Hello, [size=2]We have released WhatACart, an open source ecommerce platform based on yii2 framework. Please check http://whatacart.com for details around the features.[/size]
[size=2]
[/size]
[size=2]Here is the linkedin post.[/size]
[size=2]
[/size]
[size=2]Your feedback is most welcome.[/size]
Good timing. I have a Magento installation looking for a new home.
I don’t have a lot of experience with Yii2 yet. I see your folder structure does not follow the advanced or basic pattern. I wonder if it just grew out of a Yii1 project, or if you have decided on this particular layout based on your own experience.
It would take a lot of code skimming or studying to discover the assumptions we’d need to be aware of, in order to depend on https://github.com/ushainformatique/usniframework …the readme is one sentence to describe an entire framework
For starters, I wouldn’t know what to configure for a web root(s) in nginx. Yes I found the likely 2 (of 14) entry points named index.php, but I wouldn’t want to configure the nginx webserver without knowing for sure the intended usage for the main folders (looks like the entire project is available off the front end webroot).
It looks very good. Nice and simple at this point. Impressive.
But no discussion of documentation of the supporting framework means too much time reverse engineering and learning where things are and what devil is in which detail.
Good docs are always the killer ;(
I know I’m being a pussy. Sure I can figure it out. Bet there are good reasons for it all. It’s just code fatigue on my part. No docs = No deal.
It was not obvious from the site where the line between open source and commercial product may fall in the future. Clearly there is a team/firm in India behind the product.
Just a first impression…
Looks like a lot of work has been done. The first impresion of the admin panel is quite good.
Why don’t you publish it on GitHub? I would really be more convinced to give it a try when I see what is under the mask. The second thing of publishing it somewhere, is possibility to debug the codebase (by more than one, two developers) to make it more safe, clear etc. The 3rd advantage of publishing the codebase as a public repository is visibility of the project’s life time what is very important (or maybe, even the most important).
It’s there. See my post above yours for a link… The framework is on gutHib, whatacart is on bitBucket. All source available for forking etc
Hello Steward,
I am really thankful for your open feedback. Yes I know documentation is missing and that is a fact without documentation, it is difficult to reverse engineer. We have starting documentation but its not in order. We are working on release 1.1.0 and all the resources are deployed at it. To be honest we have resource crunch. But after release 1.1.0, we would be working on documentation. Meanwhile we have started writing few blogs and would keep on doing so at url blog[dot]whatacart[dot]com.
Hello,
Initially we have released it on bitbucket. But we have got many requests to publish it on github thus we have released it on github as well. So both bitbucket and github has the same release and are in sync.
Excellent! Keep doing the great work!
Good work
Good job. Would some other payment options be implemented?
Looks promising.
Can I ask if this project is still active? I am using Shopify right now and it’s limitations have left me wanting to move to a more complete solution. I would be more than happy to contribute to it’s development if I could… mainstream solutions like Shopify, Woocommerce etc just aren’t up to scratch for my needs.
Indeed it looks like the project evolved from yii 1
Hi Mayank,
I came across whatacart, I’m a Yii2 expert and I’ve been working with opencart as my ecommerce plateform for customers. I’d just like to ask what your plan is for whatacart. If it’s long term, I’d like see if I can start switching because I still am not happy with opencart’s programming. Don’t like the 7000 line pages.
Just from a business angle, could you PM me what the limitations are of shopify. They do a very good sales job and I’ll like to know what I could do better to bring customers from shopify to our business.
Off the top of my head, the two most annoying things are the 100 variant limit and the lack of sub collections - they only way you can create "sub collections" is by using tags (yes, really).
Another thing is the search functionality is poor. It picks up everything in titles, tags, descriptions etc but gives no way of prioritising/sorting how the results are displayed.
Hello,
Your points are not very clear. Could you please provide with more details as exactly what are the issues you observed? I am sorry for a delayed reply. I am completely absorbed in version 2 for the product.
Regards,
Mayank
Hello,
Yes it is for long term. We are currently working on version 2 for the software which would be more robust and easy to use. Yes you can definitely switch to whatacart. When we release version 2 you can easily migrate to it. I have worked on opencart and know the pain in going through there programming.
Finally i apologize for the delayed response and I am completely absorbed in version 2 for the product.
Regards,
Mayank
Yes, you are correct. We started with yii1 but when yii2 released with yii1 releases stopped being coming out, we decided to switch to yii2.
I apologize for the delayed reply. Right now we are about to finish version 2 for the project which would be more easier and robust. We want to but we are in the process of arranging funds for the project. We have started a campaign for the same. WhatACart Campaign
We have just started a campaign to arrange the funds for this project for further development. Please help spread the word. Here is the campaign link WhatACart Campaign.
Subcollections - you can’t have /collections/collection/sub-collection, you can only have tags /collections/collection/manufacturer_nike+color_grey etc. This is a common complaint with Shopify and you will see a lot of discussion about it on their forums.
https://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussion/t/tags-for-sub-categories-really-152873
100 product variant limit - say you have 1 piece of jewellery in 5 different types of metal and 25 different sizes (common for things like rings), that makes it 125 variants. Shopify doesn’t allow that. So you would basically have to use a workaround of creating for example a product for each metal and the include all 25 size variations. Not good for SEO. Google “shopify 100 variant limit” and you will see all the threads about this.
Searching - when you search, you can’t tell the framework what to return as a result first. i.e. you can’t tell it to return categories, then products, then pages or anything. It just return it in the default order (which I can’t remember).