Im starting to develop a new website for a client, it is an events hire site for a sound and lighting company.
What they want is a system where they have all their products listed with their hire prices and an add to quote button.
They would like the users to be able to select different options with each products e.g. a configurable product in Magento.
After the user has selected all the products they want in their event quote, they want there to be a button which says "go to my quote" or something along those lines.
At this page the user can review their quote, add the dates and times of the event and add any additional notes.
This all then gets sent to the backend of whatever system we use and can be dealt with from there.
My question: What platform would be better for this, Wordpress OR Magento?
And do you know of any plugins that support all the options i displayed above, for either platform (preferable free)??
Thanks very much
I guess this question is outdated, but in case someone has the same question: Magento in combination with Cart2Quote should do the trick.
Wordpress: One way is to use Wordpress, WooCommerce in combination with something like 'WooCommerce Request a Quote'.
The downside is, most WooCommerce quote modules are more advanced form modules and just provide in some basic functionality. (Which is perfect if that is exactly what you need)
Magento: One other way is to use Magento and Cart2Quote.
The downside is, its way more expensive.
I personally would use Magento, because in my opinion it is by far a more powerful store solution.
However you find yourself more often in a situation that you need a (external) developer and those are expensive. (The upside is that Magento developers are in most cases great developers, you get what you pay for.)
If your goal is to keep the cost as low as possible, than I would go for the Wordpress solution.
Related
I am making my first steps learning to code. I made some courses on Internet and now I am building a Wordpress theme to continue learning from the experience.
The thing is that I am learning how to install a jquery slider plugin and I see that it's necessary to install advanced custom fields plugin and the repeater plugin that is only available in his pro version ($25) and that's not cool...
Now I would like to know if there is some free good plugin with the same functions of advanced custom fields?
I am just starting my experiments with wordpress to learn everything that I need to start building sites, so I don't have the enough experience to know if it worth to pay the $25 for the advanced custom fields plugin or not.
Do you have some suggestion? It will be something useful in the future? Are there other plugins that you recommends to download even if I have to pay for them?
There's so little context around what you're using the slider for and how much the site admins would need to update slides, etc., but I have two comments:
Do you need to use that specific slider? You could rig something up with custom post types, hide the editor and metaboxes, leave only a field for an image upload and whatever meta you like, and have the admin user just add a new post for each slide. Generate those posts in the PHP and have the jQuery slider take it from there. If you're just learning code, that might be more of a challenge, though. I just tend to resist paying for things when there are reasonable alternatives out there.
ACF is a worthwhile plugin. If the general context-free question is "Is ACF worth the $25?", the answer is 100% 'yes.' I use it virtually every day and often wonder how I'd make use without it. In your case, if you have other potential use for the project you're on, then yes, I'd say it's worth it. But still, in the simple context of a jQuery slider, I'm hesitant to purchase it just for that.
I have a website (www.easterisland.travel) that I'm considering converting into a Wordpress site. Why? Basically for the following reasons:
1: To use a CMS, so that I can teach others to further add content to the website without having programming knowledge. I would built the advanced pages myself though, and the pages that others would manage would be simple information pages.
2: Access to all of these great plugins, for example the "similar pages" plugin at the bottom of each page (which I haven't found as a independent solution for raw webpages), which is just fantastic to keep people reading.
At my site I have lots of custom stuff like booking systems that I've created. There's an AngularJS shopping cart (www.easterisland.travel/tours/), instant online booking and payment (using PayPal's Express Checkout) etc. There's a page for cruise ship shore excursions (www.easterisland.travel/cruise-ship/) that's automatically generated from database data, and I've created a system where I can add cruise ships and shore excursions (adding correct itinerary, price, info etc). Passengers can also log in and communicate to other future fellow travelers within the same group, and get organized for meeting up on the tour day. I have many more plans to go as well, for example showing hotel info, displaying TripAdvisor data (using TripAdvisor API) etc.
The million dollar questions are:
1) Can all of this be achieved in a Wordpress site? Can I add all of these systems using this platform? What are the limitations?
2) Would it make sense to change to Wordpress?
3) What implementation should be used? I don't want my code to be removed or altered when Wordpress is automatically updated.
Thank you!
Wordpress doesn't have any limitations, you can extend its default functionality if it can't accomplish what you need with either plugins or custom code. and having a framework is always better than building from scratch in many ways.
HOWEVER, wordpress was originally design as blogging platform, and if you plan on extending its simple functionality you should take some time to understand how it works to properly integrate your custom needs or things could get ugly,
If you know how to interact with the database, you can easily do what you want, there are built-in functions you can use according to your needs for database interactions or just create your own if it doesn't fit well very much.
just a quick overview with wordpress database.
wp_posts - where sites main front-end data are stored, like posts, pages,
wp_postmeta - storage for additional data that are stored on wp_posts
wp_comments - storage for user interaction data for wp_posts like comments, I've also used these before to store user/admin messages.
wp_terms - use for dividing/categorizing wp_posts data, like categories and tags,
wp_options - use for back-end storage data and configuration.
You'd need to check out these functions as you're probably will encounter them in the future
https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_post_meta
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_post_meta/
https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/update_post_meta
https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_type
https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_taxonomy
https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query
If you also need database interaction, check out https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/wpdb
and for front-end implementation, check this out https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/template-hierarchy/, though I never used any other wordpress theme except Genesis Framework for these past 5 years as I never had to mess too much with HTML codes and almost everything can be customize using actions & filters. I advise you to use Theme Framework (and remember to always use CHILD THEME to be safe from Main Theme upgrade)
You might also want to check -> https://github.com/WebDevStudios/CMB2 (I prefer to use this than Advance Custom Fields plugins.)
Booking system in wordpress is a bit complex, I've successfully use gravity form as booking system with AngularJS + Ajax, but never tried a custom one from scratch and don't have a chance to use booking plugin as never encountered a cleint that wants a simple booking system.
Just to answer your question.
Yes, It can, for comparison, take a look at woocommerce plugin functionality and features, I believe thats more complex than what you need.
It would make sense to convert a site built from scratch to any CMS (wordpress is an option), the CMS is up to you, though its better to use the one that you know more for easier integration and customization.
You can use your child theme "functions.php" for extending your custom functionality, like create a folder in your theme for all your custom code and include/require it on your child theme functions.php or better create your own plugin to properly integrate them, you can divide the functionality in plugins, like plugin for booking system and plugin for payment functionality. check this out https://github.com/hlashbrooke/WordPress-Plugin-Template
I hope this would give you an idea.
Yes you can do all that. You will need someone with knowledge in wordpress themes and plugins but it is possible. The beauty of wordpress is, that you can write "bare" php code, and the small amount of functions to interact with wordpress are well documented.
Wordpress itself, is structured "simple" (compared to fancy tools like magento for example). So all it manages, are posts / pages / ... which, more or less derive from the same database object. You can add functionality to those things (for example, make posts cruise ships and other posts to shore excursions) or you can add your own database structure on top.
The theme system is bare php code, so you dont have to crawl through a thousand lines of xml codes to adjust little things.
Wordpress power derives from its simplicity of the "core wordpress" and the feature volume based on all those plugins. I believe alot of people would say, that you should go for a custom solution (based on symfony for example), or a CMS that already comes with more of your desired functions (like magento which has the checkout / paypal included), but I (as a wordpress fan) would see no problem to take wordpress.
I have never failed to find a plug-in to do what I needed! I manage three WordPress sites - although none of them is commercial. (Yacht Club, Cycling Club and Political Party EDA).
There is a plug in that allows PHP on any WordPress page, but it means that the Editors all have to write using the text (HTML) view rather than Visual tab. I found that useful for some of my pages - and I'm the only "Editor."
There's also a plug-in that allows you to code PHP in Widget. That doesn't have the above disadvantage.
I've read everywhere that it's better to write new plugin than touch the core code. The problem is that I've not been able to find documentation where it's explain clearly how to modify pages from the plugin.
The way I understood it, to display partial pages from the plugin, one needs to tells where to display them by return using this method:
public IList<string> GetWidgetZones()
But if you return more than one zone, the widget will be displayed in multiple zones. What if I want to display bit of information on different zones?
To start off, I'd like to extend the the Customer page. The menu on that page has 7 items: customer info, addresses, orders, downloadable products, back in stock subscriptions, reward points, and change password.
I'd like to add 2 more items: personal info and connections. When personal info is clicked, the customer will able to add extra info, such as his/her photo. When the connections is clicked, user would be able to see what other have been doing.
Can someone point me to the documentation that explain how one can extend existing pages, such as Customer and Shopping Cart, without touching the core code.
Thanks for helping
I have read people saying do modifications as much as using plugin. But in practical i do find modifying core logic is one good way to find elegant and less complex way of customizing to our need.
Because, plugins only provides up to a certain limit of modification. In your case, widgets can be extended. But i don't think customer detail page can be extended using plugins. based on your requirements, you may need to add additional columns/attributes for customers. Yes, you can add/remove columns while installing/removing plugins. But in practical, any user in admin can uninstall a pluign. Think if this happens in PROD. Also you have not elaborated about connections.
I have done 250+ custom modifications (to suite our need) on core nopcommerce for my organization over the period of 2.5years. I started with nop 2.65 then moved to 2.80 and then moved to 3.20. Its bit complex to upgrade nop commerce versions on top of our custom modifications. But i can be done, if you are organized from day one.
Here are few rules i follow,
Keep a detailed custom modification list in excel.
Always update code in such as way that new feature can be managed from admin. Example: if you add a new menu in the header, just make sure it can be shown/hidden under admin settings. And this helps to contribute back to nop commerce if possible.
Use a good database Diff tool.
Use version control.
So when a new version of nop is released, i quickly compare my excel with release notes. for migration details see here
I'm trying to do something fairly simple: I would like to be able to create a game site which would act as a database. When clicking on a game name the page would display:
Game name and description + other details.
The game developer name (which would like to the game developer page which would have its own set of details)
Game publisher name (which would like to the game publisher page which would also have its own set of details.)
Latest news related to this game
Latest media related to this game
All of this in a tabbed interface like for example:
http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-online/ (you can click on review / news / images / etc in the menu)
This seems a very simple taxonomy/custom content set-up of any CMS to be honest but I have been struggling to find the logic behind it.
My questions are:
If wordpress is the right tool for such a site, is it as simple a taxonomy/content type?
If wordpress isn't the right tool, which one would you recommend?
Short:
Yes, WP is good choice.
Long:
Wordpress is very powerfull software and you can easly change it and adapt it. As you mentioned you can use custom taxonomy (how many you want) and/or custom post types. It's pretty easy to implement.
Fantastic community will help you with problems and huge amount of ready made plugins. Lots of them works out of the box :)
Please remember about security - wordpress is secure as long as you do not have password admin/admin ;) Be sure to have login name other than obvious one (admin, administrator, etc) and remember to change table prefixes in database. It is good also to hide your wp version, and your servers data :)
Yes, wordpress is good choice :)
We're looking in to a product that we would like to launch that gives small business owners (specifically offline shop owners) the chance to easily build a site.
A option would be a special 'fork' of wordpress/joomla/etc with some predefined pages (about us, homepage, opening times, pictures, contact etc) and also predefined templates which they can alter.
A shop owner would sign up and buy or move a domain to us to which we attach the software. He chooses a template and fills in the standard info. Some elements of this are required but he could also add his own pages (e.g. specific sale events).
Within the templates there are elements which he cannot change (backlinks and/or widgets from us). But he can change the templates (colors, pictures, logos).
Everything should be hosted in the cloud (e.g. EC2) and easily scalable. We would sell this service for a small fee per month giving a small shop owner an easy way to his own site.
Are there any open-source packages that have these options?
Joomla isn't very flexible to adjust,
Wordpress is a better choice.
the build in twentyeleven theme will show you how easy it can be to adjust colors.
It's also far easier for the user to manage.
You might even take a look at a WP-multisite. Manage all sites with one admin. And keep all your wp sites up to date at once.
To disable some widgets you only need a good template.
Robert suggests magento and shopify, Magento will be too much and to hard to manage. I'm not familiar with shopyfy, but it's a online shop (not offline)
Form this question I take that you/your company is a startup and you don't have much experience.(As does a quick google)
What ever you take you will need (more then basic) coding knowledge php/html/css/javascript
Might be worth having a look at http://www.magentocommerce.com/ or http://www.shopify.com