Topic: First e-commerce project (Wes, please read)

Wes, I know you have a Drupal e-commerce website, so you are probably the one who can help me the most on this.

Ok, not exactly my first, but will be my first "properly" built (don't ask) e-commerce website. Anyway, there are some requirements that I am a little unsure on how to handle, so I was hoping to get some advice. My plan is to use Drupal along with some modules to handle most of the stuff.

First off, I have not accepted it yet, but I think I will work on it. The company's name seems to be confidential at this point, so I have no idea who I may be dealing with. I got this offer from a friend in my church.

Some of the requirements:

• There needs to be a feature where a user may enter their address and a list/map of nearby suppliers will be listed.
  
  Planned solution: Use the Google Maps API?
• Shopping cart with scheduled charges.
  
  Planned solution: Use the e-commerce Drupal module. (Does anyone (Wes?) know if it can do scheduled charges, for like, subscriptions.)

Ultimately, I will have to make a test installation of Drupal to test the modules I will be using, just so I know what they can and can't do when it's time to build.

That's about it, I think the rest I can handle just fine. Thanks for any help on this!

A google search for zip codes and distance wil yield a great number of options for number 1, which may or may not work better than using google maps...depending on the specific requirements.

As far as I know, the Google Maps API with the GMap Module will help with your first requirement. I haven't worked with it yet, but I've built my site in preparation for it. Have a look at the Location module for inputting the company's locations.

As for commerce, I highly recommend Ubercart instead of the E-commerce module. It's very well done and the guys working on it are hugely helpful. Unfortunately, it looks like recurring subscription payments aren't quite working yet, but I'd suggest looking around their site to see if there's a solution I'm missing.

By the way, even though Ubercart is still in Alpha stage, many people, including myself, are using it in live sites. It's that well done.



(Edited by Wes on 12-19-2007 19:27)

DL: I have found ZIP code databases. Ones that are the most up-to-date I would have to pay for. The biggest problem that I face with using the tools I have found on Google is outdated information and accuracy (or at least a guarantee of it).

Wes: Thanks Wes! I'll make a test installation with the GMap and Ubercart modules and see how they work. I think the biggest problem with recurring payments is the storage of credit information. I may need to get a secure storage/database service that specializes in this kind of stuff.

Doing a search on the Ubercart website gave me this:
http://www.ubercart.org/forum/development/1424/recurring_subscription_payments

Which then led me to this:
http://www.ubercart.org/contrib/81
I need to test it out on my test Drupal installation, until then I don't know if I could use it. I may also look into Payflow Pro, looks promising.

EDIT: Take a look at this too (looks as if there's light at the end of the tunnel):
http://www.ubercart.org/forum/development/1689/beta_1_battle_plans



(Edited by zavaboy on 12-20-2007 21:40)