Zen-Cart Connector
Zen-Cart is a widely respected web shopping cart system, originally a fork from osCommerce some years ago. Zen-Cart offers many features for running a customer facing internet shop with all the functionality that is required to present information, collect customer details and accept payments in a secure way over the internet.
webERP handles accounting and administration and the inventory fulfillment invoicing and account management aspects of running the business, but does not have a front end shopping cart system where customers purchase goods or services. With webERP interfaced to a Zen-Cart shopping cart the best of both aspects of each software's strenghts is combined.
The Zen-cart Connector is a piece of middle-ware that consists of several scripts to integrate the two systems. Any number of different zen-cart shops can be linked to a single webERP installation
The connector contains scripts to:
- Take zen-cart orders and put the order and the zen-cart customer information including delivery details into webERP - invoicing and stock updates are then handled by webERP. This script can be run from a scheduler such as "cron" to enable automatic propagation of zen-cart orders directly into webERP with no manual input. This script will also update zen-cart with the latest stock quantities from webERP.
- Manage zen-cart items to ensure that they are mapped to valid webERP item codes. Zen-Cart item codes do not need to be the same as webERP, but they must be mapped to item codes in webERP. This script provides a convenient way to manage this mapping.
- Import zen-cart items into webERP. Codes already in the zen-cart installation can be imported directly into webERP
The connector does not handle payments processed through zen-cart into webERP receipts - nor does it handle changing the status of zen-cart orders based on webERP dispatches and invoicing activities. The focus is on getting zen-cart customer details including billing and delivery addresses as well as orders over to webERP painlessly for fulfillment through webERP.