I am to redesign a site where I use Mals successfully, however I have been asked: if upon clicking on the Buy Now button the item will go to the Basket and not directly to the Cart where the customer has to Continue Shopping. Also it would be very handy to have the shop details shown top right of the page with a Checkout Button to then process the order.
I have to admit I tried out Mals and eventually set up a Paypal storefront along with Amazon Associates links. I publish books through Lightning Source and Createspace, so much of what I do is hands off anyhow.
After a year, everything seems to be working very smoothly.
I tried out a few other cart services and was frustrated with the overall complexity. I prefer a KISS approach.
however I have been asked: if upon clicking on the Buy Now button the item will go to the Basket and not directly to the Cart where the customer has to Continue Shopping.
This uses the combination of a script in the head of the page and a couple of Markup items on the page. You also have to change a setting in your Mal’s cart set up.
You dont say how many items you have for sale but that will determine how labour intensive this might be. But it is not difficult to do.
Just experimenting with Tim’s Mals Extra’s - Cart Total. I notice if I have items in the cart and come back after I have closed the browser - the items are still shown in the cart Review text on the page.
Can I ask should the information disappear when the items have completed the buying process in Mals.
and what is the best way to clear the data on browser page reload - without using something like the Page - No Cache action.
Hi Trev,
I was looking at this earlier today and I’m not sure it is possible to reset the cart total automatically. Here’s an example I put together that uses the cart total Action as well as a no cart Action that keeps the user on the site and out of the Mals cart when the product is added; http://www.freewayactions.com/test/mals-extras/no-cart-example/nocart-totals.html
The cart total works by extracting the data that is passed back to the site from Mals when the user clicks on the continue shopping button (or we use the no cart Action and the page automatically reloads). This product information is stored in a cookie that will expire after 30 minutes (as the Mals cart itself does). If the user clears the cart and presses the continue shopping button then the cookie is reset. The issue is that the final ‘return to merchant’ link doesn’t contain these reset codes. I tried added them to the return link in the Mals admin area but they weren’t accepted and were stripped out.
I can give you a link code that will reset the cookie and cart total so that users can click this and manually reset the running total on the site but there is no way (as far as I can see) to automatically sync this with the Mals cart.
Regards,
Tim.
On 21 Feb 2012, at 16:17, t50ufo wrote:
Just experimenting with Tim’s Mals Extra’s - Cart Total. I notice if I have items in the cart and come back after I have closed the browser - the items are still shown in the cart Review text on the page.
Can I ask should the information disappear when the items have completed the buying process in Mals.
and what is the best way to clear the data on browser page reload - without using something like the Page - No Cache action.
“Here’s an example I put together that uses the cart total Action as well as a no cart Action that keeps the user on the site and out of the Mals cart when the product is added”
A while back you sent me a Mals Extras Action. Is the No Cart Action something new?
A reset link could be quite useful too. The site I have to remaster has quite a few things on there so anything to simplify would be great.
Hi Trev,
Yes it is. I added it to the Mals Extras Action after seeing this thread. Currently it only works with form based items (rather than text or image links). I’ll send you the updated Action to test.
Regards,
Tim.
On 22 Feb 2012, at 08:46, t50ufo wrote:
A while back you sent me a Mals Extras Action. Is the No Cart Action something new?
A reset link could be quite useful too. The site I have to remaster has quite a few things on there so anything to simplify would be great.
Just a quick note to Thank You so much Tim for your recent help with your Mals Shop Action Suite and pointing me in the right direction.
It is nice to know that there are people like you involved with Freeway to make it easier for us “non coders”.
I can give you a link code that will reset the cookie and cart total so that users can click this and manually reset the running total on the site but there is no way (as far as I can see) to automatically sync this with the Mals cart.
Ouch… that’s a huge setback for me… I am experimenting with the show cart code, but if the cart totals are not synced after completion of the order, than I guess that ‘show cart’ is useless. Customers will be confused if they see their cart still containing all the items.
I agree that it’s a shortfall in the workflow at the moment and one of the reasons why I added this as part of a Mals Extras Action rather than in my full Mals Suite. I’ll try and take a look for a suitable solution this weekend and see if the issue can be resolved.
Regards,
Tim.
On 23 Feb 2012, at 21:48, Marco72 wrote:
Ouch… that’s a huge setback for me… I am experimenting with the show cart code, but if the cart totals are not synced after completion of the order, than I guess that ‘show cart’ is useless. Customers will be confused if they see their cart still containing all the items.
I understand what Marco 72 is saying but I believe Tim has addressed some great improvements so far with his actions and I think he will find and deliver the sync solution that will make the buying process for freeway users more user friendly. I too would welcome this as I have a big shop site that needs a makeover.
I was not referring to Tim’s action, but to the limitation of Mal’s in this regard. I haven’t used Tim’s action yet. Tim: does this also work without ‘no cart’? I’d like to take my customers to the cart after they hit the buy image button, but I would like to show the number of articles and totals in the upper right corner of all my pages.
Tim, if you can create a workaround for the mentioned limitation, I’ll buy you a beer! Oh no make that champagne.
I think I replied to the wrong post with my last message.
I need to show the cart contents on my pages,
Could you please send me the Mals Extra’s - Cart Total action…
If you could I would be very grateful.
