Re: MVC design for shopping cart

I would simply create a component called Cart and add a read() method to just pull the products. Something like this:

class CartComponent extends Object {

var $components = array('Session');

function read() {

$Product = ClassRegistry::init('Product');

$productsInCart = $this->Session->read('Cart');

$cart = array();

foreach ($productsInCart as $product) {

$cart[] = $Product->read(null, $product);

}

return $cart;

}

function save($id) {

$productsInCart = $this->Session->read('Cart');

$productsInCart[] = $id;

return $this->Session->save('Cart', $productsInCart);

}

}

Then you access it from the controller and you're good to go. Technically it's not MVC since the Cart should be a model, but do you really want to write a datasource to pull/save to the Session just for something simple like this? I mean, since there will only ever be *one* cart record (from the eyes of the user) it doesn't seem to make sense to go to all the trouble. Breaking MVC patterns is okay every once in a while :) This component would be easily testable and separate from your controller.

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012 1:06:27 PM UTC-8, Christian wrote:

Hi,

I'm currently trying to create a shopping cart solution with cake 1.3.
In the current design, only the product id of a chosen product will be
saved in the session, each time the customer lists the cart items, all
information needs to be read out of the database.
My idea was to create a seperated model (no relation to any table)
where all cart calculations can happen in, which can then be used in
several controllers. However, this would mean that this cart class
would need to use several other product related models (product
details, taxes, countrydetails, etc.), which is not easily supported
by cake, since it breaks the MVC model.
The workaround would be to implement the logic in a controller where I
can easily access all models, however, this breaks two other basics,
once the "fat model skinny controller" rule and on the other hand the
code is not easily reusable for other purposes.

My question is now how where to implement the cart functionality (e.g.
summary price, discount, taxes calculation, etc.) without breaking MVC
but with sticking to "fat model skinny controller" and the re-
usability of my code.

Thanks,
Christian

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012 1:06:27 PM UTC-8, Christian wrote:

Hi,

I'm currently trying to create a shopping cart solution with cake 1.3.
In the current design, only the product id of a chosen product will be
saved in the session, each time the customer lists the cart items, all
information needs to be read out of the database.
My idea was to create a seperated model (no relation to any table)
where all cart calculations can happen in, which can then be used in
several controllers. However, this would mean that this cart class
would need to use several other product related models (product
details, taxes, countrydetails, etc.), which is not easily supported
by cake, since it breaks the MVC model.
The workaround would be to implement the logic in a controller where I
can easily access all models, however, this breaks two other basics,
once the "fat model skinny controller" rule and on the other hand the
code is not easily reusable for other purposes.

My question is now how where to implement the cart functionality (e.g.
summary price, discount, taxes calculation, etc.) without breaking MVC
but with sticking to "fat model skinny controller" and the re-
usability of my code.

Thanks,
Christian

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012 1:06:27 PM UTC-8, Christian wrote:

Hi,

I'm currently trying to create a shopping cart solution with cake 1.3.
In the current design, only the product id of a chosen product will be
saved in the session, each time the customer lists the cart items, all
information needs to be read out of the database.
My idea was to create a seperated model (no relation to any table)
where all cart calculations can happen in, which can then be used in
several controllers. However, this would mean that this cart class
would need to use several other product related models (product
details, taxes, countrydetails, etc.), which is not easily supported
by cake, since it breaks the MVC model.
The workaround would be to implement the logic in a controller where I
can easily access all models, however, this breaks two other basics,
once the "fat model skinny controller" rule and on the other hand the
code is not easily reusable for other purposes.

My question is now how where to implement the cart functionality (e.g.
summary price, discount, taxes calculation, etc.) without breaking MVC
but with sticking to "fat model skinny controller" and the re-
usability of my code.

Thanks,
Christian

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