Thanks for the helpful reply and the link to your site, John. I'll take that as a vote for rolling-your-own.
On Feb 10, 4:25 pm, John Heenan <johnmhee...@gmail.com> wrote: > A common complaint with all e-commerce systems is that they are > difficult to customise for everyone except the authors. I wanted to > use a Python based based system for the long term productivity > benefits. I looked at Satchmo. Satchmo is impressive and does work but > I found myself stressed out as hell trying to find where to even start > to make customisations I wanted. > > The well known e-commerce apps largely restrict themselves to a store- > front retail model where an anonymous customer purchases a small > amount of goods that next to know detailed information is provided > about. This does not suit my model. > > None of the small sample apps that portray themselves as e-commerce > apps have even the remotest conception of what a real e-commerce app > is that ties in stock levels, volume discounts, customer account > histories/payment records and detailed product information (where > necessary). > > I went for building a clean system using Web2py and now have a web > site,http://www.zgus.com, that I can easily modify without getting > stressed about. It was very stressful at first since I knew exactly > what I wanted but I had to learn the skills necessary to build the > infrastructure and to implement the site 'on the job' (after a ten > year gap). When I have now is a site that is ready to go when I have > mature products to sell that are still under development. I reckon I > can further customise my own system in less time it would take to find > a customisation option of another system and then edit it do what I > really want. > > Whatever approach you take be prepared to take far more time that you > anticipate you will require at first. Assuming you are adept at > building web sites without a database driven back-end, if you build > your own database driven site it helps to spend time to get a really > good grip on Python, on Web2py and to have a good grip on database > techniques. Otherwise you will not get the best use out of using > Web2py. With regard to getting a grip on Python, if I did not > understand precisely what a Python statement was doing I spent time > hunting down the answer and trying out examples. Python is > sufficiently different from other languages that it can be like > learning a first language again instead of just learning a different > syntax. For example treating everything as a pointer to an object and > the flexibility this allows can be difficult to adapt to at first when > coming from an environment where pointers to objects are regarded as > undesirable evils and maybe hidden (such as with references in C++ > passed as function parameters). > > I hope this helps. > > John Heenan > > On Feb 9, 5:22 am, snfctech <tschm...@sacfoodcoop.com> wrote: > > > I need to build an order-entry and tracking system for a Food Co-op. > > I was excited about using Python/web2py, but I'm struggling with the > > fact that existing e-commerce systems seem to have about 70% of the > > functionality I need. I don't need stuff like shipping addresses, > > postal prices and online features like a payment gateway - at least > > initially. And I think I will need to do a lot of customization - > > complicated discounts for products and members, a store->producer > > order/tracking flow (in addition to customer->store), printing > > invoices with line-item UPCs that can be printed and brought to a > > register for payment, and so on. But all the rest of it is already > > there - product catalog, customer_to_order relations, order status/ > > tracking, (some) notifications, etc. > > > My concern is that the 30% customization on the existing system will > > be more of a headache than building a clean system from scratch with > > nothing I don't need. Or is it silly to build a system that is 70% > > wheel-reinventing? Should I try to work with an existing project like > > Django/Satchmo and save my web2py project for something more unique? > > > Thanks in advance for any tips. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "web2py-users" group. To post to this group, send email to web...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to web2py+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/web2py?hl=en.
