shopping cart

You'd really need a web programming language such as Coldfusion, ASP, PHP... etc. I personally am a coldfusion developer and using this it is quite easy to develop shopping carts. There are also basic examples of how to build shopping carts available on the internet.

Are you currently using a web programming language to develop with?

~trail

mm... i used java and perl before.. i did not try doing a shopping cart before, so i am not sure as to which tools are easy to use.

pls advise. thanks

I use PHP, but you can accomplish similar things with PHP, CF & ASP.  I don't think that any one of them is necessarily easier or harder to learn than the others.  If you have DreamWeaver, you can use it to create PHP or ASP pages, but not CF pages, I think.  Another consideration is hosting.  If you use CF, you need CF hosting, which is harder to find and more expensive.  Likewise, if you use ASP, you are limited to Windows hosting.  PHP support tends to be available on either Linux or Windows hosting and Linux hosting that supports PHP is more plentiful and cheaper than either of the others.

humeniuk,

you said,
>>If you have DreamWeaver, you can use it to create PHP or ASP pages, but not CF pages, I think.

I just wanted to point out something, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Coldfusion are made by the same company, of course Dreamweaver supports Coldfusion, they come bundled in a package with Macromedia Flash and Macromedia Fireworks. Dreamweaver is more tailored to Coldfusion and made to edit it's code more than it is for PHP or ASP, but it supports those as well. It's like Microsoft Office not really being associated with Microsoft Windows.

Anyway, Coldfusion is a very easy language to learn, it has very similar markup as HTML... PHP and ASP are options as well. But I would find CF a bit easier to learn, it can get very complicated but it is easy to learn. If you went to the book store and bought a CF book, like Ben Forta's Web application Development Kit, it will have a version of Coldfusion in there plus a book to teach you CF and it even has a tutorial on building a shopping cart. Also Coldfusion hosting is no more expensive than PHP or ASP, I'm not sure what humeniuk is talking about, but obviously he hasn't used Coldfusion much. So before putting down a language learn a bit about it. So you could develop and test on your local machine with what comes with the book and then transfer your files over to your host. Coldfusion is very easy to configure on your computer, I have tried setting up and Apache server, PHP, and MySQL and was way more complicated than configuring Coldfusion. Coldfusion Takes about 10-15 mins to setup.

Well it's up to you, if you look at the newer versions of Coldfusion, Like I just went and got coldfusion mx 7, it has a lot more powerful look and interface as well as functionality I haven't seen yet in PHP and ASP. Coldfusion being a Macromedia product meshes like a dream with Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks.

~trail

mm... wat's the final product from CF? is it a webpage or a CF script? cos, from what humeniuk says it seems that i will have to find a hosting server that supports CF? cos, if it's a webpage i don't think there will be a need for me to find a hostin server that supports CF isn't it?

"of course Dreamweaver supports Coldfusion"

Thanks for clarifying.  Supports - yes, but can it generate CF code the way it can for PHP or ASP?  If it can, do you need CF (the software) at all?


"Also Coldfusion hosting is no more expensive than PHP or ASP, I'm not sure what humeniuk is talking about, but obviously he hasn't used Coldfusion much"

People often don't know what I'm talking about, so you're not on your own.  However, take a look at some CF hosting plans and compare.

Example - Hostway, an excellent hosting company offers these CF hosting plans . . .

CF Standard - 400MB disk space, 30GB traffic - $49.95/mo
CF Advanced - 600MB disk space, 45GB traffic - $99.95/mo

. . . and these non-CF hosting plans . . .

Gold - 600MB disk space, 50GB traffic - $13.95/mo
Gold Plus - 800MB disk space, 100GB traffic - $19.95/mo
Platinum - 1.2GB disk space, unlimited traffic - $26.95/mo.

Of course, there are companies that specialize in CF hosting.

www.cfhosting.com - plans from $45/mo
www.cfdynamics.com - plans from $19.95/mo
     Fantastic ! . . . except that includes only 5GB of traffic, which is some kind of bad joke.
www.cfxhosting.com - plans from $34.95/mo

There are many very good hosting companies that offer hosting at much lower rates.  If you want some examples, I'd be happy to provide them.  Or you can post a question in the Hosting TA (https://www.experts-exchange.com/Web/Hosting).  There are some nice folks over there who can give you all the examples you want.

Now you know what I'm talking about.


"is it a webpage or a CF script? cos, from what humeniuk says it seems that i will have to find a hosting server that supports CF?"

It's both, it's a web page with CF scripting. If you use PHP or ASP, you create web pages with PHP or ASP scripting included.  Whatever language you use, you need a web server than supports that language.  From the hosting point of view, support for PHP and ASP is very common, but is less common (and more expensive) for CF.  However, I have nothing negative to say about CF itself - if that's the language you are most comfortable with, the hosting situation shouldn't be the deciding factor.

"So before putting down a language learn a bit about it."

Just noticed this, trailblazzyr55.  For the record, there wasn't a single thing in my post that can be reasonably called a put down of CF.  I did, however, state some simple facts about CF hosting.  While I admire your brand loyalty, you shouldn't let it make you so defensive.

At the same time, I don't mind admitting again that I misspoke about the compatibility of CF and DW and admitted that I was wrong.  I wonder if you are man enough to do the same.

humeniuk,

Well I wasn't thinking of this post as a contest, and didn't mean to sound defensive or derogatory. So if that was the way it was taken I apologize, as it wasn't my intent.

you mentioned:
>Thanks for clarifying.  Supports - yes, but can it generate CF code the way it can for PHP or ASP?  If it can, do you >need CF (the software) at all?

Yes, coldfusion most definitely can generate code in dreamweaver. Coldfusion and Dremweaver are both macromedia products, so they are capable of cross compatibility. Included in dremweaver though are setups for ASP and PHP. So it supports all of them, as well as generates scripts, well tags, and small scripts for all of them.

It also can perform a number of database operations as well.

You mentioned the hosting plans:
>CF Standard - 400MB disk space, 30GB traffic - $49.95/mo
>CF Advanced - 600MB disk space, 45GB traffic - $99.95/mo

well as you know hosting can be like shopping for a car only without the dealer. You have to shop around to find what suites your needs the best, if you don't need a lamborgini to get to work in the morning and a toyota would do just fine, then why recommend a lamborgini? I have seen many CF Hosting plans starting at $4.95, now if there are PHP/ASP plans cheaper, by all means go with them. Anyplan can get very expensive as your needs increase. Much like buying a utility truck if you're going to be a contractor, obviously the toyota wouldn't cut it then right, so you need a different vehicle, may cost more. Point is saying one hosting plan is... x amount of money, you really have to shop around and ask yourself what do you really need? The higher the needs with any language, the higher the price. Also you want to find a hosting plan with good support should anything go down or you have any questions.

Have a look here: http://www.coldfusion-hosting-plans.com/

The shopping carts with the hosting plans that have them, are either templates or shopping cards perhaps as part of thier system. In either case you wouldn't have to do much coding. On the other hand personally I like to create my own because the shopping carts that come with hosting plans, one push the price up, and two aren't normally exactly what I need, so I like to make my own.

Now it's not so much a brand loyalty, but I happen to know what I'm saying when it comes to coldfusion, it's what I do for a living, I don't know much about PHP or ASP, much like you don't know CF. So that being the case I wouldn't recommend anything as far as PHP or ASP because I wouldn't really know what I was talking about. Now I hope this doesn't sound defensive in any way, I'm just stating facts. If you recommend PHP hosting, I think its great, you know all that goes into it. When you recommend CF hosting there may be some things you miss. Being the subject matter expert in your particular web language, is a great thing!

>At the same time, I don't mind admitting again that I misspoke about the compatibility of CF and DW and admitted >that I was wrong.  I wonder if you are man enough to do the same.

it seems what I said you took in offense, I'm sorry for offending you, that wasn't my intent. just be careful you don't provide mis-information, after all we're suppose to be the experts right?

Regards,
~trail

"just be careful you don't provide mis-information, after all we're suppose to be the experts right?"

I agree completely, which is why I objected to your statement that "Coldfusion hosting is no more expensive than PHP or ASP" and writing off my disagreement as a lack of knowledge.  I absolutely take you at your word is a powerful and user-friendly scripting language.  It doesn't hurt that I already thought so, but you know more about CF than I do and so you assertion carries weight.  And just as CF is what you do for a living, hosting is part of what I do for a living.

Along those lines, the link you provided serves as further evidence of what I was saying.  For every hosting plan on there, it would be quite easy to find several hosting plans that supports PHP and/or ASP and offers more features for less money.  This includes the ultra-budget plans from no-name hosting companies, which I would never recommend for any hosting, CF or otherwise, for precisely the reason you gave, "you want to find a hosting plan with good support should anything go down or you have any questions."

If you still feel otherwise, I won't try to convince you any further as this isn't of any real importance to you.  Nor is it a big issue, really.  As I said to weisianz above, nobody should choose the scripting language they use based on saving some money on hosting costs.  However, anyone to whom it IS important will discover with a little research that my statement was accurate - CF hosting cost more than comparable PHP or ASP hosting.  Anyone who states otherwise is providing the misinformation that you and I agree we would like to avoid seeing here.

i agree that hosting companies wif CF are less common and in some sense more ex.. and as it happens, the company that i intend to create a shopping cart for is using a hosting company that does not supports CF... instead only ASP and PHP are supported.. so, i think i will wanna try creating a shopping cart using PHP/ASP.. mm.. any reference for those 2 languages? thanks