Creating a Prestashop Payment Module

Introduction

I had been looking for a Open Source shopping cart solution I stumbled on prestashop. It is a good solution and it seemed to be what I was looking for. Like a lot of modern carts and CMSes it uses system of plug-in modules to add extra functionality that doesn't come as standard (the techie term for this is extensible). The only slight problem with this module system, is how do you create a plug-in module!? It isn't exactly obvious. This tutorial will walk you through creating a simple off line payments module. By "off-line" payments I mean the module will allow the store to capture a customers payment card details during a purchase then store the details in the database for the store owner to process through their payment machine or checkout at a later time. NOTE! Please bear in mind I am not advocating this as a payment method for live stores. There are security issues surrounding gathering payment details in this manner. I am using it as an example as it is a simple enough demonstration of creating payment module.

Intended Audience

Any one with basic PHP object orientated programming and HTML skills who would like to get an overview on how to create a prestashop module. You should be familiar with installing prestashop.

Development Environment

I created the module using open source (free) software. I used the Eclipse PHP editor PHP Development Tools (PDT) which is nice and easy to use. I also use WAMP which is a webserver and MYSQL database server package designed for easy setup. You can use any thing you feel comfortable with - I use them because they are good and free. Since I am using the WAMP server my prestashops code will be located here C:\wamp\www\prestashop and my url is http://localhost\prestashop