Joomla + Opencart

I have a site which I have successfully "integrated" Joomla and Opencart by using the core functions of each software and am very happy with it. It is a relatively high traffic site and both sides of the software seem to be working flawlessly after 7 months. It has worked exceptionally well and the best of both worlds is as both pieces of software advance, I can upgrade and one does not affect the other at all and all extension continue to work.

I have one question which I would like to open up to discussion, which I have seen started here before and degraded fast. I think I can avoid that by saying I have purchased and fully implemented most of the "joomla - opencart integrated" software, and after months of evaluation, found them all wanting for one reason or another. Pretty much all of them broke the model.

That said, with my own integration (which cost nothing), the only thing I have not been able to do is the integration of the login.

I may be oversimplifying things here, but it seems to me that if the Joomla login module is turned off, and the opencart signup is used that this problem goes away. As far as I can tell the only thing that would need to happen is that the check at sign up for already used email addresses or usernames would have to check both databases and if the username/email is available, the account creation would have to write to both databases.

I have checked the the PHP docs and there is a function to accomplish this for msql which will log you into two databases at the same time and write to both of them. I have wanted to make an opencart extension for this, however I am not a PHP coder really and have never made an extension.

Any thoughts on this. Am I missing something or is this really all that needs to happen to create a login bridge between the two?

For anyone interested, The rest of the software can be integrated by simple and creative use of the menu systems of both joomla and opencart software as well as the creation of a couple of simply custom HTML modules in joomla and modifications of the open cart stock template.

Any thoughts by serious people with no ax to grind would be appreciated.

Log-in integration is not so simple because Joomla and Opencart use different way to keep-in track of logged users.
I believe Joomla saves information in the DB while OC uses Cookies and URL only.

I use both Joomla and opencart for different websites and my suggestions is do not mix them.
if you need a simple cart use OpenCart and if you need a CMS with ecommerce and other modules integrated use and learn to use Virtuemart, Hika Shop or Red Shop. At the moment only VM would be less powerfull than OC

I have used all of the software you listed and then some. Of all of the carts for joomla hika held the most promise, however it was severely limited in its flexibility for product types and its ability to adjust views by product type. When I contacted the developers about it, they simply said why would anyone want products to display differently.

I have also used many separate cart systems such as miva, and yahoo merchant. In my opinion, opencart can not only stand toe to toe with it is far more flexible than any of them. Not sure why you relegate it to a simple cart solution. We use it for a fairly complicated product set.

As for the sessions issue you bring up, that isn't a concern for us and I don't think session management would be much of an issue for most people using it the way that we do. I think you may be lumping registration with actual logging in and they are not the same thing. I am simply looking to have the registration process combined. I am not concerned about login because a customer only logs into the cart to buy something. From our customer base that would likely be no more than 3 or so times a year. They will however log in many times in the course of a year to participate in the forum, blog, access private areas and so forth. Forcing someone to login to the cart separately a couple times a year is really not an issue.

Right now they have to create two accounts and they are 'doing it, however it causes me issues for things like newsletters.

We sell items that weigh less than a pound and items that weigh over 400 lbs with extensive options and attributes and ship via common carrier truck and the postal service and opencart does it all flawlessly. I am definitely sold on opencart.

Still looking to merge the REGISTRATION, not the sessions management, and would like to hear your thoughts on that.

I think what you need is a bridge, basically a script that imports and sync data from 1 DB to the other.
I think OC is a good base to build on, there are many commercial module/features that allow to extend the software however I thought some of those should be part of the core rather than 3d party plug-ins imo.

what do you mean by product types and its ability to adjust views by product type? are you referring to the template?

Yep, a bridge is what I am talking about, however rather than syncing the DB's, I would rather do a check prior to registration on the availabilites of the email/username and then simply write to both DBs at the same time. I was hoping that people would talk about the good and bad of doing that. You may be right the sync is the way to go.

Yes, one of our sites sells everything from simple goods with that work fine with a default layout and some of our product types have extensive attributes and options which require a completely different look, feel and operation to the layout. If you want to see what I am talking about, you can go to http://www.sandypointboatworks.com and in the store look at the DVDs, and then take a look at the boat kits.

In order to accomplish that in opencart, we used an extension called (multiple product templates / CSS overide ) and it works perfectly. We tried to get Hika to adopt this philosophy and they were down right rude with their feedback. Then we purchased and installed Mijoshop and found that it pretty much broke any opencart extension that we purchased so we abandoned that after about 100 hours of effort. Virtuemart is just a joke and has some huge bugs for anything but the simplest of stores. We had a completely installed and populated store before we found out that adding options to a product could not add weight to shipping. It was supposed to but it was broken and on their user forum, no one was getting answers on this or many other topics.

Believe me when I tell you that we may not have tried them all but we sure as heck tried a bunch and probably put $500 and 300 man hours into testing and evaluating products. I was really hoping Hika would be the one because although it was limited in features, it was rock solid as a foundation. The Template issue was a deal breaker and how they dealt with the suggestion was horrific.

I would agree that allot of the functionality you have to pay for should be in the base product, but everyone has to make a living and feed their kids, and really when you think about it, the opencart core and about $200 gets you pretty much everything you need. That is pretty reasonable.

So my quest goes on for a bridge.

You should be able to get other feedback on this before deciding.
I'm sure someone in here can code a script that syncs only selected information between OC and joomla.

I see your point on the different product type, that's a very specific feature that probably none of the shops would have out of the box. It's great that someone has done something to accomplish that in OC.

With regards to core features and 3d party features, I agree with you that everyone has to make a living.
Look at this from a merchant point of view (you also bought Mijoshop): you have a cart OC and you (everyone more or less) need integration with:
- CRM
- ERP
- Stock management
- Forum
- Chat
- Wiki
- Help center
- newsletter
- and many other things

Having to buy things like 1 step/page checkout, cart discount and other bit and pieces is not a problem of money. It's a problem of compatibility / upgrade and maintenance of the platform when you trying to run more than just OC.