From TomatoCart Wiki

Contents 1 Preface 1.1 About This Guide 1.2 What This Guide Covers 1.3 Who This Guide is for 1.4 Coventions 1.5 Getting Help 2 Introduction 2.1 What is TomatoCart 2.2 TomatoCart License 2.3 Store Front and Administration Panel 3 Getting Started 3.1 System Requirements 3.2 Downloading TomatoCart 3.3 Installing TomatoCart 4 Starting Your Store 4.1 General Configuration 4.2 Sales Preparation 4.3 Other Configuration 5 Designing Your Store 5.1 Logo 5.2 Templates 5.3 Modules 6 Setting Up Your Catalog 6.1 Simple Products 6.2 Virtual Products 6.3 Downloadable Products 6.4 Gift Certificate 7 Managing Customers And Orders 7.1 Managing Customers 7.2 Managing Orders 8 Promotions 8.1 SEO 8.2 Product Promotion Modules 8.3 Pricing 8.4 Coupons and Store Credits 8.5 Email Marketing 9 Improving Your Store 9.1 Content Management 9.2 Product Exhibition 9.3 Tools 9.4 Languages

[edit] Preface

[edit] About This Guide

TomatoCart is a new generation of open source eCommerce solution by Wuxi Elootec Technology Co., Ltd. It is branched from osCommerce 3 as a separate project. TomatoCart covers nearly all the features a shopping cart could ever have and is continuing progressing with its roadmap. Due to open source, support will be provided free of charge by our ever expanding community. Compared to other open source shopping carts, TomatoCart is unprecedentedly easier to use.

This guide demonstrates how to build an effective online store step by step. Besides, it shall update new information on more features released. With TomatoCart pre-installed, you thereafter need to construct your store by configuring, designing and improving it; to display your products with detailed information and through promotion; and to manage customers and orders for better service.

This document guides in a planned and organized way. More over, we intend to present this guide as simple as TomatoCart is, keep it as straight as TomatoCart Team does. When you glance over the contents and find something interesting, go straight there. There you'll be informed of everything related to the topic, in details or by reference.

And just don't take our words for it! Try it yourself. See what a store looks with You and TomatoCart!

[edit] What This Guide Covers

Introduction gives you an overview of TomatoCart, the project and the interfaces.
Getting Started guides you through TomatoCart system installation.
Starting Your Store focuses on configuring your store and setting rules for selling.
Designing Your Store shows your store designing, including logo upload, template use and module alteration.
Setting up Your Catalog elaborates on product catalog building.
Managing Customers and Orders deals with monitoring and managing customers, and orders from confirmation to return.
Promotions introduces how to present your products by promotion.
Improving Your Store covers all you can do to enhance your store by enriching literal content, diversifying product display, adding more languages, and applying more tools.

[edit] Who This Guide is for

This guide is for anyone of you who wants to create an online store with TomatoCart. If your knowledge base covers little about technology, never mind, this guide is just for you.

[edit] Coventions

You will find different styles of text:

Tip: Tips appear in a frame like this.

Note: Notes appear in a frame like this.

Tips point out extra functions which you are initially unaware of and which will improve your experience. Notes are always additional instructions, which you may ignore or get misled.

[edit] Getting Help

If you have any questions or problems with this guide or TomatoCart, you may get help from:

• TomatoCart Knowledge Base
• TomatoCart Community
• TomatoCart Team (Contact Us)

[edit] Introduction

[edit] What is TomatoCart

TomatoCart is an innovative open source shopping cart solution. You can see here the most popular use of concepts, Web 2.0 Technology Ajax. You will also find the feature list with complete functions and increasingly more. Last but not least, you can hardly tear yourself away from the desktop-and-multiwindow administration panel with other shopping cart solution experience.

Since TomatoCart is an open source software, it is downloadable for free at Store Demo.

[edit] TomatoCart License

TomatoCart is licensed under the terms of the Open Source GNU GPL 3.0 license. For more details please visit GNU General Public License. If you have any questions about licensing, you can send an email to Webmaster.

[edit] Store Front and Administration Panel

You may wonder how TomatoCart works. What will your store look like when you use TomatoCart? And what can you do with the store? You will find answers here. TomatoCart applies GUI (Graphic User Interface) to frontend, and RIA (Rich Internet Applications) to backend. By doing so,TomatoCart is designed to enhance your experience.

1. Store Front
2. Administration Panel

[edit] Getting Started

TomatoCart applies advanced technologies and is full-featured while it is not picky. It boasts the great flexibility, professional visual output and easy control over your store and customers. This chapter covers the prerequisites and basic system requirements to run a TomatoCart store error-free. Read them through and get started with your fantastic online store configuration.

Note:TomatoCart is included in auto-installed scripts of Softaculous. If you are a softaculous users or would like to get TomatoCart auto-installed,you can visit softaculous for details.

[edit] System Requirements

TomatoCart can be installed on any server with PHP preinstalled and with access to a MySQL database server.

• References

1. PHP Website
2. Apache web server Website
3. MySQL Server Website

• System Requirements

1. Linux or Windows OS
2. PHP v5.1.6+(with MySQL extension)
3. MySQL v4.1.13+ or v5.0.7+
4. Ext JS 2.2.1

Once you have a hosting environment set up with support for these requirements, you are able to download and install TomatoCart on your server.

[edit] Downloading TomatoCart

TomatoCart is free to download. Just go to Tomatocart Download Page.

If you have successfully downloaded TomatoCart you are now ready to install the software on your web server or your localhost.

[edit] Installing TomatoCart

The TomatoCart project contains a web-based installation component, and it is fairly easy to install. The following instructions will remark how to get started with installing TomatoCart.

1. Pre-installation Procedure
2. Web Based Installation Procedure
3. Uninstallation Procedure

[edit] Starting Your Store

After installing, you are actually having your store on TomatoCart as real estate. Then you'll need to think about constructing store with your own styles and making selling rules. Specifically, making decisions of how your customers and potential customers can contact you, what kind of product information to present to them, how to ship and pay, and how to manage the Reviews module, to name a few.

[edit] General Configuration

General configuration concerns about store information, product details and purchasing options.

1. Wizard configuration
2. Basic configuration

[edit] Sales Preparation

Before the website going live, it is necessary to determine the rules of selling.

1. Shipping:concerning expense calculation.
2. Payment:about payment methods and currencies.
3. Zones and Tax:relating to zone groups and tax classes.
4. Order express: including order status and order modules.

All these are customizable on TomatoCart.

[edit] Other Configuration

1. Emails Templates
2. Information
3. GeoIP Modules
4. Services

[edit] Designing Your Store

By configuration, you are expected to understand how TomatoCart assists you in selling and presenting. What comes next is how to decorate your store. That is, when we are thinking about having a real offline store, we may take into consideration finding a store name, choosing a style and determining the functions.

And what about composing an online store? TomatoCart advises that you upload your logo in the first place. Then consider a theme right unified with that logo. Last but not least, think about functions or information you'd like to provide to visitors. This chapter guides you through store design and layout on TomatoCart, under the admin>Templates section.

[edit] Logo

The logo is an emblem of your site which can help promote instant public recognition.

1. Uploading Store Logo

[edit] Templates

A template is a standardized frontend type as a preformatted case. It determines the website layout and usually a general keynote of the store, and is supposed to differ in different products. Therefore, it is important to select an appropriate and nice template to attract your visitors. So far, TomatoCart has offered two free templates. Please wait for more outstandingly designed templates later.(Find if there are any new templates fit and surprising you at TomatoCart main site.)

1. Applying Template

[edit] Modules

Since store template only constructs a framework to be filled with various modules, TomatoCart defines a list of modules for you to select from. You are fully entitled to decide which modules to display and how to display according to your needs.

This part will first give you a brief introduction of modules on TomatoCart, and then continue with the tutorials on backend administration for achieving the desired frontend display.

1. Module Introduction
2. Displaying Modules
3. Uninstalling Modules

[edit] Setting Up Your Catalog

We imagine that you have decided on one template you like and blocked out a list of modules before going on with this chapter. The next important thing is to set up your catalog, or to fill your store with products.

TomatoCart finds that regardless of what product you sell, merchandise shares some attributes in common. We mean that goods is manufactured and has color, size, and weight, to name a few. Online shoppers, as most of you and we have been, will be influenced by these factors. TomatoCart guesses it convenient and effective for your administration to preset these attributes. Thus we offer vertical management of Catalog, to list most of the related attributes together under the admin>Catalog section. Others will be identified elsewhere.

On the other hand, TomatoCart has defined four product types: Simple Products,Virtual Products, Downloadable Products and Gift Certificate Products.

Despite type difference, each of the last three products makes a little distinction from Simple Products when created or edited.

[edit] Simple Products

The most common type. Products of this type are generally material objects, such as apparel.

With TomatoCart, you may make up a product with the following options:

1. Manufacturers
2. Weight Classes
3. Quantity Discount Groups/Customer Groups
4. Product Quantity Units
5. Categories
6. Product Variants
7. Product Attributes

With the above steps successfully completed, you can then create New Product.

For your understanding convenience, we take one product for example in Simple Product. Now you have “17" MACBOOK PRO MB166LL/A” on hand and want to sell it at your store. As we know, this is a laptop produced by Apple Inc. Supposing it has two suppliers, from Shanghai and from Beijing, a seventeen-inch display and an “AMD” CPU. Also lots of pictures available.

[edit] Virtual Products

Virtual Products are those without entity, such as service (E-Ticket, Hotel Reservation,etc.), game card, top-up card, etc.

The approach of creating a virtual product is similar to that of creating a Simple Product. It only differs when customers check out. As virtual products needn't to be shipped, the system will skip the shipping method during checkout.

[edit] Downloadable Products

As the name suggests, F-Prot AntiVirus, plug-in and so on are all downloadable products.

Data setting of Downloadable products differs. Refer other settings to Simple Products.

Once you select the Downloadable Product, the Downloadable Product specified options will be displayed, as the following illustration tells.

1. Downloadable Product Options
2. Downloadable Products Related Modules

[edit] Gift Certificate

Gift certificate are the perfect solution when you can’t determine what to pick up from the bewildering choices of gifts for friends, family and business associates, or just don’t have the time. Gift Certificates make it a simple thing.

Data setting of Gift Certificate products differs. Refer other settings to Simple Products.

Once you choose the Product Type as Gift Certificate Product as follows:

The Gift Certificate Options will be displayed, as the following illustrations tell.

1. Gift Certificate Options
2. Gift Certificates Related Modules

[edit] Managing Customers And Orders

TomatoCart thinks much of customer relationship management. We believe that as customers may be initially attracted by the products, they will stick to your store only if they are considerately served. This chapter discloses what you can do to maintain your store and to provide high quality services with TomatoCart.

[edit] Managing Customers

You manage your customers in an all-round way.

1. Customer Self-help
2. Customer Account Administration
3. Organizing Customer Groups
4. Managing Customer-Generated Content

[edit] Managing Orders

TomatoCart features powerful order management, including

1. Order Management
2. Abandoned Cart
3. Return Management
4. Reports

[edit] Promotions

Promotion has always been known for its ability to maximize the profit of businessmen and thus no one could resist the temptation of every chance to keep their customers. TomatoCart administration panel offers quite a few promotion skills, which will not only give you effective sale methods, but also create and maintain good and long-term partnerships with your customers as well. This section lists promotion modules in TomatoCart, which has been distributed into four parts, including Product Promotion Modules, Pricing, Coupons and Credits, and Email Marketing. Now, let's start the journey.

[edit] SEO

TomatoCart implements the Rich Keyword URL for homepage, products, categories, articles, information, etc, with the name of content rather than the ID. Product (or category, or article, or other) could be optimized by Meta Info, to specify page description, keywords and other meta info. Moreover Google Sitemap on TomatoCart allows search engines to crawl the site intelligently, including update frequency and priority.

1. Meta Info
2. Google Sitemaps

[edit] Product Promotion Modules

There are various modules related to products: New Products, Also Purchased Products, Cross Sell Products, Upcoming Products, Product History and Best Sellers.

1. New Products
2. Also Purchased
3. Cross Sell Products
4. Upcoming Products
5. Product History
6. Best Sellers
7. Feature Products

[edit] Pricing

If product modules above serve to help exchange shopping experiences between customers and store, price-cutting could be a direct and strong encouragement to shoppers, which is common in eCommerce. TomatoCart offers pricing promotions of Quantity Discount Groups and Specials.

1. Quantity Discount Groups
2. Specials

[edit] Coupons and Store Credits

Coupons are sent as a kind of promotion in appreciation of customers' long-term visit and support, to name a few; Store Credits may be granted to customers as the same reasons as Coupons, which can be used as ready money at your store. This part will specify the widely used in online store sales promotions - Coupons and Store Credits.

1. Coupons
2. Store Credits
3. RSS Feed

[edit] Email Marketing

email marketing, if properly used, shall help to keep customers and potential customers come back. So TomatoCart develops Newsletter Manager for more customizable emails than system emails. And we will further explore email use to present Customer emails to improve your management.

1. System Emails
2. Newsletter Management
3. Customer Emails

[edit] Improving Your Store

Now you've already gone through the most part of configuring your gorgeous online store and needed merely a few steps to further improve your store for the sake of better use. People visiting your store must be in want of being informed of what the focus is. Notably, product exhibition can never fail to seize their attention, so read this chapter thoroughly and you will find it useful. This chapter focuses on four main aspects to help you carry on with the "embetterment":

• Managing Content
• Paying attention to Product Exhibition
• Making full use of Tools
• Internationalizing your store

[edit] Content Management

TomatoCart features a powerful, flexible Content Management System(CMS). Within it you can create and control the content of stores including Articles, FAQs, Slide Images and the way how these will be displayed.

1. Articles
2. FAQs
3. Slide Images

[edit] Product Exhibition

Product display in different ways may have varied effects. Products in TomatoCart can display in Image Menu, Slideshow, Products Slider or Product Scroller effect.

About how to display them in store front, please refer the first three to Displaying Modules-Content, the other to Displaying Modules-Boxes.

1. Image Menu
2. Slideshow
3. Products Slider/Product Scroller

[edit] Tools

All sections in Tools are dedicated to work only for store owner (or who else have the permission to go to the back end). We wish to make your administration more effective and efficient.

These tools include:

1. Administrator Role(including Administrators and Administrator Logs)
2. Banner Management
3. Cache Control
4. Database Backup Management
5. File Management
6. Import/Export
7. Google Sitemaps
8. Dashboard
9. Server Information

[edit] Languages

To internationalize your store, you'd better provide language alternatives. The system has only one language, English, set by default. You can upload and manage your language the Languages section, under admin>Definitions.

1. Uploading a Language
2. Importing a language
3. Editing a Language
4. Editing translations of storefront