PrestaDB

I have used Prestashop as my e-commerce platform of choice for around 2 years now. Over this time I’ve created several complete stores (and accompanying themes), a number of custom modules, a bunch of core changes and so forth all while tearing my hair out because of a lack of documentation.

This has long been a problem, and although Prestashop has come a long way in terms of its MVC pattern, overrides, Smarty 3 etc, clear documentation about Prestashop’s API has not just been lacking, its been absent.

I’ve also noticed a growing number of community members becoming more and more disgruntled that complete, and useful documentation is hard to find.

My proposal

I propose to create a clear and concise website featuring API Documentation, tutorials and news for the Prestashop open-source e-commerce platform that the community can use as an aid while developing.

Features

I will update each feature as we introduce or disregard new ideas.

• API Documentation
  • Controllers
  • Classes
  • Smarty
  • Templates/Themes (and the variables available to each file)
• Tutorials (including those submitted by the community)
  • Text articles
  • Video tutorials
• News / Updates / Blog
• Stack overflow style questions/answers (?)
• User accounts
  • Commenting
  • Content submission / editing
• Multiple languages
• Retain support for earlier versions as new releases become available.

Vitals

Name: PrestaDB
Domain: http://www.prestadb.com/ (registered, hosted, primed and ready).
Platform: CakePHP

The website will be fairly large, with many inter-linking features I’ve decided to step away from trying to shoehorn it into a framework such as WordPress, Drupal or MODx and instead decided to use the project as an opportunity to create a live website using CakePHP.

Note: It’s also my intention to keep an ongoing journal on the website’s development. I believe that by putting my thoughts into writing I will be able to plan this project much more efficiently, as well as perhaps gaining the support of the Prestashop community along the way.

This post is the first in a series of posts on this project, I will update each post as we introduce or disregard new ideas.

Collaboration

I am very interested to hear your thoughts and ideas on this proposal. Please use the comments form below if you have any suggestions or questions!

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