CartThrob 2.1.3 User Guide
Last updated May 11th, 2012
CartThrob is first and foremost a shopping cart framework. It is a collection of tools that you can use to build a shopping cart experience to suit your specific purposes. While it doesn't have every possible tool you might need to create every possible ecommerce option you might imagine, it's certainly more flexible than just about anything else out on the market. We don't typically point out specific feature sets for CartThrob because it can potentially be used for so many systems; even those we haven't thought about yet. In summary though, what you can expect from CartThrob is the following:
- Shipping calculations
- Tax calculations
- Discount calculations
- Checkout management
- Membership and guest checkouts
- Membership creation
- Email notifications
Table of Contents
- Installing and Updating
- Getting Started
- Template Tags
- FieldTypes
- Videos
- Tutorials
- Backend Settings
- Extending CartThrob (Developers)
- Selling Online
- Project Planning
- Getting Help
- Reference
Installing and Updating
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Server & software requirements for installation of CartThrob software.
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Installation instructions & notes.
Upgrading CartThrob (point releases)
Instructions for upgrading CartThrob point releases (2.x to 2.x)
Upgrading from CartThrob 1 to 2
Instructions for upgrading your CartThrob 1 to CartThrob 2
Getting Started
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General information regarding CartThrob including purpose, overview, security, structure, and basic features
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The fundamentals of CartThrob, setup, configuration, and template creation.
Template Tags
Adding, editing, and viewing the cart Adding and manipulating items in the cart, and viewing the cart contents
Checkout Submitting the cart for payment capture and saving the order
Discounts & Coupons/Vouchers Adding coupon/voucher codes and viewing current discount amount
Downloading files Protecting file downloads
HTML helpers Outputting select form fields & other HTML
Shipping tags Capture and display shipping information
Utilities Advanced & special use tags
Specialty FieldTypes
CartThrob includes several custom field types. Each field type comes with unique capabilities, and adds extra power to your CartThrob site. Some of these are installed by default, and others need to be configured. If you have used the auto-install setup, the following are installed automatically
CartThrob Discount
Additional field types available
CartThrob Package A field type used to create packages & bundled items.
CartThrob Price Quantity Thresholds This fieldtype will let you create items that are priced based on the number of units added to the cart.
Backend Settings
The list below includes all backend settings panels. Settings that may require additional documentation are linked.
- Global Settings
- Products
- Orders
- Shipping
- Taxes
- Discount
- Notifications
- Members
- Payments
- Reports
- Installation
- Settings Files
- Support
Videos
We have a dedicated Videos channel at Vimeo.com/mightybigrobot, where you can view all of our videos.
- Adding items to cart
- Ajax
- Checking out
- Configuration
- Debugging
- Downloads
- Quick Tour
- Shipping
- Updating the cart
- Viewing the Cart
Tutorials
Developers
Addons Add-ons that pair well with CartThrob
Selling Online
Project Planning
One of the most daunting tasks with ecommerce is knowing where to begin. The following are helpful tools for planning the perfect ecommerce site.
Project Checklist Start by asking your client the right questions before you begin.