building ecommerce site. need help on which program to use.

[DJYoshaBYD]

ok.. I am starting a company that builds custom pc's.. I need to know what type of program to use to be able to do this.. I am familiar with frontpage and dreamweaver, but am unclear as to which option to choose... this is what I want to do:

I want to have a page that you can click "customize", then you choose the type of pc... media or gaming.. lets say they choose gaming.. now its a page that asks them what type of CPU they want... then the final page, which is a list of drop-down menu's that have all the other parts that can be customized and added on one page.. ram, case, power source, etc.. like this page.. this is an example of what I would like:

[pcclub.com...]

see how you choose a base model, and work your way through the page, selecting the parts you want? thats how i want the page set up... we have about 6 levels of pre-built product, but the most used part will be the customize feature..

Im sorry.. I just do not know where to begin.. I just want to be able to choose all the options for the pc on ONE page, then add that to the shopping cart... how do I do this? please?

[coopster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, DJYoshaBYD.

Your first step will be to build that first selection list in your <form> and then upon submission you will need to use a server-side program to process the <form> and the selection(s).

[DJYoshaBYD]

ummm... haha.. pardon me for nieve... I dont know what you mean by form... Im really a dummy when it comes to any kind of computer language... I have always been a gamer and a hardware/software guy and never really learned anything beyond qBASIC... lol... I never needed to.. that's why I use frontpage and dreamweaver.. Because I dont know enough html even to save my life..

[DJYoshaBYD]

I think I am just going to go with oscommerce.. it seems to be the easiest way to get my store up... is there anyway to code it so it does what I showed in the first post? so they can choose from a list on one page and then add that whole this to the cart using oscommerce?

[rocknbil]

Welcome aboard DJYoshaBYD, but I don't know that any off-the-shelf will do what you ask.

You're going to start with a general query then it has to be narrowed down based on various selections. The number of "steps" involved will likely vary from system to system, or even based on the decision of one of those selections (if I select dual monitors, maybe I want one in one size and/or brand and the second in another.)

I think this is something you're really going to have to have custom programmed.