Forum Moderators: buckworks
Now I want to move away from this type of total control by one single outfit to my own independently designed e commerce websites.
My questions revolve around these points:
I don't fully understand the difference between a full function web editor like NVU, Namo, Frontpage, or Dreamweaver; and/or a fully functioning shopping cart?
Does a shopping cart function as a fully self contained web site with full design capabilities apart from a web site where your products are displayed? or in some cases it appears that they are the web site all by them selves? Im a little confused on this one.
If you design a full web site using a web site editor like, for instance Dreamweaver, or one of the others. Do you then need to buy a shopping cart to plug in to the web site to process purchases on the site?
I took a superficial look at Agoracart, and I can't tell if this is all one would need to put up an antire fully functioning web site, or if it plugs into one?
I read many of the posts suggesting zen cart and x cart. I will check them out as well.
I already have a credit card processing merchant account through Humboldt and Authorize.net So I have that part of the puzzle to plug into the cart.
So if someone would be so kind to clear up the muddy water between a Web site editor, the site made by one, a Shopping cart and their relationship to one another for me I would be greatly appreciative.
Do you need them both, or what and how do they function together?
Thanks
Shopping carts come in many different flavors.
There are "kits" that you can install on your webserver of choice. They may require a database and some scripting language to operate. These typically have some form of "skins" or "templates" that you can customize to get the look and feel you want. Examples of these would be X-Cart, osCommerce, and Ecommerce Templates.
Dreamweaver, FrontPage, et al are editors that live on your local computer. They upload/download files between your computer and your website. They don't necessarily understand scripting languages nor do they typically play well with shopping carts. An exception is Ecommerce Templates where the creators of the cart have a version built for Dreamweaver users. The other carts, however, rely on you to be smart enough not to try and load a PHP file into FrontPage and edit it. Baaaaddd things can happen here (well at least they used to - I haven't worked with FP in over 10 years).
The beauty of the GUI tools like DW and FP is that they allow your to rapidly build a site without having to know HTML or XHTML code. The downside is they aren't that bright when it comes to other languages (they are getting better) and they tend to build with sloppy code.
In general, with the kit approach, you'll need to know how to blend the two worlds together. But you can build a completely static catalog and use a prebuilt script for the checkout process - or even use PayPal for payments. It's quick and cheap but cumbersome for a catalog of significant size. Edits could be made using your editor and there wouldn't be a need for a database or script language. Which also cuts down on functionality like mini-carts and order histories.
This is simplified. There are literally hundreds of options of how to make and manage a catalog and cart along with an existing website.
One other think that is not very clear to me is this. I have thousands of products on one of my current web sites <snip>
I can down load all of them, all the data, the categories, weights, prices, costs... into an XML file on my computer.
It would be real nice if all I had to do to create a new web site would be to take those certain products I want to put on it and upload them to the new site, simply design the pages they appear on, plug in authorize.net and start the rest of the marketing process.
I guess what I am asking is this: Do any of the shopping cart software out there allow for the easy import of existing products in XML format, and if so is it as easy as simply defining fields, types, and values for the new database and then uploading existing products?
Will the categories and sub categories go along for the ride to the new database? The same with cost, price, short and long descriptions, pictures, etc...
I don't want to be a pest on this thing, but I started out designing a web site with NAMO software. It is an website editor that I learned to use and build my first web site with. As I learned the many different new things about web sites, like SEO and all that goes with it, I redesigned that web site 5 times over from scratch. There was at the time no shopping cart with the NAMO software so I simply put each individual product up on a page, and used paypal with a button link as a method to purchase the products. Of course that is far from the most desirable outcome.
I then had these SOL sites dumped into my lap and ran with that. This is a fully functional WebSite editor with a shopping cart seamlessly plugged in. On the surface it appears to be the all-in-one solution I want. The draw backs; however, to this are simply put, you become a slave to them in every way. They supply the software, the hosting, and everything. You are totally plugged in, and if you want something they don't want you to have, Oh well, tough luck!
So that is a little background into my situation, and this time around the block, it would be nice to gain full control over my own web sites with out having to start all over again, and again, and again until I finally get it right, if you know what I mean.
I have a moderate understanding of HTML, no CSS, no PHP, although I do posses the ability to learn them. I am a software engineer that goes way back to COBOL and Fortran days on big mainframes. The web stuff is brand new to me, and now I have about 5 years of accumulated understanding and experience under my belt. Far from what I need to even understand some threads on this forum, but don't give up on me yet.
Any further help on this shopping cart idea will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
[edited by: lorax at 7:41 pm (utc) on Sep. 28, 2007]
[edit reason] no URLs please [/edit]
You have your work cut out for you. Most all of the carts offer a trial period so you can get familiar with them. I suggest you research and select 4 or 5. Download and install one and then run it through it's paces including data importing. THen go on to the next. Keep notes! Then check the forums and tech support out. Make sure to ask real questions and do you homework by reading the manual and forum threads before asking a question. Get your head inside the mindset of the programmers that wrote the cart then you'll have a better understand of where to look for things and how they named variables etc.
So as long as I can edit the XML code to conform to the new Schema, there should not be a problem, just some work involved with reformat of my data.
Well I have looked at zen-cart, x-cart, a couple I don't remember their names, and the other one you suggested osCommerce.
So far I really like osCommerce - It appears to offer all the flexibility of any web site editor, with some understanding of how to plug their module and add tweaks to them. They seem to have a huge support group on their forum with great help, even with coding problems.
I went and looked at numerous live stores made with it, and from what I can tell, you have the simple, the complex, and everything in between. I like it!
I have two questions about this option.
1. I could not find a place to sign up for it? Do you simply down load their admin software, and start using it? If so where is it?
2. They said that they use MySQL database for their applications; does that mean that it (MySQL software)is incorporated into their application, or do I need to buy my own copy of it to install on my computer? Or can I use any SQL software based data base?
Thanks for your help and paitience
I really like the idea of simply adding modules, or functionality at will to a system, and having lots of functionality to choose from. As far as spaghetti code goes, I'm with you on that one. I didn't take a close look at their code, because it is mostly PHP, Java, and others that I don't know anything about, so I would not know what I was looking at anyway. I made the assumption that one could simply plug, and play with modules with simple code changes to what would seem obvious tag words in the code. Apparently my assumptions will run the way that most assumptions do in the end, all wrong.
It would appear thought that the possibility is very good that there are several good shopping carts out there that will let you have all the functionality of both a web site and a cart together, along with the unique look one is looking for that is different from the others.
All that said, what would you recommend at this point for me to go check out next.
Thanks for all your time and expertise, have a great day.
Donna
Shopsite offers a lot for a moderate price
I don't think that is a very wise test as to the viability of a piece of software for more reasons than I will go into here.
Suffice it to say that the jury is still out on shopping cart software for me.
The choice of a shopping cart depends on many factors. How many products you want to put online, if you have to update on a regular basis, if you need interfaces to other programs (accounting software, shipping software) or want to bulk upload your products, also how many customers do you expect to order daily (1, 10, 100, 1000), if you want to process credit cards and so on.
Best thing would be to make a list of all the features you need for your shopping cart and also how the shopping cart fits in the whole fullfilment process.
I use Humbolt Merchant Services which uses Authorize.net as a gateway. I have been thrilled with their service and very low rates, the lowest I've found to date. I accept MC, Visa, Discover, American Express, and JCB credit cards through them. I have used others, which I will not name here, who have been complete horror stories in every way. I found a representative that has taken such good care of me that I will give you his name and number right here at no benefit to my self. His name is Josh Cook and his number is 707-269-3212 If any one is needing a great great credit card collection service. Both on the net and off, you won't be able to find anyone that can beat his rates or service, and that is just a fact. I know, I tried.
I may have a fair amount of product to simply upload into a database for immediate use. I have over 4000 products on one web site and 100-200 on about three others. I guess it all depends on if I want to move these completely from the locations they are right now, or not.
I was planning on just starting out with my best sellers on a new web site where I can have some control and autonomy.
As far as PHP or CSS expertise, I have none. I am; however, a COBOL/ Fortran/others programmer from way back. So programming is not new to me by any stretch, but I would need to learn some new languages as has been pointed out. I can get around in the HTML world, but for now that is about it. I am not afraid to dive into a new software world as some might be. It might take me a bit to get up to speed, but I am willing to do that if it will offer me what I need.
I don't need to plug my web site into any automated accounting or inventory system, I'm not that big.
So basically what I want is a web site/shopping cart piece of software that I can design, with a lot of functionality and options, upload some products using XML as a format, and collect some money as time goes by.
The ones I have looked at that seem to be more user friendly, look to canned to me. Every web site looks somewhat the same. Oh you can move things around on a page, change the background colors and such, but the sites all look like every other site that is selling something.
I like a complete unique look that no one else has, one custom tailored and built by me. You can go take a look at my current web sites to get a picture of what I mean. I hope this does not violate any spam policy, I am just trying to get some input on this thread.
These will give you an idea of what I am looking for in capability from a shopping cart.
Thanks again for all your great input on this.
[edited by: lorax at 7:50 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2007]
[edit reason] no URLs please [/edit]
