Passing data in and out of the cart

[Chuck]

Squirrelcart looks wonderful! I have a couple of questions about our specific application.

We sell photographic services on the Internet to Realtors. We gather data about the property to be photographed and the buyer selects a photo package for the property.

Question 1:
Since we don't need a "quantity" variable available anywhere on the cart, can this field be eliminated -- default to "1" of whatever item is selected?

Question 2:
Since we gather the data about the subject property prior to payment, can we either pass these variables along as hidden fields, or return to the original session to retrieve the variables after the payment has been successfully completed?

We are currently using PayPal and 2CO, but starting standard processing via Authorize.Net in the next week or so. I'm absolutely clueless on how to smoothly complete our transactions. We currently store the initial data about the property prior to payment, and end up at the end of the day comparing payments received with data stored. Ouch! There must be a better way. We'd like to have the listing data stored with the record of payment only at the end of the entire transaction -- and then generate a confirmation email to the customer, and an email for us to dispatch the photographer.

I'm real new to all this, and just completed our most recent site with PHP -- my first try at it. So please speak slowly, and don't use big words.

Thanks!
Chuck

[Jamie]

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for contacting us!

Question 1:
Since we don't need a "quantity" variable available anywhere on the cart, can this field be eliminated -- default to "1" of whatever item is selected?

Yes. What you would do is change the quantity field on the "show_product_detail.php" template form a regular field to a hidden one with a value of one, like so:

<input type="hidden" name="quantity" value="1">

Question 2:
Since we gather the data about the subject property prior to payment, can we either pass these variables along as hidden fields, or return to the original session to retrieve the variables after the payment has been successfully completed?

I am not sure if I understand. If you need to gather info about the property at time of payment, you could use text options. These are used for such things as entering greeting card messages, engravings, etc. They are basically just text fields that appear along with the product. Any info entered in them will appear in the order emails.

Thanks!
Jamie