[Zope-dev] the birth of ZCommerce

[Scott Robertson]

On Tue, 3 Aug 1999, Christopher Petrilli wrote:

> Just going to toss in my $1.50 w/inflation :-)
> 
> > 1) integration with accounting packages such as Quicken
> 
> Define an API, but don't specifically choose an accounting package.  Deal
> with what the "use cases" are, rather than what Quicken expects.  Quicken is
> nothing like what most companies use, with a full double-entry ledger system
> 

Accounting packages are just wierd. How companies use them are even
wierder. Getting a compnay (or their accoutants) to change accounting
systems (le alone learn any new software) is a lesson in futilalty.
Probally the best thing you can do is provide ways to export data, and pray.
In other words this shouldn't be made a priority, although it would be a
nice sell.


> > 2) secure transactions
> 
> Ah, there's the rub, this is a much more complex thing to do than it first
> appears.  SSL is easy, but dealing with storage of credit-card information,
> and more so, delivery of goods via electronic means, is much more complex.
>

> > 3) many of the features in packages such as Intershop
> 

If you want to have some fun start the debate in the office wether you
should store your inventory in Zope or a SQL database. Clearly both
approaches have their merits but it all depends on the situation.  
I have yet to see an off the shelf integrated e-commerece solution that
makes anyone happy yet.
 
My current line of thingking on e-commerece in Zope would be to provide a
series of components, not necesaryily an integradted store. 

The things you would need are:

* Some form of shopping cart object
* Inventory control objects that can categorize items for sale but can
  come from different datasources ZODB, SQL, etc...
* Credit Card Processor object *cough Wampum Generator cough cough*
* And a way to do reporting (This makes my head hurt)
 
Let the developers glue it all together.


---------------------------------------------------
- Scott Robertson             Phone: 714.972.2299 -
- CodeIt Computing            Fax:   714.972.2399 -
-                http://codeit.com                -
---------------------------------------------------