Frequently Asked Questions
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SEE ALSO: Cart32 HTML Tips

• What is a Client?

A "client" is the term used to define a single shopping cart. This shopping cart is referenced by a "client code" to identify it. Each client has a single client code and there is generally one client per website or domain name.

• Cart32 Products Database

About Cart32 and Product Databases

Cart32 can be setup to use an internal or external products database. By default, the cart uses an internal Microsoft Access database. The database format must be MS Access or SQL (MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server). Cart32 does not build dynamic website pages from a database, but merely checks the database for the product information.

Advantages of using a products database:

• Product price protection
• Inventory management

Cart32 receives its product data from HTML forms on your website. The HTML forms are set to pass all the neccessary information to the cart, including price, qty, weight, options, etc. In this case, no products database is used.

Cart32 with a products database

When using a products database, the HTML forms pass only the part number (PartNo) and quantity (Qty) to Cart32. Cart32 references the part number in the database to retrieve the product details such as price, weight, options, etc. Therefore, when using a products database, only the part number (PARTNO) and quantity (QTY) fields need to be included on the HTML form.

To create a database driven website using Cart32, we recommend Cart32's Store Manager. An advantage of having a database driven website is that the products on the page are updated when the database is updated, which can prevent a lot of hand-coding of HTML forms.

The key in all of these situations is to make sure that the HTML form code is in the correct format for Cart32.

To setup a products database:

1. Go to the Cart32 web admin.
    
2. On the Products tab, select the Setup Product Link tab.
    
3. On the drop down list, select "Use built in products database" to use the database table built into Cart32 by default or select "Use external products database" to use your own MS Access* or SQL products database**.
    
4. Click Save.
    
5. If you are using a MS Access database, enter the full directory path to the database file, including the file name into the field Access Database Name (eg - "d:\ozarkol\cart32templates\clientcode\products.mdb"). If you are using a SQL database, enter the DSN into the field System DSN.
    
6. Click Save.
    
7. The Product Table field should now show your table for your products database on the drop down list. Select the appropriate table from the drop down list, if applicable, and click Save.
    
8. If you are using the built in products database, the fields will automatically be mapped. If you are using an external products database, you will need to map the fields in the database to the fields that Cart32 uses*** (eg - ProductDescription to Item field).
    
9. Click Save.

1. Go to the Cart32 web admin.
    
2. On the Products tab, select the List Products tab.
    
3. Click Add A Product. A new, blank product will appear in the table. Click Edit to edit the product and enter the product information in the popup window. After you have entered the product information, click Save.

**To use a SQL database, a DSN will need to be setup by your server administrator.

• How to prevent people from changing your prices when ordering

There are some very important settings within Cart32 that will prevent fraudulent transactions from being processed by Cart32. Here is the latest on security. Since Cart32 uses hidden fields to pass product information from the HTML page to the CGI program then there is the potential for someone to download a page, change a price in the hidden field (by editing the HTML), and then re-post the form resulting in a lower price being added to the cart.

What we did to help prevent this was add two fields into the Cart32 administration. The most important one is called "Domains to accept orders". What you do with that is list all of the domains that can have pages on them. Usually you would list your domain name and your secure
domain if it different. Ex. www.cart32.com,cart32.com,secure.cart32.com.

When a form is posted, then Cart32 checks the referring page to see if it comes from one of those domains and if it doesn't then Cart32 does not process the form. It just shows the "about" screen.

The other field is called POST required. This means that a form must use Method=post and not method=get. Also that means links, which use the GET method, will not add to the cart.

• Cart32 Compatible Merchant Accounts

Choosing the right merchant account is essential for real time credit card processing. Cart32 integrates with over 50 different merchant accounts. The following is a list of the merchant accounts supported by Cart32:

• USPS country codes

A complete, up to date list of country codes accepted by the United States Postal Service can be obtained at http://pe.usps.gov/text/Imm/Immctry.html.

The accuracy of the country codes used in Cart32 will affect the shipping rates returned by the shipper.

More Questions? Contact Us. 

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