Beginning PHP and MySQL E-Commerce (eBook)

Cristian Darie is a software engineer with experience in a wide range of modern technologies. He is the author of numerous books, including his popular ASP.NET C# e-commerce tutorial, his Ajax and PHP tutorial, and his search engine optimization tutorial for PHP developers. Cristian studied distributed application architectures for his Ph.D, and is getting involved with various commercial and research projects. When not planning to buy Google, he enjoys his bit of social life. If you want to say "Hi," you can reach Cristian through his personal website, www.CristianDarie.ro.

Contents at a Glance 4
Contents 6
About the Authors 13
About the Technical Reviewers 14
Acknowledgments 15
Introduction 16
Who This Book Is For 17
How This Book Is Structured 17
Downloading the Code 22
Contacting the Authors 22
Phase I of Development 23
Starting an E-Commerce Site 24
Deciding Whether to Go Online 24
Let' s Make Money 26
Risks and Threats 27
Designing for Business 28
TShirtShop 31
Summary 32
Laying Out the Foundations 33
Designing for Growth 34
Choosing Technologies and Tools 40
Choosing Naming and Coding Standards 47
Summary 48
Starting the TShirtShop Project 49
Implementing the Site Skeleton 59
Preparing the Database 78
Downloading the Code 81
Summary 81
Creating the Product Catalog: Part 1 82
Showing Your Visitors What You' ve Got 82
Roadmap for This Chapter 86
Storing Catalog Information 88
Communicating with the Database 98
Adding Logic to the Site 104
Displaying the List of Departments 118
Creating the Link Factory 127
Summary 131
Creating the Product Catalog: Part 2 132
Storing the New Data 132
Querying the New Data 144
Writing the New Database Stored Procedures 148
Completing the Business Tier Code 157
Implementing the Presentation Tier 165
Summary 193
Product Attributes 194
Implementing the Data Tier 195
Implementing the Business Tier 200
Implementing the Presentation Tier 201
Summary 207
Search Engine Optimization 208
Optimizing TShirtShop 209
Supporting Keyword- Rich URLs 210
mod_ rewrite and Regular Expressions 214
Building Keyword- Rich URLs 218
URL Correction with 301 Redirects 222
Customizing Page Titles 226
Updating Catalog Pagination 229
Correctly Signaling 404 and 500 Errors 232
Summary 239
Searching the Catalog 240
Choosing How to Search the Catalog 240
Teaching the Database to Search Itself 242
Implementing the Business Tier 251
Implementing the Presentation Tier 256
Summary 267
Receiving Payments Using PayPal 268
Considering Internet Payment Service Providers 269
Getting Started with PayPal 269
Integrating the PayPal Shopping Cart and Checkout 271
Using the PayPal Single Item Purchases Feature 283
Summary 285
Catalog Administration: Departments and Categories 286
Previewing the Catalog Administration Page 287
Setting Up the Catalog Administration Page 290
Administering Departments 304
Administering Categories 314
Summary 323
Catalog Administration: Products and Attributes 324
Administering Product Attributes 324
Administering Products 339
Administering Product Details 346
Creating In- Store Administration Links 370
Summary 379
Phase II of Development 380
Creating Your Own Shopping Cart 381
Designing the Shopping Cart 382
Storing Shopping Cart Information 384
Administering the Shopping Cart 410
Summary 416
Implementing AJAX Features 417
AJAX Quick Start 417
Creating the AJAX Shopping Cart 430
Summary 448
Accepting Customer Orders 449
Implementing an Order- Placement System 449
Administering Orders 460
Summary 478
Product Recommendations 479
Increasing Sales with Dynamic Recommendations 479
Selecting Recommendations from the Database 481
Implementing Product and Shopping Cart Recommendations 488
Summary 492
Phase III of Development 493
Managing Customer Details 494
Storing Customer Accounts 495
Implementing the Security Classes 497
Adding Customer Accounts Functionality to TShirtShop 517
Creating the Checkout Page 547
Enforcing SSL Connections 557
Summary 558
Storing Customer Orders 559
Adding Orders to Customer Accounts 559
Administering Customer Orders 563
Handling Tax and Shipping Charges 575
Summary 584
Implementing the Order Pipeline: Part 1 585
What Is an Order Pipeline? 586
Designing the Order Pipeline 586
Laying the Groundwork 590
Updating the Orders Processing Code 602
Summary 608
Implementing the Order Pipeline: Part 2 609
Implementing the Pipeline Sections 609
Testing the Pipeline 618
Updating the Checkout Page 627
Updating the Orders Administration Page 630
Summary 637
Processing Credit Card Transactions 638
Credit Card Transaction Fundamentals 638
Working with DataCash 640
Working with Authorize.net 657
Summary 668
Product Reviews 669
Planning the Product Reviews Feature 670
Implementing Product Reviews 671
Summary 677
Using Amazon. com Web Services 678
Introducing Web Services 678
Accessing the Amazon Web Services 680
Integrating A2S with TShirtShop 689
Summary 700
Index 702