I’m continuing my evaluation of open source ecommerce packages by installing TomatoCart. TomatoCart was chosen as the second runner-up of the 2010 Open Source Awards as published by Packt Publishing.

I began my TomatoCart installation by reviewing the tomato Cart documentation WiKi. The wiki has many uncompleted links, but I managed to find the TomatoCart User Guide, which covered the basics needed to get the software installed.

I downloaded the current version, TomatoCart v1.1.3, and saved it to my “install\tomatocart” folder. I then created a new “tomatocart” folder under my “www” root folder and copied the contents of the “gtrunk2” folder from the downloaded file there.

I then went into Windows IIS7 Manager and created a new Web Site at port 8003. I also added an additional binding for my local IP address of 192.10.11.21. Lastly, I opened my firewall port at 8003.

I then browsed to the site’s install URL, 192.10.11.21:8003/install, and followed the installation procedure. I soon realized that I needed to create a new MySQL database schema and user, so I logged into MySQL Workbench, and created both. I make sure that the user only has privileges to it’s own schema, and that it can only log in locally to the server. I gave the user total rights to it’s “tomatocart” schema.

I continued with the installation, entering all the database information requested. I chose the MySQL – InnoDB (Transaction-Safe) database type. Upon hitting the “Continue” button, the import ran for a few seconds and then bombed with the following error:

 

There was a problem importing the database. The following error had occured:

1064: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ‘type = innodb’ at line 1; alter table toc_weight_classes_rules type = innodb

Please verify the connection parameters and try again.

 

I then logged into MySQL Workbench and entered the “alter table” SQL statement. It has a syntax error. Upon looking up the correct syntax, it should be “alter table toc_weight_classes_rules engine = innodb;”. I executed the code, and it works fine.

I next tracked down the offending code that produced the bug by searching for it in the installation folder using the grepwin explorer tool. I located the problem code in the “install\rpc.php” file. I changed the code from “type = innodb” to “engine = innodb”, saved the file, then dropped the “tomatocart” schema and re-created it. I then re-ran the installation, and the tables loaded fine.

I continued with the installation and completed it with no additional problems. I next renamed the “install” directory to prevent it from being run again.

I next renamed the existing “robots.txt” to “robots.txt.orig” and replaced it with the following to prevent spidering of my demo site:

# go away
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

I’ve completed the installation, and now I need to begin configuring it. So, apart from the minor bug, it was a pretty easy installation.

I’ll keep updating this post as I continue working with TomatoCart.

As always, you’re welcome to view my TomatoCart demo site here. It will be available while I’m working during the day. If you should need any help with your installation, send me an email. I’d be happy to help you out! Have fun!

Update on 3/2/2011

While attempting to add a new product with a “variant”, I got the following error message:

“Error: There was a problem performing the action.”

Upon further research, I discovered that “STRICT_TRANS_TABLES” needed to be removed from the sql-mode parameter in the my.ini startup file.