Version 3.50a has been
released! 04/8/2008 The new version sports a new
interface that is more flexible and more easily customizable, as well as
much improved performance and throughput and full integration with Web
Connection's wwBusiness class. In addition the setup and configuration
has been beefed up, Sql Server support expanded. There's new support for
Authorize.NET, updated LinkPoint support and PayPal payments. There's also a new
facility to add custom subtypes (like Size, Color etc.) to any item and
capture that information automatically as part of the item addition. The
offline store application has also gained a bunch of functionality
including full remote control capability for managing inventory from the
Fat Client interface (as well as the Web interface). This version is
also compatible with the .NET version, so both FoxPro and .NET versions
can use the same SQL Server data store and the offline application can
use the .NET Web Service to download data.
When thinking of the typical Web application you invariably get the
image of an online storefront to sell products online. While
e-Commerce is much more than that, variations of Web stores continue
to be amongst the most frequent Web projects that are built.
With the Web Store Sample application we are providing you with a
fully functional online shopping cart system with full source code.
You can use it as is or customize the code for your specific
business environment. Why reinvent the wheel for user tracking and
profile management, a flexible shopping cart, built-in support for
credit card processing and flexible inventory management? A powerful
offline order manager lets you download orders and process them
offline as well as update and manage inventory remotely. Even if you
don't plan on implementing a online store this application is an
excellent example how to build a sophisticated Web Connection
application using business objects, HTML templates and building
distributed applications that can share data over the Web.
The application provides the following features:
Based on extensible business objects
The store is designed separating the business and display logic
clearly. The Web Connection code only 'drives' the business objects,
making for a clean Web interface. The same business objects are used
in the offline viewer application. The business object classes
support extension for base operations like shipping and tax
calculations through behavior classes you can attach to the business
objects. Other features can be extended easily through subclassing.
Supports both Visual FoxPro and SQL Server Tables
The business object layer provides switched data access to either
Visual FoxPro or SQL Server data. The base business object class can
handle most data access tasks without any special code to access
either data source resulting in only minimal amounts of data server
specific code in the actual business logic code.
Web display through HTML Templates
The visual display of the application is handled through Web
Connection HTML templates (ASP Style tags) in FrontPage created
pages. This allows user interface editing without touching the
business logic and without requiring code changes.
The store also interoperates with the .NET
version when using SQL Server.
Sophisticated User Management
The store provides user profile management for tracking shoppers
through the store and the ability for visitors to reconnect to their
profiles either automatically via cookies or via logging on to their
profile. The profile, as all files are easily extensible via custom
fields or XML based properties.
Basic Inventory Management
Inventory items can be set up to track inventory counts. Items can
be either physical or virtual for those selling electronically
distributable items. Inventory can be managed online or offline
using the offline order manager application which can upload
inventory of individual items or the entire inventory file.
Order Processing and Credit Card Support
Order processing can be accomplished right online using a set of
easy to use credit card validation classes (requires merchant setup
with an Authorize.NET, Verisign PayFlow Pro, LinkPoint, AccessPoint
affiliated merchant) or by using PayPal. With PayPal you can process
payments in minutes. Or you can process credit cards offline
from the order manager application.
XML capable
The application is also XML enabled with most requests being able to
serve XML data directly to XML enabled clients. You can download
orders in XML format, get inventory information via XML and even
place orders in XML format providing a B2B interface to your store
for resellers and corporate customers alike.
Fully functional offline order manager application
An offline order manager application that demonstrates the XML
features in a distributed application is also provided. The offline
manager can download (and also upload) orders, verify credit cards
(requires merchant setup), send email notifications, show shipping
status. It also provides remote inventory management with full
interaction between the offline application and the Web application.
Full Source Code
Since this application ships as a sample it comes with fully
documented Visual FoxPro source code written by Rick Strahl.
Provided is the source for the Web Connection server application,
the business object classes, the HTML templates and sample images
and the full offline order manager application. The application is
documented with an HTML Help file containing a full class reference
and a walkthrough. The full documentation is available for online
viewing as well.
The application comes as a Web Connection add-on which installs into
a Web Connection application directory and is installed by running a
customized New Project Wizard that creates a new Visual FoxPro project
for you. Once the project is generated you can have the store up and
running in its default configuration just like it runs on this Web site.
Source code for this customized Wizard is also available which is a
useful example how to create custom Web Connection installers.
Don't waste your time re-inventing the wheel - see how it's done the
easy way.
Note:
This application ships as a sample application, which means we
provide only limited support for this product. The application was
basically designed for operation on this Web site and no attempt has
been made to make this product fully generic for all online point of
sale applications. However, we feel that the key features that most
online store applications will need are provided in this package in
an elegant implementation that can be easily extended and
customized.
