Client photo ordering system in Joomla 1.6

Question

I am developing my own website in Joomla 1.6 and I've added ACL successfully for my client login. I am using Phocagallery to handle the upload of my photos of different clients to the webserver. This gives me the ability to handle multiple file uploads and automatic creation of different thumnails and detail sizes. I can also use phocagallery for several other things like slideshows in pages and so on.

However I would also like to build a page for clients that gives them the ability to view their pictures one by one in a page with a form, in which they can use to select-lists to select different options for the prints they decide to buy. Options including print size, papertype and so on. I have not decided entirely how to go about this. Currently I am evaluating "Smartformer Gold" which looks like it has potential as one can add code to all elements in the form and connect the form to modules.

I am a rookie at PHP but I do my best and I work hard. What are the most important aspects that I need to consider when writing this code? Can someone give a couple of pointers to start me off in the right direction?

Answer 1

This is a lot more complicated than simply adding a form on a page with an image. Essentially, you are talking about e-commerce. You have to account for a product with attributes (the different print options), multiple product orders, a shopping cart that is associated with the user, transferring the association to the user account once a user logs in, order creation, payment systems, shipping/order fulfillment, etc.

Off the top of my head, if I was going to build something like this, I would probably start with these components -

1. Virtuemart to handle the cart, checkout, order management
2. K2 for client photo uploads
3. K2Mart to connect K2 and VM so the items created are also e-commerce products

No matter which way you go with it, it is going to be fairly complicated.