Selling Online with Drupal e-Commerce

Michael Peacock

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Overview

Table of Contents

The Author

Reviews

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Set up a basic Drupal system and plan your shop
Set up your shop, and take payments
Optimize your site for selling and better reporting
Manage and market your site

Book Details

Language : English
Paperback : 264 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ]
Release Date : April 2008
ISBN : 1847194060
ISBN 13 : 978-1-847194-06-0
Author(s) : Michael Peacock
Topics and Technologies : All Books, Content Management (CMS), Drupal, e-Commerce, Open Source

Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction and Installation
Chapter 2: Getting Started with Drupal
Chapter 3: Planning Your Shop
Chapter 4: Creating Your Product Catalog
Chapter 5: Customers and Staff
Chapter 6: Branding Your Site
Chapter 7: Checkout and Taking Payments
Chapter 8: Creating a Better Selling Experience
Chapter 9: Taxes, Payment, and Shipping
Chapter 10: Securing, Deploying, and Maintaining Your Shop
Chapter 11: Invoices and CRM
Chapter 12: Marketing Your Business
Appendix A: Installing WAMP
Index

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction and Installation
- What is a CMS and What is Drupal?
- What is E-Commerce and What can it do for Us?
- What is Drupal e-Commerce?
- Our Site
- Installation
  - Downloading Drupal
  - Installing Drupal
- Configuring Drupal
  - Administration Theme
  - Clean URLs
  - Date and Time
  - Error Reporting
  - File System
  - Image Toolkit
  - Input Formats
  - Performance
  - Site Information
  - Site Maintenance
- The Drupal e-Commerce Module
  - Downloading the Module
  - Installing the Modules
- Playing Together
- Summary

Chapter 2: Getting Started with Drupal
- Preparing the Content
  - Home Page
  - Contact Page
  - Dinosaur Section
  - Museum Section
- Content Management
  - Creating Content
    - Title and Body
    - Input, Product, and Log
    - Final Page Options
  - Menu Management
  - Default Homepage
- Creating the Content
  - Home Page
  - Contact Page
  - Dinosaur and Museum Sections
- Other Content Modules
  - Contact Form
  - Blog
  - Photo Gallery
- Summary

Chapter 3: Planning Your Shop
- Planning to Sell Online
- Legal Issues
  - Disability Discrimination
  - Distance Selling
  - Companies Act and Trust
  - Trade Descriptions
  - Spam Laws
  - Privacy Policies and Data Protection
- General Planning
  - Product Types
  - Product Groupings
  - Product Information
- Planning Our Shop
  - Product Lineup
    - Sample Product—Shippable Goods
    - Sample Product—Non-Shippable Goods
    - Sample Product—Apparel
  - Getting the Message Across
  - A Picture Says a Thousand Words
    - Equipment
    - Camera Settings
    - Setup
    - Post Processing
  - How Not to Advertise a Product?
    - Example One—Detail
    - Example Two—No Photo
    - Example Three—Spot the Difference?
- Customer Service
- Summary

Chapter 4: Creating Your Product Catalog
- Further e-Commerce Configuration
- Creating Products
  - Creating a Shippable Product
    - The Finished Product
  - Creating a Non-Shippable Product
    - Repair Service
    - Education Information Sheets
  - Creating Apparel
    - Creating the Product
    - Creating Variations
    - The Finished Product
- Grouping Products
  - Grouping the Products
- Our Store
  - Product Listings
  - Product Information
  - Adding to the Cart
  - The Shopping Cart
- Summary

Chapter 5: Customers and Staff
- Users, Roles, and Permissions
  - Roles and Permissions
  - Settings and Rules
    - User Registration Settings
    - User E-Mail Settings
    - Picture Settings
  - Permissions and Taxonomy Access Control
    - What is Taxonomy?
    - Creating Categories
    - Categorizing Content
    - Restricting Access Based on Taxonomy Access Control
- Customers
  - Customer Roles
  - Role Assignments
  - Reminder: Forcing Customers to be Users
  - Customer Management
    - User Order History
    - Contacting a User
- Staff
  - Planning
  - Creating Roles
    - Stock Assistant
    - Checkout Manager
  - Creating the users
- Summary

Chapter 6: Branding Your Site
- Themes
  - Minnelli
  - Marvin
  - Bluemarine
  - Pushbutton
  - Garland
  - Chameleon
- Customizing the Default Theme
  - Color Scheme
    - Belgian Chocolate Color Set
    - Mediterrano Color Set
    - Shiny Tomato Color Set
  - Toggle Display
  - Logo Image Settings
    - Shortcut Icon Settings
    - The Customized Skin
- Installing and Managing Themes
  - Installing Themes
  - Managing Themes
- Creating a Theme
  - Template Files
- Summary

Chapter 7: Checkout and Taking Payments
- Finalizing the Store Ready for Customers
  - What's Missing?
  - Taking Addresses
  - Taking Payments
  - Let's Try Again
- How the Checkout Process Works
- How to Customize the Checkout Process
  - Checkout Screen Order
  - Price Formatting
  - Payment Methods
  - How the Payment Method Works
  - Emails Sent to the Customer
  - Global Anonymous Purchase Policy
  - Administrator Notifications
  - Order History Overview Text
  - How Products are Added to the Cart
  - Continuing Shopping after Adding a Product to the Cart
- Processing Orders
  - Order Overview
  - Transaction List
    - Edit
    - Addresses
    - Items
  - Workflow
  - Payment Statuses
  - Current Limitations with Our Store
- Summary

Chapter 8: Creating a Better Selling Experience
- Making Things Easier
  - Adding a Shopping Cart
  - Adding Search Capabilities
  - Auto-Creating User Accounts
- Adding Images to Products
  - Built-in Upload Module
    - List as Attachment
    - Embed Image into Description
  - Third-party Image Module
    - Embed Image into Description
    - As a Product
- Discounts
  - Role-Based
  - Coupons
  - Bulk Purchases
- Other e-Commerce Options and Product Types
  - Auction
  - Donate
  - Flexicharge
- Summary

Chapter 9: Taxes, Payment, and Shipping
- Taxes
  - Tax Rules
    - Tax Rules: UK
    - Tax Rules: California, USA
    - Tax Rules: Orders Placed Elsewhere
  - Creating the Tax Rules
  - Further Options
- Payment
  - How Payment Gateways Work
  - Payment Gateways Available
    - Authorize.Net
    - CCard
    - COD
    - Eurobill
    - eWay
    - iTransact
    - PayPal
    - WorldPay
  - Payment Gateways Overview
  - Doug's Choices
  - Configuring the Payment Gateway
    - IPN
    - Settings
  - Payment Gateway in Action
    - A Quick Look Back at Tax
    - Place the Order
  - Settings for Other Gateways
    - Authorize.Net
    - Ccard
    - Eurobill
    - eWAY
    - iTransact
    - WorldPay
- Shipping
  - Shipping API
  - Flexicharge
- Summary

Chapter 10: Securing, Deploying, and Maintaining Your Shop
- Importance of Security
  - Drupal Security
    - Security Announcements
  - Securing Our Drupal Installation
    - CAPTCHA
    - Email Verification
    - Legal
    - Login Security
  - Passwords
  - Phishing
- Deploying
  - Hosting and Domain Names
  - Getting the Site Online
    - Setting Up the Database
    - Uploading the Store
    - Tweaking the Settings
  - SSL
- Maintaining Our Website
  - Performing Maintenance
  - Handling Orders
  - Backing Up and Restoring Your Store
    - Backing Up
    - Restoring
- Summary

Chapter 11: Invoices and CRM
- Printable Invoices
  - Customizing the Invoice Design
    - New Design Layout
    - Code for New Design
    - Adding the New Design to Drupal
- Invoice Module
  - Installing the Invoice Module
  - Invoice Module Configuration Options
  - Creating an Invoice
  - Managing Invoices
  - Invoices for the Customer
- CiviCRM
  - Installing CiviCRM
    - Installing without the Automated Installer
  - Setting up CiviCRM
  - Using CiviCRM
- Summary

Chapter 12: Marketing Your Business
- The Basics
- Advertising
  - Buying Advert Space
  - Professional Advertising Networks (PPC)
  - Product Search
  - Directories
  - Newsletters
- Things to Watch Out For when Buying or Selling Adverts
  - Search Engine Penalization
- Social Network Marketing
  - Viral Marketing
- Newsletter Marketing
  - Subscriber Lists
  - The Newsletter
- Improve Traffic with Search Engine Optimization
  - On-Site SEO
    - Meta
    - Sitemap
    - Links
    - Staying Fresh
  - Off-Site SEO
- Summary

Appendix A: Installing WAMP
- Installing WampServer
  - Downloading WampServer
  - Installing WampServer
- WampServer Overview
- Configuring WampServer
  - GD2
  - Rewrite Module
- Summary

Index

Michael Peacock

Michael Peacock is a web developer from Newcastle, UK and has a degree in Software Engineering from the University of Durham. After meeting his business partner at Durham, he co-founded Peacock Carter, a Newcastle based creative consultancy specializing in web design, web development and corporate identity.

Michael loves working on web related projects. When he is not working on client projects, he is often tinkering with a web app of his own.

He has been involved with a number of books, having written two books himself (and working on his third): Selling online with Drupal e-Commerce Packt, and Building websites with TYPO3 Packt. He has also done technical reviews of two other books: Mobile Web Development Packt, and Drupal Education & E-Learning Packt.

You can follow Michael on Twitter.

Contact Michael Peacock

This book is a welcome addition to the growing list of more specialized Drupal titles, and is currently the premier resource for anyone who wishes to use Drupal and the e-Commerce module for creating a virtual store. Read More

Sample chapters

You can view our sample chapters and prefaces of this title on PacktLib or download sample chapters in PDF format.

Find your book in our support section to find errata and to download code samples.

What you will learn from this book

Why to choose Drupal for e-commerce
Installing and configuring Drupal and its e-Commerce module
How Drupal and its e-Commerce module work
Creating and managing content
Creating and managing user accounts, roles, and permissions
Things to think about when planning to sell online
Structuring your site, your product catalogue, and framing a shopping process for users
Framing business policies to handle legal and professional issues
Branding your site by customizing default themes
Installing new themes and creating a custom theme
Customizing the checkout process for processing orders
Creating a better selling experience
Attracting customers with discounts, coupons, auctions, donations, flexicharges
Working with taxes and shipping rules in Drupal e-Commerce
Drupal e-Commerce's shipping API modules
Securing and maintaining your site (deploy, backup, restore)
Creating and managing invoices using the Invoices module
Integrating CiviCRM to manage appointments and log phone calls
Improving traffic with Search Engine Optimization
Advertising programmes, newsletters, and viral marketing campaigns

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In Detail

Drupal is a free and open-source modular web application framework and content management system (CMS) written in PHP that can run in many environments, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. Drupal e-Commerce is a free, open-source, feature-rich, flexible package of modules that seamlessly adds full e-Store capabilities to Drupal.

Drupal e-Commerce is the combination of Drupal, the award-winning Drupal 5 content management system, and the e-Commerce package of modules that can be plugged into it, bringing a wealth of e-commerce functionality to the software.

In this book you will learn how to use the Drupal content management system along with its e-Commerce modules to set up and manage an online shop. We will install the software, have a look at its features, plan our shop, create our shop, look at customer management, create a design for our shop, and cover security, taxes, shipping, and even marketing our business!

If you're new to Drupal and want to set up a powerful e-commerce system, this book is for you. If you've some experience of working with Drupal and want to understand how its e-commerce options can be used to power an online shop, this book will also prove invaluable.

This book will show you how to sell online using the award-winning open-source Drupal web application. No prior experience of Drupal is required; you will learn all you need as you step through the creation of an online shop.

You will learn the basics of Drupal, and see how to use the standard features of Drupal to begin construction of an online shop, and improve the selling interface, handling of orders, and reporting with new modules and other customizations.

Approach

The book starts with the basics of Drupal and then steps you through the creation of an online shop, exploring Drupal further as needed. Only the features of Drupal relevant to the e-commerce application will be covered.

Written in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner, the book provides the essentials of getting your e-commerce website up and running with Drupal.

Who this book is for

This book is for people who want to start selling online as quickly as possible, and want to see how to use the proven Drupal platform to achieve this.

The book is ideal for use in a small business with only basic in-house technical skills. It will also be useful for developers who not only want to create an e-commerce site, but also want a CMS platform for expanding the site in the future. No prior knowledge of Drupal is required. No PHP experience is expected, although it will be useful. Basic knowledge of e-commerce will also be useful, although the main concepts are introduced and covered as required.