Documentation Support > Cart > Overview
The ZAP shopping cart system is simple yet powerful and flexible. It is not designed for enterprise level applications, but for most simple uses, it should be quite adequate.
There are two main parts to the ZAPcart system--that can be used separately or together. The first part allows you to set up an easy to use shopping cart system. The second allows you to set up a PayPal payment gateway. Here is an overview of how they work.
The Shopping Cart System
1) To use the Shopping Cart, items must first be defined on the Site.ZAPCartConfig page. These items are defined by simple text variables as follows:
SK: Survival Kit|7.00 BT: Basic Training|10.00
2) You can enable users to add items to a Cart by simply putting a (:zapcart Item:) markup on a page. A complete ZAPform is created that saves a quantity for that item on the orderform. You can even put several of these on one page and they will all work independently of each other.
3) The (:zaporder:) markup generates a table drawn from the items they have added to their cart, and calculates the subtotal, shipping and total for the purchase. This form allows a person to change the quantities of their purchases. You can go straight to PayPal from this form or go to a confirmation page. If desired, the (:zappay:) markup can be used to submit the form.
4) The optional (:zapconfirm:) markup creates a final, non-editable version of the order form ready for submission to PayPal. Normally, the confirm page looks for values set by the ZAPorder form (subtotal, shipping, total), and will not work by default without it. If desired, the (:zappay:) markup can be used to submit the form.
Either the ZAPorder or ZAPconfirm page will include email commands to forward the order information to you. Normally you would add other important fields to the form as well, like name, email, phone, address, etc. Once your order is ready, you can then send the user to the Payment Gateway.
Payment Gateway
1) A special "paypal" page should be set up with the (:paypal:) markup on it. This takes all required parameters and automatically submits the information to PayPal for processing. You will need to match the payment confirmation from PayPal with the Order form from your website, to ensure payment was completed.
2) To trigger the paypal page, you must submit a form with the action set to the paypal page, and a total field set to some number (optionally preceded by a $). If no total field is set, it can be inserted as a parameter in the (:paypal:) markup. Normally this is provided by the (:zaporder:) or (:zapconfirm:) markups, but it can be done with a text input field, radio buttons, a hidden field, or any other input field.
3) Upon completion of their payment, PayPal returns the user to your specified Thank You page. If the name is difficult to guess, it provides some security payment has been completed (for downloads, etc.) but as of yet, I do not have a markup to verify payment, so do not count on it. I understand PayPal can send a payment confirmation code--and if someone does the research for me, I'll add a system for taking advantage of that information.
Using the Payment Gateway by itself makes it easy to charge a membership fee, purchase single items, make a donation, etc. Enjoy!