Drupal Commerce 2.x. The eCommerce solution will be designed on Drupal 8 and a new version of Commerce 2.x.It will allow us to extend and split the key features with existing modules, contributed by the proactive Commerce community. Drupal Commerce 2.x integration The project can be found here on drupal.org and therefore can be installed using composer from the drupal.org packagist (no need to add the repo manually to your composer.json). The sources are available on github. Drupal Commerce 2.x core module has implemented features from more than 20 contrib modules that we needed fro Drupal 7. The idea is that Commerce core needs to cover functionality need for the majority of e-commerce websites.
Drupal Commerce 2 - Custom Shipping Method / Module. Ask Question Asked 3 months ago. Active 3 months ago. Viewed 149 times 0. I am attempting to write a custom shipping method module for our site since we use an internal service to determine shipping. I created a custom module that seems to be working with Commerce Shipping to pull back the.
Recent events, when Acquia announced its partnership with Magento, shook the Drupal community. Blog posts and tweets were written to ensure Drupal commerce is not neglected.
Do we need yet another commerce platform?
How can Drupal Commerce survive in the world of Shopify and WooCommerce, where setting a simple web shop takes a day or less? It makes sense that we ask ourselves if we even need a commerce solution for Drupal when there are so many doing it, and doing it more efficient.
Let's step back and try to understand what e-commerce is, because it's not only a shop that sells notebooks online and ships them with UPS. We see more and more digital products, like downloadable apps, subscription-based services, ebooks, membership etc. Every solutions like can be its own business model not covered by a general solution. This is where I see Drupal Commerce.
What is new in Commerce 2.x?
Drupal Commerce branch for Drupal 8 was started in 2014 by Commerce Guys, who maintain the version for Drupal 7. It was built from scratch to fix all of the mistakes done in the initial release and to leverage the new Drupal 8 framework.
Currencies
When initially setting up Drupal Commerce, we will need to enable at least one currency. Commerce makes it easier by enabling us to import a currency from a pool of word's currencies supported by data from CLDR.
Currencies in Drupal Commerce 2 have full support for locales and multilingual display and handle special cases like Arabic numbers out of the box. Discord icon maker.
Taxes
Taxes are hard, and every platform struggles to correctly handle all of the exceptions and special rules. Commerce 2.x will come with a new library for taxes that come with a new data model and tax resolver. Each tax rate can have more rates amounts that can depend on the location, context and date.
Stores
Stores are a completely new concept. In Drupal 7 we only had one instance of a store that had global settings like email and address. In Drupal 8 we can now create multiple stores that have different settings (email, address, default currency, tax settings, etc. ).
One thing to note is that each store will have its own cart and checkout. Even though it looks easy to set up a new store, it will be less likely you would want to set up multiple stores as it brings the overhead for customers.
Products
The new commerce comes with a new type of entity for Products. In D7, content (or node) types were used to display product information. This was confusing to many end users as they had to switch between Commerce and Content section. From the developer perspective, it is now easier to get to the product while looking at the items in the order.
Product variations
A product can have one or more variations, which are tracked by a unique stock keeping unit (SKU). In Commerce 2 the relationship is 1-to-1 as this is a common practice. In the previous version product variations needed to be created separately and then added to each product. This was improved with a module called Inline entity form, which is not required and implemented in Commerce 2.
Attributes
To separate one variation from another (i.e., different colors of a T-shirt), we use attributes. Commerce for Drupal 7 used taxonomy terms for setting up attributes. This was again confusing at Taxonomy lives separately from Commerce and was a bad UX practice. Now attributes are a separate entity managed inside Commerce section of the Drupal platform. Already, out of the box, it comes with an interface to bulk edit attributes of a certain type.
Fancy attributes
One other great feature of attributes is taken from the so-called 'Fancy attribute' module in Drupal 7. This module enables us to use images or other content to select a variation based on an attribute instead of a boring dropdown.
Orders
Like all the other items orders are entities, and we can create multiple types of orders. If we are selling two very different types of products (physical and digital), the flow and information would be different, and we can now have two completely different types of orders. Each order is completely configurable: emails, cart, views and workflows.
Order items and adjustments
From Commerce 1.x we know that each product place in the order was defined as a Line item. In Commerce 2.x, the line item was renamed to Order item, but it only holds purchasable products, wherein Drupal 7 line item was used for shipping costs and discounts.
Cart
If we have a shop with two different products, they added to two separate carts and checked out separately. This functionality comes out of the box. Each display of the card is provided by Views modules and can be completely customized to your needs.
Checkout flows
If we can have multiple order types and multiple carts, then it makes sense we can tailor the whole checkout flow based on the requirements. For example, to buy a website membership user need to have an account where physical products could be sold to anonymous users who will never need to login again.
Commerce 2.x comes with a default plugin 'Multistep', which is similar to what we knew in Commerce 1.x. Instead of trying to override the default flow the best practice is not to implement a checkout plugin that will do exactly what we need it to be doing.
Payments
One of the limitations of Commerce 1.x was that the payments lived inside of Rules, so managing the configuration was not easy, and once a module (e.g., Paypal) was set; there was no way to reuse the payment gateway. In Commerce 2.x all of the payment gateways come as plugins that can have multiple instances.
Right now only two major payment gateways are available for Drupal Commerce 2.x: Authorise.Net and Braintree.
Shipping
Drupal Commerce 2.x core module has implemented features from more than 20 contrib modules that we needed fro Drupal 7. The idea is that Commerce core needs to cover functionality need for the majority of e-commerce websites.
Shipping was not considered to be a must-have for all of the website (as mentioned at the beginning, digital products can become a niche for Drupal Commerce). Although creators of Commerce are well aware that there is still a big portion of websites that will need shipping in place.
Shipping can be very simple (flat rates) or can become very complex when introducing shipping services like UPS that calculate the price based on physical attributes of the package. Drupal Commerce 2.x Shipping takes into the account and introduces a new concept of boxing the products. Also, the shipping address is not attached to the order but the shipment. By default, there will be one shipment per order, but the underlying structure will allow us to build complex shipping logic.
I always felt that any website should be a tool for driving sales. And there is no better way than enabling customers to make a purchase right there on your website. And now you can do it with Drupal 8.
TLDR:
Acro Media created a Drupal 8 demo site with Drupal Commerce 2 and made it available on Github.
Building commerce websites is not easy. The only way to make it easier is to use a service like Shopify, where there are presets available that will cover requirements for 80% of entrepreneurs doing their first online commerce venture.
Sooner or later things get complicated ..
Sometimes a business becomes so big that it needs to have its merchandise in multiple warehouses, or it sells to customers from different countries, or it has simply developed a unique business model that is enabling its growth. In many cases, DIY tools can't handle those requirements anymore.
Do mind that I don't try to dismiss companies providing those services. I think services like Shopify are outstanding and that everyone should try to see if they can build their webshops on their platforms. When I get approached by potential e-commerce clients, I always advise starting with a cloud e-commerce platform, if the business needs can fit in their feature set.
OK, so what happens when I see the requirements of the business don't fit into Shopify or alike? Well, I advise going on a route to building something more complex, something entirely tailored to them.
Drupal Commerce 2 Install
Commerce on Drupal 7
When we were still building sites with Drupal 7, we had an excellent weapon in our arsenal: Drupal commerce. With the efforts of Commerce Guys, the company that took full ownership of the idea to build the best commerce solution, the Drupal community was able to say we don't only have pretty darn good CMS, but also a pretty darn good solution for building web shops.
Drupal Commerce 2018
I remember that it was quite easy to sell Drupal Commerce back then after showing Drupal Kickstart distribution. To be honest, Drupal kickstart was also very useful for us developers to figure out what are the best practices in developing Drupal Commerce sites.
Commerce on Drupal 8
With the arrival of Drupal 8, the future of commerce was in question. The company that was driving the development of open source modules and was able to stand behind the product (very important factor for enterprise clients) was not the same as it was years before. News that Acquia is partnering with Magento didn't help as well. While talking with many agency executives, the topic of e-commerce on D8 usually ended up with a conclusion: not yet.
Commerce Kickstart for Drupal 8
Taxes
Taxes are hard, and every platform struggles to correctly handle all of the exceptions and special rules. Commerce 2.x will come with a new library for taxes that come with a new data model and tax resolver. Each tax rate can have more rates amounts that can depend on the location, context and date.
Stores
Stores are a completely new concept. In Drupal 7 we only had one instance of a store that had global settings like email and address. In Drupal 8 we can now create multiple stores that have different settings (email, address, default currency, tax settings, etc. ).
One thing to note is that each store will have its own cart and checkout. Even though it looks easy to set up a new store, it will be less likely you would want to set up multiple stores as it brings the overhead for customers.
Products
The new commerce comes with a new type of entity for Products. In D7, content (or node) types were used to display product information. This was confusing to many end users as they had to switch between Commerce and Content section. From the developer perspective, it is now easier to get to the product while looking at the items in the order.
Product variations
A product can have one or more variations, which are tracked by a unique stock keeping unit (SKU). In Commerce 2 the relationship is 1-to-1 as this is a common practice. In the previous version product variations needed to be created separately and then added to each product. This was improved with a module called Inline entity form, which is not required and implemented in Commerce 2.
Attributes
To separate one variation from another (i.e., different colors of a T-shirt), we use attributes. Commerce for Drupal 7 used taxonomy terms for setting up attributes. This was again confusing at Taxonomy lives separately from Commerce and was a bad UX practice. Now attributes are a separate entity managed inside Commerce section of the Drupal platform. Already, out of the box, it comes with an interface to bulk edit attributes of a certain type.
Fancy attributes
One other great feature of attributes is taken from the so-called 'Fancy attribute' module in Drupal 7. This module enables us to use images or other content to select a variation based on an attribute instead of a boring dropdown.
Orders
Like all the other items orders are entities, and we can create multiple types of orders. If we are selling two very different types of products (physical and digital), the flow and information would be different, and we can now have two completely different types of orders. Each order is completely configurable: emails, cart, views and workflows.
Order items and adjustments
From Commerce 1.x we know that each product place in the order was defined as a Line item. In Commerce 2.x, the line item was renamed to Order item, but it only holds purchasable products, wherein Drupal 7 line item was used for shipping costs and discounts.
Cart
If we have a shop with two different products, they added to two separate carts and checked out separately. This functionality comes out of the box. Each display of the card is provided by Views modules and can be completely customized to your needs.
Checkout flows
If we can have multiple order types and multiple carts, then it makes sense we can tailor the whole checkout flow based on the requirements. For example, to buy a website membership user need to have an account where physical products could be sold to anonymous users who will never need to login again.
Commerce 2.x comes with a default plugin 'Multistep', which is similar to what we knew in Commerce 1.x. Instead of trying to override the default flow the best practice is not to implement a checkout plugin that will do exactly what we need it to be doing.
Payments
One of the limitations of Commerce 1.x was that the payments lived inside of Rules, so managing the configuration was not easy, and once a module (e.g., Paypal) was set; there was no way to reuse the payment gateway. In Commerce 2.x all of the payment gateways come as plugins that can have multiple instances.
Right now only two major payment gateways are available for Drupal Commerce 2.x: Authorise.Net and Braintree.
Shipping
Drupal Commerce 2.x core module has implemented features from more than 20 contrib modules that we needed fro Drupal 7. The idea is that Commerce core needs to cover functionality need for the majority of e-commerce websites.
Shipping was not considered to be a must-have for all of the website (as mentioned at the beginning, digital products can become a niche for Drupal Commerce). Although creators of Commerce are well aware that there is still a big portion of websites that will need shipping in place.
Shipping can be very simple (flat rates) or can become very complex when introducing shipping services like UPS that calculate the price based on physical attributes of the package. Drupal Commerce 2.x Shipping takes into the account and introduces a new concept of boxing the products. Also, the shipping address is not attached to the order but the shipment. By default, there will be one shipment per order, but the underlying structure will allow us to build complex shipping logic.
I always felt that any website should be a tool for driving sales. And there is no better way than enabling customers to make a purchase right there on your website. And now you can do it with Drupal 8.
TLDR:
Acro Media created a Drupal 8 demo site with Drupal Commerce 2 and made it available on Github.
Building commerce websites is not easy. The only way to make it easier is to use a service like Shopify, where there are presets available that will cover requirements for 80% of entrepreneurs doing their first online commerce venture.
Sooner or later things get complicated ..
Sometimes a business becomes so big that it needs to have its merchandise in multiple warehouses, or it sells to customers from different countries, or it has simply developed a unique business model that is enabling its growth. In many cases, DIY tools can't handle those requirements anymore.
Do mind that I don't try to dismiss companies providing those services. I think services like Shopify are outstanding and that everyone should try to see if they can build their webshops on their platforms. When I get approached by potential e-commerce clients, I always advise starting with a cloud e-commerce platform, if the business needs can fit in their feature set.
OK, so what happens when I see the requirements of the business don't fit into Shopify or alike? Well, I advise going on a route to building something more complex, something entirely tailored to them.
Drupal Commerce 2 Install
Commerce on Drupal 7
When we were still building sites with Drupal 7, we had an excellent weapon in our arsenal: Drupal commerce. With the efforts of Commerce Guys, the company that took full ownership of the idea to build the best commerce solution, the Drupal community was able to say we don't only have pretty darn good CMS, but also a pretty darn good solution for building web shops.
Drupal Commerce 2018
I remember that it was quite easy to sell Drupal Commerce back then after showing Drupal Kickstart distribution. To be honest, Drupal kickstart was also very useful for us developers to figure out what are the best practices in developing Drupal Commerce sites.
Commerce on Drupal 8
With the arrival of Drupal 8, the future of commerce was in question. The company that was driving the development of open source modules and was able to stand behind the product (very important factor for enterprise clients) was not the same as it was years before. News that Acquia is partnering with Magento didn't help as well. While talking with many agency executives, the topic of e-commerce on D8 usually ended up with a conclusion: not yet.
Commerce Kickstart for Drupal 8
Drupal Commerce 2 Stock
But Drupal commerce 2.x for Drupal was successfully released, and there are already many excellent examples of huge e-commerce website built with it. What is great about Commerce 2.x is that is very functional out of the box. This is also the reason a Kickstarter distribution was not developed. However, I did miss a demo that I could showcase to potential clients.
Recently I stumbled upon a blog post from Acro Media. I realised they've set up a demo website with Drupal 8 Commerce 2.x showing its full features months ago! If you missed it as I did, I welcome you to check it out.
Links:
- Drupal 8 commerce 2.x demo website
- Source code with DB export and files on Github
Photo by Mike Petrucci on Unsplash
Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash
