Rails - Oct 2008 - Looking for any e-commerce frameworks

I''m wondering if there are any decent e-commerce frameworks done in
Rails that are available for general use.  My company is looking at
upgrading from our existing shoddy Classic ASP solution, and since I
am learning Rails in my spare time I''m tempted to look at using it as
a solution; right now we''re evaluating the PHP-based cart Magento
(http://www.magentocommerce.com) which seems really robust, but I
don''t know PHP beyond the bare basics of it.

I''m looking for any Rails frameworks for a storefront, and
I''ve seen
several but I don''t know if they will fit our needs because we have
somewhat "strange" requirements:

The main thing that we require is the ability to have multiple
storefronts, and filter a subset of products for each store.  For
example, a furniture storefront with a unique layout, that only
displays furniture, and a "green" storefront that only shows green
products.  This sounds like a job for individual controllers/views,
since if a layout has the same name as a controller it will override
the default application.html.erb file, but it also means that I would
need to manually create all of these separate controllers that contain
pretty much the same functionality; that doesn''t sound very DRY to
me.  As I said I''m only beginning with Rails; I''ve worked
through the
Agile Web Development w/Rails book and I''m looking for something
meatier to dig my teeth into, but I''m sure that I won''t be
able to do
any really fancy metaprogramming for some time.

The other thing we need is to separate customers into groups, and then
be able to assign a special price (not a discount off of a price, but
a totally separate price) based on what group the customer is in.
There are a few more flags that we need to track but these are trivial
with Rails.

Basically I''m wondering if there''s any tool already available
that can
give me a leg up on this, or if I have to do it myself; I''m sure I
could as it doesn''t seem like anything really complex, but why
reinvent the wheel?

If anyone could offer some suggestions, I would appreciate it greatly.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Ruby on Rails: Talk" group.
To post to this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Take a look at Substruct. I have used it for a few clients, and it''s
pretty
easy to setup and manage.

http://code.google.com/p/substruct/  

On Friday 17 October 2008 11:52:33 Wayne M wrote:
> I''m wondering if there are any decent e-commerce frameworks done
in
> Rails that are available for general use.  My company is looking at
> upgrading from our existing shoddy Classic ASP solution, and since I
> am learning Rails in my spare time I''m tempted to look at using it
as
> a solution; right now we''re evaluating the PHP-based cart Magento
> (http://www.magentocommerce.com) which seems really robust, but I
> don''t know PHP beyond the bare basics of it.
>
> I''m looking for any Rails frameworks for a storefront, and
I''ve seen
> several but I don''t know if they will fit our needs because we
have
> somewhat "strange" requirements:
>
> The main thing that we require is the ability to have multiple
> storefronts, and filter a subset of products for each store.  For
> example, a furniture storefront with a unique layout, that only
> displays furniture, and a "green" storefront that only shows
green
> products.  This sounds like a job for individual controllers/views,
> since if a layout has the same name as a controller it will override
> the default application.html.erb file, but it also means that I would
> need to manually create all of these separate controllers that contain
> pretty much the same functionality; that doesn''t sound very DRY to
> me.  As I said I''m only beginning with Rails; I''ve worked
through the
> Agile Web Development w/Rails book and I''m looking for something
> meatier to dig my teeth into, but I''m sure that I won''t
be able to do
> any really fancy metaprogramming for some time.
>
> The other thing we need is to separate customers into groups, and then
> be able to assign a special price (not a discount off of a price, but
> a totally separate price) based on what group the customer is in.
> There are a few more flags that we need to track but these are trivial
> with Rails.
>
> Basically I''m wondering if there''s any tool already
available that can
> give me a leg up on this, or if I have to do it myself; I''m sure I
> could as it doesn''t seem like anything really complex, but why
> reinvent the wheel?
>
> If anyone could offer some suggestions, I would appreciate it greatly.
> 

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Ruby on Rails: Talk" group.
To post to this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---