question on shopping carts

message from rs on 15 Jul 2004

Hi all;

I am new to this group and am looking to set up an ecommerce website
with a shopping cart.

Can anybody recommend a good shopping cart program for a beginner
programmer to set up? I don't think I want to take the time to create
one myself.

I am learning web page design with Dreamweaver 4, know basic HTML,
java and CSS and find it easy to learn as I go. Eventually the online
store will hold up to 10,000 unique items. I have a very good working
knowledge of MS Access, and am familiar with SQL, but not ASP. Yet. My
web server supports MySQL, php and asp

Thank you for any information you can give.

Heather

~Angela, TMM replied to rs on 15 Jul 2004

Hello Heather,

Here are a few cart solutions known to work with Dreamweaver.
http://www.dwfaq.com/resources/e-commerce/

Whichever server model you choose, Dreamweaver 4 does not support it.
(Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 does.) Dreamweaver MX or MX 2004 supports ASP,
ASP.Net, ColdFusion, PHP and JSP.

I'm a bit biased, but it sounds like ColdFusion would be a good match for
you. ColdFusion is tag-based like HTML. It also uses cfscript which is
similar to JavaScript. Most people find it easier to learn than any other
server model -- I know I did!

When choosing a cart, look closely at the demos. See if the features your
site requires are built in or not. If they're not, you'll have to be able to
code it. (Make sure the application is not encrypted so you can custimize it
if needed.) This is why it is good to have either an understanding of (or at
least a willingness to learn) the server model your e-commerce solution
uses.

To give you a little idea of how easy ColdFusion is, here's an article that
discusses how to build a very basic shopping cart using ColdFusion.
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/articles/build_shopping_cart.html

If you're familiar with MS Access and SQL, I would advise sticking to it.
MySQL doesn't offer everything that SQL does and as such it can be
challenging at times to write queries. (I'm allergic to MySQL.) You could
start with Access and upsize later to SQL. You'll just be aware of it as you
program because there are some syntax differences, otherwise when you upsize
your application will break. Keep the database scalability in mind when
choosing an e-Commerce solution. Some provide free upsizing to SQL, while
others charge for it.

Good luck!
~Angela

:. Nadia .: replied to rs on 16 Jul 2004

Heather,
you could check out YourVirtualStore - an out of the box solution for server
that supports asp.
You don't need to know any server side language, to work with this package.
More info at the ecommerce section at the link in my sig.

Archived message: question on shopping carts (Macromedia Dreamweaver)