One plugin to package together all the tools needed to build your own shopping cart in CakePHP.

When I started my first attempts at E-Commerce I was rediculously scared about doing things "properly" because handling money is a huge responsibility. No defacto solutions for Cake at the time, so I ended up chickening out and using Google checkout buttons. It's not that secure really.

Then the opportunity came round again, and although a Paypal plugin existed, it was using buttons too. I figure this would be my opportunity to learn proper E-Commerce design. What I found out about the code I was replacing was this: It sucked, it was totally insecure, and it was completely inconsistent. I realized anything I make would be better. So I moved forwards.

Problem with a developer-oriented framework like Cake is everyone tends to make their own custom solutions rather than extending existing ones (at least half the time). And oddly enough a standardized solution for payment gateways was never layed out. So here it is.

It's still raw and in progress, but it does some pretty powerful basic stuff, and it's got the roadmap for the right direction. First: all gateways are datasources. Second: it wraps the PHP port of ActiveMerchant from the RoR world. Third: it does what the competitors do, and is in place to do more.

I need collaborators though. People ask me every day how and if they can use it, expecting a fully working cart. This is something I want to provide but is not yet a priority. I need help figuring out the direction to take development. Oddly enough most noobs disappear and most pros build their own solutions anyways. Lame.