[thelist] dynamic sites

BT Bigpant bigpant at btinternet.com
Mon Feb 4 08:50:01 CST 2002


Actinic software is very good, and there are a range of products to suit
different needs. Actinic can be frustrating to get it to do what you want,
but it is a very comprehensive system, and may well show you things you
might not have thought of. But there are lots of other solutions which are
worth looking at. Most have an admin application to add products, and you
might want to choose one that allows you to port your own database. Get a
copy of a trade magazine such as InternetWorks or WebTechniques (soon to be
called New Architect) and browse the ads. If you have little experience
writing server scripts, I would recommend using an 'off the shelf' product
such as Actinic, or paying someone to write a bespoke application for you.
(The company I work for could write you a solid application if you're
interested. This is *not* a plug, I'm just an e-commerce enthusiast.)

There are 2 elements to any e-commerce system - the catalogue and the
payment system. The catalogue can be created in any way you like. If you
have a static product range, you could even get away with hard coded HTML,
but I don't recommend it. Whatever solution you choose, you need to be able
to synchronise your local Access database with the online one. To implement
a payment system, you can add a simple link to a bureau service like
NetBanx, where you don't even see the customer's credit card details (and
hence have fewer security holes and less legal red tape to deal with). All
the security is taken care of, but they will charge a fee.

If you already have a comprehensive Access database which would be difficult
to port, you need to think about it very carefully. You will need a
Microsoft server to use Access, which costs more than Apache (free!). You
will also need some kind of secure layer such as SSL. This is a quite
complicated, and if you get it wrong, it can be disastrous !
PHP & MySQL or Postgres running on Apache on Linux is a very good (free)
alternative to the Microsoft solution. You will need to port the database,
which may mean some VB programming. This should be no problem for the right
company. ColdFusion is reckoned to be very easy to use, and the fact that it
comes from the Macromedia stable should tell you a lot! I have not used it,
however, and I don't know the cost of CF Server. Macromedia do some very
good client/server packages other than ColdFusion, and I recommend you take
a good look at what they can do. They certainly try to take the hard work
out of doing stuff.

I hope this helps.


Phil Parker
Web Developer
Paragon Communications Ltd
Tel: 01296 330099 / 01262 424299
Email: PhilParker.DNS at btinternet.com

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