Rails - Apr 2007 - How do I allow multiple shopping carts per user?

I''m creating an order entry application based on the depot application
in
Dave Thomas''s book "Agile Web Development with Rails", except
one major
difference is that I want the user to be allowed to have any number of
orders open at a time. The idea is that a sales representative will, in the
process of creating an order, drag and drop any number of line_items onto
the order and using AJAX the items on the order will be updated. At this
point, the order has not yet been saved so I''m storing the line_items
in a
session variable. However, when I have two orders open at the same time the
session variable gets applied to both orders, and any items added to one
order are also added to the other.

That said, I need to find an alternative solution and I''m wondering
what
would be the best way to do this? I''m hoping there''s a more
elegant solution
than updating a hidden input in the form. Any suggestions would be
appreciated.

Jake

PS The AJAX code was taken from the shopping cart demo on script.aculo.us

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If you want to keep cart and item info in the session as you  
currently have it, you can just change the cart item in the session  
hash to an array, so you could have an array of carts, each with its  
own set of items.

--
Building an e-commerce site with Rails?
http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce

Meet up at RailsConf:
http://railsconf2007.conferencemeetup.com/

On Apr 14, 2007, at 11:37 AM, Jake Hawkes wrote:
> I''m creating an order entry application based on the depot  
> application in Dave Thomas''s book "Agile Web Development with
> Rails", except one major difference is that I want the user to be  
> allowed to have any number of orders open at a time. The idea is  
> that a sales representative will, in the process of creating an  
> order, drag and drop any number of line_items onto the order and  
> using AJAX the items on the order will be updated. At this point,  
> the order has not yet been saved so I''m storing the line_items in
a
> session variable. However, when I have two orders open at the same  
> time the session variable gets applied to both orders, and any  
> items added to one order are also added to the other.
>
> That said, I need to find an alternative solution and I''m
wondering
> what would be the best way to do this? I''m hoping there''s
a more
> elegant solution than updating a hidden input in the form. Any  
> suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Jake
>
> PS The AJAX code was taken from the shopping cart demo on  
> script.aculo.us
> >

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Ben, thanks for your quick response.

But how do I tell the carts apart? How would I make sure the correct cart
ends up with the correct order since the orders don''t have any unique
ID
yet? I''m not set on storing the item info in the session if
there''s a good
alternative.

It sounds like maybe I need to give each order a unique identifier before
the user adds any items or saves the order, and that way I can use your
suggestion and create a hash of carts with the order id as the key.

So would you recommend that I have a value stored in the database that
increments every time an order is started but before it''s saved or and
lines
are added to it? I could store that id in a hidden input and then use the
value when I create the order. And if I do this, how would I change the
"drop_receiving_element" to pass the ID along with the product_id? Am
I
going to need to add a hidden input containing the order_id to each of my
Draggables?

Thanks in advance for the help. I''m just beginning to learn Ruby and
Rails,
but I''m sure enjoying it!






On 4/14/07, Benjamin Curtis
<rails-4dtGyw5agdmakBO8gow8eQ@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>
>
> If you want to keep cart and item info in the session as you
> currently have it, you can just change the cart item in the session
> hash to an array, so you could have an array of carts, each with its
> own set of items.
>
> --
> Building an e-commerce site with Rails?
> http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce
>
> Meet up at RailsConf:
> http://railsconf2007.conferencemeetup.com/
>
> On Apr 14, 2007, at 11:37 AM, Jake Hawkes wrote:
>
> > I''m creating an order entry application based on the depot
> > application in Dave Thomas''s book "Agile Web Development
with
> > Rails", except one major difference is that I want the user to be
> > allowed to have any number of orders open at a time. The idea is
> > that a sales representative will, in the process of creating an
> > order, drag and drop any number of line_items onto the order and
> > using AJAX the items on the order will be updated. At this point,
> > the order has not yet been saved so I''m storing the
line_items in a
> > session variable. However, when I have two orders open at the same
> > time the session variable gets applied to both orders, and any
> > items added to one order are also added to the other.
> >
> > That said, I need to find an alternative solution and I''m
wondering
> > what would be the best way to do this? I''m hoping
there''s a more
> > elegant solution than updating a hidden input in the form. Any
> > suggestions would be appreciated.
> >
> > Jake
> >
> > PS The AJAX code was taken from the shopping cart demo on
> > script.aculo.us
> > >
>
>
> >
>
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You could store the carts as a hash, keyed by a token or GUID.  I  
personally put carts in the database so I get full ActiveRecord  
richness for them (and then convert them to a sale and then a  
shipment later), but some people prefer not to have that kind of  
transient data in the database.

--
Building an e-commerce site with Rails?
http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce

Meet up at RailsConf:
http://railsconf2007.conferencemeetup.com/

On Apr 14, 2007, at 1:01 PM, Jake Hawkes wrote:
> Ben, thanks for your quick response.
>
> But how do I tell the carts apart? How would I make sure the  
> correct cart ends up with the correct order since the orders don''t
> have any unique ID yet? I''m not set on storing the item info in
the
> session if there''s a good alternative.
>
> It sounds like maybe I need to give each order a unique identifier  
> before the user adds any items or saves the order, and that way I  
> can use your suggestion and create a hash of carts with the order  
> id as the key.
>
> So would you recommend that I have a value stored in the database  
> that increments every time an order is started but before it''s  
> saved or and lines are added to it? I could store that id in a  
> hidden input and then use the value when I create the order. And if  
> I do this, how would I change the "drop_receiving_element" to
pass
> the ID along with the product_id? Am I going to need to add a  
> hidden input containing the order_id to each of my Draggables?
>
> Thanks in advance for the help. I''m just beginning to learn Ruby  
> and Rails, but I''m sure enjoying it!
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 4/14/07, Benjamin Curtis
<rails-4dtGyw5agdmakBO8gow8eQ@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> If you want to keep cart and item info in the session as you
> currently have it, you can just change the cart item in the session
> hash to an array, so you could have an array of carts, each with its
> own set of items.
>
> --
> Building an e-commerce site with Rails?
> http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce
>
> Meet up at RailsConf:
> http://railsconf2007.conferencemeetup.com/
>
> On Apr 14, 2007, at 11:37 AM, Jake Hawkes wrote:
>
> > I''m creating an order entry application based on the depot
> > application in Dave Thomas''s book "Agile Web Development
with
> > Rails", except one major difference is that I want the user to be
> > allowed to have any number of orders open at a time. The idea is
> > that a sales representative will, in the process of creating an
> > order, drag and drop any number of line_items onto the order and
> > using AJAX the items on the order will be updated. At this point,
> > the order has not yet been saved so I''m storing the
line_items in a
> > session variable. However, when I have two orders open at the same
> > time the session variable gets applied to both orders, and any
> > items added to one order are also added to the other.
> >
> > That said, I need to find an alternative solution and I''m
wondering
> > what would be the best way to do this? I''m hoping
there''s a more
> > elegant solution than updating a hidden input in the form. Any
> > suggestions would be appreciated.
> >
> > Jake
> >
> > PS The AJAX code was taken from the shopping cart demo on
> > script.aculo.us
> > >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >

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Hmm, I would recommend creating a new model/class (not AR model) to 
handle your multiple shopping carts. That way, as your website expands, 
you have flexibility with the model and can add things as they arise. 
You then, would of course, put this model into the session. It is much 
cleaner than just keeping a hash in the session, especially if shopping 
carts is an integral part of your website. You want to do it right.

Aryk

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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