Installation Prerequisites
To maximize your fully-functional free 10 day trial of CartSpan, you should have the following in-place before installation:
1) Your shopping cart should be configured to the point where you have one or more orders available for download. Also, the API (Application Programming Interface) is not always, by default, automatically enabled for all Shopping Carts. The Shopping Cart API is the mechanism by which CartSpan comunicates with the Shopping Cart. Some hosted-solution providers charge additional fees for this service and others include it as part of the total solution package; You will need to inquire and verify that the API for your chosen solution is active and ready to accept communications from the CartSpan product. CartSpan distributes it own API scripts for the open-source carts listed in the Pre-Configurations section below.
2) You should have version 2011 (or later) of Sage Peachtree Accounting or Peachtree's higher-end Quantum accounting package. If you are using QuickBooks, you will need version 2012 or later of Enterprise, Premium, or Pro versions. CartSpan will work with the trial versions of these products if you are interested in testing end-to-end integration before making a purchase.
ATTENTION USERS OF OPEN-SOURCE CARTS: CartSpan is designed to work with the standard implementations of the open-source carts listed below. Access to source-code can be a 'double-edge sword. While you enjoy the flexibiltity to modify open-source to meet your business needs, such modifications can result in unpredicable behavior when utilizing 3rd party extensions. The consequences can range from 'none' to 'catastrophic' depending upon your approach to the integration. As with any integration, you should proceed with caution. Ideally, you should test against a non-production copy of your cart. This applies only to the Item price/quantity update feature of CartSpan as the Order download/import is read-only and presents no risk to your production site. If you choose to 'live on the edge' and target your production site, please use the 'Update a Single Item' option to fully evaluate behavior in the cart before choosing to update all items.
IMPORTANT: If you utilize the item update functionality in CartSpan, understand that all pricing in the cart will be updated from prices established within the accounting system. If you have zero pricing for any items in accounting, corresponding items in the cart will be updated accordingly. Our objective is not to alarm, but rather to advise against overzealousness in your integration efforts. Best practices dictate that the cart database be backed-up, or, even better, copied to a separate test environment. The order download functionality can be implmented with zero-risk as the supporting script performs 'read-only' operations.
We want you to be successful using our product, and if you have any concerns, please feel free to call us at 513-708-1317.
STEP 1: Download and install Peachtree, Sage 50, or QuickBooks Accounting
Peachtree offers a 30 day trial of its Premium Accounting product. Be sure to install all features including the Crystal reports options:
QuickBooks offers a free trial of its Accounting products:
Download QuickBooks Accounting
STEP 2: Find a Shopping Cart that works for you
Visit our 'Partners' page to investigate the many quality Shopping Carts that CartSpan currently integrates with.
STEP 3: Download the appropriate version of CartSpan
Full Installation
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If installing for the first time, or upgrading to support a newer version of Peachtree, Sage 50, or QuickBooks, download the appropriate full installation packge below. Note that you will need to uninstall any existing installation of CartSpan before you attempt a full installation. Your application configuration and licensing file will remain unaffected by the uninstall process.
- Last updated on: 2/16/2012
- NOTE: This compile will require an uninstall and full reinstallation as well as new PHP scripts or Web Service DLLs.
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CartSpan Full-Installation 2012 (First version supporting QuickBooks; requires Enterprise, Pro, or Premier. Pro & Premier version require additional purchase of QODBC)
Application Only
For those individuals wanting only to capture incremental improvements in product functionality, you may download and install the CartSpan application executable only. Simply extract the appropriate executable file(s) to the directory ...\Program Files\Noverhead\CartSpan\ (overwriting the existing files).
Last updated on: 2/16/2012
NOTE: This compile is only compatible with full installation by the same date or later. If you are seeing this message and have not upgraded your CartSpan installation, please do so now...
STEP 4: Download pre-configuration file for the Shopping Cart selected
NOTE: All pre-configuration downloads are single XML files that should be 'unzipped' to the directory of your choice before import into CartSpan. Be sure to select the configuration file version that matches the current version of your shopping cart. Configurations for open-source carts contain additional PHP scripts the will need to be copied to the 'public_html' directory of your cart. If your cart is listed below but you don't see the current version, download the latest configuration file available.
AmeriCommerce
AspDotNetStorefront
CartGenie
CS-Cart
Ecommerce Templates
Magento
ATTENTION MAGENTO USERS: All interface scripts are designed to work with standard 'out-of-the box' installations of Magento. Custom modification of scripts to support non-standard implementations can be accomplished on a contracting basis. Ensure that you select the exact configuration for the version of Magento you are running. There are significant changes in the underlying database between versions and the support scripts will not work unless you target the appropriate release.
Magento_Community_v1.3.1 (supports the Unirgy uGiftCert extension)
Magento_Community_v1.4.1 (supports all subsequent versions.)
nopCommerce
ATTENTION nopCommerce USERS: This API portion of the CartSpan product is distributed as a Precompiled Web Service and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 to run. If you are not experienced in perfoming such installations, please seek assistance from a qualified IT consultant. To maximize your free 10 day trial, you should first have this supporting web service operational before installing CartSpan. Guidelines for installation and configuration of the web service are included in the pre-configuration file(s) below:
NOTE: This configuration supports all subsequent versions of nopCommerce
osCommerce
PayPal
ATTENTION PayPal USERS: Use of this API requires and active PayPal merchant account along with API access credentials. Access credentials include User Name, Password, and Signature. These credential are are requested from the following menu option in your PayPal 'MyAccount' tab:
Overview > Profile > My Selling Tools > Selling Center > Request API Credentials (select option #2)
DO NOT share these credentials with anyone, including offical communications with the PayPal organization.
ProductCart
ATTENTION ProductCart USERS: This API portion of the CartSpan product is distributed as a Precompiled Web Service and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 to run. If you are not experienced in perfoming such installations, please seek assistance from a qualified IT consultant. To maximize your free 10 day trial, you should first have this supporting web service operational before installing CartSpan. Guidelines for installation and configuration of the web service are included in the pre-configuration file(s) below:
Shopsite
VP-ASP
Also, CartSpan is only available for VP-ASP customers running on the xNIX OS platforms with the mySQL database. Development plans include support for MS SQL Sever-based implementations.