External cart integration settings allow you to connect DecoNetwork with an external shopping cart or e-commerce platform while still using DecoNetwork’s product customization and decoration workflow capabilities.
These settings define how product, pricing, cart, and customer information is exchanged between DecoNetwork and your external storefront during the shopping and checkout process.
When configured correctly, the integration allows customers to customize decorated products using DecoNetwork tools while completing checkout within your external website cart.
External cart integrations can also use product view thumbnail images returned from DecoNetwork to display decorated products more accurately within external shopping carts and checkout experiences.
In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps to configure the external cart API settings for your DecoNetwork website, ensuring a smooth and efficient integration.
In This Article
- Why configure External Cart API settings?
- Prerequisites
- Step 1: Open External Cart API settings
- Step 2: Configure External Cart API settings
- Step 3: Test the integration
- Best Practices
- Troubleshooting
- FAQs
- Additional Resources
Why configure External Cart API settings?
External cart API settings allow you to connect DecoNetwork’s product customization workflow with an external e-commerce storefront or shopping cart platform.
Proper configuration helps ensure customer selections, decorated product previews, pricing, cart details, and order information continue progressing correctly between systems throughout the customer journey.
- Maintain a consistent customer shopping experience
- Allow customers to customize products using DecoNetwork tools
- Control how cart and checkout data is exchanged
- Display decorated product previews within external carts
- Support thumbnail images for all product views
- Reduce order processing errors caused by incomplete integration setup
External cart integrations can use thumbnail images for all product views when decorated products are added to external shopping carts. This helps external storefronts display more complete visual previews of customized products throughout the customer checkout experience.
Prerequisites
- Programming experience is required to integrate with DecoNetwork using External Checkout Integration. All integration is done using browser links and direct server-to-server communication across HTTPS.
- All payments will be marked as “External API Payment” which acts like a manual payment. It is your responsibility to make sure this payment is valid.
- You must have access to the “DataFeed” (go to /manage/data_feed) which is a zip file containing XML documents describing your products, including IDs used when integrating with DecoNetwork.
- This feature is only available on multi-store plans
- You must have administrator access to use this feature.
- You must have the External Cart API app enabled.
Step 1: Open External Cart API settings
- Log into your DecoNetwork Website.
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If you are the Fulfillment Center, browse to Admin → Websites.
Select Manage for the store you want to enable the API Settings on.
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Select API Settings.
If you have not used API Settings before, or you have previously disabled the External Cart API app, enable the External Cart API app by clicking on the yellow and black + button next to the API Settings menu item.
Click on the External Cart API banner, then click Add Now in the popup window to enable API Settings. Click Close once API Settings has been enabled.
Step 2: Configure External Cart API settings
Configure the required integration settings for your external storefront.
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Tick the Enable External Cart Integration checkbox.
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Enter the necessary information in the fields available.
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Add To Cart callback url: This is the URL on your external website that DecoNetwork will call when a customer adds a product to their cart.
Purpose: This callback URL ensures that when a product is added to the cart from your DecoNetwork site, the product information is sent to your external website, allowing it to be included in the cart on your main site.
Thumbnail images for all product are included in the data returned through external cart integrations, allowing external storefronts to display decorated product previews throughout the shopping and checkout workflow.Improvement implemented in V8.611. -
Cancel callback url: This is the URL on your external website that DecoNetwork will call if a customer cancels their order or removes an item from their cart.
Purpose: This URL ensures that when an order is canceled or an item is removed, the external site is notified so that it can update its cart and inventory accordingly.
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Commit order password: A password that is used to authorize the finalization of an order through the API.
Purpose: This field provides an extra layer of security by requiring a password to commit an order, ensuring that only authorized requests can complete the order process.
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Default shipping method: The default shipping method that will be used for orders if no specific shipping method is selected.
Purpose: This field ensures that there is always a predefined shipping method applied to orders, preventing any issues with orders lacking shipping details.
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P3P header: A Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) header is used to define the privacy policy of the external cart site.
Purpose: This field allows you to specify your site's privacy policy in a machine-readable format, which can help with compliance and inform users about how their data is handled.
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Options separator: This specifies the character or string used to separate product options in the cart. If left blank, two HTML newlines ("<br/><br/>") will be used by default.
Purpose: This field allows you to customize how product options are displayed, ensuring they are formatted correctly and clearly on your external site.
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Require external integration: A setting that determines whether external integration is mandatory for the checkout process.
Purpose: When enabled, this setting ensures that all cart and checkout actions must be processed through the external website, providing a consistent and integrated shopping experience.
Tick the Require external integration checkbox to enter a Redirect URL if accessing the site directly.
For information about the API, refer to our External Shopping Cart Integration help article.
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- Click Save to save the changes.
Step 3: Test the integration
- Open your external storefront.
- Customize a decorated product.
- Add the product to the cart.
- Verify that:
- The product is successfully added to the external cart
- Product customization details are retained
- Pricing information is correct
- Thumbnail previews display correctly for available product views
- The checkout workflow continues correctly
Best Practices
- Test the full customer workflow after changing integration settings.
- Verify decorated product previews appear correctly within the external cart.
- Ensure your callback URLs use HTTPS for secure communication.
- Work with your developer to confirm all supported product views and thumbnail images are displayed correctly.
- Re-test integrations after updating your storefront platform or custom integration code.
Troubleshooting
Products are not added to the external cart
- Verify the Add To Cart callback URL is correct
- Check that the external platform can receive API requests
- Confirm your API Key is valid
Product thumbnails are not displaying
- Confirm your storefront integration supports thumbnail image data
- Verify product view images are available in DecoNetwork
- Check your external platform’s image handling configuration
Incorrect product or pricing data appears in the cart
- Review your integration mapping configuration
- Verify the storefront is using current API responses
- Test the workflow using a new browser session
FAQs
Does the external cart integration support decorated product previews?
Yes. External cart integrations can use decorated product preview information, including thumbnail images for available product views.
Do customer customizations remain attached to the order during checkout?
Yes. The integration passes customization details between DecoNetwork and the external storefront throughout the checkout workflow.
Can I use any external cart platform?
The platform must support DecoNetwork’s External Shopping Cart Integration API requirements.
Additional Resources
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