Shopping Components

Creating an E-commerce Web site is often a complicated and expensive task. Not so with RADpage: On the following pages we'll show you how to create a simple shopping system that requires only a few minutes to set up.

When you use RADpage, everything works through the Internet. You don't need to install any software on any of your local computers. You can also try out everything for free, for as long as you want. If you sign up with a Web Hosting Provider that supports heitml you can get online in as short as a day. Of course, you can also buy RADpage for your own server and develop your own powerful shopping application.

We assume that you already have a Web site showcasing your products. Currently, your customers probably wander around and read about your products, but to purchase them they must turn to other methods - telephone, mail order, or perhaps find a dealer in their own area which sells your merchandise.

With RADpage you merely have to plug a couple of pre-developed components into the appropriate places on your Web pages and assign names to each of your products. These components - called <productorder> and <productremove> - use the product ID attribute (pid = "wash01", for example) to add or remove items from your shopping basket. Wherever you describe one of your products, you add these components. They show up on the Web page as links or buttons. When the user clicks the link created by the <productorder> component, the item is added to the shopping basket. Similarly, clicking on the <productremove> link removes the item if the customer changes his mind.

For example:

• Super high speed washing machine. This wonderful product is equipped with a high speed turbo-charged motor, cleaning your clothes in just minutes. Order Now for a mere $1000. There are 0items in your basket
• Supersoft - the super detergent best suited to your new washing machine: 1 pound for $20.

Now it's your turn. Try adding an 'Order Now' link to the Supersoft detergent. Here's what you do: Click on Insert RADpage. Then select shopping. Finally select ProductOrder. Then enter a product name, a product description, and a price. Finally, return to this page, find the component marker just behind the place where it says 1 pound for $20 and click on it to position the new link.

As you can see, most of the work involved in setting up a shopping system is simply to add links to your Web pages.

Now let's proceed to the next page where we'll show you how to assign an individual shopping basket to each customer.

Next