Website Stuff - Need someone to give me an idea

[DodgyTech]

Hey guys

Just making a website for my project. I was wondering if anyone can give me an idea for this.

Im making a site in ASP using dreamweaver and I have an access database. I want the user of the site to view products and add them to a cart. I havent really worked with carts before, but i just want to have my own basic cart that will just keep the "add to cart" contents in a temporary cart, before saving it to the database.

I was thinking of having a temporary table in the database. but that will only be good for one user at a time. it's ok for this, but how would i implement that?

any ideas or pointers would help. i would like to steer clear of those "free asp carts" because i want this to be as basic as possible and keep to the look of the website and be under my own control (however, you could persuade me otherwise, if you think they could help me).

Thanks guys

 

[pks00]

Not sure you want to use msaccess, why dont you look at something better for the web like mysql? thats free and good for webservers.

Now do you want to use ASP or ASP.Net? if the latter, you could also have a look at ASP.Net Matrix as an alternative IDE.

If you want to use MSAccess then the simplest way without having to setup any webservers is to use their data access pages. Its MS poor attempt at making web pages that talk to Access.
But for small projects/prototyping etc, its not too bad I guess. Cant do ASP in it though.

If you want ideas for a website, why not do video rentals?

Start with an idea, then look at a commerical option to see what data they hold, then that will give you an idea on how to do your database design.


How's your HTML skills?

 

[DodgyTech]

hey dude, thanx for the reply.

well ive done most of the site in asp and msaccess!! and thats what im sort of skilled in.

i found some websites that sort of offer what i want:

http://www.asp101.com/samples/shopping.asp
http://www.aspobjects.com/ASP_Scripts/Shopping_Ecommerce/Shopping_Carts/?sortby=download
http://www.aspemporium.com/aspapps.asp?eid=6

Im gonna have to either try getting a cart to work, or im gonna have to just make the site place the items into a temp table and then stick them into the normal tables and empty our the temp table.

I got sql server 2005 i think and i got mysql set up at uni. but id prefer to keep things simple

whats that about data access page? i thought that ms data acess page is a data entry form from within the DB Gui.

my html is ok i guess.

 

[pks00]

data access pages is a pile crap. You can save as html but its such terrible stuff, Im surprised people use it.

Database doesnt really matter if your making a small site.

You don't have to use a temp table, you could use cookies instead but that is neither here or there.

I found this, not sure if it would help you http://www.jonathanbriggs.com/other/building-ecommerce-with-asp,361,AR.html

I only asked about html so you can understand the code generated by dreamweaver as well.

 

[DodgyTech]

lol ok! nah i will not use it in that case

ah thats good to hear. ive never used cookies or even session's in asp before. all this is new to me but i jsut keep searching around and just keep trying different things. im not afraid to try and i use common sense!!! very vital that is! lolz

ah thanx for that link, im sure it will be the main thing to help me by the look of it.

at the moment im gonna put that on hold because i now have to work out how to authenticate users in asp and then show them stuff related to them (ie customers can only see stuff related to their customerID) once logged in and not somebody elses details!

im sure its fairly simple stuff, just gotta do the right searching and testing.

oh! yeah i can interpret code fine most of the time. so its all good

 

[Zee]

Use session variables in ASP mate. That way the carts contents will stay for as long as the user is on your site. Well you can set a time limit for session variables, but you get the idea.
You can use the variable as an array to store cart contents. That way you can have it displaying no. of items in cart whilst browsing the site, and clicking on the cart can list everything there.

 

[DodgyTech]

That sounds sick.

Gotta find that on google now. So i take it i determine what the session var's store right? So i can put in the customers details into it so that they an only see stuff meant for them in their own section?

Thanks m8

 

[solster]

this is just my 2 cents but.....

i would have a session table, with a foreign key to their current shopping cart, and have a random GUID as a primary key (which u can later use for persisting the session in a http cookie).

the shopping cart table is simply the shopping cart number, product id and quantity. i would have the cart number and product id set as the primary key (cant remember the correct term for joining two items together for a primary key)

wait until a visitor wishes to add an item to the cart, once they do, check they have a cookie (theres many ways to check this, not sure in ASP, no point in javascript as u need it server side - that little info will help u filter out samples on google)

if they dont have a cookie, create a random guid, create a new session and cart with the guid as the key, add the item to your cart table and set the visitors cookie to the guid.

if they do have a cookie, check if the session exists, (if it doesnt, its up to u to say session has expired or just create a new empty cart with their cookie), check if the item has already been added to the cart table, if it has, add 1 to the quantity (or ask the user if they wish to add 1 or not), if it doesnt exist, add the item to the table.

its up to you how u wish to manage sessions....

hope this helps, but i think its roughly how sessions/carts work, its what i would do anyways.

 

[DodgyTech]

Okay just an update.

I got my login thing to work and even implemented my own little ingenuity to use one form for staff so taht they get redirected to their own personal page depending on their role. took me the whole day, but it was just an if statement for every role available!!

also, used session variables productively so that ID's are passed and i can sue them to show personal details of customers or any other thing i may need for staff or customers in the course of development.

wow i never knew that session variables would be this useful, i knew that i needed something for this kind of functionality, just didnt know it would be quiet simple!!

 

[DodgyTech]

this is just my 2 cents but.....

i would have a session table, with a foreign key to their current shopping cart, and have a random GUID as a primary key (which u can later use for persisting the session in a http cookie).

the shopping cart table is simply the shopping cart number, product id and quantity. i would have the cart number and product id set as the primary key (cant remember the correct term for joining two items together for a primary key)

wait until a visitor wishes to add an item to the cart, once they do, check they have a cookie (theres many ways to check this, not sure in ASP, no point in javascript as u need it server side - that little info will help u filter out samples on google)

if they dont have a cookie, create a random guid, create a new session and cart with the guid as the key, add the item to your cart table and set the visitors cookie to the guid.

if they do have a cookie, check if the session exists, (if it doesnt, its up to u to say session has expired or just create a new empty cart with their cookie), check if the item has already been added to the cart table, if it has, add 1 to the quantity (or ask the user if they wish to add 1 or not), if it doesnt exist, add the item to the table.

its up to you how u wish to manage sessions....

hope this helps, but i think its roughly how sessions/carts work, its what i would do anyways.

whoa mate, i suddenly feel inferior again! lol

i sort of get what you are saying here, but do i have to create these tables in the DB and then store user activity in them as they go along?

i have skim read it because it seems like a whole lot of info to take in, but will defo analyse it deeper when i move onto the basket!

been finding some useful links to baskets in asp, let me know if anyone needs links

 

[wizbit77]

I know that you are unlikely to want to change the format that you are using as you obviously have skills.
I have just started playing around with Dot Net Nuke. It is real easy and gives some nice looking results in little time. Plus it's all web based so you can do it from home or sneak a bit at work etc.
I'll probably get shot to hell for this suggestion.
Wiz