Exodus Development

Using Drupal for E-Commerce

So, you're using Drupal to run your site. You'd like to sell products to site visitors. What are your options? This page provides an overview of some of the available solutions.

Drupal and Paypal

You can 'roll-your-own' integration, or use the LM_Paypal module.

The LM_Paypal module is not intended to be a full e-commerce solution, but it does provide some types of built-in PayPal payment notifications, and when payment is completed, LM_Paypal module receives and records the notification. It allows for very simple automated donations, subscriptions, and paid advertisements. You should evaluate this module to see if it meets your needs. There are some significant limitations, so be sure to read the issues queue to ensure that the module does what you want it to do.

Drupal and E-Junkie

E-Junkie is a lightweight online shopping cart and fulfillment system. This blurb, taken from their home page, describes the system.

E-junkie provides shopping cart and buy now buttons to let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, eBay, MySpace, Google Base, CraigsList and other websites using PayPal Standard, PayPal Pro, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, TrialPay, ClickBank and 2CheckOut.

For merchants selling downloads, we automate and secure the digital delivery of files and codes. If you are selling tangible goods, we automate the shipping calculation and inventory management. Our shopping cart has a built in sales tax, VAT, packaging and shipping cost calculator.

E-Junkie Drupal Integration

That sounds great, but how do I integrate E-Junkie with Drupal? At present, I have not found any third-party Drupal modules offering E-Junkie and Drupal integration.

There are integration examples and how-to posts floating around on the web, however:

• Using E-junkie with Drupal (E-Junkie forum)
• E-Junkie Shopping Cart works with jQuery Update module in Drupal 5 (Drupal.org)

Drupal and Ubercart

Ubercart is an extensible e-commerce system that provides native product and shopping cart management within Drupal. Configuration can be somewhat complicated, but it does offer a complete solution with numerous add-in modules. You should plan for significant configuration, customization, and theming effort if the standard appearance and features are not close to what you want.

Extension modules of varying quality are available, and these may help you implement the features you want–be sure to set up a test site and verify all functionality before "going live".

Drupal 5 and later versions provide an animation when you expand or collapse a collapsible form fieldset.

While this is a nifty effect, it can be annoying to some users, and it can slow you down when viewing a web page over a Remote Desktop session in Windows (I use Remote Desktop a lot at home, and the expand/collapse animation can take seconds to complete depending on network speed–it all adds up).

The Drupal Sub-Theme system is a welcome addition to the Drupal system. There are a few gotchas that can trip up the unwary. Here's a quick troubleshooting list to check when you are creating a sub-theme based on an existing Drupal theme.

1. Disable Drupal's CSS and JavaScript caching in your site's admin settings/performance page: example.com/admin/settings/performance
2. Be sure to define at least one style sheet in your .info file. Base theme style sheets are not inherited unless you define at least one style sheet for your sub-theme
3. Avoid Frustration: Some changes won't take effect right away. Rebuild the Drupal theme cache by visiting your site's admin/build/themes page (hit the browser reload button just to be certain!)
4. White Screen Of Death?: If you override one of the base theme's template files, then later delete it, you may fall victim to the dreaded WSOD, and will be unable to access the site. Solution: the theme cache may need to be cleared.
   
   • If you can't access your site due to a WSOD, use a SQL query to delete the theme cache entry from the {cache} table: delete from cache where cid like 'theme_registry%'; then reload your site's page. For more information, see Clearing the Theme Cache.

These are some of my favorite Windows system tweaks and usage tips. I usually customize every new computer or Microsoft Windows installation using some or all of the items found here.

In most cases, I won't tell you how to make each tweak–that's been done ad nauseum–so I'll share my suggestions and provide links to instructions on how to make the changes.

This article is presented in multi-part 'book' form; please see the links below.

This page is part of a 7-part story, 7 things you can do to make Windows 7 (and other versions) easier to use.

Applies to: All with suitable hardware
Why? Because sometimes your current display is too small, cramped, or hard to read.
How? It depends on your system configuration, desired enhancements, and your budget.

This page is part of a 7-part story, 7 things you can do to make Windows 7 (and other versions) easier to use.

Applies to: All
Why? It helps to have quicker access to your frequently used Windows applications.
How? Create desktop shortcuts. Create "Quick Launch" toolbar shortcuts. Create custom keyboard shortcuts to speed-launch your favorite applications by pressing a key combination.

This page is part of a 7-part story, 7 things you can do to make Windows 7 (and other versions) easier to use.

Applies to: All
Why? Because you grow weary of waiting for your Windows system to be ready to use.
How? Eliminate some of those notification area icons. Uninstall those programs you never use.

Helpful utilities and information

This page is part of a 7-part story, 7 things you can do to make Windows 7 (and other versions) easier to use.

Applies to: All

This page is part of a 7-part story, 7 things you can do to make Windows 7 (and other versions) easier to use.

Applies to: All
Why? Start working with your projects and documents as soon as your computer powers up. This means you won't have to wait for Windows boot-up, then find and start your applications or open your documents; they'll be open and ready to use when you start Windows.