Q:
Your standard order forms don't match up with my needs.
Can I use my own somehow?

A:
Yes. We support up to ten totally custom forms. If you're a new user, you
should get familiar with things and try to get by with the standard form
selection before tackling this project. 

You can read more about building custom forms at:
http://www.cartserver.com/sc/cusform.shtml
Just follow the link to the documentation.


Q:
Do the form files need to be on my server, or your server?

A:
The files only need to be on your server during updates, when they are
"fetched" by Americart and installed into your account. You should always
keep copies of them on your local system, at least, so you can update them
as desired. 


Q:
I don't understand the custom form documentation. What are you talking about 
here?

A:
It can get confusing, and people have told us so. We will be revisiting
the documentation soon to give a simplistic example for concept illustration.

In the meantime, try looking at it like this. There are three things
needed for a checkout form, the html form itself, the program to read the
form (Americart), and the template you receive in email with the data
filled in. 

The trick to having a custom form is to get Americart to use your files
instead of (or in addition to) its own standard ones. On the documentation
page for custom form building, we have a table which shows the two parts
of each "standard" form. 

You can download a pair of these, make some changes to them, and
install them as a custom form with the title of your choice. That's
really all there is to the concept. The rest is detail, in how data
is passed between the two parts.

We've gotten just as many "I've got it...it's simple!" emails as
"What are you talking about?" emails.


Q:
I've built four custom forms to use in place of your standard
forms, but yours still show up as selections. How come?

A:
Just making a new form does not preclude using the system forms.
You must reconfigure your cart and "de-select" those forms.


Q:
If I have five custom forms, and only want to change one, must
I put in the info for all of my custom forms?

A:
Yes! At present, Americart will always fetch ALL custom form
files each time you submit the form builder page. Always
make sure that they are all available on your website before
building custom forms.


Q:
Americart refuses to copy my custom file pairs off my website.
The size always shows as zero. What's wrong?

A:
Try looking at those files through your browser. If you can't see them,
neither can Americart. Also double-check your URLs. Keep in mind that
unlike testing pages on your local harddrive, the file pairs must be web
readable. 


Q:
I want to use your standard forms, but I want the selection names
to be different. Can I put in the URL of your system form file
pairs, and then put in my own title?

A:
That works, but we may rename or change those files without warning.
The table will always point to the right names though. If we rename,
your forms will continue to work, but you'd have trouble updating
them. The table on the documentation page will always point to the
right files, though.

Q:
What does this =-blah_blah-= stuff mean in the email form?

A:
The =- and -= are signals to Americart that inside the two is
a variable name for which it should substitute data from either
the html order form or the cart tracking data.

An example is:
Customer Email:  =-email-=

Americart will replace -=email=- with the VALUE of the variable
named "email" which the customer supplied in the html form. Variable
names must match exactly between the file pairs.

Q:
In my email file, can I put more than one variable on a line?

A:
Not presently, for coding efficiency reasons.

Q:
What is *CuR* in the email file examples?

A:
It's a trick we use to add the merchant currency symbol into the form. 
This is an international service, and we have people using money that is
not in $. You could presumably just replace it with a $ or whatever since
you already know what your currency is. 


Q:
Some variables are in the email file that are not in the html file.
What are these?

A:
These are reserved variables which contain information being tracked
by Americart. You can move these around, or delete some of them
if you don't care about their contents, but don't try to use those
same variable names yourself, or BAD THINGS might happen.


Q:
What are the variables for including the Order # and customer's IP
address in the text of the e-mail received from my custom order form? 
I noticed you used those in your standard order pages.

A:
If you keep the "Received by Americart" text in the custom html form,
the variables will be put in there automatically. The cart program
sticks them in when it sees that text, but you can use them like any
other variable if you want to:

In the emailed file only:

Order Number: =-ordernum-=
Customer IP#: =-customer_ip-=


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