Accessible shopping cart (Full Version)

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womble -> Accessible shopping cart (4/5/2007 16:21:37)

Yup, Wombley's dipping her toes into the world of e-commerce and is off a-hunting for suitable shopping carts. Found Tradingeye PHP on my travels, which looks very nice, but a little pricey for what I'm planning, so the search continues....

...but it's XHTML/CSS compliant, and Section 508/WCAG AAA compliant as well and looks pretty nice.



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/5/2007 17:34:01)

Trading Eye is veeeeeery nice unfortunately most of my clients can't afford it. I use Zen Cart in lieu of anything else. It's not bad but what you have to remember is as soon as you hand it over to the client even the most accessible site goes out the window.

They trundle off to their Word or Publisher documents, or in my case, their Ebay items, copy and paste them and [:'(]

Errr not looked at it for ages and I don't know if this is the latest version but validate this my dear.

http://www.7dana.com/demo/cubecart/



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/5/2007 17:39:51)

Flaming heck, out of the box it validates. Used to be a freebie but now it's pay but I vaguely remember and email I got from them something about discounts. Hang on I'll try and find it.

$90 or CubeCart can be used at no cost if the copyright notices are not modified or removed.

Ahhh sheesh, I've just installed two Zen Carts.. Wonder if I can switch them over without completely confusing the clients.



womble -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 4:30:16)

I was doing a trawl through the various ones last night and put together a brief list of the ones I'd found and pros and cons - I know Zen Cart and Cube Cart were amongst them, along with a couple of others I'd never heard of.....unfortunately I managed to fall alseep mid-post [sm=icon_redface.gif], woke up around 2am and switched off and staggered round the corner into the bedroom, and it's only this morning when I opened up FF and saw OF and a little posting window. Damn! FF is usually pretty good at remembering what I was doing (I have it set on open stuff from the last session), but on this occasion it seems to have forgotten. [:(]
From the tabs it has remembered to open it looks like I was looking at OSCommerce, which though it's supposed to be XHTML/CSS valid is showing a cart load of errors and warnings on HTML Tidy and accessibility-wise Cynthia's throwing her hands up in dispair.

For my current needs it's only for something small-scale, so I'm really looking for something OS/free, but I do have a potential client who's wanting a full scale shop and may be willing to pay. For the current project it's only going to be a few items and the only payment method I need really's PayPal, so I may be able to cobble something together. The project for the current PHP course I'm doing is to develop a basic shopping cart app, so I could use that as the basis of something. Hmmmmmm....I'll have to have a think about that one...



womble -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 4:47:21)

...or I could just take the easy route and use CubeCart. [:D]



Tailslide -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 4:50:58)

Trading Eye has a good reputation and the guy who runs it is very helpful and approachable.

There's also Karova and Selectacart (UK only) but they're both in the region of £500.

Apart from that - Andy from Spain's Ecommerce Templates has a CSS version now which looks pretty good and I asked him if he'd consider adding labels etc (but hopefully wouldn't be too hard to do yourself). These templates aren't too expensive either.

At the moment if you need a freebie I'd say use Paypal shopping cart and pass the problem off onto someone else (naughty eh?) just ensuring that your end of things is all neat and tidy OR use Zen cart.



womble -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 5:00:41)

Ah yes, it's coming back to me now. Karova and Selectacart were a couple of the ones I looked at last night. I remember I did use Paypal shopping cart for paying membership fees on one site I did, and if I remember rightly (it was a while back) it was no trouble at all to do.

I'll have to have a think about it. As I have to do this basic shopping cart for the course anyway, I may use that and plug it into the PayPal shopping cart. Really should be working on the project today (so far I've got a couple of components of it working) but instead I'm off for coffee with the oldies. [:D]



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 7:14:17)

quote:

OSCommerce
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Stay away from the download button.

It's an appalling cart in comparison to the others. It's a mess to template, it has few things built in as standard. I've done one shop with it and within a week the client paid me to get rid and install Zen Cart which I suggested in the first place.

I'm going to have a closer look over the weekend but I remember that Cube Cart was pretty good 3 years ago. The only reason I went Zen was that I'd somehow managed to screw up the layout in Cube and Zen was a little better on the payment gateway front.

I'd say that Cube is better on that now, it's certainly better out of the box on the code front. I'm seriously thinking of switching the shop I'm working on now over to Cube.

quote:

Andy from Spain's Ecommerce Templates has a CSS version now which looks pretty good and I asked him if he'd consider adding labels etc (but hopefully wouldn't be too hard to do yourself). These templates aren't too expensive either.
To clarify for any newbs to carts - those are fine for a few products but not if you have a full cart requirement with stock tracking and PayPal ping back required plus merchant accounts.



Tailslide -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 7:32:21)


quote:

ORIGINAL: jaybee

quote:

Andy from Spain's Ecommerce Templates has a CSS version now which looks pretty good and I asked him if he'd consider adding labels etc (but hopefully wouldn't be too hard to do yourself). These templates aren't too expensive either.
To clarify for any newbs to carts - those are fine for a few products but not if you have a full cart requirement with stock tracking and PayPal ping back required plus merchant accounts.


I didn't know that - thanks for clarifying.



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 7:40:51)

No problem dearest. If you want info on SSL etc at any time, talk to Corey as he's the expert on that.



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/6/2007 12:14:04)

I've been playing around with Cube Cart and it's hugely improved since I last used it. The back end is much more straightforward than Zen Cart. Set up with Fantastico took about 3 minutes and a further 15 minutes for me to apply the template changes, but I did already have all my graphics ready in Zen Cart.

If you've not done a store before I'd recommend Cube cart.



Tailslide -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/7/2007 2:50:57)

Jaybee, might be useful to set up a scoring system for carts based on front-end accessibility/semantics/validity plus ease of editing for the designer plus ease of use for the typical err non-smart client!



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/7/2007 4:46:35)

Great idea!

When you going to do it? [:D]



womble -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/7/2007 5:08:44)

I'd volunteer, but as my attempting to post a list of my findings the other night shows, I didn't get very far because I....[img]http://ecanus.net/smileys/sleep.gif[/img]



CyberJack -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/21/2008 7:15:55)

Hey, so which cart did ya stop at? Just curious 'cos you didn't mention Avactis shopping cart and I wanted to know what else scores :) I did ask a couple of months ago about Avactis here, but got only one answer. Seems like noone knows it. But I tested it myself and man, I like it! Just take a look (there's free demo) - it has all you need and it ain't hard to manage ;) So it's worth your attention too ;)



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/21/2008 8:45:06)

As you posted in the Accessibility forum here's the gen.

Avactis doesn't score here full stop. It's not remotely accessible, doesn't validate. Loads of errors in the HTML even on the basic pages. Doesn't pass the Cynthia tests for even level 1 which makes it illegal in the UK and many other countries.

Other than the carts Tailslide mentioned above which are a bit pricey, then CubeCart and Zen Cart are probably the closest you'll get to a fully functioning valid accessible cart. Cube has slightly less functionality than Zen so it depends on what you need the shop to be able to handle.



smcfarland -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/23/2008 11:11:44)

I think I would still prefer CandyPress (ShoppingTree) for a cheap (under $100) cart.

I am also liking the Iatek Portal, though their support is err ehhh lacking.



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (4/23/2008 14:31:51)

Candy Press is worse than Avactis in the accessibility stakes. Their demo store has over 500 HTML errors on the front page and it doesn't pass WCAG Priority 1

Iatek Portal breaks badly in Firefox, doesn't validate even for a basic doctype and fails all the accessibility tests.



CyberJack -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/6/2008 8:38:39)

What exactly Avactis URL did you test? Demo store? I believe you should test several live stores because they're the sites many users visit, while the demo and the main Avactis.com site are mostly for webmasters and developers who make those stores, and they rarely have disabilities :)



Tailslide -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/6/2008 13:03:07)

Doesn't matter - that's not the point (and do you know that for sure anyway?).

Their carts should be accessible by default. In the UK it's a legal requirement (and in much of Europe too).



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/6/2008 14:07:55)


quote:

ORIGINAL: CyberJack

What exactly Avactis URL did you test? Demo store? I believe you should test several live stores because they're the sites many users visit,



I have now tested the Avactis Demo store and the first 10 live stores on your link page. None of them pass the basic Accessibility tests which means all of them contravene the UK DDA and similar laws in other countries.


quote:

while the demo and the main Avactis.com site are mostly for webmasters and developers who make those stores, and they rarely have disabilities :)


Wanna bet? I can come up with 5 without blinking.

Fact is, if the demo store isn't accessible then almost guaranteed, neither are the live ones. Few web devs will crash around fixing the core code to make it accessible. Most wouldn't know how and those that do won't bother as they have to reapply the fixes every time there's a cart upgrade.



steegro -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/13/2008 18:46:10)

Anyone hear of Veracart? I received an ad in a newsletter from Bravenet about a shopping cart, Veracart. Just wondering if someone knew of them or had anything to say about them?



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/14/2008 15:08:05)

From an accessibility point of view it's worse than Avactis. The HTML code is full of errors and that's at 4 Transitional. You also have to pay for it.



Andy from Spain -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/15/2008 7:50:07)

quote:

To clarify for any newbs to carts - those are fine for a few products but not if you have a full cart requirement with stock tracking and PayPal ping back required plus merchant accounts.


Just to clarify Jaybee, which are "those" you are referring to there as it wasn't clear in your post?

Tailside, our next release will be validating fully but if you'd like to drop me a note about labels then maybe we can do something there too.

Cheers
Andy



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/15/2008 10:40:19)

That was posted over a year ago. I have no idea what I was referring to. From the looks of it, templates with just Paypal buttons on for each product rather than a full cart with stock handling etc.



steegro -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/15/2008 12:56:29)

I just went to Avactis website and you have to pay, starting at $19.95. On top of that, I couldn't even find a phone number, just a silly form to fill out. I'm sorry but I don't think Avactis is a worthy option, unless you were a supreme web developer. I need support, customizable cart, and unlimited products. Anyone else have any other options? Seems like Veracart is the only one so far to meet my criteria.



jaybee -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (5/15/2008 16:28:50)

Am I missing something here? Or is everyone else? This thread is about Accessible Shopping Carts i.e. carts that can be used by people with disabilities such as Blind people using screen readers and those with Motor Function problems who cannot use a mouse and need to tab round a site.

None of these recent suggestions even come close to being accessible. Veracart, Avactis, Candy Press are so far from accessible it's untrue.

Let me say this loud and clear. If you use any of those, out of the box without hacking the core code, you are breaking the law in the UK and a number of other countries.



Andy from Spain -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (7/24/2008 12:52:03)

We released Version 5.6 recently and finished addressing validation and accessibility issues "out of the box". If you want to see it in action you can take a look at the demo store here http://www.ectdemostore.com/

Cheers
Andy



Tailslide -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (7/24/2008 14:19:42)

The only problem is that it's still got a load of tables in there - I seem to remember the CSS version didn't have that?



Andy from Spain -> RE: Accessible shopping cart (7/25/2008 5:42:35)

The shopping cart has always used tables for presenting the cart, categories, search etc - but I don't see why we would want to do that in any other way to be honest.



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