Just thought I'd post an update on the store. It is probably the most complex part of this entire website, with the exception of data migration from the old website..
I have created a 'master store' where anyone can visit, search, buy. It does have a "shopping cart", "Wish List", and various other things that may or may not come online after the initial release of the store.
Each user (any of you) can become a 'vendor'. A vendor is someone who owns a 'shop' in the store. Your shop might have many items with unlimited stock (example: warship plans), or just one item (example: an old pump) and anything in between.
Initially, I will support paypal or google checkout as a payment processor. Setting up Paypal is a bit tricky. My "buyer" successfully made a purchase, but my "seller" never got paid for it. (Kind of a problem) Paypal/Google are not the only options, but I'm not sure if the others are worth the trouble or not. (Probably worth investigating as paypal charges a fee on all tranactions)
It does also support a shipping calculator, but that is even more of a mistery right now. I have to sign up with UPS/USPS/etc and somehow hook that into the site. Haven't even started that yet.
On a side note, there are a lot of really cool things its capable of. For example, a "ship configurator".
A newbie wants to buy a ship, so it says:
- You need a hull (here are all the hulls).
- You chose Tirpitz, You might want a deck kit (here is the Tirpitz deck)
- You might want the ship's plans... (here it is)
- You might want a --->large<--- pump (here they are)
- Superstucture parts?
- [...]
That certainly won't be online @ first, but it certainly is possible.