Selling Online with Drupal e-Commerce
by Michael Peacock
Pack Publishing, 2008, $39.99
Technology books are generally expected to be on the shelves shortly after major releases of a particular software and therefore do not receive the most thorough editing possible. They're also quite expensive considering they have a relatively short shelf life because they're only really in demand until the new version of the software is released. Given that this book delivers on both counts and exhaustively details the cheesy example of Doug's Dino store, it's still a worthy read.
Well, it won't do you much good to simply read it. This book steps the reader through the process of setting up a website to sell goods and/or services over the internet. The book tells the story of a web-developer/designer(you) that contracts with the owner of a physical store to set up a website to sell his products and services on-line.
In the first chapter, the author explains how to install Drupal 5.x and the e-Commerce module, the most recent versions of this e-business duo. If you are interested in Ubercart, e-Commerce's other Drupal competitor, you're reading the wrong book. Micheal does a fair job of pointing out the pitfalls of downloading and installing the software. I wished he had directed the reader to download all the modules that would be needed for later chapters even if they wouldn't be installed until later. There is no one place in the book you can find a list of all the modules you will need for a particular store implementation.
In the next couple of chapters, the author explains the basics of Drupal and planning the store including even legal requirements. In my experience, these chapters and the chapter on theming were really lacking. My experience with customers suggests that they usually want to start with how the site will look. Granted this book isn't about theming, but even considering that, the look and feel topics are really sparse. Customers relate their online experience to how they want their physical store to look. All this form following function jargon is something for the developer and designer to juggle, the owner wants pretty first. Another problem I have with these chapters relates to the decision not to use CCK and the image field to display the products in the catalog. Although he suggests later that it might be a good idea to use CCK, it seems that a product catalog might be a perfect application of this popular module, and would ease the administration of a dynamic e-store.
The chapter about users, roles, and permissions is a must. This chapter alone will save countless hours of head scratching, and could single-handedly save the book. Many of the ways that users, roles, and permissions and creative uses of the taxonomy module can be implemented will allow the user to use, create, and sell almost limitless types of products and services.
The next chapters direct the reader in set up the shopping cart and checkout functionality, including detailed explanations of taxes, shipping, and payment gateways. I would like to have learned more about secure checkout, and security in general, it seems like a pretty important topic to a store owner and his customers. A small section of one chapter was spent on the CiviCRM module, it should have been skipped or covered in much greater detail. In the last chapter on Marketing Your Business, the author provides an extensive list of ways to market one's business, but doesn't describe how Drupal could be used to automate the process, or even recommended other products for the job. I bet there are a number of things that Drupal can do to help promote one's business.
Bottom line: Selling online with Drupal e-Commerce is a great introduction to the process of setting up a Drupal website for an internet based business. The author does a great job pointing out places where your intuition can get you into trouble, and points you in the right direction to modules not included in be basic Drupal: e-Commerce installation, but if you are new to selling, period; require a knock-out store design, or need help advertising your site, you are going to need a few more books. To it's credit, it's not a book simply about Drupal, but leads the reader through the whole process and discusses all the processes and services a store-owner will need to set up his store. I can't give it a big thumbs up, but a worthy read none-the-less.