The shopping cart<\/b> functionality is an important part of every e-commerce project. It helps the user to select and purchase multiple items at once. Also, the online shopping cart allows viewing the selected items and the total price before submitting the order. If you want to build a simple PHP shopping cart<\/b> from scratch, this step-by-step tutorial will help you a lot. In this tutorial, we\u2019ll provide the complete guide and example code to create a simple shopping cart in PHP using SESSION and MySQL.<\/p>\n
A shopping cart is a must-have module for any eCommerce website. In this tutorial, you\u2019ll learn how to build a fully functional shopping cart system in PHP using:<\/p>\n
This example shopping cart script is designed in a way that can be implemented easily in PHP application, and the tutorial makes it easy to understand the shopping cart concept in the web application. In our example script, we\u2019ll use PHP session to store the product information in the cart. Once the order is submitted by the user, the product\u2019s information will be inserted into the database using PHP and MySQL.<\/p>\n
Here is the project structure of the PHP shopping cart system:<\/p>\n
shopping_cart_system_with_php\/<\/span>\r\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 index.php\r\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 product.php\r\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 cart.php\r\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 checkout.php\r\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 order_status.php\r\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 inc\/<\/span>\r\n| \u251c\u2500\u2500 config.php\r\n| \u251c\u2500\u2500 db.php\r\n| \u2514\u2500\u2500 cart.class.php\r\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 api\/<\/span>\r\n| \u251c\u2500\u2500 cart_action.php\r\n| \u2514\u2500\u2500 order_submit.php\r\n\u2514\u2500\u2500 assets\/<\/span>\r\n \u251c\u2500\u2500 js\/<\/span>\r\n | \u2514\u2500\u2500 cart.js\r\n \u251c\u2500\u2500 css\/<\/span>\r\n | \u251c\u2500\u2500 bootstrap.min.css\r\n | \u2514\u2500\u2500 style.css\r\n \u2514\u2500\u2500 images\/<\/span>\r\n \u2514\u2500\u2500 product...images...\r\n<\/pre>\nCreate Database and Tables<\/h2>\n
Before we start coding, we need to create a MySQL database and the required tables. Below is the SQL code to create the database and tables for our shopping cart system.<\/p>\n
Run the following SQL commands in your MySQL database management tool (like phpMyAdmin) to set up the database named shopping_cart_db<\/code> (if you want to use existing database, you can skip this step):<\/p>\nCREATE<\/span> DATABASE<\/span> IF<\/span> NOT<\/span> EXISTS<\/span> shopping_cart_db CHARACTER<\/span> SET<\/span> utf8mb4 COLLATE<\/span> utf8mb4_general_ci;\r\nUSE<\/span> shopping_cart_db;<\/pre>\nRun the following SQL commands to create the required tables:<\/p>\n
\nproducts<\/code>: Stores product information (name, price, image, description, etc.)\n<\/li>\norders<\/code>: Contains order details (customer information, total amount, etc.)<\/li>\norder_items<\/code>: Stores product-wise purchase details (product ID, quantity, price, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n-- Products table<\/span>\r\nCREATE<\/span> TABLE<\/span> IF<\/span> NOT<\/span> EXISTS<\/span> products (\r\n id<\/span> INT<\/span> AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY<\/span>,\r\n name<\/span> VARCHAR<\/span>(255<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n description TEXT<\/span> NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n price DECIMAL<\/span>(10<\/span>,2<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span> DEFAULT<\/span> 0.00<\/span>,\r\n image VARCHAR<\/span>(255<\/span>) DEFAULT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n created_at TIMESTAMP<\/span> DEFAULT<\/span> CURRENT_TIMESTAMP<\/span>\r\n);\r\n\r\n-- Orders table<\/span>\r\nCREATE<\/span> TABLE<\/span> IF<\/span> NOT<\/span> EXISTS<\/span> orders (\r\n id<\/span> INT<\/span> AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY<\/span>,\r\n first_name VARCHAR<\/span>(100<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n last_name VARCHAR<\/span>(100<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n email VARCHAR<\/span>(150<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n phone VARCHAR<\/span>(50<\/span>) DEFAULT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n shipping_address TEXT<\/span> NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n billing_address TEXT<\/span> NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n total DECIMAL<\/span>(10<\/span>,2<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n created_at TIMESTAMP<\/span> DEFAULT<\/span> CURRENT_TIMESTAMP<\/span>\r\n);\r\n\r\n-- Order items<\/span>\r\nCREATE<\/span> TABLE<\/span> IF<\/span> NOT<\/span> EXISTS<\/span> order_items (\r\n id<\/span> INT<\/span> AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY<\/span>,\r\n order_id INT<\/span> NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n product_id INT<\/span> NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n name<\/span> VARCHAR<\/span>(255<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n price DECIMAL<\/span>(10<\/span>,2<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n quantity INT<\/span> NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n subtotal DECIMAL<\/span>(10<\/span>,2<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n FOREIGN KEY<\/span> (order_id) REFERENCES<\/span> orders(id<\/span>) ON<\/span> DELETE<\/span> CASCADE<\/span>,\r\n FOREIGN KEY<\/span> (product_id) REFERENCES<\/span> products(id<\/span>) ON<\/span> DELETE<\/span> RESTRICT\r\n);<\/pre>\nLet’s insert some sample products into the products<\/code> table to test our shopping cart:<\/p>\nINSERT<\/span> INTO<\/span> products (name<\/span>, description, price, image) VALUES<\/span>\r\n('Classic T-Shirt'<\/span>, 'Comfortable cotton t-shirt. Available in multiple sizes and colors.'<\/span>, 19.99<\/span>, 'assets\/images\/product1.jpg'<\/span>),\r\n('Sneakers'<\/span>, 'Lightweight running sneakers with breathable mesh upper.'<\/span>, 59.99<\/span>, 'assets\/images\/product2.jpg'<\/span>),\r\n('Coffee Mug'<\/span>, 'Ceramic mug with 350ml capacity. Dishwasher safe.'<\/span>, 9.50<\/span>, 'assets\/images\/product3.jpg'<\/span>);<\/pre>\nConfiguration File (inc\/config.php)<\/h2>\n
Create a configuration file named config.php<\/code> in the inc<\/code> directory. This file will contain the database connection settings and other configurations.<\/p>\n<?php
<\/span>\/\/ Database configuration - update with your local DB credentials
<\/span>define<\/span>(<\/span>'DB_HOST'<\/span>, <\/span>'localhost'<\/span>);
<\/span>define<\/span>(<\/span>'DB_USER'<\/span>, <\/span>'root'<\/span>);
<\/span>define<\/span>(<\/span>'DB_PASS'<\/span>, <\/span>''<\/span>);
<\/span>define<\/span>(<\/span>'DB_NAME'<\/span>, <\/span>'shopping_cart_db'<\/span>);
<\/span>\/\/ From email for notifications (update if needed)
<\/span>define<\/span>(<\/span>'FROM_EMAIL'<\/span>, <\/span>'no-reply@example.com'<\/span>);
<\/span>?><\/span><\/pre>\nDatabase Connection (inc\/db.php)<\/h2>\n
Create a database connection file named db.php<\/code> in the inc<\/code> directory. This file will establish a connection to the MySQL database using the configuration settings defined in config.php<\/code>.<\/p>\n<?php
<\/span>require_once <\/span>__DIR__ <\/span>. <\/span>'\/config.php'<\/span>;
<\/span>\/\/ Function to get a mysqli database connection
<\/span>function <\/span>get_db<\/span>()
{
static <\/span>$mysqli <\/span>= <\/span>null<\/span>;
if (<\/span>$mysqli <\/span>=== <\/span>null<\/span>) {
<\/span>$mysqli <\/span>= new <\/span>mysqli<\/span>(<\/span>DB_HOST<\/span>, <\/span>DB_USER<\/span>, <\/span>DB_PASS<\/span>, <\/span>DB_NAME<\/span>);
if (<\/span>$mysqli<\/span>-><\/span>connect_errno<\/span>) {
die(<\/span>'Database connection failed: ' <\/span>. <\/span>$mysqli<\/span>-><\/span>connect_error<\/span>);
}
<\/span>$mysqli<\/span>-><\/span>set_charset<\/span>(<\/span>'utf8mb4'<\/span>