YAK for WordPress

YAK is a simple, open source, shopping cart plugin for WordPress. It associates products with weblog entries, so the post ID also becomes the product code. It supports both pages and posts as products, handles different types of product through categories, and provides customisable purchase options (cheque or deposit, basic credit card form, and PayPal integration). You can see screenshots of YAK in action on this page.

YAK can be downloaded from the following links:

Sourceforge
WordPress Plugin Directory

If you find YAK useful, please consider linking to this page, a direct link to my blog, or perhaps donating via the button below (let me know if you’ve linked or donated, and whether you want your name on the YAK “About” page).

1. Download the YAK distribution, and copy it to the plugins directory of your WordPress installation (wp-content/plugins).
2. Activate the plugin from the WP Plugins page. A new menu “Yak” will appear in the WP dashboard.
3. Create a new category products, by clicking “Manage”, then selecting “Categories”. Enter products as the name, products as the Category Slug, and make sure the Category Parent is set to None.
4. Create another category default — enter default as the name, default as the Category Slug and set the Category Parent to products.
5. Create a new page for your checkout. Click “Write”, then select “Page”. Give the checkout a title (like “Checkout” for example). The content of the page should be only:

   
   <!–yak_checkout–>
   

   NOTE: Make sure you select the HTML editor and are not using the Visual Editor.

6. Create a new landing page for a type of payment you wish to accept. There are a number of ways you can accept payment (including PayPal), but for the purposes of this basic introduction, we’ll stick with Deposit. Click “Write”, then select “Page”. Give the landing page a title, such as “Deposit”. For the content of the page, you should provide instructions on how a customer is to pay by deposit. For example:

   Thanks for your order. Your order number is <!--yak_order_id-->
   
   You should receive a confirmation message shortly.
   
   Please deposit the amount of <strong><!--yak_order_value--></strong>
   into the following bank account:
   
   Bank: SomeBank
   Branch: Some Branch
   Address:  blah blah blah blah
   Account Number: 00-0000-000-000
   SWIFT CODE: 00000

   When you save the page, take note of the page id (you’ll see in the address bar something like “posted=5″ with the page number). Again, make sure you’re using the HTML Editor.

7. Another example of a landing page might be paying by cheque. Create another page in the same way as you created the Deposit page using the text:

   Please send your cheque to:
   
   12 Vulcan Lane
   Auckland City
   Auckland
   
   Please note reference number <!--yak_order_id--> on the back of the cheque.

   Save this new page, and also record the page id for later.

8. Configure how you want YAK to function, by clicking on “Yak”, then selecting “Options”. On the “Basic” tab:
   • Select a default country.
   • Enter a confirmation email address, if you want to send order confirmations (if so, you’ll also need to enter a confirmation message).
   • If you want to display the checkout immediately when a customer clicks the Buy button, select your Checkout page from the drop down list for the option “Redirect on buy to”.
   • Most importantly: select the “products” category from the dropdown “Product category name”.
   • Click the Update Options button to save the changes.
9. On the Products price/quantity tab:
   • Set an automatic discount for your online products (if you don’t want to discount, set the fraction to 1).
   • Enter a currency symbol ($, £, ¥, etc).
   • Select the number of decimal places for displaying amounts.
   • Select the currency format.
   • If you want all new posts to be setup as products, you can enter an automatic quantity to use.
10. On the Payments/Paypal tab:
    1. Next to “Redirect URLs for Payment”, in the box labeled “Type Name”, enter the text Deposit.
    2. For the “Redirect URL” enter the text ?page_id= followed by the id of the page you created earlier (for example ?page_id=5).
    3. Click the plus (+) button and do the same for the Cheque landing page you also created.
11. Create a new product by doing the following:
    1. Write a new post (Click on “Write”, then select “Post”).
    2. Give your product a meaningful title.
    3. Enter details about the product. Add the price to the post using the tag <–yak_price–>, and add a buy button using the tag <–yak_buy–>.

       For example:

       Here's a description of my product, which you should buy. No really, you should.
       
       Price: <!--yak_price-->
       
       <!--yak_buy-->
       

    4. In the “Categories” tab below the post, tick the “default” category (which you created earlier)
    5. In the “YAK Product Details” tab below the post, give your product a price, and if necessary an alternative (display) title.
    6. Publish the post
    7. Change to the YAK products page (click on “YAK”, the “Products”). Click the Details button next to the product you’ve just created, and enter a value for the quantity.

These are the fundamentals of setting up YAK. If you view the post, you should now be able to click a buy button, choose a payment type (Cheque or Deposit), and follow through the checkout process.
There are a number of other configuration options available — including PayPal integration, and different types of products. For full installation details covering all the flexible options YAK has to offer, consider buying the YAK Installation Handbook (note: COMING SOON).

The set of tags available to use in your posts/pages are as follows (note: substitute <!– and >–> for the square brackets if you’re using any version less than 1.1.0-experimental):

Bugs should be posted on the YAK Bugs comment page.

Suggestions can be posted on the YAK Suggestions comment page.

For support requests, help with installation, or general comments, use the General comment page (if you’re looking for comments you made in the past, this is where they’ve been moved to).

Support outside these forums is provided on a commercial basis only. See the Support page for more information.

CREDITS

Coding:

Jason R Briggs

Design:

František Malina

International Team:

• Ronny (Japanese, Chinese Taiwan, Chinese Traditional)
• AB (Thai)
• František Malina (Slavik)
• MK (German)
• Charles Dixon-Spain (French)

Testing, Ideas, Contributors, Generally-Helpful-People:

AB, Lance Hodges, Luke Chao, František Malina, Ari Kontiainen