Re: FLASH: shopping cart interfaces

[Gregg Caines]

> 1) is flash 4 very suited for this, or should I upgrade to flash 5 before

> starting

> into this (I'm not sure if the new version has any added features that

would

> make the interface better.. does it?).


Flash 5 doesn't really offer anything above Flash 4 in this regard.  I

suppose

you could read the product data from XML documents through Flash 5's

XML socket, but you'll probably just want to use some server-side middleware

(CGI, ASP, JSP, PHP, Cold Fusion, etc) to access a database.


> 2) Can somebody point me towards a site that utilizes flash for this

> purpose...

> I'd like to see it in action before I choose this for the best direction.


I haven't seen one, but I'd be interested to see one if you find one.


> 3) a very obvious problem hit me while in the shower earlier today, what

> about

> the database? Is it a realistic possibility to make a flash site with a

> user side searchable (and administrator updatable) database of

information?


You can't access a database with Flash alone.  You'll need one of those

middleware technologies I mentioned earlier.  You're also going to need to

figure out your methods for shipping calculation, tax calculation, and

payment

processing (how else will you figure out the correct total, with tax and

shipping

included, and verify the credit number/date?).  After you've got all that

you'll

still need a management section (so the owner can update her/his inventory)

and

you'll need an SSL certificate to show that your credit card transactions

are

secure. There's actually quite a bit of work to all this.  You might be

better off

buying a pre-made solution, and forgetting about Flash, if the budget is

tight.

You can probably buy an HTML-based solution for around $300.


---------------------------------------------------

Gregg Caines

n e o m e t r i x  systems inc.

http://www.neometrixsystems.com

gcainesneometrixsystems [dot] com

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