Shopping cart code

Let's face it: why would you go through all the work of creating a dynamic Web application if you don't plan to make money through it? Sure, companies employ dynamic intranet sites and there are still some -- although very few -- free Web applications you can use.

In the real world, however, dynamic Web applications are created in an attempt to make money by allowing site owners to sell merchandise on the Web. Providing users with the capability to add items to a virtual shopping cart as they browse through your Website is still very much a business that commands good money. Companies such as VeriSign, Paypal, WebAssist, and LinkPoint charge to provide developers with the capability to add shopping cart functionality to their own Websites.

The familiar shopping cart you push through the local supermarket is an appropriate metaphor to choose for the type of convenience and control people have come to expect from conducting transactions in the everyday world. We push our shopping carts through the aisles while we pick the items we want and ignore those that don't interest us. We add and remove items from our carts almost without thinking.

Shopping cart code allows you to add a simple shopping cart to your website. It keeps track of returning users without using cookies. They check off items on your pages then click "add to cart."

Shopping cart code will add shipping etc. to the final total, then when they click "purchase", you are notified. To deploy, simply add a checkbox code to each item on your site.

As the user checks off items, they're automatically remembered for checkout. Considering how simple this shopping cart code is to set up and install, it is quite amazing how many features are available. There is also a database code available which can integrate with this shopping cart.

Simple shopping cart code allows to:

• • Dynamically construct a DataTable depending on user interaction;
• • Bind the dynamically constructed DataTable to a DataGrid;
• • Allow the user to remove items from the cart freely;
• • Keep a running cost total of items within the cart.

As you have seen, building your own shopping cart using shopping cart code isn't very difficult. The great thing about building your own cart is that it is completely customizable - and you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars for an extension suite that you end up having to learn anyway.