At 22:37 3/11/01 -0500, you wrote: >Thanks Peter! > >Perhaps I coudl pick your brain a little more. :-) >I am new to the whole shopping cart concept, thats why I decided to jump >right in an build a basic one. I am fine setting up the DB for products and >categories and what not, but one question I have been struggling with is how >to store cart info? >Is it best to assign a new CartID to every customer? I am having the user >register before they can shop, so I could technically give them a CartID to >use that never changes... then once they place an order, move the info into >an orders table.. does this sound ok? I am open for any suggestions.. I >hope these questions are not to annoying to you and the list.. :-)
Not good. Consider the customer might access the site from home, work, Internet cafe, etc. This would work if you could guarantee that the "CartID" is unique, eg a User ID. But they would have to login to the site in some fashion so that your application could identify the shopper. This could be a pain for some users who might want to just browse and buy, not register and never come back. You might lose a potential customer if they HAVE to register. I've been in this situation before (as a shopper) and immediately went elsewhere. I was buying PlayStation 2 games and DVD's, not porn or anything, I just didn't want to register with another site. The easier you can make it (for the shopper) the better. The shopper does not really care how the backend works - unless they are critical people like us developers. As long as you do NOT store sensitive information such as credit card details, email address, etc, CLIENT variables are viable for REMEMBERING their cart. Otherwise SESSION is the better option. Have a look at Structures for storing the cart items. Even check out the developers gallery (www.allaire.com/developer/gallery/) as some soul has surely written something you can use already - or at least get ideas from. Good luck! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
