This chapter has explored some advanced e-commerce features related to pipe-lining the order, payment, and shipping process. This sort of integration is traditionally very complex and expensive. Prior to web frameworks like Django it would often involve a team of developers and numerous home-grown modules and tools. Using a modern web framework combined with innovative third-party APIs provided by Google Checkout and shipping companies, it now becomes feasible for a small development team to implement on a reasonable schedule. These features include:
Tracking an order's status as it moves through our system
Retrieving information from the payment processor to automatically update order information
Shipping services APIs for calculating delivery costs
Integrating carrier-calculated shipping costs with our Google Checkout shopping cart
A simple pair of views for receiving customer feedback
These are relatively advanced features that may not be necessary for all e-commerce sites. However...