My first online shop

I

Ipwn 4

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soooooo... I'm making an online shop for an online computer store, this will be my first shop ever and tbh I don't have any idea what the proper way is to go.

I'll be coding in ASP.NET 4 and have been looking at the way other people have done their sites and can sort-off see the way they are achieving their results, that however isn't my issue.

I would like your opinions on the following matter, I am hosting with Afrihost and can make use of MySQL or SQL server(not sure about this one). The way I figured I'll go about displaying products would be to read the products from a db and then display these these products inside of a repeater control. How would you guys suggest I update these db's? Best I could think about is writing my own desktop app to visually update these db's (as people with no SQL experience will need to update them).

I'm open to any suggestions and tips, thanks alot.
 
save yourself lots of weeks of messing around and download something that works properly, out the box and for free.
Stop trying to re-invent the wheel with another closed system that no-one else can help you skin because half the display info is hidde away in the code. (ok, I'm venting, got asked to 'freshen up' a website that used some custom cart that had the above problem)

But seriously, download something opensource, it will do what you need, out the box and take 5 minutes to install and 30 minutes to setup as opposed to 350 hours to develope, 250 to test and 400 to bug fix...

I suggest www.opencart.com
 
I would agree with above and get the base shopping cart then adding functionality and tweaking to your needs, saves time with bugs and it being vulnerable to hacking..
 
Sweet thanks that the type of advice I was looking for, had no idea where to start,wasn't a question of re inventing the wheel, just thought people developed their sites from scratch.

Never thought it would be so simple(taking into account that I was under the impression I need to develop the whole thing). Will have a look at the link in the morning rward...thank you so much.


Edit : one more thing, I assume it would be advisable to avoid people paying on the site initially? Not because of the costs though, purely because of security?
 
Last edited:
Ipwn 4 said:
Edit : one more thing, I assume it would be advisable to avoid people paying on the site initially? Not because of the costs though, purely because of security?
Click to expand...

Almost all websites (especially the smaller ones) will redirect you to a secure 3rd party payment gateway, which will except the payment on behalf of the e-Shop. So you don't have to worry too much about the security of payments - most of it is taken care of by the payment gateway.

Other bigger websites have direct relationships with the banks, and because they really push volumes on their transactions, it makes financial sense (economies of scale) for them to deal directly with the bank, and to interface their systems with those of the banks. Payment gateways do the same, and then resell the transactions to the smaller guys, thereby taking advantage of economies of scale.
 
For free you can use something simple like oscommerce, or my favorite and the best magento.

For paid cre loaded is ok.

Unix (Linux) hosting with php and MySQL (note for magento you need InnoDB enabled which afrishot by default has disabled so ask them to enable to avoid headaches.

Buy a premium template and mod it.

Get a merchant account from your bank and approach a cc processed like Vcs or my gate etc.

There are alternatives for guys that dont want to get their own merchant number to start with.
 
Someone else was bitching about these external pay sites a while back, basically said that most people will close these pages to soon and cause the 3rd party site not to send the relevant info back to your site.

I'm on the a windows hosting package?
 
Ipwn 4 said:
Someone else was bitching about these external pay sites a while back, basically said that most people will close these pages to soon and cause the 3rd party site not to send the relevant info back to your site.

I'm on the a windows hosting package?
Click to expand...

then those customers have no experience with online shopping.

personally i would switch to a unix hosting package, but then again that is where my experience lies with those eCommerce platforms.
 
We use opencart, but are currently switching to prestashop. Prestashop handles both selling from stock and make to order which is a new requirement for us. For payments look at payfast there is no monthly fee.
 
D3x! said:
then those customers have no experience with online shopping.

personally i would switch to a unix hosting package, but then again that is where my experience lies with those eCommerce platforms.
Click to expand...

Thing is I'm a C# developer, still a student though, have to use it as I have no unix experience
 
Ipwn 4 said:
Thing is I'm a C# developer, still a student though, have to use it as I have no unix experience
Click to expand...

to be honest for something like this you dont really need experience unless you want some big modifications.

simply get unix hosting with cpanel.

upload the scripts files.

create a database through the cpanel wizard and ensure you give the user rights.

then complete the setup with the automated wizard.

from there everything will be done through an admin panel, adding products etc
 
You can get the scripts loaded automagically if the host allows it. We use softdux and he has this option he use softaclous <sp>
 
opencart.com didn't quite invent the wheel.... they sorta skipped that step and went straight to the run-on-flat. :D

lol but on a more serious note, phone AH now, changing to the unix hosting and downloading some php ebooks.

You guys rock!
 
I have integrated quite alot of carts with Monster pay and Payfast

The days of spending weeks or months on shops are over do it properly and get out of there
 
Can anyone direct me to some sites making use of zencart, opencart etc?
 
Ipwn 4 said:
Can anyone direct me to some sites making use of zencart, opencart etc?
Click to expand...
Here is our opencart site Paperkutz We are busy setting up a prestashop site which will go online in about a week. Also most carts have demo stores to look at and play on.
 
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