I would appreciate your input on best ways to approach some modifications
to a large existing web site. I suspect that a database approach would be
best, but since I know nothing about databases, I need your help with some
very basic info.
What we'd like to do is:
1) ease the process of adding new titles to the catalog
2) add a sophisticated shopping system complete with realtime credit card
processing, email order confirmation, etc.
Our client's record catalog has 125+ titles, divided among four record
labels. Currently, each is represented by a conventional static HTML page.
Each of the 125+ catalog pages has standard background and logo unique to
the label under which the album is published, plus: a JPEG of the album
cover, album name, artist's name, a paragraph of descriptive copy, whether
available in tape, CD or both, item number, and two links to RealAudio
files.
The existing version of the web site has only a standard HTML based ssl
order form. The user has to fill out all titles, credit card info, etc.
manually. Orders are posted to a secure web page, then a company employee
has to print out all the orders, confirm CC's by telephone, manually create
a database, etc. It works great and they get a lot of orders, but we'd like
to streamline the process so there's less work on both the seller's and
buyer's end of the order process.
Now, please understand that I've never done anything more complicated with
a database than a mailmerge or using Quicken. Currently I don't even own
any database software. I'm wondering if I could use Filemaker on my Mac to
catalog all the copy and file names for the various page elements, then
have Filemaker build catalog pages on the fly? (The site is also hosted on
a Mac.)
Then, from those pages, I'd like the user to be able to add an item to a
shopping cart, submit an order and have the order processed automatically
online. Since most of the commercial ecommerce sites don't allow for
customization of catalog pages, and because we need to keep the links to
RealAudio on the catalog pages, it seems that we need to keep all functions
on the current servers. I was thinking of possibly using CardServices
International's ecommerce software on the Mac server to do the CC
processing.
Does this approach sound practical and possible to you guys?
thanks, Suz
Suzanne Stephens, Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon
541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/ ICQ #8190023
CyberCircus Grand Prize Winners http://www.thecybercircus.com/
Web Page Design for Designers Design Resources: http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdres.htm
Clip Art: http://www.freeimages.com/stephens/
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