http://forums.asp.net/t/296699.aspx/1?Secure+shopping+cartsMon, 04 Aug 2003 00:46:55 -0400296699296699http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/296699.aspx/1?Secure+shopping+carts I have a gig coming up and my client wants me to build a secure shopping cart. It's a Custom Computer building shop and I need it to be very secure and use credit card processing. Now. I have absolutely no idea how and where to start. Any suggestions for a first timer? 2003-08-01T01:06:00-04:00296766http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/296766.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts I read an article once about how you can tell the experienced programmers from the 'HTML for dummies' crowd. The experienced programmers usually have questions about specific coding issues, while the not so experienced guys ask 'Where do I start, can somebody give me the code?' cough *** |aco| *** A properly developed cart can be a BIG undertaking. I suggest passing it on to somebody who knows what their doing, or if you're that determined, see the Starter Kit on this site. Keep in mind that it's just for starters and is missing A LOT. 2003-08-01T02:34:34-04:00296770http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/296770.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts try www.411asp.net for sample code and downloadable apps. j 2003-08-01T02:40:56-04:00296920http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/296920.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts This is not just something you can whip up, especially if you have no idea where to start. You need to think about everthing. How will your client manage their products, customer information, refunds, out of stock items, shipping charges, product discounts, gift certificates, lost passwords, checkout process, etc. There is more to a full blown secure e-commerce app than just a shopping cart. I would start off with a pre-made application that you can customize to fit their needs. This way you will have some foundation already done and if you purchase one of the better .NET carts out there you will even get some degree of support. I suggest you look at www.bvsoftware.com. This is one of the few .NET shopping applications and it just so happens to be the best. IMHO. Good Luck. TIM 2003-08-01T06:37:40-04:00298167http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298167.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts I agree. A full e-commerce solution is a BIG undertaking. There's more to worry about than it seems. (Such as consumer price protection). Personally, I don't like the shopping cart of bvsoftware since it reminds me of a classic ASP cart (I worked on one identical years ago, and is kinda dated and limited). There should be plenty of examples out there though. 2003-08-02T14:14:19-04:00298420http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298420.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts I read an article like that on Atrax's site. The Source Projects on this site has the IBuySpy store. Of course like everyone said making a shopping cart and ecommerce site is a big undertaking. 2003-08-03T04:12:30-04:00298429http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298429.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts Particle, The www.bvsoftware.com cart is excellent. Far from limited and the direction it is going for future releases is very promissing. I'm curious about what you mean regarding it reminding you of a regular ASP cart? What cart would you suggest? I hope you don't think the IBuySpy cart is a good example of a e-commerce package. You also mentioned you used one a few years ago that was like it - how does that cart reflect what the BV Cart is? Please clarify. TIM :) 2003-08-03T05:07:58-04:00298711http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298711.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts No, far from it. The Starter Kit in my opinion is a piece o' ... And I've posted that here many times. Just something to use as a reference for newbies :) I did not say that I used a cart like this before, I said that I made one similar. I was referring to the flow and functionality. The differences that I noticed are how when you add a product several times to the cart, they are listed sparately even though they are the same product. And on the product listings page, (this is just symantics) when you click on 'Add to Cart', it doesn't add to cart, instead it goes to the product details page and you have to click on 'Add to Cart' again in order for it to actually add. Just doesn't make any sense. When a product is added to the cart, (this is where the i saw the most similarities) the site redirects to the Product Listing on the shopping cart pages, where you have to navigate back to the products page if you're not finished shopping (yes I saw the keep shopping button, just find it unnecessary). The rest of the pages are pretty much identical with the exception of the address book for shipping (I must say that's a good idea). I find that the site flow/functionality kinda dated. ;) 2003-08-03T20:43:47-04:00298713http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298713.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts Sorry - found a runtime error in the cart on the following page - Checkout_shipping.aspx Seems to be error handling missing... And no error page to catch unhandled errors... Server Error in '/' Application. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Runtime Error Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine. Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off". 2003-08-03T20:49:50-04:00298715http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298715.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts oh nice catch particle!!! i love that! 2003-08-03T21:00:51-04:00298746http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298746.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts Particle, Ok I have a question - Assume you have a product such as a t-shirt that requires options (size, color, etc) to be set before adding to your cart, how can you just click add to cart and have it added to your cart if you don't first go to a products detail page first where these options can be selcted? The ideal situation is to check if the product has attributes (options) to be set and if so go to the details page otherwise go straight into the cart. I don't know why or how you caused an error on the shipping page or what you were using when you did - the online demo, the download demo? I'm not the author of that cart so who knows. Give me a link to a cart you have designed and I will get an error to generate in a few minutes. Not sure why you turned this into a bash session instead of trying to help someone on their quest to create an e-commerce site for their client. Anyway, if you have the time and budget to write your own e-commerce site than by all means do it, but I suggest you use one of these off the shelf carts that you can extend and customize. And if the IBuySpy cart is a piece o' ... then why on earth would anyone suggest it as a reference for building one. 2003-08-03T22:29:57-04:00298789http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298789.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts I didn't mean turn it into a bash session, and I did find an error on http://www.hanklloydstennis.com shopping cart. What I am trying to say is that I don't share the same opinion as you when you say the cart is "Excellent". There's always room for improvement. YES the Starter Kit is a Piece O' Shite, and I recommended using it as a starter because that's all that it's good for, a starter. (Which is why that's it's name, but don't use the code, refer to it when you aren't sure how you go about doing something - and keep in mind a lot is missing). As far as having to select product options before being able to add it to the cart, this is why I called it symantics, there's a View Details link and an Add to Cart button on the product listing, but they BOTH go to the deatils page. Why not lose the Add to Cart if it's not ADDING TO CART? I recommend coding your own cart, and not using an off the shelf cart. You probably won't be completely happy (like me) if you have to work with somebody else's design / aplication. Decide what exactly you need your cart to do, plan it's design properly (this is the biggest part), then code away. And thanx Kragie. Have a nice day TimH. :) (I really mean that, you've been really helpfull to me in the past) 2003-08-04T00:34:43-04:00298793http://forums.asp.net/p/296699/298793.aspx/1?Re+Secure+shopping+carts Well it appears that tennis store is using version 1 of the cart where it is now at 2.0+ so that could be it, not to mention you never know what the shop owner/developer did under the hood to modify the code for their needs. In other words the original cart code could have been solid but with their custom mods they might have broken something. I'm always here to help, Particle as you know I have helped you in the past. I try very hard to mix in my opinion with an educated one as well. One of this issues with cart software is that it's made/sold with flexibility in mind. Obviously you need to try and offer features and functions that will apply to a mass audience. Anyway, this has been fun but for those interested in building an e-commerce site I suggest reading up on OOP, e-commerce design and writing secure code. Some people really hate IBuySpy as an example, and others think it's so, so. I don't hate it but it's not the best approach so take it and apply some of these other principles and you may be off to a good start. I'm still a fan of using off the shelf software where possible to cut development time and cost but it's not the rule. 2003-08-04T00:46:55-04:00