[eCommerce Script] TomatoCart - A First Look Review

[KynloStephen66515]

OK, this is a first look review of this website script.  Please bear with me as I am currently being harrased by my puppy whilst typing! 

Basic Info

App Name	TomatoCart
App URL	http://www.tomatocart.com/
App Version Reviewed	1.0.1 - Free Open Source
Test System Specs	Linux Web Hosting
Supported OSes	Any Website Hosting with SQL
Support Methods	Guides, E-Mail, Phone, Twitter
Upgrade Policy	Via Free Download of an Upgrade Package
Trial Version Available?	No, Its FREE Open Source
Pricing Scheme	Free Open Source
Author Donation Link	Support TomatoCart by Voting For Them!
Reviewer Donation Link	Donate to Stephen66515, the Review Author
Screencast Video URL	Screenshots - Live Store Demo
Relationship btwn. Reviewer and Product	REVIEWER: There is no Relationship between the Reviewer and The Script Developer(s).

Intro:

TomatoCart is a great alternative to the likes of ZenCart, and osCommerce for anybody looking for a totally free, open source, and highly powerfull E-Commerce tool.

With a feature filled, AJAX driven Admin Suite, which works as a virtual desktop (See Admin Panel Screenshot Below), you will never need to hunt for an option again.

Unlike other scripts, this websites works directly 'out-of-the-box' and looks marvelous even on its default theme. (Change a few images, add your products and payment info, and your good to go).


Shop Front
[eCommerce Script] TomatoCart - A First Look Review

Admin Virtual Desktop
[eCommerce Script] TomatoCart - A First Look Review

Who is this script designed for:

Anybody who is looking for an amazing script to run thier online store.


The Good


Beautiful Default Theme
Hugely Powerful AJAX Driven Admin Virtual Desktop
Reviews and Ratings Feature
User Wish List Feature
User "Never Expires" Cart - Items stay until a user removes, or orders.


The needs improvement section

From the moment of installation, until now, I have not had a single error with the script.


This product could only really be improved by user involvement.  With it being free, open source, this is a user driven development, and with it being new on the market, we can only wait for more extentions to be added to the list, or create them ourselves.


Why I think you should use this product


If you are looking for a powerful, beautiful, sleek, strong e-commerce solution, you should certainly give this a look.


How does it compare to similar apps

Nicer Looking Themes
Hugely Organised Admin Panel

Conclusions

My conclusion is simple and is as follows:

If you don't use it now because its new, keep checking back every few days, see all the new things that have been added, and modified, and if in 2 weeks time you prefer another script, then so be it.  However, if you are serious about setting up an online shop, either a new one, or an upgrade of a current one, this is the script for you.


Links to other reviews of this application

No other reviews found.

[superboyac]

Thanks Stephen!  Great suggestions and review.  I have very big hopes for this in the near future.

[4wd]

OK, this is a first look review of this website script.  Please bear with me as I am currently being harrased by my puppy whilst typing! 

-Stephen66515 (November 16, 2010, 08:33 PM)

Would that be Puppy Linux?

[KynloStephen66515]

OK, this is a first look review of this website script.  Please bear with me as I am currently being harrased by my puppy whilst typing! 

-Stephen66515 (November 16, 2010, 08:33 PM)

Would that be Puppy Linux?

-4wd (November 18, 2010, 07:42 PM)

Nope, just an annoying 5month old bull mastiff X rottweiler being a little sod as per usual 

[JavaJones]

Looks nice. Reminds me of OpenCart, which I'm already a bit of a fan of. Nice, simple, easy to use, but still fairly powerful system. I'll have to take a closer look at TomatoCart as well.

- Oshyan

[superboyac]

I've been playing around with tomatocart the last couple of days, and it really is a great piece of software.  It's so nice, I was wondering if it could be used as a basic CMS tool.  Meaning, I could remove all the shopping cart stuff, and simply use its basic article tools.  I think that could work.  We'll see.

But as for an ecommerce website, this is looking like a fantastic tool.  Finally!  Thanks Stephen.

[JavaJones]

Surely there are other more appropriate simple CMS tools for basic article-driven websites? Heck even Wordpress might be better...

- Oshyan

[superboyac]

Surely there are other more appropriate simple CMS tools for basic article-driven websites? Heck even Wordpress might be better...

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (November 24, 2010, 02:52 PM)

I've used Wordpress extensively.  My problem with Wordpress is that it is fundamentally driven by the blog format, which really just means it's governed by chronological order.  It takes a lot to organize your content in any other way other than chronologically.  And I hate that.

[JavaJones]

Fair point. But likewise with Tomato you're basically having to work to turn off all the stuff it's fundamentally designed for (e-commerce) so you can take advantage of one small part of it. Instead I'd recommend checking out SilverStripe or Concrete5 for a good, simple, super easy to manage CMS with a lot more flexibility.

- Oshyan

[superboyac]

I'll take a look at those.  Ive been meaning to try Silverstripe, anyway.  Thanks.

[superboyac]

[everything is working fine]

[Shades]

Depends on your website hoster...with that I mean the webserver software that they use to serve your pages to the web and their rules or accessibility for configuring that software.

Likely they use a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) setup, as that setup has proven to be rock solid, fast (for most intends and purposes) and cheap (Open Source licenses). In that case, the Apache webserver can be configured by a text file. There are a lot of internet pages that explain how to configure it far better than I can.

There are also web interfaces built for this setup, so you can configure the webserver with your browser. But which one your ISP is using I don't know. Maybe that the one they supply for you to use has already an option to enable Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

[KynloStephen66515]

Ok, the domain forwarding is working fine.  Now, if you go to the site here:
http://www.compleximaginary.com/
The website address gets converted to this as soon as you enter the page:
http://www.complexim.../tomatocart/catalog/
Now, I'd like to get rid of the "tomatocart/catalog/" part.  How do I do that?

-superboyac (December 18, 2010, 04:34 PM)

The /tomatocart/ is where youhave uploaded your files (same as this forum is on /forum/) - If you want it on root - re-upload to the root directory of your FTP (If you need assitance feel free to PM Me)

The /catalog/ part (if memory serves) is required (unless u change the coding of most of the files included in the script)

If you easily hide both those directories when you enter the site, create a .httaccess to mask the index.php (Do not mask other pages as this will stop people being able to properly share links)

-Stephen

[superboyac]

I decided to go with wordpress with the prophoto theme and the phpurchase shopping cart plugin.  It's working out really well, I'm happy with.  It's more of a comfort thing.  I think it's going to be easier for me than tomatocart since I've had a couple years of wordpress experience now.

[edrez]

My problem with Wordpress is that it is fundamentally driven by the blog format, which really just means it's governed by chronological order.  It takes a lot to organize your content in any other way other than chronologically.  And I hate that.

WordPress is good and you can do a fine website with it as well with all the extensions, but I must agree with superboyac that I don't like the chronological order and the blog format. It depends what you want to sell through your e-commerce site - with some it might not matter. I'm thinking of setting up a site as well and include tomatocart. But first I still need to still get all the basics like a domain and web hosting. Then I'll think of the rest.