Open to feedback

[helperbee]

Our website is in soft launch phase with limited exposure. It is my very first web project and with the help of the Forum, it came about. Thank you!

rentmasonbees.com and click Shop tab.

Thank you for any tips and feedback!

[eCommerce Core]

Looks nice. Is this an Abantecart you use?

[helperbee]

I used AbanteCart for the pages reached through SHOP tab.
All other pages (landing page, events, blog,etc.) were built with Drupal 7.

I initially was going to use AbanteCart for the entire site, but needed a blog. That forced me to move all content pages to Drupal to live and look like blog.

I'm pretty happy with it, but now need to merge the databases. Another post I'l make to the helpful AbanteCart Forum. I couldn't have done this without you all!  Your an amazing group of knowledgeable volunteers!

[tastiger]

I am new to AbanteCart and really liking it. In fact this will be my first post to this forum!

Unlike other carts it seems all things are at least possible with a bit of research and figuring out.

For me how to implement a basic blog and keep things like appearance and sitemap consistent is something I am struggling with approach to.
I have some familiarity with Joomla since I nearly nook this path for my new e-commerce project but with Abantecart offering so much as a CMS already I fear I may over complicate things to achieve a blog.

Helperbee, what were your reasons for choosing Drupal to implement a blog and do you find much inconvenience managing 2 systems?

[helperbee]

Tastiger,

Yes, I agree, AbanteCart offers so much flexibility and by its nature allows even a newbie such as myself to become familiar.

I didn't find it possible to create a blog within AbanteCart functionality (maybe others can if have coding skills).
If you know Joomla, you won't find it hard to understand Drupal.

First off, install AbanteCart in a subdomain, not a subdirectory.
After development work is done, follow these steps to move AbanteCart (http://forum.abantecart.com/index.php/topic,4053.msg17552.html#msg17552)

Install Drupal in a subdomain of as well. There are a couple ways to move it or mask the URL. (Here is one way, but proceed carefully since it doesn't work for everyone:  https://www.siteground.com/kb/how_can_i_transfer_my_drupal_site_from_a_subdirectory_to_my_/


To make both site look similar, I found a theme for Drupal that resembled the storefront and I'm planning to use external CSS to make the fonts match.


I'm learning as I go, so don't take my words as golden. I created the two sites and then hooked them together with a single menu link on each side. Maybe this is apparent to you, but what I did was this...within AbanteCart, I added a menu item called HOME and linked it to the landing page of Drupal site. In the Drupal side, I added a tab menu called "Shop" and linked it back to the storefront. That part was simple.

The other things involved are:
Creating backup routines for each.
Today, I hope to merge the databases (for optimization).
And figure out how to setup one backup routine to capture both sides of my website.

Obviously, you'll have to apply security patches and updates independently to each installation. But when my drupal side is being maintained, my maintenance page will point customers to my storefront, and vise versa.

Getting started with Drupal is well documented.  https://www.drupal.org/start

One word of caution, however you proceed: Beware of running with the first answer you Google as some people don't know what they are talking about or maybe forget the possible complexities that exist. The Drupal forum is a safer bet, but no guarantee.

Good luck and share you site URL if you wish to get feedback from everyone. I'm just a beginner and I KNOW IT! But there are really smart, experienced people out there.

[tastiger]

Thanks Helperbee 

A simple blog would be a nice extension to have if it was available for AbanteCart Cart, I saw elsewhere on this forum that maybe using a second store in AbanteCart Cart it can be achieved so there may be future possibilities.

Thanks for your time and tips on how to integrate CMS and AbanteCart Cart, some things are definitely not apparent to me! - I am a beginner to self hosting e-commerce finding my way. First I tried and researched many carts in a fair detail and chose AbanteCart Cart.

Now I think to learn as much as I can, and for sure your word of caution is correct! It is always nice to see a few consistent answers on Google.

As I have a live site running on a hosted system (Bigcommerce) I have had some time to set up experimental sites in the process of choosing a cart software.

The test site for AbanteCart Cart is:

tassievapes.qnetau.com/a b a n t e/ (remove spaces - I am still a newbie and cannot post links)

There is a quasi POS as a second site being developed using multi-site:

pos-tassievapes.qnetau.com

it is all definitely at the I am a beginner stage!

One thing I have done is modified an extension to make a Pay in Store extension is anyone is interested in using this.

[webdevmerc]

helperbee, your website/store looks very clean and nice.  I played around with drupal and Ubercart for a store, but found it just a pain to manage and too much work.  It just wasn't made to do it and a lot of things you had to work a lot around.   I think as a pure cart, Abantecart worked a lot better for my needs in terms of overall management and time needed.

I think Drupal as a CMS is probably a lot better and integrating may give you the best of both worlds.  I don't know if Ubercart is still even in development...

That said, if you are looking Open source and cost is a concern, probably picking specific apps for what you want to do makes a lot more sense since larger/packaged systems tend to be less flexible overall.  Your needs may also not be as insane and it's probably better to just get the site live quickly.