Facebook Application for Hikashop

Nicolas,

In your "spare time", how about creating a Facebook application that would create a new FB article whenever a product is added to Hikashop in Joomla, complete with a Buy Now button. A relative of mine is using a cart website which I won't mention here, but it has such functionality and I think something similar would be a great addition to Hikashop.

If anyone knows of a FB App that will already do this, please post details.

Regards,
Ed

I also found this Joomla component foobla.com/products/featured-joomla-exte...media-marketing.html that has plugins for a number of programs including some cart components. I haven't researched it yet, but maybe a Hikashop pugin could be written.

That one is indeed a commercial extension, but for me, if people could place an order for products directly off FB and all I had to do was add the product to my Hikashop, it would be worth it. If fact, if that extension had a Hikashop plugin and the whole thing worked as expected, I'd probably pay the 12 month subscription price as I know it would be recovered in no time at all.

I will eagerly await your solution though as I like to use as few extensions as needed on my sites.

Ed

Wanted to say i didn't think off having the add to cart or buy it now button displayed on FB along with the product, that's genius!

Actually this is not impossible as it's been done by others. Just take a look at shop-script.com or x-cart.com or ecwid.com. All these shopping carts directly embed your entire storefront into facebook pages and allow a facebook shopper to click add-to-cart and complete the checkout process right from within your facebook page:)

I have been using JFBConnect on www.HighDesertVideo.com for a while now and it seems to be a good product. It is a commercial component, but paying for something that does what I need done has never been a problem for me.

The component includes several plug-ins for various aspects of FB integration and one of the more recent additions is Facebook Page and Canvas support. I haven't implemented that one yet, but it looks like it might work to put Hikashop products on FB. I think I read somewhere that FB is going to require that Canvas data be sent from a secure page in the future (if not already), so if true, that might be something to consider before going the Canvas route.

I'm currently using the Login With Facebook, Facebook Like Buttons and Facebook Like Box, but that is a small part of what the component has to offer.

Regards,
Ed

Hey thanks for the JFBConnect pointer, Ed!

@Nicolas: Thanks for your email on this subject. I think the JFBConnect makes this a seemless process and much easier to do:). JFBConnect FB canvasing + HikaShop is making me re-evaluate HikaShop with a new zeal for my current project.

I love HikaShop custom workflow for checkout pages feature. The promise it offers plus the ability to add shopping cart CCK fields, change layout and themes is super great.

Only hurdle I still have to get over is the idea of no multi-vendor solution for HikaShop Business. That, and fact that unlike with VirtueMart Affiliate, I won't be able to embed Text, FLV or HTML for my affiliate banners.

Otherwise, with a slightly lower price point for HikaShop Business, or same but with all the above-mentioned features in place, HikaShop Business would in my opinion be the No.1 Joomla Shopping Cart, hands down!

@Nicolas: I would also pay for a feature that allowed a HikaShop "Add To Cart" button on all Joomla Articles/Components.

The above feature would be similar to Mighty Resources + Mighty Commerce "Add to Cart" form on all CCK types. Also www.vm-expert.com is working on a VirtueMart VMX api call for a similar feature. A call to $vmx->showAddToCart($id, $params); promises to embed the "Add To Cart" block on any Joomla component, page or plugin that makes that call.

Very Powerful Stuff!

Everything you can ever think of your user posting within Joomla Front End can now be made into a sell-able product. That's everything from "pay for quick response forum posts", to digital downloads, to actual physical goods can now be easily implementable with shopping cart CCK fields and such an Add to Cart feature:)

Nicolas. I have three things to say: Awesome, More Awesome and Most Awesome!!!

These forums really help clarify gray areas. I had no idea "Add to Cart" or even HTML, TXT or FLV banners were already supported! You're definitely getting my order.

For the Multi-Vendor feature, I truly realize and appreciate that Rome could never have been built in one day:) Your hard work and app is a testament that you're on the right track.

Otherwise, I've been seriously thinking about how I would personally get the Multi-Vendor done. Matter of fact, I spent all of this morning comparing HikaShop Starter DB Schema and Code with those of my X-Cart Pro Multi-Vendor and Non-Multi-Vendor DB schema and code. What I noticed made me smile. It seems that what they did btw their two versions to get multi-vendor support is very slight code changes and the inclusion of three extra DB tables:

1. The first extra DB table stores all the Vendor Company Information mapped to a particular VendorID primary key and the user's UserID as a secondary key - since not all site users will opt to be a vendor:)

2. The second extra DB table is a Many-To-Many ProductID/VendorID table that ties Products Table with Vendors table using ProductID/VendorID keys.

3. The last extra DB table simply ties Vendors/Orders data with VendorID/OrderID so that all orders now actually relate to a particular vendor.

With this new paradigm, the Default HikaShop admin/site owner would always be VendorID# 1. Anyone else who's signed on as a Vendor would have their userID assigned to VendorID#2,3,4,5 etc etc...

Nicolas, I realize that you know your code like the back of your hand and would thus be able to knock this kind of DB/Code change out faster than a hack like myself ever would:) I'm hereby proposing to throw in a bonus of $200 to get this done. Anyone else willing to add $$$ to my bonus?

Nicolas, thanks for the quick response. Your help has been so crucial that I've already placed my Order.

I'm sure that from a Software Architects point of view, your objections/suggestions are probably valid with regards to how users/content is handled from within Joomla. That said, the X-Cart Multi-Vendor Solution with it's crazy DB structure has been working for them for about 7 years. I guess that there might be a method to their mad DB schema after all:)

With regards to Subscriptions, Voting etc that sounds great! However, since we're talking about Joomla(Swahili for together as one) and considering that Joomla is all about community and code working together in harmony, wouldn't the better path be to tie in HikaShop to plugins from other great components such as AEC or SuperVote(or even Ajax Rating Stand Alone etc) that already do an effective job to provide for that functionality?

This way, HikaShop can focus on providing for core E-Commerce features like the Multi-Vendor Support.

Best or Regards...

I guess that when you explain it that way, it makes total sense why a voting or subscription system needs to be tightly integrated into HikaShop.

As you get those two done, please, please, please, don't forget about your loyal customers like myself. I believe in what you're trying to accomplish with HikaShop, yet also depend on and desperately need a feature like Multi-Vendor support in order for our business model to continue being effective and profitable.

3 years after ,what is the state of facebook application for hikashop ?
it seem there is new commerces solutions that integrate with others app /service/CMS
- Ecwid ( wp drupal concrete5 DotNetnuke)
- Vendio (Ebay amazon facebook )
- FoxyCart

With hikashop logic ( all integrate) : it seem best is pay fix for joomla extension that don't need to subscribe to a external service ( pay every month: fee).

after CMS there l be PCM

regard's