CartThrob User Guide
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Quickstart
If you'd like to get up and running in a hurry: click here
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
- Tutorials
- Backend Settings
- Post-Order Management
- Extending CartThrob (Developers)
- Selling Online
- Project Planning
- Getting Help
- Reference
Installing and Updating
- Server Requirements
Server & software requirements for installation of CartThrob software. - Installing CartThrob
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
- Overview
General information regarding CartThrob including purpose, overview, security, structure, and basic features - Getting Started
The fundamentals of CartThrob, setup, configuration, and template creation. - Shipping Overview
- Taxes Overview
- Discounts & Coupons/Vouchers Overview
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 Price Simple
- CartThrob Order Items
- CartThrob Discount
- CartThrob Price Modifiers
Additional field types available
- CartThrob Price Modifiers Configurator
This field type is similar to the price modifiers field type, except that it gives you the ability to dynamically add and change option groups, add text fields on the fly, and generate dynamic product configurators on the front end with little set up, all while tracking inventory on each configured item. - CartThrob Package
A field type used to create packages & bundled items. - CartThrob Price by Member Group
- 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
Post-Order Management
- Orders Dashboard
- Notifications
- [The order channel][order-channel]
- [The purchased items channel][purchased-items]
- Refunds
- Inventory Management
- ERP/Warehouse/Point of Sale Integration
Tutorials
- Adding Custom Data to Purchased Items and Orders
- Allow the customer to select a gateway
- Create Departments for Your Products
- Displaying an Order History List for Logged-In Members
- Hard Coding Price Modifiers and Product Options
- Securing your checkout page
- Using Price Modifiers and Product Options
- Overriding the gateway fields variable
- Using the vault system to authorize payments later
Developers
- Developing guide for CartThrob
- 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. - Plan: Selling Real Products
- Plan: Selling Photos
- Plan: Taking Donations