with "what's popular" as well, just because something is popular it doesn't mean it will be right for your customer!

 

1. Does the shopping cart have every feature/facility your customer needs?

2. Can you customer understand how to use the admin part of the cart?

3. Are you, as the developer, comfortable with modifying templates, configuring and otherwise setting up the shop?

Bluedreamer's advice is excellent. There are lots of shopping carts out there, zen cart being one, x-cart and magento being a few other examples.

 

You need to talk to the client and find out in exquisite detail everything they need. Then research the software and find the one that does it all. Once you've chosen your software you will need to learn how to install it onto web hosting and how to set it up.

 

As for your questions about integration with your XHTML&CSS I still recommend that you start out as you intend - Design the site, the mark it all up in XHTML&CSS and make sure you've got everything so you're happy with it.

 

Then you will need to learn how to turn your XHTML & CSS into templates for the Shopping cart software to use. This depends on which software you decide upon. XCart uses the smarty template system, magento uses a combination of HTML and XML.

 

Whatever you choose the templating system will involve two things:

1. dividing your XHTML up into files which can be used by the shopping cart (E.g. header, footer, sidebar, & maybe even into content blocks etc)

2. removing the static content from the XHMTL and replacing it with PHP, smarty variables, or some other method which calls the dynamic data from the database & shopping cart system.

 

So that's how it all works! Hope this helps to explain the process a little better? The best way to learn is by doing. When you choose what software you are going to use, download it, install it somewhere you can test it and mess about with it. Have a look at the template files from an existing theme and they will give you an idea of how it works.

Thank you both very much for the advice it was much needed!!