e-Commerce Site

[MistyTheDog]

Hello All!

I am new to this forum and a novice at CF.

I work with three programmers who have all had extensive careers in C++, Foxpro, COBOL, etc.

We have also worked on web sites and, recently, have been presented with a project that will include an e-commerce solution (10,000+ line items that change frequently).

While researching this project we are leaning towards a CF/MYSql solution but, not having much experience with CF, have some questions.

We have seen MANY canned CF ecommerce packages available on line (Quickstore, Cartweaver, CFWEBSTORE, SiteDirector, etc). Some are $100+ and some are $5000+ All offer many of the variables we need for our site.

My guess is that we download/buy this code, upload it to our ISP and play around with it and its screens/code until we understand most of the variables. Once we understand these variables we can begin tweaking the code to match our needs (I.E. we want to add a forum area, a user log in, on-screen administrative screens, newsletters, etc).

Our ISP hosts CF (4.5) and MYSql and understands it but will not be much of a resource for questions or problems we may encounter. I am counting on our brain trust and experience to see us through.

What am I missing here? I think this may take us a few attempts to succeed but am confident in our abilities and experience...even though little of it has much to do with CF. Any pointers? Any warnings? Any ideas?

I am very grateful for your thoughts!

-Misty

PS: What are your recommendations for an editor? Dreamweaver seems pretty pricey...is it worth it? Are there alternatives? I have heard that HTML-Kit from Chami.com is pretty good too. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Sarky78]

In my opinion Dreamweaver is the editor to have at the moment for use with CF MX, but as you are using CF 4.5 then CF MX's not really for you as you might use functions that aren't supported in CF 4.5.

If you have limited time, and budjet then I would say yeah go for one of the off the shelf packages you mentioned for you e-commerce site. The only problem with this is if you have to make a change to the code, then your gonna have to learn what the code does and where, which will take you a while i would have thought.

If you have a bit of time the I would spend it learning CF. Get a copy of Ben Forta's ColdFusion MX Web Application Construction Kit its in the fifth edition at the moment so i think you'll need to track down version 3 which is for CF 4, and read it. I got a copy about three years ago and was writing CF in about two weeks!

 

[MistyTheDog]

Thank you Arperry! I am sure we are on the right path here. I am also sure we won't be CF experts right away but, from what I have seen, it is easily learned and used.

Your suggestion regarding learning CF from the Forta book is good. I agree and our plan is to buy one of these packages and, with the tutorial, tweak and load until we "get it". That way we are not starting from nothing OR writing a bunch of spaghetti. Is this a good plan?

I am a little fuzzy on the editors.
Are any of the following statements correct?:

1) Studio was discontinued when MX was released.
2) HomeSite has also been discontinued but was really only an HTML editor.
3) Dreamweaver has a version of Studio buried in it somewhere.
4) Studio addicts remain allegiant to Studio.
5) Dreamweaver's full capabilities are only realized in an MX environment (there seem to be different levels of Dreamweaver...which is adequate? I am lost here).a

I have a 4.0 version of Studio that I think we can start with.

Also, is there a table that explains the changes/improvements from 4.0 to 4.5 to 5.0 to MX?

Thanks again!

-Misty

 

[Sarky78]

I'm not aware of a table that lists all of the changes between 4->4.5->5.0->MX, but i am sure there will be one the MM site somewhere.

CF Studio 4 is fine for use with CF 4.5, if thats what you are going to be using, as it will have all of the functions that are used in CF 4.5 and non from the newer versions of CF (5 and MX)

As far as homesite goes. I think this was an application that was made by Allaire and was a competitor for Dreamweaver before MM took Allaire over, and like you said i think its just an HTML editor.

Previous version of Dreamweaver (2,4 and Ultradev) we found had a tendancy to re-write some server side code and basically nackered it, which was good of it - remember its not a bug its a feature!! - so if you've got it stick to Studio.

As for your plan. Its always easier - I find anyway - to learn from doing and from looking at other peoples code in the process.

Good luck

Hope this helps!

Tony