Sawnet

Sample HTML code for Web Site Developers

In the HTML directory for your SawShop store you will find two special directories, and some sample files to help you get started. The name and location of the 'templates', and 'products' directories must remain as they are. You may name the files in your SawShop store whatever you wish. The 'templates' directory is where you put any files with dynamic content. When the store owner updates the site from the maintenance page, the files and directory structure in the 'templates' directory are copied to the 'products' directory with the current data inserted into the pages. The following features are described below:

Add Items
View Cart
Empty Cart
Place Order
Receipt

Add Items

You can use any HTML input methods to add products to the cart. If adding a specified quantity, the name of the field is the product ID, and the value is the new quantity. If the quantity already in the cart is to be incremented, the name of the field is "add" and the value is the product ID. Whatever input method you decide to use, the program you call in the form tag is addtocart.pl, with your store ID appended with a question mark.

Please refer to the sample template, or the sample file in the 'template' directory of your store.

To enable the site to be updated from the maintenance area, you create templates with special tags for the product information. The template files must be located in the 'templates' directory for your site. When the pages are updated, all the files in the templates directory are copied into the products 'directory' with the tags replaced by the value from the database. The tags are as follows:

$$P_Tag ID$$ Retail price

$$D_Tag ID$$ Short description, same as in the shopping cart and order email
$$LD_Tag ID$$ Long description
$$I_Tag ID$$ Image
$$W_Tag ID$$ Wholesale price

The Tag ID must match an ID currently in the product database.

Click here to see a sample template file.

View Cart

The content of the cart can be displayed in any file with the extension '.shtml'. This is called a parsed html file. Before the server sends it to the client, it parses the file, looking for server side includes (SSI). To make sure the current content of the cart is displayed each time the page is accessed, you need to prevent the page from being cached by the browser. This can be done by setting the META tag "Pragma" to "no-cache".

The cart content will be displayed where ever the following line appears:

The content is displayed as entries in a table, with the quantities as input fields. This means that the table and form tags must appear around the call to cart.pl. The quantities appear as editable input fields. The program to update the table is the same as was used to add the items, addtocart.pl, with the store ID appended to the end.

Click here to see sample HTML code for displaying the cart.

The store ID must be appended to the URL link that brings up the .shtml file. The server side include will have the query string passed along to it. Below is a sample link to a parsed html file displaying the cart content as in the above sample. You can name this file whatever you wish, as long as it has the extension .shtml.

<A href="somefile.shtml?yourStoreID">View Shopping Cart</A>

Empty Cart

The cart can be cleared from anywhere within the domain your store is in. The program emptycart.pl takes the store ID as a query string.

<A href="/cgi-bin/ecommerce/progs/emptycart.pl?yourStoreID" >Empty Cart</A>

Place Order

The program to submit the order is emailorder.pl. It takes the store ID as a query string. The program will create an email with the content of the shopping cart, followed by the names and values of the input fields in the orderform. To indicate a required field, follow the input with a hidden input with the name 'required'.

Click here for an example section to collect customer information for the order.

Receipt With Order Number

The name and location of the page to show after the order has been placed is entered in the configuration for your store. The file must have the extension .shtml if you want to insert the order number into the page. The order number will be inserted wherever the following line appears: