MerbMart README

MerbMart is an open-source e-commerce application, developed on top of the recent Ruby-language Merb MVC framework. Although MerbMart is designed for e-commerce sites of all sizes, the speed and scalability of the Merb framework make it scalable even for large online vendors.

In addition to Merb framework, the following technologies and frameworks provide a foundation for MerbMart:

• DataMapper (bleeding-edge 0.9), for object relation mapping (ORM) and persistence.
• RSpec, for behavio(u)r driven development (BDD).
• ActiveMerchant, for Credit Card, payment and shipping processing. as well as attachmerb_fu, merb_paginate.

See INSTALL or the project wiki for a full list of dependencies.

MerbMart is inspired by other, Rails based e-commerce applications, including Substruct and Spree. Although MerbMart started out as a project to port Substruct to Merb, the initial 0.1 release of MerbMart will instead be a its own implementation of an e-commerce engine, trying to match the feature sets other e-commerce applications, but taking advantages of the unique features of Merb and DataMapper.

Developer Notes

WARNING : MerbMart is at a very early development stages. At this stage, the application should be considered only for consumption by advanced Ruby and Merb developers. If you're looking for something for production consumption, or not yet ready to jump from Ruby on Rails, then we would strongly advise trying Substruct or Spree.

REQUEST : Your development support is very much appreciated. Please contact us below if you're interested in lending a hand with the development of this project. Or alternatively, clone the code, fork it, create some patches and let us know when you're done.

Getting the Source

Performing a git clone on either of the following repositories will get you the latest source:

git clone git://github.com/myabc/merb_mart.git
git clone git://gitorious.org/merb_mart/mainline.git (on gitorious)

The following additional mirrors are available:

git://repo.or.cz/merb_mart.git
http://repo.or.cz/r/merb_mart.git

Installation and Setup

Please see the INSTALL file for details on getting up and running with MerbMart.

Copyright and License

MerbMart is licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL):

Copyright (C) 2007 Alex Coles

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

A copy of the GPL License may be found in the GPL-LICENSE, included with the distribution.

Support

WARNING REPEATED : MerbMart is still at a very early stage of its development. You should not use this code unless you're reasonably secure with the Ruby language, and the DataMapper and Merb frameworks. That said, _please do get involved_ - and if you're happy to contribute back with bug reports and patches, then we'll be happy to help you get the application up and running.

Your best source for support currently is either the wiki, IRC or the mailing list:

• MerbMart Wiki (this is its temporary residence): http://github.com/myabc/merb_mart/wikis
• MerbMart mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/merb_mart
• MerbMart homepage: coming soon
• Contact the developers directly:
  • alex@alexcolesportfolio.com | myabc on #datamapper, #merb IRC