[Xshop-developer] RFC: ideas for xshop.

[Aric C. <gre...@pe...>]

OK.  So I see there's a few people watching.  Lots of folks have =
downloaded xshop.  But no comments (save one person, Mitchell Sheean, =
who has joined the project).  Anywho, its time to decide on what =
direction we want to go with xshop.

The first consideration is compatibility.  How compatible do we want to =
stay with old phpshop 0.6.x?  As you can see thus far, I have built on =
the existing base.  There are minor changes and additions to the =
database.  So far this is working, but there are major changes on the =
horizon.  The original phpshop folk had decided to essentially start =
from scratch and from what I understand (I cant find any documentation =
on core/commerce) the new phpshop was/is largely incompatible.  I'd like =
to stay reasonably compatible (a conversion script for the DB would be =
nice if possible) but not be saddled with the old db structure. =20

There are clearly problems with the existing db.  The product attribute =
system is, IMHO, terrible.  I've implemented a new "product options" =
mechanism which can do much of what the attribute system did, only much =
better (I will post some documentation on this).  I also plan to =
probably incorporate a "simple attribute" system like those discussed on =
the phplib forums.  Perhaps with these two systems we can just toss the =
old attribute system out the window.

There are tons of db queries being made and in some cases I'm not sure =
how to reduce it.  I have thought about all sorts of caching systems =
that could be employed, from simply caching the HTML page to having =
separate db tables.

module registry:  almost seems unnecessary and could be replaced with a =
"modules.ini" or something. =20

blocks:  I have some rudimentary blocks already and had planned to add a =
blocks table and associated admin that would allow selecting and placing =
blocks based on permissions, category, etc.  I had considered adopting =
the system used in phpslash (or even merging the two so we could also =
have a simple CMS).

merge modules:  it seems like many modules could be just combined.  =
Sometimes I have a hell of a time trying to remember where a file is!  =
It should also be possible to have a module have an admin entry as well =
as a public entry but currently (unless I'm missing something) its one =
or the other.

more thoughts to come.  I'm too tired to think of the rest.  :o