Hi All,
I am looking for a little guidance regarding ECommerce Websites developed using WWWC and/or FIC. If any of you have developed ECommerce Sites, can you provide links?
The site I envision would potentially have lots of items for sale, potentially over 200K items.
TIA,
Steve
There's an old and now discontinued e-commerce store that I used to sell as an add-on sample application. I discontinued it at some point because there wasn't much interest in it at the time and because the cc processing logic constantly needed to be updated for providers and it became too much of a hassle to maintain. But the overall structure and logic is all there.
https://store.west-wind.com/product/WEBSTORE30
Not sure if this would work as is in the latest version (which is why it's not listed any more) but again it has all the basic underpinnings to handle item listing, shopping cart and order processing and storage.
It's an older version of the store that runs on the West Wind site (in .NET now):
+++ Rick ---
There's an old and now discontinued e-commerce store that I used to sell as an add-on sample application. I discontinued it at some point because there wasn't much interest in it at the time and because the cc processing logic constantly needed to be updated for providers and it became too much of a hassle to maintain. But the overall structure and logic is all there.
https://store.west-wind.com/product/WEBSTORE30
Not sure if this would work as is in the latest version (which is why it's not listed any more) but again it has all the basic underpinnings to handle item listing, shopping cart and order processing and storage.
It's an older version of the store that runs on the West Wind site (in .NET now):
+++ Rick ---
Hi Rick,
Yes, I purchased the WebStore Add-on many years ago. I experimented with it, and at one point had it working if I recall, at least in test. I need to revisit my notes.
I am in the process of updating my VFP Desktop App Interface using CommandBars. I am adding a Ribbon Menu option. See attached screen shot. I have been very pleased with the CommandBars Library. Very little support, but the tool does provide a nice looking ribbon interface that I have been able to integrate into my app with relative ease. Once this new interface is finished, I really want to get back on the web stuff 😃
I was disappointed to hear the "Customizing Your Vertical Market Application" session was cancelled this year, but hope to catch it sometime in the future. Also looking forward to the deploying VFP Apps using AWS session.
My VFP App uses the WWWC Utilities for all inetnet communication and they work great! I have also gotten many ideas from you and others throughout the years that have been very helpful. Thank you very much!!
I appreciate any feedback on the screen shot, i.e., new user interface, Good-Bad-Ugly, etc...
Thanks and have a great weekend!
Steve
Hi Steve,
I built a 22+ year business around Rick's V1 of his web store. Our catalog has close to 1 BILLION items in it (auto parts). We use a php/MySql api to power a faceted search but the store itself is all WWWC. We use a mix of dbfs and MySql tables. We chose MySql because at the time we were too cheap to pay for SQL.
We are slowly but surely migrating all dbf's to MySql but the way we are coding it, the backend db will not matter.
I will miss the easy and flexibility of the dbf's in the store, but it is definitely not a good idea to use dbf's for eCommerce. Way too many issues.
I wish I had started with WWWC that long ago. What about SQL Express, which is free? Is the 10GB Limit and/or Single CPU too restrictive for your needs?
My desktop VFP app can use either DBF of SQLServer as the backend, which is nice.
However, it was a lot of work to convert to Views and adding the logic to use either DBF of SQL tables. Glad I did it, but no easy task. I do love the ease of use of DBFs, but the stability and security of SQL is hard to beat.
What are some of the issues you've experienced with DBFs in your ecommerce site? I remember Rick talking about issues with site maintenance when using DBFs, and having to take the site down to perform certain tasks.
Thanks for your help,
Steve
Steve,
If your data needs are modest SQL Express' 10gb is a lot of data especially if you practice good data maintenance (cleaning out log data, trimming transaction logs, minimal logging etc.) but it obviously depends on the amount of data you have.
That said, you don't have to use SQL Server as Michael mentioned. You can use Postgres or MySql which are free data engines and while the SQL syntax is a little different overall it works the same for SQL Server or these solutions. So if size is an issue these solution offer a much cheaper alternative than a SQL Server license.
+++ Rick ---
I should mention we are using MariaDB and not native MySql. We like to store all data, including every hit, every error, etc... It helps us spot trends (the good, the bad, and the ugly).