>I am a part of a research team out here, trying to figure out how to (or
>they already are being...) use devices for ecommerce web sites?
>can somebody point me to a definite resource for getting information on s/w
>development for devices with ecommerce in focus?
At PalmSource '99, we were taking orders for our software in our booth
using a Palm VII and a custom PQA linked to our existing online
e-commerce site. Using a companion application called ePQA (developed
during the conference itself and winner of the "Best PQA" award in the
developer's contest), we were able to fill out the form without writing
(the customer would beam their card into the Palm VII, and ePQA lets us
select a name from the Address Book and have our PQA form automatically
populated with the right information). We then hand-entered the credit
card number (a swiper is an obvious addition) and then, to avoid wasting
time transmitting an invalid card number (in case of entry error),
validate the number again using ePQA (validation means the number itself
is valid, not that there is money in the account, of course, that can
only be done online). Then the order was submitted to our web site,
authorized, and the receipt returned to the Palm VII, from where we print
it out (again using ePQA in combination with our PalmPrint software). It
should be evident that similar solutions using iNetLib are also possible.
The PQA approach is definitely not ideal for cases in which there are
hundreds or thousands of products, but for limited product selection, it
may well be the best.
I'm elaborating on the answer here only because last night I finally got
around (after considerable enhancement of the software since PalmSource)
to posting ePQA on our web site (www.stevenscreek.com/palm/), so this
solution is now available for others to try.
There is one fly in the ointment of this Palm VII-based approach, which
is, of course, coverage. If you were going to a trade show and relying on
this approach to take your orders, you would need to know in advance that
coverage was present. For many e-commerce applications, this should be no
problem, but if you're a door-to-door salesperson in Wyoming, it might
not work...
Steve Patt
President, Stevens Creek Software
http://www.stevenscreek.com/pilot
The home of...
PalmPrint && UnDupe && On Hand && Take An Order!
Athlete's Diary && SnailMailer && many more
