Is it easy to manually script e-commerce?

lisafelst12 · Apr 12th, 2008, 01:46

Ive been researching for weeks trying to find a decent shopping cart software that I can fully customise, have customer accounts etc but I just cant seem to get my head around them - any recommendations are welcome!

So I'm considering scripting my own, i have some php books that have scripts but I'm not all that good with understanding how databases work, they never seem to link to the script when i have a go.

Need urgent help!!

Thankyou

aso186 · Apr 13th, 2008, 11:55

Personally, I'd stick with a ready made application. Most popular systems have support forums and detailed documentation, and you can be assured that it's a well-coded, efficient piece of kit from experienced developers.

That's not to say you shouldn't code your own, but judging by your experience I would not recommend it.

These things can take a lot of time and trial and error. And being e-commerce, you really do need to know what you're doing, since you'll be dealing with secure data transfer at risk from hackers.

dab42pat · Apr 13th, 2008, 12:03

As Aso said if you code it yourself security would be an issue.

However if you were to use paypal for transactions all transactions would be completed on their secure servers.

Pat

lisafelst12 · Apr 13th, 2008, 12:31

Are there any software where I can integrate my own design and layout? Most of the ones Ive looked at seem to have standard layouts

dab42pat · Apr 13th, 2008, 12:34

Not that I am aware of.

But most are customisable to a certain degree.

I think I heard that Mals cart might allow you to integrate but im not sure

The shopping cart is complex application which can be bolted onto an existing website

ricksteruk2008 · Apr 13th, 2008, 14:17

As the others have said, to code your own e-commerce software is no easy task. I would recommend you used a pre-made software like os-commerce, they have very good support forums, rather easy to intergrate or you can use something called STS (simple template System) where you can make your own themes, by just using html and some certain words to call the functions.