Is it worth to make shopping cart from scratch in node.js for a project involving ecommerce integration or should I go with some open source php cart?

[abhinav gupta]

I am a php developer who has worked on core php, wordpress, magento, etc. Now after hearing so many nice things about node.js I am thinking about switching.

My next project includes a combination of shopping cart, blog, forum and other custom pages. Now how should I go about making this project using node.js. Should I build the whole project using node.js, build shopping cart, blog, forum, payment gateway integration from scratch in node.js. I have never made a shopping cart through just core programming. Would it be that hard? Is it worth it? How long should it take? Can you guide me to some tutorials.

Or is there a way out using a combination of node.js and cart/forum made in php. Does it make any sense?

[Ryan Schmidt]

Others may disagree, but in my opinion, no, that doesn't make sense. Pick a language, php or node, and write your project in it. Others may advocate mixing and matching but that seems unnecessarily complicated to me.

I like node. I recommend you give it a try. But on a small project of manageable scope. Perhaps a simple site that you've already built in php that you can convert to node to see how it's done.

There are a zillion node modules already written, available in npm, which you can look through to see what might be helpful to you. Probably someone has written modules for integration with various payment gateways, for example. Maybe someone has written a shopping cart. But it can be time consuming to try out all the available packages to find the one (if any) that does exactly what you want. There's something to be said sometimes for writing your own code. It may take longer, but in the end you'll understand it, know how it works, and know that it does what you need.

[abhinav gupta]

Thanks. This is helpful. I am definitely going with any one of the platform now. Can you give me a rough estimate, how long would it take for a newbie to code a shopping cart in node who has never made a shopping cart. This would help me calculate if I have time to implement it for this project. Just a very rough idea. It would probably be only one time effort, then I can reuse it.

I really want to learn and code in node.js. Have not created anything with it but have gone through a lot of tutorials. Shopping cart is my main hurdle for coding in node. As most projects usually require cart integration these days.

[Ryan Schmidt]

I can't estimate how long it takes me to program my own projects; I wouldn't dare speculate how long it would take anyone else to code theirs.

[Mark Hahn]

>  how long would it take for a newbie to code a shopping cart in node who has never made a shopping cart. 

I have done it twice.  Once in PHP and mySql and the second time in node and couchdb, from scratch both times.  I would never do it from scratch again.

It took me about 4 to 6 months each time, but I enjoyed the node development more.  A lot of this was dealing with the UI but most was coding the business logic.  There are tons of things that were not trivial.  Dealing with the merchant providers,  the backend quickbooks, and the security of the transaction were all challenging.

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[abhinav gupta]

4 to 6 months! Thats a lot. And being a beginner, add another 2 months. Dont have this much time.

I looked for some published carts in node.js. Found nodeshop to be most popular. I think I will give it a try. May be it will be better than coding from scratch. 

[Tiago Pontes]

I've developed a client-side angularJS shop with a nodeJS backend in about a month.

I was planning to eventually branch out a generic demo version enough to ditch them out to new customers with a personalized layout and structure, however I'm too busy right now. Feel free to take a look and propose some sort of deal if you will. Ignore the "novidades" page please ;)

[George Stagas]

I just'd like to add a philosophical note to this thread and say that
it is worth making _anything_ from scratch, if you're driven and
inspired you shouldn't let go of that momentum just because something
else is out there. Even if you fail, you'd have gained more knowledge
and that alone makes it worth the effort.

2013/8/4 Tiago Pontes <tiago.c....@gmail.com>:

[Lucas Schmidt]

What I like to do is to always try new things in new projects, simply to make things interesting. But thats not always the smart decision, there are a lot of things that could change that decision:

- If you need this project done fast

- If this project is going to be something that may evolve into something huge 

- If you need money fast or you are just trying to have fun ... 

But I would say that a lot of big projects are choosing to separate everything completely, by doing little services separated by a REST layer. So, in this sense, you could do part in PHP, and part in Node, and this way, you can get:

- Faster development

- Knowledge

- Fun of learning new things

- ?? Maybe better architecture by having to separate everything ?? (some may question, and if your project is really small, this doesnt make any sense)

So its impossible for us to decide without having much background on the situation, but I would say that you will have to consider everything. I do not have experience in PHP, so I cant say, but I can do so much things fast with Node that it was an amazing idea to start working with it. If your project is going to be really small and really stable, and you dont have a lot of time, just go with what you know. Other than that, I would go with Node, just for the experience. Problem is that its not easy to develop a good architecture in Node I would say, callback hell is real.

Plus: 

Shopping cart? Well, thats heavy stuff, amazingly difficult I would say. A lot of variables that you will have to consider, thats not a first project I would do in Node. I for one do not wish on anyone to have to do a shopping cart type of system, you will take a lot of time, 4-6 months its something incredible fast considering so  many variables involved there and tests. There are a lot of problems to solve with shopping cart systems if they need to be somewhat complex ...

Good luck.