Facebook Application for Hikashop

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13 years 6 months ago #16853

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

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13 years 6 months ago #16854

We are currently working on a facebook functionality which will add a like button on the product pages. That should be in next version.
For your suggestion, we'll add that to the todo list. Would you have some more information on how to do such thing ? Maybe a joomla plugin which does that for joomla article ?

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13 years 6 months ago #16856

Looking a bit around, it seems that you can do that with the technic: www.ehow.com/how_5623897_autopost-blog-facebook.html
We are currently working on a RSS feed for HikaShop so that's something you will be able to do with next release.

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13 years 6 months ago #16857

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.

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13 years 6 months ago #16858

20$ for the extension for 6 months + each plugin price. That sounds kinda expensive for just posting information on a few social networks. We'll see if our solution works first :)

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13 years 6 months ago #16861

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

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13 years 5 months ago #19092

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!

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13 years 5 months ago #19109

Genius but not possible. We looked at that possibility but that's technically not possible as Facebook restrict the HTML in the description of the "likes".

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13 years 4 weeks ago #27983

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:)

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13 years 4 weeks ago #27987

Sure but we're not talking about the same thing ;)

Having the add to cart button in the "like" description of a product when someone likes it on his profile is not possible.

Having your whole store displayed on facebook is possible yes. In fact, that's something you should already be able to pull off with HikaShop too (and a template adapted to that):
www.hikashop.com/en/support/forum/2-gene...-and-e-commerce.html

Last edit: 13 years 4 weeks ago by nicolas.

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28198

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

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28220

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:)

Last edit: 13 years 4 weeks ago by kleeph.

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28224

Multi vendor is something we want to add. But you know the drill, Rome wasn't built in a day :)

Regarding affiliate banners, you can actually add text, flv or HTML in them. Just look on our website:
www.hikashop.com/en/component/hikashop/affiliate.html
The line "Comment: You can create your own link by adding "?partner_id=7" (or &partner_id=7) at the end of any of our urls" actually has custom HTML in it. You can do that with the "comment textarea of banners. the partner_id can be add dynamically with the tag {id}
We have that code for that line:
You can create your own link by adding "<b>?partner_id={id}</b>" (or <b>&partner_id={id}</b>) at the end of any of our urls

For add to cart buttons, you can already add them anywhere and you don't even need to do any PHP. In each products edition page, there is the button "add to cart HTML button" that you can click on to get the HTML code to use to display an add to cart link anywhere on your website or even on other websites. Heck, you could even add the link in a twitter post if you wanted.

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28229

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?

Last edit: 13 years 4 weeks ago by kleeph.

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28234

1. no need for a special table for the vendors. We'll use the user table. a vendor is a normal user which could be in a special "vendor" user group of joomla.

2. Not sure about that either. I believe each product should be sold only by one vendor. If several vendors sell the same product what's the point ? It would have to be at different prices, but the prices are stored in the price table, so that wouldn't require either a table between products and vendors.

3. I'm sorry but I don't think that it's a good idea either. It means that your users can't do an order with products coming from different vendors. The link should be in the order_product table. Or maybe not. What if you want to have different shippings for each vendor in the order ? etc.
That can become quite complex to handle.

Such project is big and I'll think that we'll go step by step on it. For example, we'll probably start with allowing the management of products/categories/orders on the front end.
Then only, we'll add the possibility to have several vendors with commissions, etc.
The task is big, and that's partly why we didn't start yet. There are tens of things to add to HikaShop besides that, like a subscription system, a voting system, etc.

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28244

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...

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28246

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
For example, for voting, it would be possible to add a rating module on product pages so that users can rate the products. That should be quite easy.
The problem is that the next requests will be to display the rating on the products listing, sort the listings by the ratings, display statistics on products based on the ratings in the back end, etc. And that won't be possible unless we have a rating system directly in HikaShop.
So that's why we need to do it and not try to integrate with something else.
Sometimes it's possible. Like for the newsletters. We were able to integrate Hikashop with acymailing easily and that provide a powerfull integration between the two. But it's not always that simple :)

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13 years 4 weeks ago #28278

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.

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9 years 1 month ago #215486

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

Last edit: 9 years 1 month ago by lionel75.

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9 years 1 month ago #215492

What ?!

Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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