Technology selection

[Digitalbrit]

Howdy

OK, I’m getting scared … I’ve been coding for a while and following all the videos like a good boy, but haven’t taken on anything too serious. I now have a client that is looking for a full blown application.

Essentially they are looking for a CMS/eCommerce solution, one where I provide the framework, but they take responsibility for content, including uploading images of their products, setting prices etc. It needs a shopping cart and a means to hold a stock level in the background, and so the system can flag to the client when to reorder.

All doable I am sure, but we need to be on-line in 16 weeks and I’m not sure where to focus my initial efforts with regards to selecting the right technologies. Can anyone recommend an open-source solution that might do the above things – one which I can skin/adapt?

Of course this might be a combination of a main platform e.g. WP or Joomla plus "plug-ins" plus bit’s that I’d have to code myself.

One comment about the shopping cart, this needs to online ordering and to support card validation in from around the globe.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks
Tim

[ikthius]

open source solutions are….

PHP & MySQL, both free but you need to know them.

however, goolge could help you find other solutions.

wordpress for a CMS: http://wordpress.org/
or cushy cms: http://www.cushycms.com/

cart: foxycart: http://www.foxycart.com/#utm_source=css … oesnt-suck.
paypal: https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/websc … nt-outside

hopefully more people have other ideas, and can help

[Digitalbrit]

Thanks for replying ikthius but maybe I was clear enough.

I know these general technologies exist (I use php & MySQL now) but to develop an entire combined CMS/eCommerce application from scratch may not be the best approach. I’m thinking why reinvent the wheel, when you can plug, skin and play!

Is there a clear favourite CMS for eCommerce solutions? One that has modules for say uploading products items, setting prices etc, and one that has modules for credit card transactions.

I’m happy doing the look and feel CSS around all of this, and writing/modifying the odd php script. I suppose that I and trying to find a suitable CMS with modules that will take the grunt work out of coding what must be commonly required features of an eCommerce app.

Hopefully people have some experiences they can share on this.

Cheers

[Chris Coyier]

Magento, CubeCart, ZenCart, osCommerce, Pinnacle Cart …. there are lots and lots of them, all of them are skinnable, all of them are CMS’s, all of them accept credit cards and interface with PayPal.

If I had to pick right this second, I’d say Magento is my favorite because of the niceness and features of the backend.

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