Integration with WordPress / WP-E-Commerce

[imeson]

Wondering if anyone has an experience or insight integrating ShopSite with a WordPress install?

From what I've read it seems like the best way would be to use a plugin like WP-E-Commerce from GetShopped.org and for each product set the "add-to-cart" url to go to the product that has been set up with ShopSite. That sound like the best option?

Are there any more complex ways I could integrate ShopSite into the WordPress theme?

Thanks for any help!

[imeson]

Ok, this is weird. Why is this forum censoring me mentioning w-o-r-d-p-r-e-s-s ?

I tried adding

Code: Select all

WordPress

to the title and it was stripped.

w0rdpress
WORDPRESS
WP
wordpress
word press

[Jim]

Don't know why it would be censored.
ShopSite 11sp1 added new functionality to the Order Anywhere code that will create an iframe for a product using a template you define in ShopSite. The idea is that it could be put on a site and show a product layout with images, text, add to cart buttons etc. It will work on sites using wordpress but it can't be use on word press sites hosted by Word Press since Iframes appear to be prohibited their servers. So if you have your own Word press implemented and are not using the Word Press server you could use that method to display your products.

Here is what the code looks like.

Code: Select all

<iframe src="http://ademostore.com/cgi-bin/ssdemos/ver111/alsdemo/sc/ss_page.cgi?storeid=*1c844ba190afa07980cb469aca153285&ss_parm=A6072c7c9e32b52b31e8119f3eca4902a&from=embed&template=em_BasicLayout.sst" height=240 width=300 frameborder="0"></iframe>

The advantage of this over the previous Order Anywhere is that the layout can be defined in ShopSite instead of having to hardcode the information in an html page. A side benefit is that every time the page the code is on is loaded the data is updated. So if you change the price in ShopSite it will be updated where ever the iframe is displayed thus eliminating editing of custom created html pages just because you changed the price.

[imeson]

Hey Jim - thanks so much for the reply. Weird that it is censoring, must be jealous forum software lol.

I am using self-hosted WP so I have total control and could do a lot with the code.

I like the iframe in terms of ease of use but it seems that would not be ideal for SEO if I want individual product pages to have their own URLs and thus rank in search.

The iframe would be great for integrating a checkout/cart as I don't care about those pages ranking.

There is a downside from the site manager point of view if I have unique product pages that are using a plugin like wp-e-commerce, they would have to update the price/details in both that and ShopSite.

That make sense?

My ideal world for this client situation would be... the client adds the product on word press so that there can be integrated images, categories, details on an actual page on wp. They would then add minimal info on shopsite like the the name, sku, price, - it would be awesome if I could connect the two. I know I can have the wp plugin's add-to-cart lead to the shopsite add-to-cart for that particular product (I think that is the Order Anywhere thing) but the really nice piece of the puzzle would be if I could get the price to display dynamically for the product so that if the price was changed in shopsite it would be reflected on the wp product detail page.

Would love any feedback on possibilities. Thanks!

[Jim]

I think in most cases people would have a regular website with product pages and that the WP site would be used more for specials, highlighting new products, etc. So you could still have regular pages for SEO and the WP for more flexibility. I'm not sure how search engines would index an iframe but since it loads on the page they may index the content also.

Note that you create the template that is used in the Iframe, so if you only want the price to display that would be possible. And If you change the price in ShopSite it would change on your WP pages using the new iframe method. So essentially that would give you the ability to have all your content on WP and just update the price through ShopSite.

PS I'll check with the site admin and see why WP is being censored.

[imeson]

Ah that is brilliant about using an iframe to display the price! I think this is the best of all worlds.

Sadly, iframes are not indexed as content on a page. If you view the source (as the Google bot would see) you can see that the content the iframe shows does not make it in. Since it acts as a window to another site then Google doesn't consider it part of the page.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/iframe-seo-and-accessibility/15217/

Thanks again