Experience has taught us that while a good FAQ is necessary,
the best learning method for html coding is by example. Web designers
are very comfortable with viewing a document's source to see how something
is tagged, and so we provide these examples. It's also a good chance
to see Americart in action, if you haven't already visited some live
customer sites.
Before doing an in-depth study of these examples,
you should visit our setup
guide for a primer on how Americart works. You can
also create your new shopping cart from there.
Example 1: The Standard Americart
Example 2: The Standard Americart with Comprehensive
UPS Shipping Calculations
Example 3: The Standard Americart Using Table
Formatting
Example 4: Single Page Online Store
Example 5: Frame Implementation of Americart
Example 6: Calculating Price Using Width,
Length, and Quality – the Carpet Store
Example 7: Multi-item Submission – the
Bread Store
Example 8: Electronic Delivery – Selling
Software, Images, etc.
Example 9: Running Your Store from a Database
Example 10: Using Product Numbers from a Printed
Catalog
Example 11: Member Discounts
Example 12: Collecting Other Information from
Customers – Simple Surveys
Example 13: Package Deals
Example 14: Requiring Shoppers to View a Page
Before Checkout (for example, to select state for tax
calculation or to agree to policies)
Example 15: Selling in Lot Sizes – the
Coffee Store
Example 16: Quantity Discounts – the
Preserves Store
Example 17: Simultaneously Changing Multiple
Fields (for example, size and price) Using a Select Menu
Example 18: Suppressing Cart Display When
Adding an Item
Example 1: The Standard Americart
Our "classic" implementation is heavily
commented with information about each example. It is
useful for understanding concepts or just finding a
method that matches your product organization.
Wayne's
Standard Widget World
Example 2: The Standard Americart with Comprehensive
UPS Shipping Calculations
This next page is very similar, but it uses our
new UPS shipping calculations which understand zones,
weight, multiple boxes in an order, and various delivery
options (2nd day, Gnd, Overnight, etc.).
Wayne's
Widget World with Comprehensive UPS Shipping
Example 3: The Standard Americart Using Table
Formatting
Here is an example with a more "panelized" look
using html table formatting:
Wayne's
Widget World with Table Formatting
Example 4: Single Page Online Store
Express Order single page sales. All done securely,
and you have full control over the content and the
order format. Got a hot product or a single product to
sell? Or maybe your friends are helping you sell something
on their site? Put up this single page where people
can do it all from one page.
If you want, add a hidden variable showing the
site where the order form resides and give your friend
a commission. This works as an honor system affiliates
program.
Express
Order
Example 5: Frame Implementation of Americart
Frames divide Web pages into multiple, scrollable
regions so you can present information flexibly. While
coding websites in frames is now considered somewhat
outdated, we provide this example for those of you who
are more comfortable using the frames method. These
pages have a minimum of visible cart related comment
to allow you to get a better feel for how a possible
frames site should look. Many of the examples are very
similar to the classic page. Our frames implementation
example is available as fully functional template, which
you can download as a .zip file from our example page:
Americart Frames
Demo
Example 6: Calculating Price Using Width, Length,
and Quality – the Carpet Store
Our "carpet shop" demo illustrates
how to sell cloth, carpet, or something similar which
needs a shopping cart intelligent enough to understand
different widths, lengths, and quality grades of an
item. Americart tracks all these, dynamically adjusting
the price to meet the product. Americart can sell virtually
anything, in any combination.
Love
Carpet, Inc.
Example 7: Multi-item Submission – the
Bread Store
Sometimes there is a need though to be able
to put more than one line item into the shopping cart
at one time. We call this coding format "multi-item
submission". The html code differs a bit for these,
and we suggest that you tackle standard single items
first. When you're ready, visit our very simplistic
bread store. The page also provides usage notes for
this method. (Please also view our Multi-item
submission FAQs.)
Bread
Store
Example 8: Electronic Delivery – Selling
Software, Images, etc.
If you wish to sell an image, an on-line report,
a midi file, or anything that can be accessed via URL,
Americart now provides support for direct delivery
of this URL to your customer 24hrs. a day without them
having to wait. Here is a sample page, along with instructions
and links to the set-up form for "soft delivery".
Electronic
Delivery Demo
Example 9: Running Your Store from a Database
One of our most powerful features allows our
clients to run Americart-powered web stores from a
database. With this feature, you can generate web pages
dynamically and easily manage hundreds or even thousands
of products. Now you can using our database/search
engine tool.
Instructions for Database-driven Stores
Example 10: Using Product Numbers from a Printed Catalog
Here is an example page for allowing customers
to directly enter data from a printed catalog right
into the shopping cart. Talk about getting on-line
quickly!
Catalog
Input
Example 11: Member Discounts
Want to provide a discount to your members?
Here's how:
Membership
Page
Example 12: Collecting Other Information from Customers – Simple
Surveys
This example page shows how to use the information
gathering ability of Americart, where you can pass
information to the final order without it having to
be a line item or product shown in the cart display.
The page uses the multi-item format, and is an excellent
illustration of several tags, vars, and features:
Survey
Page
Example 13: Package Deals
If you add several items to the cart as a group
or package deal using multi-item submission, you don't
want shoppers to be able to remove an item from the
group by using the increase/decrease/remove line item
function in the cart display. After visiting the below
page and adding our "special package deal" to
the cart, try to remove one of the three items and
you'll see what we're doing here.
Package
Deal Demo
Example 14: Requiring Shoppers to View a Page
Before Checkout (for example, to select state for tax calculation or
to agree to policies)
If you charge Sales Tax in more than one state,
you need to get the shopper to select their state so
tax can be calculated. This demo illustrates how to
do that. You can use the "forced visit" for
any number of things, like a policy statement that
people must read and agree to, or an "over 18" statement.
Force
a Visit to a Page before Checkout
Example 15: Selling in
Lot Sizes – the
Coffee Store
Here is an example of how to sell in lot sizes
without the customer being able to mess up the quantity
with the increase/decrease button:
Coffees
of South America
Example 16: Quantity Discounts – the Preserves
Store
Here is an example of how to give a price break
on a group of items:
Quantity
Discounts
Example 17: Simultaneously Changing Multiple Fields (for
example, size and price) Using a Select Menu
Here is an example of how to change multiple
fields in the form tag for adding items to the shopping
cart, using only a select menu.
A
trick with the select box.
Example 18: Suppressing Cart Display When Adding an Item
Don't want to view the cart display each time
an item is added to the shopping cart? Here's an example
of how to do it. It uses JavaScript, and has provision
for older browsers and browsers with JavaScript turned
off. In those cases it performs in the regular "tried & true" manner.
Don't
show cart display when adding an item.
