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View Full Version : Ecommerce as a catalog + custom search systems?



whackedspinach
11 Jun 2008, 12:18 AM
Being a little handy with tech, a friend of mine wants me to develop a website for a local tire shop. I've done web design before, with wordpress, drupal, etc. I don't know much about coding, but I am willing to learn. I just need some advice on this project though.

There are two major features this site need:
1. Catalog - not cart - just a catalog of items (tires etc.)
2. They want the ability to search by car and have the results show original parts for that car.

I understand that the first issue is a pretty easy fix as most of the CMS out there already support this, (except the amazing Magento however). Joomla + Virtuemart seems to handle this well enough.

The second issue however, is a puzzle to me. I understand it might require a bit of coding, and I have come up with a few ideas of how it might work:

1. A series of drop down boxes. The first one could contain the type of product, the second the year the car was made, etc. Each drop down box would be populated with options based on the previous box's answer. I know how to do boxes and stuff, but I don't know what to do in the backend.

2. A simple search box or series of search boxes with the manufacturer and year, etc.

Of course, there are probably many other ways to do this, such as a category or keyword system.

I would like to use a CMS, if possible, because it is easy to use and update, but if these are not included features or addons, I can most likely handle the coding with a bit of guidance.

So if anyone has an idea on what I should use for the site, please post it here, it would be greatly appreciated!