Book Image

Django 1.2 E-commerce

By : Jesse Legg
Book Image

Django 1.2 E-commerce

By: Jesse Legg

Overview of this book

<p>Django is a high-level Python web framework that was developed by a fast-moving online-news operation to meet the stringent twin challenges of newsroom deadlines and the needs of web developers. It provides an excellent basis to build e-commerce websites because it can be deployed fast and it responds quickly to changes due to its ability to handle content problems. Django with its proven strengths is all you need to build powerful e-commerce applications with a competitive edge. <br /><br />This book explores how the Django web framework and its related technologies can power the next leap forward for e-commerce and business on the Web. It shows you how to build real-world applications using this rapid and powerful development tool.<br /><br />The book will enable you to build a high quality e-commerce site quickly and start making money. It starts with the ambitious task of using Django to build a functional e-commerce store in less than 30 minutes, and then proceeds to enhance this design through the rest of the book. The book covers the basics of an e-commerce platform like product catalogs, shopping carts, and payment processing. By the end of the book, you will be able to enhance the application by adding a fully-functional search engine, generating PDF-based reports, adding interactivity to the user-interface, selling digital goods with micropayments, and managing deployment and maintenance tasks.</p>
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Django 1.2 e-commerce
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
Index

Calculating shipping charges


Handling shipping and its related charges is one of the most difficult aspects of an e-commerce platform. In many countries there are a wide variety of shipping companies, each with their own list of services and fees. The issue is further complicated by the fact that shipping costs must be computed before accepting payment from a payment service.

If you ship only a few products with very similar characteristics, it can be relatively easy to manage. You'll often know exactly how much to charge for shipping and can hardcode those values into your payment processor (in the Checkout shopping cart XML, for example). Often this is unfeasible, though, because you sell so many products in such different sizes and packaging.

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to these problems, but tools such as Django and Python can simplify your life if you struggle with generating accurate shipping charges. The large shipping companies such as FedEx, DHL, UPS, and even the United...