Building site.. custom inventory system.. cart recomendation?

Question

I am building a site using code igniter. I am developing a custom product catalog using php and mysql.

What is the best way to go about making those products purchaseable online. I thought about writing my own cart, but I am a little worried about how much time that would take.

Most carts I come across online are full fledge inventory systems carts / a whole web site basically. I want to be able to really have full control.

What do you think my better options are? Any advise is welcome!

Answer 1

Don't be afraid of building your own. A shopping cart is a solved problem and there are many, many examples on the net. Just define your requirements carefully before you start: do items in the cart persist between sessions? What happens when an item in cart is no longer available for sale, etc.

Answer 2

If you want to have full control but be able to customize how users have that control, building it yourself is probably the only way to go. Depending on the amount of control you wanted to have, it could be very time consuming.

Search for shopping cart systems online and you can find lists like: http://webtecker.com/2008/04/22/8-best-open-source-shopping-cart-solutions/

Many have demos available that let you try before you download, and if you find something with all the features you want already, problem solved.