Old HTML Front Page ecommerce site help

cyberkid · #1 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 10:53 AM

Back in the early days we began to use Front Page 98 to build out an ecommerce site that grew beyond any measurable plan to begin with. At first we used a very well established shopping cart system managed by Just Add Commerce. It's a great, easy to use non-database driven system that we out grew. We built the database driven ecommerce shopping cart system that integrated perfectly with Front Page. 3500 items later Microsoft shut that system down. I had just finished entering the last item...

I now have a new asp.net ecommerce system running and the products all reside in SQL. I would like to bring the Old HTML site back to life because of how well it performed before the shut down. It generated a great amount of business for us, and even though it was clunky, our customers loved it. It was a challenge for them to navigate the sub-webs, the sub-domains, and then find themselves between the ecommerce server and the web page they had only a moment ago used to purchase an item. Customer relations would never be the same again.

I'd like to find an SQL db driven ecommerce platform that I can load the items into from the SQL, according to their respective category and sub-category so I could then copy and paste the items back into their old web pages. I need help in many ways, and would appreciate at least a suggestion as to which ecommerce utility program is SQL friendly and able to make server calls to and from an HTML site.

blitzen · #2 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 04:48 PM

I think whatever program you transfer to that you'll need to restructure the database somewhat.

We've been happy with ClickCartPro (Shopping Cart Software by ClickCartPro Ecommerce Solutions). It has open source code and very lively and helpful forum.

corporateface · #3 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 04:52 PM

What is the website???

I like comersus personally.
Free ASP Shopping Cart :: Comersus.

gleames · #4 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 04:58 PM

I had used Comersus in the past for clients but found it slow and the checkout process long - wasn't happy with the seach engine spiderability either. I've just changed over to X-cart and it seems promising. Payment processing was pretty easy to setup. I don't think you're going to find an easy way to bring in your products although they may do it for you for a fee.

I looked at clickcartpro too and it was one of the better choices but I went with X-cart. Both run around $200 and you have control over the code.

nottheusual1 · #5 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 06:02 PM

OSCommerce is a great PHP solution. There is an enormous, vibrant community and thousands of contributions that can be used with very little programming knowledge (most mod's are just cut-n-paste and you can use a program like CompareIt to point out what to change). There are a couple of commercial implementations (like X-Cart) that pre-install the most requested/popular/useful add-ons.

We use OSCommerce in 3 of our 11 stores and plan to migrate 2 more before the end of this year. We **used** to be MIVA fans, but the move to version 5 was a big $$ incentive to look at other solutions.

I have no happy memories using any ASP-based carts. We decided to spend our energies being better open-source programmers/designers instead of waiting for M$ to obsolete our technology investments....

cyberkid · #6 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 06:18 PM

OS Commerce is a choice and I'm not certain how it could integrate with the old site. Generally, I expect I could bulk upload all the items into MySQL and then generate an OS Commerce product catalog of items that could then be pasted into the web pages as demonstrated from a link to the old website below.

Here is the example from the old HTML site that requires a new shopping cart routine. The db that stored the product data and managed the shopping cart, was at the former bCentral Microsoft eCommerce server. Again, we need to find another SQL ecommerce platform that will fully integrate with the existing HTML pages as seen from the stored copy of our old Front Page HTML website.

Jacquard Textile Colors Fabric Paint

nottheusual1 · #7 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 07:20 PM

Just make the OSCommerce site look like your existing pages. here are templating systems available to let you have complete control over the appearance of your store - and even if the customer is happy with the existing functionality, you still need the ability to improve your tools in administering the store and the "back end".

Import your content and products - there are converters available to change your legacy data to MySQL, and OSCommerce table structures are readily available.

And it will give you an opportunity to "freshen up" the more mundane things like navigation, etc., without having a detrimental effect on your existing customer-loved experience - which is what really matters, anyway.

If your customer ever changes behaviors, you'll still have the foundation for the future.

cyberkid · #8 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 07:52 PM

True, however and most importantly, is that the OLD site is coded for indexing. The one thing I want to avoid is having to create new indexable pages. The OLD site might have 300 or more pages, all of which are ready for any one of the search engines. If I could just manage to convert the product db to another ecommerce platform that was not totally db driven and I could copy and paste the items with their respective shopping cart buttons back into the pages they once belonged then I would have a site ready for ecommerce.

Soulkeeper · #9 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 08:08 PM

Hello Cyberkid......I've sent you a PM and also will write here as well just in case you do not check your PM's.............

If you go to my site (Raindrops|Umbrellas:: umbrellas and rainwear including coats,jackets,boots and more..) and check out the shopping cart which I use and if this is something your site may benefit from, please send me a message. My site is also html/css and no database either........very easy to set up and has a few options to play with as well.......Let me know, my details are in your PM box...........

P.S. this is not a blatant attempt to advertise my site......this is a genuine offer. I edited this post because I forgot that html code is enabled.......sorry about that.

Mike

trancehead · #10 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 03:18 AM

Is it not worthwhile setting up a database with a back end and then using xml feeds as a product catalogue? That way it will work in any front end you may choose in the future as you can style it any way you want to.

Might be a bit more expensive but it'll be almost future proof (for a while anyway).

crossland · #11 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 06:19 AM

The beauty of osCommerce is that you get the source code, so can customise it as much as you want. This provides you with an incredible amount of flexibility.

Tim
Guitar Store

texxs · #12 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 10:19 AM

Why not just change the navigation , theme and content back to what the customers like, if that's really what they like so much. Although maybe I misunderstood because I can't image customers liking "clunky and hard to navigate . . ."

. . . and I think you may be also calling DB system you want to use by the wrong name. It sounds like you want Microsoft's SQL DB, which we all call MS SQL, because there are many different flavors of SQL, like mySQL for instance.

Most e-commerce platforms only work with one of the flavors.

cyberkid · #13 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 11:27 AM

The MS SQL system is where we're at. Visual Studio can be used to edit the new site even though the new site's programming is written and coded by Shopping Cart - AspDotNetStorefront: Asp.Net Shopping Cart E-Commerce Platform What I am counting on because I have to is that I can export the product db using VS into an ecommerce system that can be used with the Front Page 2003 HTML site. ( I certainly wish the old site could be read through an asp.net template in such a way as to convert the meta data and the html data, and create new pages based on the pages it could read, parse, and convert for the asp.net platform) Certainly OS Commerce can do the ecommerce end of the job and I'd like help in that regard if this makes sense to anyone that is familiar with the tasking of bulk uploading products from one db to another. But, I can only wear so many hats at one time and db mgt routines require a skill set and knowledge level that for me is easier to read than it is to write. From the site map below one can see that the new db is clean and error free...

Here is the list of categories and sub-cats that need to be imported along with their respective products in order to bring the old site back into operation. Fabrics To Dye For Quilting, Sewing, Knitting and Weaving Supplies I was careful to preserve the data structure so when the time came to revamp the old site I could use the new data tables from MS SQL to export the items into an ecommerce system that could generate the product catalog in such a way as to allow me to use the product groups again with the items sorted so I could copy and paste each group of items back into their old web page.

nottheusual1 · #14 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyberkid

True, however and most importantly, is that the OLD site is coded for indexing. The one thing I want to avoid is having to create new indexable pages. The OLD site might have 300 or more pages, all of which are ready for any one of the search engines. If I could just manage to convert the product db to another ecommerce platform that was not totally db driven and I could copy and paste the items with their respective shopping cart buttons back into the pages they once belonged then I would have a site ready for ecommerce.

Still don't see this as an objection to be overcome. You can integrate your content all but unscathed - down to every META you can imagine. Without investing the t+e now to make the admin/back end more functional you face the possibility of another fire drill in the not to distant future.

OSCommerce works very well, is based on Open Source software, and even if it were outlawed tomorrow you'd still have a data framework. None of this is tough - there are plenty of people who have been put in similar positions with the only difference being the name of the legacy software. We are all "self-taught" here, and there isn't a rocket scientist in the bunch (believe me!!).

There are even people who will do the stuff you don't feel well about doing for very fair $$, especially if time is the issue. It's the whole community thing.