Re: FLASH: Entirely flash shoppingcart/catalog

[Mark Zukiwsky]

Hey Neal!


If you're looking for a good e-commerce flash example check out the 

Ted Baker on-line store at http://www.tedbaker.co.uk . Actually, it's 

a great example!


It looks like they've used Generator to create the product line-up. 

If you have a limited number of products you could probably get away 

with loading pre-built swfs. You may want to check out Swift 

Generator at http://www.swift-tools.com/swift-generator.html for a 

no- or low-budget alternative to Generator. There's also Flash 

Turbine generator at 

http://www.blue-pacific.hexagon.net/turbine/docs/default.htm


I don't know much about the Ted Baker chain, but I'm sure the on-line 

store, both html and flash variants, address all of your concerns 

below. It would be interesting to hear from the builders about the 

ratio of flash to html sales through the site.


There's also an e-commerce forum at http://www.were-here.com and I 

believe that the guys who built Ted Baker have some posts there. The 

forum may be worth checking out for some tips and opinions.


Hope this helps.


Mark Zukiwsky

Edmonton, Canada



>THOUGHT:

>I am considering the possibility of creating a shopping-cart/catalog using

>exclusively Flash as the front-end.

>

>CONTEXT:

>As mentioned prior, sites like boo.com are largely a mix of

>HTML/DHTML/Flash.  I would like to try to do an entire interface in Flash

>though.  In order to do so I need to plan to do the following:

>

>NECESSARY PRESUMPTIONS:

>1. for the catalog portion I will need to load images into a specific

>location on the stage dynamically.  From what I have read, I believe this

>can be done by compiling each image as a swf to be loaded dynamically using

>load movie.

>

>2. I can build off of Pipey's example of a dyamically populated listbox in

>Flash to create a "view cart" page.

>

>These are the presumptions I need to make.  Further, I need to be positive

>that there are no security concerns (which I don't believe there should be)

>by building with a Flash front-end.

>

>Can somone out there tell me if they know of any limitations to watch out

>for or if they can think of any reasons why *not* to proceed this way (eg

>proceed to make an entire Flash interface to the shopping cart/catalog)?  I

>am being pressured to make a decision before I am ready to do so (eg want to

>do more research ...as I am fairly new to flash4) but i want to make sure

>there aren't any blind traps I should know about before i say it can be

>done.  So far, it seems like it can ... but saying "yes" at this point makes

>me *really* nervous.  Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!



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