Not sure if I can help here or not with this one but I can at least share some experiences we have in building a CF commerce engine from scratch. It can be a really big job and should not be taken lightly.
We started our project because we used to use AbleCommerce and we got so mad at how they handled updates and how messy their code was that we ended up building a ColdFusion/Fusebox 4.1 commerce engine from the ground up. It took us a little over a year to go live with it, but it has been running for the last year or so. And like most web applications it will never truly be complete. We are adding UPS/Fedex XML gateway APIs to it now, for example. Using one Fusebox framework per site to call a core Fusebox framework, we were able to syndicate core store features and still have the ability to override them for custom shipping options like the one you describe below. Unfortunately, our system is not open-source for obvious reasons, but we have licensed it to other development companies and using BlueDragon we hope to offer it as compiled software soon. Currently it is only sold as a hosted app. If you are building one from the ground up I suggest you use a framework and possibly CFCs to make things flexible. That will end up becoming a major deal once you start to sell stores. We are building hundreds of stores now, and I can safely say from experience that no two stores are exactly the same. That is why cut-and-past OS commerce software is not all its cracked up to be, unless you charge serious dollars to your customers for custom programming, or you are building really small stores where the expectation of flexibility and features from the customer is low. The problem with customizing the OS versions are that you only have so much time in a day. You also end up limiting the amount of recurring revenue you can make because you are so busy hacking someone else's store engine. I'm not bashing OS at all, since we use MySQL for the DB and our commerce engine server is running CFMX 7 on Debian. I guess my point is that it CAN be done on CF, it can be scalable, you can reuse your code, but you need a framework and some hosting automation built-in if you want to make a business out of it. Do a lot of planning before you dive-in and make sure that you have a way to override layouts, shipping, pricing, discounts, group permissions, affiliates, etc. John McKown President/CEO Delaware.Net, Inc. We Host Fusebox.org dave wrote: > since forever_cart.cfc is not going to be done for awhile I need to possibly > find a different solution to a cart i need. > > any suggestions on a cart? Needs the following (and not cartweaver): > of course all the add, edit, delete- products, shipping, ect > > but one thing I was just asked for is that if the order is over $11 to not > give usps as a shipping option and when you select a product is shows you the > product, so lets say you go into shirts it has the main listing and when you > select a color it shows that color. > > I currently can do that but it messes some stuff up and of course I could add > those functions but it might be cheaper to find a cart with that already in > it. > > any suggestions? I havent been paying attention to the current available > carts ;) > > ~Dave the disruptor~ > good sites - make money getting rid of ie :) > http://explorerdestroyer.com/ > http://www.killbillsbrowser.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:226436 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
