If you have our printed catalog, you can still order on-line. It's easy, it's safe, and it's pretty fun, too! If you have any special instructions for any items entered here, you'll have the opportunity to enter them at checkout time.
This is, of course, a barebones example. You'll want to "dress it up" a bit, but hopefully you get the idea.
Give them a text box for entering the catalog part number, unless you just want to hardcode partnumber to "catalogitem" or something. We've used op1 as the part number var in this example.
By putting "Catalog desc" in the description field, we insure that whatever description the customer enters will be preceded with that string. You'll use an op var for the description, too, but you don't need to specify which one.
For cost, we just give them a textbox, and name it op2. We strip out anything but number and decimals, so unless they're just TRYING to mess it up, things will work just fine.
Use the usual methods for quantity; a text box as above, or maybe a select box. Examples abound.