Need Help with X-Cart? Sorry, none here…
This week I had the joy of experiencing X-Cart. And what joy it was. How I love thee, X-Cart!
(Ummm… yeah… Can you hear the sarcasm in my typing?)
Let’s start with some ugly truths. This shopping cart software is far from ideal for beginners. It’s certainly feature-filled, but the sad thing is, it’s so counter-intuitive that third-party add-ons have been created just to make X-Cart “easy to use”. What?!? Shouldn’t it be easy in the first place? Oh well, guess I’ll have to fork out some money for that add-on. (NOT)
Ugly truth #2 is that X-Cart was created with profit in mind, not customer satisfaction or pride in well-built software or any of those feel-good things we really want from the developers who control our e-Commerce world. I’m not saying I blame them for wanting to make some money, I just think they’re doing it the wrong way. Let me explain…
X-Cart is built around Smarty templates. For those of you who don’t know what Smarty is, it’s sort of like a “translator” for PHP - a so-called “Template Engine” - that separates the programming from the page design. The Smarty website says, “Designers can’t break application code. They can mess with the templates all they want, but the code stays intact.” Since you really shouldn’t “touch” the code logic, if you do and you screw it up, well, you’re either on your own or you pay to have it fixed. Sounds like a really good choice for building an e-Commerce framework if you want to make money on tech support.
The X-Cart website reinforces my not-so-kind assertion of (gasp!) greed, or something like it, anyway. Their customization services are actually reasonable at $29/hour, assuming you’re not paying for a week’s worth of work. They never give an average figure, so I can only guess how long it takes to complete a custom modification. But here’s the real trick: Support isn’t billed on an hourly basis. You earn “points” when you buy their software, which can then be used to receive support. Ask them a question about how X-Cart works: 10 points. Need installation? 150 points. If you run out of points, they’ll be happy to sell you more… up to 1200 at a time. (Cost: $585.25) It kind of reminds me of gambling. Once you stick your money in the slot machine, it turns into credits and doesn’t seam like real money anymore, thus making it easier to spend.
OK, I’ll be fair. They can’t just give away their time to help people, can they? That’s what the Support Forums are for. Only, the forums are filled with a bunch of other customers who are feeling as lost as you are, and a lot of the posts don’t get any replies at all. You won’t know that until you buy X-Cart, though, because you can’t access the forums until you’re approved for an account.
To log in to X-Cart / Litecommerce forum, you need to get authorized by Help Desk.
Please identify yourself with a username (account e-mail) and a password.
I will grant them one thing. There is a lot of documentation and some forum threads for absolute beginners. There’s just not much of substance for “advanced” users. Case in point: here’s an excerpt from a sticky post in the forums, “New to X-Cart? Read this first!”.
There is also a manual available here: http://www.x-cart.com/manuals.html It isn’t the best in the world, but it is a good place to start!
While X-Cart has a steep learning curve, you will find a wealth of information and assistance here in the forum to help you get your store off the ground. Good luck and welcome!
(Hey, at least they’re friendly.)
Ugly truth #3 is that even through X-Cart is touted as PHP software, there’s enough javascript in there to make your head whirl. It’s bad enough that they use javascript to validate their forms. It’s even worse that the Add to Cart button stops functioning for visitors who have javascript turned off in their browser. No javascript = no sales. One of the major advantages of using PHP is that it doesn’t care if people have javascript turned on or not. Any good tutorial on website design and usability will tell you that javascript should be reserved for non-critical site functions ONLY.
My personal frustration is over the fact that I’ve taken on a new client whose previous website designer installed X-Cart for them. My client is frustrated, too, because the software is confusing to them. All they know is that they’ve paid thousands of dollars to a web designer to give them an e-Commerce website that doesn’t really do what they need it to do. They certainly don’t “get it” that template-based websites are just that: template-based. There’s no “I want to change how one product page looks,” or “We need this part of the website to work differently.” It’s a template. Once you start modifying a template, you run the risk of screwing up other parts of the site, or losing changes if you upgrade to the newest version. So it takes forever to change, test, add, test, then test again just to be sure. Development costs skyrocket and there’s not much to show for it. There’s no satisfaction in that kind of work.
I’ll end my rant with these words of wisdom: “If you want it done right, do it yourself.” In other words, if you want to start cheap, that’s fine. Just realize that if you need an e-Commerce website that works for you, exactly the way you want it, you will have to pay for a custom job. Skip the X-Cart, buy Boardwalk, pass Go, collect $200.