Q:
I've got a product option that people MUST fill out, but sometimes they forget. Can I safeguard against this?

A:
For select boxes, there's a built in solution. The first item in the select should be:

<select name=op1>
<option value="=error= You must select a size hat.">Select size</option>
<option value="S">Small</option>
...
<option value="J">Jumbo</option>
</select>

For other types of input, text boxes, radio buttons, etc, there is another construct, the "req" variable:

<input type=hidden name=req value="op1=message string^op2=next message">

Any op variable you wish to require can be listed here, along with the message to display if left blank. If you look at the construct, it's pretty self explanatory. Just make sure it's inside the <form> for the particular item.

The req tag will work with multi item submission also, just follow the format outlined for that method:

name=req_1 will match item_1

Q:
From the cart display I want people to be able to link back to my page where they originally added an item to the cart. How can I do this?

A:
There is a tag for this:

<input type=hidden name=parturl value="http://www.you.com/product2.html#widget">

The parturl tag will work with multi item submission also, just follow the format outlined for that method: name=parturl_1 will match item_1

Q:
My product descriptions are quite long, and wrap strangely in the cart display and in the emailed order. Can this be cleaned up?

A:
Yes. Just put a <br> as the first four characters in each option you wish to break to another line:

<input type=checkbox name=op5 value="<br>Giftwrapped please">

Q:
I've got an item that people might put in their cart, but I don't want the continue shopping button to take them back to that page. How can I avoid this?

A:
As you know, the Americart display displays a graphic which provides a link back to the last page from which an item was added to the shopping cart.

That often is just perfect, but some pages where you might have someone add something (sales tax selection perhaps), you don't want the customer to continue shopping there; it would be pointless. To give you more control over these "special" pages, we've created two new variables which you can use to avoid such problems.

gobackto, when included as a hidden variable, will tell the cart to go to a specified URL when continue shopping is selected. Use this format:

<input type=hidden name="gobackto"
value="http://www.cartserver.com/faq.html">

ignore_referer, The html structure is the same as gobackto, but this tag will just tell the cart to ignore this page as far as the continue shopping button goes, and return instead to the last page from which a normal item was added to the cart.

Q:
I add several items to the cart as a group, or package deal using multi-item submission and don't want shoppers to be able to remove an item from the group. Can I stop them from using the "remove item" button in the cart display to wreak havoc?

A:
Yes. To fix that, we've added a new tag which can go into the partnumber field of the items in a group. Just include =NA= anywhere in the partnumber field. Simple fix for a difficult problem. See the example page at http://www.cartserver.com/sc/groups.html

Q:
I want to offer discounts to people on my products. Can I?

A:
Yes. We have two systems for supporting this, our "traditional" discount system, and our new "quantity based" discount system. See this FAQ: Discounting prices and having sales

Q:
I'd like to have some "add to cart" functionality right in the cart display. Can I do it?

A:
Yes. The "merchant message" field in the advanced section of the configuration form is perfect for this. Here's an example of adding a "How did you hear about us?" query to the display, and the info will come through in the order:

<center><form action=cart.cgi method=POST>
<input type=hidden name=item value="a-1358^=SF==MX1=data^Heard via^0^1">
How did you hear of us?
<select name=op1><option>hotbot<option>altavista<option>yahoo</select>
<input type=submit value=go></form>

Q:
One feature in particular that I find very valuable is the ability of "cross selling" or better known as IMPULSE BUYING. When a customer orders one item, the ordering system can suggest related items they might want to buy as well. Do you support this?

A:
We call that "upsell". It is supported.

In a given product, whatever you want to offer as an upsell during checkout, put the following tag in that product's form construct:

<input type=hidden name=upsell
value="Some Toner for that <a href='http://www.cartserver.com/sc/us.html'>laser printer</a>?">

Be careful of how you do the quotation marks. See how we used single quotes inside the double quotes?

The page in the above reference example does not exist. We don't sell toner.   :)

Note that people will not see the Upsell message until they start towards checkout.