Ecommerce Site from Database

[rogerd]

I'm working with a site that can get a freshly updated product database from their distributor. I.e., they wouldn't have to maintain their product selection, descriptions, costs, etc. - instead, they would periodically download a fresh database (flat file, I think).

The trick, as I see it, is to integrate this flat file with an ecommerce engine of some kind. In particular, it must be easy to bring in the fresh data.

Any thoughts/advice or experience to share? Any nominations for cart software that would accommodate this scenario particularly well?

[sun818]

Is your client using this catalog exclusively?

Can you retrieve the flat file via FTP/HTTP, web robot script, or manually download the file?

What format is the file in? Command separated values (CSV)? Logical Record Length (LRECL), or another format?

If you know how the data structure and cart software interacts together, it makes refreshing/importing data easier to manage.

Personally, I use DBtoWEB and publish all my product files from an auction management software I use. The database itself contains my inventory, products I've imported from two other sources (with permission). I assign unique item codes based on where the item originates from. So, company one may be prefixed with co1-**** while company two will be prefixed with co2-****.

[edited by: sun818 at 3:31 am (utc) on Nov. 13, 2003]

[jatar_k]

If the cart you choose uses a db instead of some proprietary setup you could make a script to retrieve the new file and update the db all in one.