Getting started with the shopping cart
In ten steps you set up the shopping cart, test it and know how to handle the bookings.
With the shopping cart, a customer books several products in one go and pays once.
Examples
- A company books two meeting rooms on the same day
- A customer books the same room on four Tuesdays
- A group books a room and separate workshop rooms, with coffee and tea for everyone
Allow an hour for the first setup and just as long for testing.
Think about which products the customer should be able to book together, whether the price is the sum of the parts, and which emails the customer should receive. Write down straight away what you want to test later. Unsure whether a shopping cart suits you? Read Arrangements vs objects.
Go to Configuration > Configuration booking and set Shopping cart enabled and Temporary bookings active to Yes. Choose a Temporary bookings cleanup interval in minutes, for example 15.
More information: Activating the shopping cart.
Go to Configuration > Admin combinations and create an arrangement with Shopping cart = Yes. In the view Combi - Extra, add the products the customer may combine under Combination period. Decide whether the same product may be booked more than once, whether the next product starts on the same day, and how many products the shopping cart may hold at most.
More information: Creating a shopping cart arrangement.
Options for the whole shopping cart, such as coffee and tea for all rooms, are added in the Option detail block of the arrangement. The customer chooses them after filling the shopping cart.
More information: Shopping cart options.
Go to Configuration > Front pages > Booking dialog and go through the shopping cart screens:
- Shopping cart: Add to cart block: the cards the customer uses to add a next product
- Shopping cart: the cart while booking, with columns and display
- Shopping cart columns: the columns on the shopping cart page
The parent booking sends email according to the Status workflow of the arrangement. Do you also want the separate products to send email? Then set Status change handle children to Yes in Configuration booking. It is set to No by default.
In Menu's, add a menu item with the URL front?mod=cart. This way the customer can always get back to the shopping cart. You can also show the menu item to logged-in customers only.
Book as a customer on your website: one product, several products, with and without options, up to and including the confirmation email. Then check the booking in i-Reserve.
Test cases: Testing the shopping cart.
Make a shopping cart booking yourself in i-Reserve: under New booking, choose a product from the shopping cart and tick Add to Shopping Cart. Then add a second product and click Finish editing.
Steps and test cases: Testing the shopping cart.
A shopping cart booking consists of a parent and children. Read how statuses carry over, how to cancel one product and how to add a booking to a shopping cart in i-Reserve.
More information: Managing shopping cart bookings.
