Enhancement Request: Better "Memory" of Shopping Cart

I visit the Logos web site on any of 3 different computers. When I add something to my shopping cart on computer "A", I can come back a day or two later on that computer and see everything still in the shopping cart. However, none of those items will be in my shopping cart on computer "B".

It would be extremely helpful if my shopping cart were the same no matter which computer I was using. Tie my shopping cart to my account instead of to a particular web session.

Thanks,

Donnie

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Rosie Perera

I visit the Logos web site on any of 3 different computers. When I add something to my shopping cart on computer "A", I can come back a day or two later on that computer and see everything still in the shopping cart. However, none of those items will be in my shopping cart on computer "B".

It would be extremely helpful if my shopping cart were the same no matter which computer I was using. Tie my shopping cart to my account instead of to a particular web session.

Thanks,

Donnie

That is a feature, by design! All shopping carts are implemented using "cookies" which are a per web session thing. I've actually had times in the past when I was glad it worked that way. Once I was building up a huge order and it was taking several days to get around to checking all the items in it to make sure they weren't already in my library before I copied the shopping cart contents to an email to put the order through with my sales rep, and then suddenly in the middle of all that I had an immediate need for one book, but didn't want to empty my cart first and lose all that info. I went to another browser (Firefox), bought that book, and it did not affect the other shopping cart, because it used separate cookies.

This works the same way with Amazon.com or any other company's shopping cart, as far as I'm aware.

Donnie Hale

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/202686#Comment_202686

That is a feature, by design! All shopping carts are implemented using "cookies" which are a per web session thing. I've actually had times in the past when I was glad it worked that way. Once I was building up a huge order and it was taking several days to get around to checking all the items in it to make sure they weren't already in my library before I copied the shopping cart contents to an email to put the order through with my sales rep, and then suddenly in the middle of all that I had an immediate need for one book, but didn't want to empty my cart first and lose all that info. I went to another browser (Firefox), bought that book, and it did not affect the other shopping cart, because it used separate cookies.

This works the same way with Amazon.com or any other company's shopping cart, as far as I'm aware.

I know how shopping carts work - I write software for a living. But to use your example of Amazon, it does *not* behave like the Logos web site. On any computer where I sign in to Amazon, it shows the exact same shopping cart contents.

That was why I said to tie my cart to my account, not to my "web session" (which is tied to a specific cookie which is tied to a specific browser instance). Tying my cart to a web session means I can't even see the same cart contents on the same computer if it's in a different browser (e.g. Internet Explorer vs. Firefox).

In terms of having different carts, that's straightforward to handle. You could allow the user to tie the cart to the session or to their account at his/her discretion. Or, like a lot of sites, you could allow your users to save "named" carts.

Donnie

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/202686#Comment_202686

I've actually had times in the past when I was glad it worked that way

I do most of my shopping from Safari on my desktop machine. I have wanted to purchase a resource or two without disturbing my wish list. Now I know how to do it! Thanks Rosie.

Donnie, I am sorry, but I do not agree with you now that I have learned the value of the present system.

Todd Phillips

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/202765#Comment_202765

On any computer where I sign in to Amazon, it shows the exact same shopping cart contents.

Donnie is correct about Amazon. I have dozens of saved items in my Amazon shopping cart, and I can see them from any browser I start up.

However, if you connect to Amazon anonymously (or just sign out), you can add items to an empty shopping cart that is session based. When you check out, it asks you to sign in and it uses that temporary cart. When you go back to your cart after checkout (or if you clear the items in the session cart), then the saved cart is visible again.

Donnie Hale

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/202973#Comment_202973

Donnie, I am sorry, but I do not agree with you now that I have learned the value of the present system.

Jack,

We have two requirements (out of this thread so far):

a) Allow an in-process cart to be set aside so another separate cart can be created and purchased.

b) Allow a cart created on one computer to be retrieved and used on another computer.

These are not conflicting requirements. Many sites allow you to do this already (via named wish lists, named carts, etc.).

Donnie

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/203071#Comment_203071

These are not conflicting requirements. Many sites allow you to do this already

Then, this would be a good suggestion for Logos to implement. I have only visited Amazon or CBD when I had a specific resource in mind beforehand. Logos has been getting most of my spending money.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/203083#Comment_203083

I stand corrected on Amazon. I also just encountered an e-store that allowed you to save and load carts, so that would be a good solution for Logos, as long as the saved carts were stored on the Logos server under your user account, rather than on your local machine, so that Donnie's request could be met.

fgh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/202686#Comment_202686

All shopping carts are implemented using "cookies" which are a per web session thing.

Wait a minute here! I was planning to start adding things to a 50% off shopping cart, and now you're essentially telling me I can't? As soon as I restart, it'll all be gone?That makes the shopping cart absolutely useless to me, except for immediate buys.

No, thanks! Let's have a wish list (or several, if you prefer), to record dreams and work-in-progress, and a shopping cart to record the stuff we're actually about to buy, and tie them both to the account, not to the session.

(And as for "all shopping carts" and "any other company's shopping cart", that simply isn't true. No Swedish website I've ever bought from deletes my order when I restart (and on my old computer I often had to restart 2-3 times a day (512MB RAM...)).)

Donnie Hale

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/203180#Comment_203180

Wait a minute here! I was planning to start adding things to a 50% off shopping cart, and now you're essentially telling me I can't? As soon as I restart, it'll all be gone?That makes the shopping cart absolutely useless to me, except for immediate buys.

As long as you go back to the cart *on the same computer* in a reasonable amount of time, the cart will be intact. I haven't done it, but if you use Firefox you can probably look to see the cookie's expiration, which is when you would "lose" your cart because your web session will have expired. But it's several days at least.

Right now, I use the Amazon universal wish list to many my Logos "wish lists".

Donnie

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/203180#Comment_203180

All shopping carts are implemented using "cookies" which are a per web session thing.

Wait a minute here! I was planning to start adding things to a 50% off shopping cart, and now you're essentially telling me I can't? As soon as I restart, it'll all be gone?That makes the shopping cart absolutely useless to me, except for immediate buys.

Don't always believe everything you read on the internet.

Or at least read the whole thread. Donnie corrected me after that post.

And I didn't mean "web session" anyway. I meant for as long as the cookies are active. I guess you get different cookies when you open a different browser, but the same ones stick around if you open up the same website again in the same browser. Some people I think have mentioned that the newly redesigned website does seem to lose cart contents after a few days (maybe the cookies were expiring too soon or something), but that was when it first came up and they might have fixed that problem.

And I reiterate: Don't always believe everything you read on the internet, even from people with stars under their names.