Shopping Cart Util

Hey guys, I do web design for my friends and myself mostly. I can handle HTML, and all the design tools, but I want a shopping cart/database system that is easy for a non tech savy user to update. I found a couple on the web, but I haven't found any good reviews about these systems. We haven't decided on a host yet either, so if you have any suggestions on a good host that has all the extensions needed for this setup that would be great. I would want at 300mb space, etc etc. I could design the database in MS Access if that is a commonly accepted format.

MySQL is a more commonly used database system, as it is open source and cross-platform. You might get more help if you post in project help.

osCommerce cart

Try this cart it's pretty straight forward and includes an installation script. It used php and mysql.

Using MS Access on a website is sort of like using a Yugo in the Daytona 500... it just ain't gonna last long, and when it blows.. man does it make a mess. I've heard horror stories of Access-driven sites bringing down entire servers.... permanently (granted, this was years ago because not too many people are crazy enough to try and use Access in a production environment).

Invest some time into learning about an RDBMS like PostgreSQL and use that (main project link is in my sig - www.dbexperts.net if you need a Windoze version). If your dopy end-users insist on it (as mine do), you can use Access as a front-end to the real system so the lazy bums don't have to learn how to do things right (although, it will be extra headache for you because you have to either: a) cop out and cripple the pgsql databases to conform to the broken Access app or b) do a lot of extra development to fix all of the broken Access ways of doing things).

Alternatively, you could use a non-relational DBMS such as MySQL if you're sure that the system will never be high-traffic and you don't want to invest the time in learning a more functional system (flames are a'coming... I can tell). Also, most hosts (annoyingly enough) offer MySQL but not PostgreSQL. I hate to suggest a M$ product, but you could also look into Sql Server if you have a lot of money to burn through and don't mind some of its stupid technical limitations.

And let the flames begin.

I will start by stating that PostgresQL has made some progress in the past two years, but MySQL was an early adopted program and has a long history of being stable and fast. It wasn't designed to be a complex database system, but stable and fast at the expense of some features including triggers and transactions.

Plus PostgresQL had a reputation of not being as widely tested and less stable than MySQL. Also PG had some other issues like not supporting rows that had more that 8k of data in them. If you thought about using forums, you might go past this issue. The other issue was speed. MySQL in terms of performance just kicked the pants out of PG. Same people who develop sourceforge came to the same conclusion. And thus MySQL became the standard as Postgres underwent further development.

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/tim20000705.php3
and another test from a year ago
http://php.weblogs.com/oracle_mysql_performance
and the best thing to read
http://phd.pp.ru/Software/SQL/PostgreSQL-vs-MySQL.html


Now I think that PostgresQL has improved on that in the last couple releases, but most of the programs I have developed or worked on have all gone with MySQL because its performance on medium sized databases will hold right up there with Oracle. And the last version of Oracle I used was 7i(?) in late 1999 and never again.

(Note I forgot this)
MySQL also offered COMMERCIAL SUPPORT, although at a price. The fact that one could pay out a couple grand a year and get instant telephone support was another reason why MySQL became a standard.
(End forgotten statement)

Oh yeah, and then there was that 8k per row problem with PostgresQL. Did

However, the defacto standard for databases is now MySQL. Then if you have to go large scale, you suck it up and buy a system like DB2.

Even if not the best, I would recommend MySQL to be the first database to "learn" as there is more documentation and tutorials on it, it is easiest to use with PHP, and the majority of prewritten database-based projects use it.
Quite simply, yes.