eCommerce (Hotel Booking) Management Systems

[Guest Guest]

Someone has asked me to have a look at making an eCommerce website for them. I'm no web developer, I have made a couple of Joomla sites, tweaked php code to fix w3 validation issues and stuff like that, but i am in no way an expert.

 

Obviously I'm not going to be able to build a site from scratch so ive been looking at Joomla equivelents and have found this Freeway: Home

Specifically this part of it EduGeek.net

 

Now to me this looks great. It does everything i want (i think, i havnt spoken to the bloke about his exact requirements. Im not even sure he needs to be able to take money on his site...). There are lots of payment options, one being Paypal and Paypal Credit card. To me these look secure as they are as all they do is pass the order info to Paypal, the handling of money seems to be all on the Paypal site. Am i right in my thinking here?

 

Does anyone have any experiance of Freeway? Or have any other suggestions of free or cheap eCommerce CMS's which fit service bookings? Or do you think I should give this one a miss as it could all end up in tears?

Edited April 27, 2008 by Guest

[acrobson]

It may be worth you bringing a pal on side you with a project such as this. If you know someone with design expertise and someone also with e-commerce experience offer them a chunk, depending of course how much if any you’re getting paid for the job.

 

Be upfront to the bloke, tell him you concerns and then it's on his head if he is happy to continue. It could bode well for you in the future, but, if the guy is local and knows similar people you know, it could destroy a reputation.

 

Paypal should be fine, you could also try Google checkout, not as commercial and requires all users to have a Google account, Not ideal and still ot very professional. Make it a team project, using mates etc with different backgrounds and try and do a bit of research online, checkout a few government websites and national guidelines etc, I’m sure there will be some out there somewhere.

 

Most of all, cover your back, if needs be, even get a written agreement sorted out prior to commencing work.

 

Best of luck!

Edited April 27, 2008 by acrobson
Minor spelling errors!

[contink]

It may be worth you bringing a pal on side you with a project such as this. If you know someone we design expertise and someone also with e-commerce experience offer them a chunk, depending of course how much if any you’re getting paid for the job.

 

Be upfront to the bloke, tell him you concerns and then it's on his head if he is happy to continue. It could bode well for you in the future, but, if the guy is local and knows similar people you know, it could destroy a reputation.

Definitely agree with this sentiment and get something in writing for when he "forgets"... He will!

 

Paypal should be fine, you could also try Google checkout, not as commercial and requires all users to have a Google account. Make it a team project, using mates etc with different backgrounds and try and do a bit of research online, checkout a few government websites and national guidelines etc, I’m sure there will be some out there somewhere.

Google Checkout requires a SSL cert protected site for their automated response system (equivalent of paypals IPN).

 

I wouldn't tie your boat to Paypal only either... as they are gradually getting more and more cocky with their policies... Having something that can work with additional payment systems is a good idea.

 

 

As to Freeway I don't think you want to go that route, there are already scripts out there that handle booking style calendars, and the like... A bit of time spent googling around to find them would be well worth it and it's also a good idea to look at similar sites to see if there's any clues as to what they are using. Often there's a link to the script author/site and/or something in the source code to give you clues...

[Scotmk]

There are ready made joomla components that do hotel management/booking modules.

 

Have a look here

 

Joomla! Extensions Directory