What is an Open Cart?
Open Cart is a free open source platform for e-commerce & online store development and management system developed by open cart ltd, released in April 2010. Written in cake php language, it supports a cross-platform operating system available free under GNU. It uses PHP, Mysql database and html components to develop the cms. According to wikitech, approx 3,42,000 webapps or websites are using an open cart. It comes with 13000+ modules and themes, payment gateways and shipping method. So it’s undoubtedly, the number one e-commerce software supplier.
Developed by Open Cart Ltd, It is one of the most promising cms for the online store. Based on php and MVC architecture, it aims to provide a transparent and reliable tool to the web developer for making a high-performance e-commerce website or online store using open cart customization modules and plugins.
Basically, understanding the open cart, we need to understand its layout structure which contains the following modules in a hierarchy.
- Account
- Affiliate
- Category
- Checkout
- Contact
- Default
- Home
- Information
- Manufacturer
- Product
- Sitemap
MVC Structure of Open Cart
But before understanding, we need to understand the MVC structure of the open cart, i.e. Model, View, And Controller.
- Controller: It contains the prime control of the application or program. It is only responsible for the flow of the program. In a web-based MVC structure, when the browser hits the URL, it is the first layer which is called by the program or application.
- Model: It’s a uni-directional data flow coordinator. Its main task is to hold the application’s main data, such as SQL queries or database objects. All the data are totally incorporated from the model as it cannot be directly called, so the controller accesses the data from the model on request and sends it to the server.
- View: It is the last and prime layer of the MVC structure as it contains the main user interface of the application. It is the only layer visible to the user; otherwise, the model and controller are invisible to the users. It contains data in the form of HTML, CSS, javascript, jquery, ajax, json objects, etc.
Being one of the most growing and stable open-source e-commerce platforms, it has plenty of reason by which it has made web developer tasks easier for making an online store or application such as :
- Easy To Develop: It’s very easy to manipulate and customize an open cart if you have a basic knowledge of php and mysql database. It’s just we have to make a new extension for every model view.
- User-Friendly: Similar to many e-commerce development platforms, It is easy to make and maintain application using its friendly administrative dashboard such as:
- Catalog
- Sales
- Extensions
- System
- It’s very easy to make changes to the online open cart management store system.
- Hundreds of extension and module for e-commerce store are available in open cart.
Being an open-source platform, it gives us a wide area for developing our e-commerce businesses and online stores. Awarded as the best shopping cart software in 2018, it is the optimum software for any small business startup as an online store and increases their mobility and revenue. It is flooded with all the e-commerce solution a user want in their application or programs.
It is very easy to use and make changes and live manipulation to your application instantly from anywhere. Working with this, you need to understand the following steps clearly:
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- Step 1: Understanding the modules in open cart (always use the latest version for best result)
- Step 2: Setting up the welcome module.
- Step 3: Setting up the banner module.
- Step 4: Uses of featured modules.
- Step 5: Setting up special modules as a plugin.
- Step 6: Creating access to multiple stores.
The same happens when you are working with Affiliates in an open cart.
Advantages
- It comes with a large number of plugins, modules, and extensions.
- It has a large community, so you can get access to every problem you face using the open cart.
- The modification is easier to make in an open cart platform.
- It has high efficiency and server resources.
- The administration dashboard is very easy to understand as compared to other ecommerce platforms.
Skills
As it’s a web development platform, so you need to know basic skills related to web development which can be :
- HTML5
- CSS3
- JAVASCRIPT
- JQUERY
- BOOTSTRAP
- PHP
- MYSQL
- APACHE (FOR LOCAL SYSTEM )
- OPEN CART MVC
- EVENT SYSTEMS
Features
The various features make web developers more greedy to use an open cart as an online store cms. Some of its features are :
- UNLIMITED CATEGORIES
- UNLIMITED PRODUCTS
- UNLIMITED MANUFACTURERS
- MULTI-CURRENCY
- MULTI-LANGUAGE
- PRODUCT REVIEWS
- PRODUCT RATINGS
- 20+ PAYMENT GATEWAYS
- 8+ SHIPPING METHODS
Talking about its future, as it’s open-source so it will always have a vast community. Not only this open cart community is growing day by day since 2014. The company is regularly updating its feature, modules, extensions, and plugins. So it makes web developer more easy and efficient to make a very optimized online store.
With respect to present market demand, it has many rivalries, too, such as Quick.cart and PrestaShop. So there will always be a competitive level in terms of growth in an open cart. But many organizations are preferably using the open cart as their online store platform.
As it is one of the rivalries of Prestashop, it’s a very good platform for beginners or intermediate programmers, or e-commerce business startup owners. As it has a large number of features, so it’s better than Quick.cart but less than 5 reliable than PrestaShop. However, it needs to add more functionalities to its application as compared to PrestaShop. Adding more functionality like PrestaShop will make it inefficient. So it needs to work on functionality to give users stronger and reliable efficiency. It has a large number of add-ons and modules, so there is a good opportunity for beginners to make their career as it is open-source, free, and has a vast community.
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