The shop.pl program is used for all web pages used in the Shopping Cart. It is passed arguments on the URL path. All the web pages used are parsed by Shopping Cart. The page argument tells the Shopping Cart which HTML page to parse. All of these HTML files used by the Cart software must be in the $shopping_root directory, specified in the shop.cfg file. These HTML pages cannot be in subdirectories of the $shopping_root. Each HTML page is parsed and various tokens are searched for. These tokens tell shop.pl where to put the shopping cart list, the SID number, and other information. The SID number is passed on every URL in the Shopping Cart. This is how the Shopping Cart keeps track of the user. If no SID is passed to shop.pl, then it creates one.

The product information is kept in a text database, which consists of: product number, product i.d., product description, price, and product weight separated by a pipe symbol. This database is searched when the shopping cart list is displayed. It is also searched when the items ordered are mailed to the web administrator.

The customer can be presented with a shopping list, which allows then to add more of the same items or remove items. The shopping list also shows the item descriptions, the item prices, the shipping cost, the subtotal, the tax cost, and the total. The shopping list is shown only if the shopping list token in included in the HTML of the shopping cart pages.

When the customer is done ordering they will checkout using the email form. This form collects data about the customer. This data is emailed to the storefront owner and the customer in a receipt. This receipt of course includes the items ordered, shipping costs, tax, subtotal, and the total. The credit card information is only emailed to the storefront owner.

The credit card information is not emailed to the storefront owner if the Cybercash or Secure modules are in use. This information is either stored in a file on the server (Secure Module) or sent to the Cybercash Server (Cybercash Module).

A search feature is included which allows the customer to search the product database for product descriptions that interest them.