1. IntroductionWelcome| 00:02 | Hi, I'm Lawrence Cramer and I am a Web Developer and CEO
of Application Dynamics and founder of Cartweaver.com.
| | 00:07 | I've been involved in e-commerce for about six years now, and
in that time I have seen the idea of shopping online really go
| | 00:13 | mainstream and take off. At the same time, the demand for web developers
that can help their clients sell online has literally exploded.
| | 00:22 | So often what happens is a client will come to a web developer
and say, "Can you help me to sell my stuff online?"
| | 00:27 | And the web designer says, "Sure", and that's when the panic sets in.
So not only now you are expected to design the website, you are also
| | 00:33 | expected to be an authority on a lot of things that have
nothing to do with web design but everything to do with
| | 00:39 | e-commerce, such as merchant accounts,
payment gateways, SSLs and online security.
| | 00:45 | So whether you're a web designer looking to start doing e-commerce
sites or someone who wants to just start selling things online,
| | 00:51 | this title is for you.
| | 00:53 | We will cover a wide range of subjects that you'll
need to know in order to develop an e-commerce site.
| | 00:58 | We will also show you how to implement shopping cart
functionality into your website using Cartweaver,
| | 01:03 | one of the more popular shopping cart applications for Dreamweaver.
| | 01:07 | For about the first half of the title, we'll cover all the
elements that surround developing e-commerce site such as
| | 01:12 | merchant accounts, payment gateways, payment
processors, SSL Certificates and web security.
| | 01:18 | Next we'll talk about the elements of actual dynamic web
development. That's databases and application server languages.
| | 01:25 | There is not going to be a lot of point and click through
this part of the presentation. It's mostly presentational,
| | 01:29 | but it's important information that you need to know.
| | 01:32 | Finally, we will go into the nuts and bolts of actually
applying shopping cart application to your website.
| | 01:38 | Although we'll be using ColdFusion and Cartweaver, the methods
and principles we are going to cover will apply to most any
| | 01:44 | of the languages or applications you may choose.
| | 01:47 | Let's just dive right in and get started.
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2. E-Commerce BasicsThe elements of e-commerce| 00:02 |
Let's talk about the elements of e-commerce.
| | 00:04 |
What we want to do here is overview the concept of e-commerce.
| | 00:07 |
Many of you may have been web designers for sometime, making
a transition to web developer, developing an e-commerce site,
| | 00:13 |
we need to get our heads around the concepts involved.
| | 00:16 |
So in order to get a better idea of
what e-commerce store is all about,
| | 00:19 |
let's make a comparison to a regular
bricks and mortar Store or a regular retail outlet.
| | 00:24 |
If we look at the two, the processes are pretty much the same.
| | 00:27 |
Now what that means is a lot of the elements
involved in a regular shopping experience where you go
| | 00:33 |
down to your department store and pick
things out, choose what you like, buy them.
| | 00:37 |
A lot of the process is exactly the same online.
| | 00:40 |
Now actually it's done with a click of mouse instead of walking
down a location or walking down the hallways and looking
| | 00:46 |
at things, but it's pretty much the same and
really if we look at the online process and compare
| | 00:51 |
to a mail order business, the process is pretty much identical.
| | 00:54 |
They look through the catalog, whether
it's printed or in this case online,
| | 00:59 |
decide to buy and place the order either
by an order form or by phone in a catalog.
| | 01:04 |
In this case, they do it online but
the processes involved for the customer
| | 01:09 |
and for the retailer are pretty much identical in that.
| | 01:11 |
So it helps us to understand what's
going on by making that comparison.
| | 01:15 |
All the elements in a real world store or a
catalog store have counterparts in an online store.
| | 01:20 |
So let's look at the process based on that scenario.
| | 01:24 |
So the first thing we will look at is the Store or the Catalog.
| | 01:27 |
The Store or the Catalog is important element of e-commerce.
| | 01:30 |
This is where your customer shops,
looks around and decides to buy.
| | 01:34 |
This is where they browse the merchandise.
| | 01:36 |
This is where they want to see it.
| | 01:37 |
They want to learn about it and you want to tell them all they
need to know about it, where they can make an informed decision.
| | 01:43 |
Importantly they would want to know the price, and we
don't want to bury that where they have to dig for it.
| | 01:48 |
That should be right upfront, just as it is in a
retail location, the tag should be right there.
| | 01:52 |
Many people decide on price.
| | 01:53 |
Many people decide on the look and the feel or
the information or the quality of the product.
| | 01:57 |
We want to give them all that information.
| | 01:59 |
So setting up a good display is extremely important.
| | 02:03 |
You want to encourage them to buy.
| | 02:04 |
It's important that you know your customer,
whatever market category you are in
| | 02:08 |
and present your material in such
a way that encourages them to buy.
| | 02:12 |
After they have selected an item they are interested
in it, then they want to take it with them.
| | 02:16 |
They place it in a Shopping Cart or in a basket.
| | 02:19 |
Again, this is pretty much the same online as
it is in a regular bricks and mortar store.
| | 02:24 |
They decide to buy the product.
| | 02:25 |
So they want to take then with them while they continue to shop.
| | 02:28 |
We don't want to force them to buy it right
now or have to go back and look for it later.
| | 02:31 |
They want to have that accessible to them.
| | 02:34 |
Now, while they shop they may want to
look at the items to make comparisons.
| | 02:37 |
This happens all of the time.
| | 02:38 |
You want to make that as easy as we can.
| | 02:40 |
So that they can compare the items and this is all
part of the buying process in the customer's mind.
| | 02:45 |
So it's important that we make that easy for them.
| | 02:47 |
Now, eventually they decide that they want to make the
purchase and take the items with them or put them back.
| | 02:52 |
We want to make this easy as well.
| | 02:54 |
We never want to frustrate our customers.
| | 02:56 |
We always want to make the process go smoothly and help them make
decisions as they go and lead them ultimately to the check out.
| | 03:03 |
Now this is important part of the process, especially online
| | 03:06 |
because online it's more complex
than it is in the bricks and mortar.
| | 03:09 |
In regular store, they walk up to
the cashier and make their payments.
| | 03:13 |
But on online they need to total up the
merchandise including tax and shipping.
| | 03:17 |
Make that easy for them to see.
| | 03:19 |
You need to decide whether there is tax and how much the
shipping is going to be and make that very transparent,
| | 03:24 |
very easy for the customer to see what's
going on there and what their charges will be.
| | 03:28 |
If they feel in doubt at this time, this is
where a lot of people will bale out of the sale.
| | 03:33 |
So, you definitely want to make sure,
they see what's going on here.
| | 03:36 |
Paying the cashier. Online, this means using credit card
99% of the time and you want to make that again as easy
| | 03:42 |
and as self explanatory as possible and you also want your
customer to feel safe about giving you this information.
| | 03:48 |
Taking the merchandise home or having it shipped.
Naturally if it's online, it will be shipped.
| | 03:52 |
Again, you don't want to leave your
customer in the doubt or in the dark here.
| | 03:56 |
You want to let them know when they
will be getting their merchandise
| | 03:59 |
or how it will be shipped or how much it's going to cost.
| | 04:02 |
From the merchant's point of view, if we look at the
e-Commerce store, again all the elements are basically the same.
| | 04:08 |
There are counterparts online to bricks and mortar Store.
| | 04:11 |
There are a lot of advantages to
online stores that they don't have
| | 04:14 |
to have 10,000 square foot display
area for their customers to shop.
| | 04:19 |
It's all done online and that's why a lot of
your retailers are moving to online stores.
| | 04:23 |
Now from the merchant's point of view, an e-commerce store has
all the same elements basically as a bricks and mortar Store.
| | 04:29 |
There are things that we have to remember the merchant does
everyday and that is first of all stock and price merchandise.
| | 04:34 |
They track inventory, it's important to know what's selling well.
| | 04:37 |
What isn't selling?
| | 04:37 |
When did we re-order?
| | 04:39 |
We track and ship and fulfill orders and all this are basically
the same as for online store as it is a bricks and mortar Store.
| | 04:45 |
Except for online, perhaps it's a little easier.
| | 04:47 |
You don't have to have a large store
display area for your customers.
| | 04:50 |
It's done through the web browser but a lot
of the back-end functionality is the same.
| | 04:54 |
Another important element is tracking customers.
| | 04:57 |
This is important to the merchant because the easiest customer
to gain is one you already have and so you want to make
| | 05:02 |
that information available to the merchant so
that they can do resales and track their customers.
| | 05:07 |
Then it is the part that everybody
likes, to deposit sales in the bank.
| | 05:10 |
This is what makes the wheels go around.
| | 05:12 |
It should be an easy, transparent process and we will
talk about how that works online and how that gets done.
| | 05:17 |
Now the important thing is before you jump in to developing
your e-commerce site, is go out on the web and look at examples
| | 05:23 |
that you like, and if you are designing this
for someone else, that your client likes.
| | 05:27 |
There are a number of retailers that have
made the transitions from bricks and mortar
| | 05:31 |
and done that very successfully such as Lands End or REI.
| | 05:34 |
There are also ones like Amazon.com that started out
life as an online sales and have really perfected the art.
| | 05:41 |
So you want to take a look at these examples.
| | 05:43 |
Apply what you can to your store, depending
on the size of it and make the choices
| | 05:48 |
that will make your e-commerce store work the best for you.
| | 05:52 |
One of the best exercises to do in order to
accomplish this, is to find examples you like.
| | 05:56 |
Make notes and transfer this into your site.
| | 05:59 |
So that's the overview of the elements of e-commerce
to give us an idea what we are dealing with.
| | 06:04 |
Now let's discuss some of the important
aspects of developing an e-commerce site.
| | 06:09 |
One of the ones that's most important is security,
and in fact, it's probably the most important
| | 06:13 |
and so our next topic we will be talking
about SSL or Security Socket Layers.
| | 06:17 |
What are those and what do they mean to us.
| | 06:19 |
| | 06:21 |
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| SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate essentials| 00:02 | Now we are going to talk about Secure Socket Layer, SSL.
| | 00:04 | You may wonder why we're talking about this so early in the title.
The important thing is is one of the main elements and one of
| | 00:10 | the main things you need to concern yourself with
in developing e-commerce sites on line is security.
| | 00:16 | Security is a very big issue. We hear about it all the time
on the news about identity yheft and that sort of thing.
| | 00:22 | Naturally, if you are building an e-commerce site, you'll be dealing
with people's credit information and so you want to do three things.
| | 00:28 | One, you want to protect the costumer
and their information. That's important.
| | 00:32 | Number two, You want to protect the merchant. Now this may be
yourself or may be your client you're building the site for
| | 00:38 | but you want to protect them from liability. And number
three, most importantly, you want to protect yourself.
| | 00:43 | There are so many problems with credit card theft and that sort of
thing. If we cover this information and you have a good secure site,
| | 00:49 | you are protecting yourself and everybody else involved. So
it's important that we cover this topic thoroughly and we will
| | 00:56 | be referring back to it frequently
throughout the course of this discussion.
| | 00:58 | So first of all let's talk about a safe shopping environment.
| | 01:01 | If a person goes to the store and is shopping for merchandise,
but they don't feel safe, are they going to stay?
| | 01:06 | Are they going to purchase anything? Of course not.
| | 01:08 | Online we need to do the same thing.
| | 01:10 | We have to present an environment to the
customer that makes them feel comfortable.
| | 01:14 | Identity theft is a big deal.
| | 01:17 | The problem can be avoided or protected against,
but you have to make sure that you do the proper things
| | 01:21 | or take the due diligence to make sure
the customer's information is safe.
| | 01:25 | Your customers need to know they are safe and there are
things and SSL is part of the process to make sure
| | 01:31 | that they feel safe about giving you the information.
| | 01:34 | You are obligated to protect your customers. It's the same thing as in
bricks and mortar. That's why there are security guards in parking lots
| | 01:40 | and this sort of thing. An SSL is your security guard in
the parking lot. It makes your customers feel safe about
| | 01:46 | shopping with you.
| | 01:47 | The main thing is that there could be legal consequences if you don't.
| | 01:51 | If a merchant you design a site for is sued because of identity
theft, lawyers are great at working their way up to food chain.
| | 01:57 | So just keep this in mind as you are going through.
If you do the proper procedures, you are in good shape.
| | 02:02 | But it's important to pay attention to the details.
| | 02:05 | The SSL is your first line of defense.
| | 02:08 | So what is an SSL?
| | 02:09 | It's an encryption technology, Secure Socket Layer. And it's 128 or
256 bit-encryption. That just means the complexity of the encryption.
| | 02:18 | The main thing to keep in mind there, or the important thing
there, is that it scrambles the code in such a way that
| | 02:24 | outsiders can't look at it.
| | 02:26 | 128-bit is fine for e-commerce. The 256-bit is what like
banks use, where there are long streams of sensitive data.
| | 02:33 | You don't have to worry about that.
| | 02:34 | What is SSL Certificate?
| | 02:37 | It's issued by a vendor and it's an encryption key. This
encryption key is what's put on your server or your host server,
| | 02:42 | that does the SSL encryption. Another important thing is
| | 02:47 | that when your host installs the key on your SSL protected site,
| | 02:51 | there is a little padlock down in the corner of your
customer's Web browser that says, "This is the safe site".
| | 02:56 | If you click on the padlock, it displays this certificate.
| | 03:00 | The certificate verifies the site and certificate ownership.
Now this is really important because it says to the customer
| | 03:06 | that you are who you say you are and that this
paddlock assures that this has been checked out.
| | 03:11 | A good example is you might want a take a look at the sites
that offer this. In fact let's go ahead and look at lynda.com.
| | 03:18 | OK, so we have gone here to lynda.com to give an example
of how you can tell a site is protected by SSL and this
| | 03:26 | is what the customers will be looking for,
any informed customer will know what to look for.
| | 03:30 | You can see here we have selected the title from lynda.com and we have
decided this is what we want to buy, we'll find out more about Flash.
| | 03:37 | So what we do at this point is we say, OK, we are going to buy.
So we click Checkout. And you will see here in the bottom corner
| | 03:43 | is that little gold certificate or the little gold padlock.
| | 03:46 | That shows that the site is protected by SSL and again,
informed consumers will look for this and if it's not there
| | 03:54 | at this point, most of them will bale. They don't want
to give their information to a site that's not protected.
| | 03:59 | If we double click on this little lock, we can see
the information about the certificate itself comes up
| | 04:05 | and they can read and see who the certificate belongs to.
| | 04:10 | It gives them reassurance that this site is protected by SSL.
| | 04:15 | So we can see by looking at the lynda.com site, that it's
very evident to a consumer that the site is protected by SSL,
| | 04:23 | and this is an important thing for you to consider,
that informed shoppers will be looking for this.
| | 04:28 | You absolutely must have an SSL on your e-commerce site.
| | 04:32 | Without it you lose customers and you
open yourself to possible legal liability.
| | 04:37 | If someone purchases something and has their identity stolen
and they go back to look at where they have shopped in the past
| | 04:44 | and your site isn't protected,
| | 04:45 | you may not even be the source or the reason this person's identity
was stolen, but your head is on the chopping block because of that.
| | 04:52 | So it's really important that you have
this and it's an easy thing to do.
| | 04:55 | How do you get an SSL? Let's go through the process of
acquiring an SSL and how to install it on your site.
| | 05:01 | So you have that firmly in mind as we go forward.
And that's what our next movie is going to be about.
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| Acquiring and installing an SSL certificate| 00:02 |
So, let's talk about getting and installing an SSL.
| | 00:05 |
Where do you get an SSL?
| | 00:06 |
There is a lot of different places, there's more all the time.
| | 00:09 |
You can do a Google search on SSL Certificates
and you will come up with a lot of hits on them.
| | 00:15 |
Important thing is maybe check with your host.
| | 00:17 |
Maybe there is ones that they work with specifically.
| | 00:19 |
Many hosts actually resale certificates at a very reasonable
rate and that way you know your host is familiar with it.
| | 00:26 |
You don't want one that's too proprietary because if you do move to
a different host, you certainly don't want trouble transferring it.
| | 00:32 |
So you want to stick with some of the better names.
| | 00:34 |
Quite often a host will resell a good quality
certificate and they are very familiar with it.
| | 00:38 |
So it makes a pretty easy.
| | 00:39 |
Another one is ask other online merchants, people in your
peer group or people that you know have e-commerce sites.
| | 00:45 |
Who they use.
| | 00:45 |
How much they pay to do it and how they
went for them, as far as it transferring over.
| | 00:49 |
That's an important question is,
| | 00:51 |
how much do they cost?
| | 00:52 |
They used to be really expensive.
| | 00:54 |
To pay $400 to $700 for an SSL was not
uncommon but that's changed dramatically
| | 01:00 |
with so many different vendors entering the marketplace.
| | 01:03 |
Now it's between $49 and several hundred dollars but you
know around $49 to $89, it's a very common price to pay for one.
| | 01:10 |
So you may say, well, what about shared SSL?
| | 01:13 |
A lot of hosts offer a shared SSL.
| | 01:16 |
That's probably not the best idea, reason being and the
reason I ask, how many sales can you afford to lose?
| | 01:22 |
We only talked about the little gold
lock that people could click on.
| | 01:25 |
If they click on this little gold lock
with a shared SSL, the information comes up
| | 01:29 |
and the information is about your host and not you.
| | 01:32 |
This can shake consumer confidence.
| | 01:34 |
If they think well, wait a minute, that doesn't match up with
who I think I am shopping from, they may bale on the sale.
| | 01:39 |
So you know, how many sales can you afford to lose?
| | 01:42 |
So the important thing is get your own SSL.
| | 01:45 |
It's the right thing to do.
| | 01:46 |
It's a cheap decision.
| | 01:47 |
How many sales can you afford to lose to try to save $80?
| | 01:51 |
It just doesn't make sense to use a shared SSL
and it also introduces some technical problems,
| | 01:56 |
mapping problems that you may not want to
have to deal with, so get your own SSL.
| | 02:00 |
How do you install it?
| | 02:01 |
It's a fairly simple process but there are some
gotchas that we will look out for as we go.
| | 02:05 |
First of all do some homework.
| | 02:07 |
Talk to your host.
| | 02:08 |
What do they expect.
| | 02:09 |
How does the process go with them.
| | 02:11 |
It varies.
| | 02:12 |
The process is basically the same but
different hosts like to do it different ways.
| | 02:15 |
So talk to your host right upfront and ask them
how and what do I need to do to install an SSL.
| | 02:21 |
Going back to again sometimes the host resale one.
| | 02:24 |
This maybe real advantage to ease the process, but
either way just talk to them and see how it's done.
| | 02:29 |
Then talk to your SSL vendor.
| | 02:31 |
It's important that you know what the SSL
vendor plans on providing you and how they do it
| | 02:35 |
and knowing what your host expects and how to get that to them.
| | 02:39 |
This is what I mean by doing your homework.
| | 02:40 |
Just make sure you do all this ahead of time.
| | 02:43 |
Now the important thing is, and stop and take a breath here.
| | 02:45 |
Make sure your records match.
| | 02:47 |
When you go to purchase an SSL Certificate, basically
that certificate is saying, you are who you say you are
| | 02:54 |
and if the information you provide to your SSL vendor
is different from your company information or different
| | 03:00 |
from the information of who owns the
website, you could run into problems here.
| | 03:04 |
They will throw up a red flag, they
will have to check things out.
| | 03:07 |
You have to submit information about your company.
| | 03:09 |
It can really gum up the works.
| | 03:11 |
So have all this in a line ahead of time and when you
talk to SSL vendor or read over their FAQ information,
| | 03:17 |
make sure you really pay attention to this, that all your
records are in order and the process goes really smooth.
| | 03:22 |
It seems like once you hit a bump in
the road though the road stays bumpy.
| | 03:25 |
So just make sure you do your homework here.
| | 03:28 |
Then you get and transfer your SSL key.
| | 03:30 |
The vendor will provide a key to you.
| | 03:33 |
A key basically is a text document with the
encryption code and you won't be able to read it
| | 03:37 |
if you will open it but it's what your host expects to get.
| | 03:40 |
They will provide this to you.
| | 03:41 |
Do not modify the key.
| | 03:43 |
Transfer it to your host exactly as you get it.
| | 03:46 |
Resist the temptation to open it.
| | 03:48 |
If you open it in Word, it will put for the liner
apps in there, they are not supposed to be there
| | 03:51 |
and if the key doesn't match up properly because
of something that you have inadvertently edited,
| | 03:56 |
it won't work and you will have to reissue the key.
| | 03:58 |
So make sure the key doesn't get modified at all.
| | 04:01 |
Transfer it directly to your host as is.
| | 04:03 |
Install the SSL in your root directory.
| | 04:06 |
What I mean by that is the host will say, do you want to
install it in a directory on your site or on your whole site.
| | 04:12 |
Have it installed on the root of your site
so your entire site is protected by SSL.
| | 04:17 |
The reason is have you ever been on a website where when you
click on a link a little shield comes up and says some elements
| | 04:23 |
of this site may not be under the SSL or protected.
| | 04:26 |
That's because the site developer doesn't have the
entire site under SSL and it's pulling images or whatever
| | 04:32 |
from an unprotected source, and the certificate
or the SSL company or vendors throw this
| | 04:37 |
up as a red flag saying maybe there is
something being pulled in here that shouldn't be.
| | 04:41 |
If you have your entire site protected,
| | 04:43 |
your SSL is installed into the root
directory, you won't run into this problem.
| | 04:47 |
The best thing to do is just install it on the root directory.
| | 04:51 |
Then test your site.
| | 04:52 |
The easiest way to do this is you can have any page on your
site, and go to the site using http at the beginning of your URL.
| | 05:00 |
If you change that over to https it will invoke the
security certificate and the gold lock will appear.
| | 05:06 |
If it doesn't, there is something wrong.
| | 05:08 |
Let's take a look at that.
| | 05:10 |
Here we have jumped to a demo store on the Cartweaver site,
| | 05:13 |
a shopping cart application we will be
looking at later, and if we look at it,
| | 05:17 |
right now in the corner there is no gold key.
| | 05:20 |
We are just looking at the product.
| | 05:21 |
Now if were to click through and go to the
checkout right now, the gold lock would appear.
| | 05:26 |
But let's force that situation.
| | 05:28 |
We go up here, see where it says http.
| | 05:30 |
If we change this to https and hit Enter, now we see
down here in the corner that the gold lock has appeared.
| | 05:39 |
That shows that the entire site is under SSL and the merchant
| | 05:43 |
or in this case the developer can invoke
that SSL at anytime by using https.
| | 05:48 |
That's the advantage of having entire
site under your SSL Certificate,
| | 05:53 |
as you can invoke the certificate at anytime by using https.
| | 05:57 |
The nice thing about this is there
is some performance hit, not much,
| | 06:01 |
very little, but there is some performance hit with encryption.
| | 06:03 |
So you don't have to invoke the security certificate until
you actually need it, but it's there when you need it
| | 06:09 |
and all the problems with mapping and everything I talked
about, if it was under a certain directory go away.
| | 06:14 |
Your entire site is protected.
| | 06:16 |
We can see here that when the little
gold lock appears, you click on it.
| | 06:19 |
Does it read right? If it does then you know your
certificate is installed correctly and you are ready to go.
| | 06:25 |
You are ready to start accepting credit card transactions knowing
| | 06:28 |
that your site is protected under
SSL and that's working properly.
| | 06:31 |
You will know that, you will feel better about that.
| | 06:33 |
Your customers will know that and
that's the most important thing.
| | 06:36 |
So in the next chapter, we will talk
about accepting payments online.
| | 06:39 |
Another important element of putting
together a Shopping Cart application online.
| | 06:43 |
True, a lot of this has nothing to do with programming or actually
working in Dreamweaver but it's important that you know this
| | 06:49 |
because your clients will be looking to
you, to be the expert on this, to know this.
| | 06:53 |
So it's good to that we discuss this
and you have it firmly in mind.
| | 06:55 |
So next, we will talk about accepting payments online.
| | 06:58 |
| | 07:00 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Accepting Payments OnlineAccepting credit cards online| 00:02 |
In this chapter, we are going to
talk about accepting payments online.
| | 00:05 |
That is of course processing credit cards, having the credit card
information passed back to you in some manner and then of course,
| | 00:11 |
the deposits made in the bank, which is always the good part.
| | 00:13 |
Initially, let's talk about the actual part of
accepting credit cards in your shopping cart.
| | 00:18 |
We will look at the different elements involved in online
purchase and we have talked about SSL and the importance of that.
| | 00:24 |
Well, now you have an SSL protected website,
so let's progress on to payment methods.
| | 00:29 |
There is two primary payment methods that we will be
talking about and that would be a processor or gateway.
| | 00:34 |
There is also the possibility of taking the credit card
information and just processing their credit card offline,
| | 00:40 |
but there are some real issues involved with that.
| | 00:41 |
We'll talk about that later but it's
really something that you don't want to do,
| | 00:45 |
you want to use one of these two methods,
either Payment Processor or Payment Gateway.
| | 00:49 |
The next is a merchant account.
| | 00:50 |
You don't have to have a merchant account to do business
online, but there are some real advantages to having one
| | 00:55 |
and we will discuss what a merchant account
is and how it fits in to the process.
| | 00:59 |
Next is your business account, this is your bank account
where you have your checks and you do your books,
| | 01:04 |
and how it fits in to the whole processing chain.
| | 01:07 |
So let's talk a minute about payment methods.
| | 01:09 |
Payment methods is how you process the credit card.
| | 01:13 |
The customer enters the credit card information, then your
payment method is how you find out if the credit card is good,
| | 01:19 |
if it's accurate, if it's fraudulent,
or if there is money in your account,
| | 01:22 |
this is how all that takes place,
it's through your payment methods.
| | 01:25 |
The two primary ones are Payment Gateways, which is real time.
| | 01:29 |
It happens while the transaction is
taking place, it's instantaneous.
| | 01:33 |
And the other one is Processor.
| | 01:34 |
The processor is delayed response.
| | 01:36 |
You are passing information off to the processor,
but it takes a while to get the information back.
| | 01:41 |
We'll get in to detail of how these work and how
they fit in to the whole equation a little later.
| | 01:45 |
They are important part of the chain, so you know it's coming.
| | 01:48 |
The next is the merchant account.
| | 01:49 |
Now this can be your current bank account.
| | 01:51 |
But it doesn't have to be.
| | 01:53 |
Basically what a merchant account acts as is a go
between, between the gateway and your business account.
| | 01:59 |
Now again, it can be your business account, but often small town
banks and this sort of thing, they are not really up to speed
| | 02:04 |
with e-commerce and they are not as well
equipped to do this as it should be.
| | 02:08 |
Sometimes it's better just to go with merchant account
that's really familiar with online banking and e-commerce.
| | 02:15 |
Now how do they work together?
| | 02:16 |
We will go through the steps of how all these different elements
work together and it should become very clear how they fit.
| | 02:21 |
First of all, there's your site.
Your site gathers the information.
| | 02:25 |
You are ready to process the transaction, a customer
as they hit 'buy' button, they fill out the order form
| | 02:30 |
and they click OK and this is what happens after that point.
| | 02:34 |
Your site then communicates with the Payment Processor
or Gateway depending on which one you are using.
| | 02:39 |
The Payment Processor then passes the
information off to the credit card issuing bank.
| | 02:44 |
This is your customer's bank.
| | 02:45 |
It asks "Is this the customer that owns this card, and
is there enough money in the account for the purchase?"
| | 02:51 |
It passes then that information back to
the Payment Processor or the Gateway.
| | 02:55 |
At this point, you can go one of two ways.
| | 02:57 |
If the credit card transaction is
declined, then it goes back to your site.
| | 03:01 |
If it's not, it says to your merchant account
that the transaction is okay and continue.
| | 03:06 |
At that point the merchant account will take the money out
of the credit card issuing bank and put it in to your bank.
| | 03:12 |
This is how the whole process takes place.
| | 03:14 |
If the credit card isn't good, it goes back to your website
and gives them a message of perhaps, 'Please try again'
| | 03:20 |
or that it was declined. And if it's good, it notifies
your merchant account that the transaction is good.
| | 03:25 |
It also at this time communicates back to your website
as well to give a confirmation order to your customer
| | 03:30 |
so that they know the transaction has gone through.
| | 03:32 |
So in a nutshell, this is how the process takes place.
| | 03:36 |
There is a lot of elements we'll discuss
are we get a little further in detail,
| | 03:39 |
but this is the flow that you should keep in mind.
| | 03:42 |
So next we'll talk a little bit about Payment Gateways.
| | 03:45 |
| | 03:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Payment methods| 00:02 | So now let's talk about payment methods.
| | 00:04 | We'll talk about the different types like we talked about all
the elements involved, what to look for, and then how to choose.
| | 00:09 | First of all, let's look at Payment Gateways.
| | 00:12 | Payment Gateways, some common ones you
may have heard of, Authorize.Net, LinkPoint,
| | 00:16 | Verisign, PayFlow Pro.
| | 00:18 | What happens with these of the transaction occurs in real time.
| | 00:22 | What that means is a transaction can be completed or
terminated based on the gateway authorization results.
| | 00:27 | It happens in real time.
| | 00:28 | There is no waiting, no e-mails going back and forth and
it's very interactive, very user friendly in this respect.
| | 00:36 | It works invisibly to the customer. They are not taken offsite
to another place, there is no extra buttons to click,
| | 00:42 | the authorization just takes place in the background instaneously.
| | 00:45 | And another advantage to Payment Gateways is
some offer very robust fraud protection features.
| | 00:51 | Things that really can check out whether the person using
a credit card is the actual person by checking addresses,
| | 00:57 | zip-codes, this sort of thing and it happens in real time, so it's real
protection to you and to credit card holders to have this available.
| | 01:05 | Real time gateways do require a merchant account and
we will get in o how to choose that a little bit later
| | 01:10 | and it is important to know that these require that.
| | 01:12 | The nice thing is the funds are deposited directly in
your account and it happens sometimes instaneously,
| | 01:18 | sometimes they do it in batches,
| | 01:20 | but the good thing to know is that it happens
automatically. It requires no action on your part.
| | 01:24 | Once the transaction is completed and
approved, it will go into your account.
| | 01:28 | It usually costs a little more to set one of these apps. There's
usually a little more expense involved in getting a payment gateway
| | 01:34 | and getting the systems set up.
| | 01:36 | But the percentage and transaction fees on these
are usually less than the payment processors.
| | 01:42 | So if you are planning on being in business for a while,
| | 01:45 | and going to be having hopefully a lot of transactions,
any upfront cost is certainly worth it
| | 01:50 | because the long term result is that they cost less.
| | 01:53 | How the payment gateways work? Let's look at the
process or the flow of how it actually happens.
| | 01:58 | Your customer completes transaction, they are all done, they have
entered the order form information and they clicked the Buy button,
| | 02:05 | when they actually want to complete the transaction.
| | 02:07 | Then that information is passed off to the payment gateway.
| | 02:10 | The payment gateway then checks the validity of the credit card,
checks to see if there is a balance in the credit card and
| | 02:17 | it then communicates that information, whatever
it maybe back to your website. If it's yes, then
| | 02:22 | you tell the customer thank you and that their order is on the way.
| | 02:26 | If its no then you have the opportunity to say to the customer,
sorry, the information didn't check out, the transaction was declined
| | 02:33 | and please try again.
| | 02:34 | You see this is a very user friendly situation because it provides
instant feedback, which is a very good thing for customer retention
| | 02:41 | because they may have just typo-d their address or the name
or their zip-code and this gives them that feedback immediately.
| | 02:47 | Now let's look the Payment Processors. Common processors would
be with out PayPal Standard, World Pay, Verisign PayFlow Link.
| | 02:54 | What happens with these is they are processed on a delayed basis,
and what that means is that the information or transaction
| | 03:00 | is passed off to them but the information about whether the
credit card is authorize or not doesn't come back immediately.
| | 03:06 | The customer has usually passed off to the processor site with these.
That's very common with PayPal. Once they click the Buy button,
| | 03:12 | they actually are passed off to the PayPal
site and finish the transaction there.
| | 03:17 | The disadvantage of this is you lose the
chance to have unique brand on your site.
| | 03:22 | All of a sudden, in the middle of the process, the customer
is exposed PayPal or to Google or whatever processor you are
| | 03:28 | using and so this can cause a break in the flow.
| | 03:32 | The authorization is posted to the website after the fact.
| | 03:35 | What that means is the processing may take anywhere
from a couple of minutes up to a day and as far as
| | 03:40 | the customer knows, the transaction is good. You say thank
you and there are on their way and then the merchant gets
| | 03:47 | information same whether those approved or not.
| | 03:49 | So the customers are notified later if the transaction failed.
| | 03:53 | That's a real break in the action and could cost the sale.
| | 03:56 | You lose a lot of your potential for impulse buys by using these.
| | 03:59 | Usually payment processors don't require a merchant account
so there is some advantage there if you don't want to have
| | 04:05 | a merchant account or perhaps you have a difficulty getting them
and we'll get into that in detail, a little bit further on.
| | 04:11 | These usually cost less to set up. Sometimes they are
free, but the downside to that is is the percentages or
| | 04:17 | transaction fees are usually more.
| | 04:19 | So, if you have a busy site and you have a lot of transactions
or high volume, in the long run these are going to cost you more.
| | 04:25 | So those are the things that you want to weigh out.
| | 04:27 | How the payment processors work? Let's look at the flow of what
takes place when a transaction goes through a payment processor.
| | 04:33 | First of all the customer clicks the transaction,
just like they do for the payment gateway.
| | 04:37 | And they are sent off to a thank you.
| | 04:39 | As far as the customer is concerned at that time, they are
thinking the transaction is done, I've bought my merchandise,
| | 04:46 | can't wait for it to show up.
| | 04:47 | What's actually happening in the background is the
information is sent off to the payment processor.
| | 04:52 | The payment processor then processes it
| | 04:54 | and again this can take moments or it can
take up to a day depending on the processor.
| | 04:59 | The important thing is this is not an immediate
communication back like with the gateways.
| | 05:04 | Then whether it was yes or no is passed off to the merchant.
| | 05:07 | Usually to a postback page and we will get in to that a little bit.
| | 05:10 | The merchant is then notified what the transaction results were.
| | 05:13 | What happens then is the merchant is left to communicate
back to the user or back to the customer that 'Sorry,
| | 05:20 | your transaction didn't go through
because your credit card didn't go through.'
| | 05:23 | So you can see there are some real disadvantages to this.
| | 05:25 | Which paying method is right for you? Well, there's a lot to consider
and that's what we will go over in our next movie, is how to weigh
| | 05:32 | the differences, what works best for you, what the advantages
are and what's going to fit best in to what your store requires.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Choosing between a payment gateway and a processor| 00:02 |
So let's decide which works best for you,
a Payment Processor or a Payment Gateway.
| | 00:07 |
First of all let's look at the pluses of a Payment Gateway.
| | 00:09 |
They don't intrude on your branding.
| | 00:11 |
This is really important if you want to establish a brand.
| | 00:15 |
A site that has a very unique feel and look and something
that you want to carry over a long period of time.
| | 00:20 |
Remember we talked about how the Payment Processor- it does intrude
on your branding, you end up with the PayPal button to click.
| | 00:25 |
A Gateway is completely invisible to the customer, and it
doesn't intrude on your particular site design or brand.
| | 00:32 |
It's invisible to the customer, the transaction just takes
place, they go through the process, they are told whether
| | 00:37 |
or not the transaction was successful, and you
say,thank you, and they never leave your site
| | 00:42 |
or your visual representation as they go through the process.
| | 00:45 |
Provides instant feedback and this is important. The last
thing you want to do is have somebody typo their zip code,
| | 00:51 |
and then find about it a day later and then ask them to
go back to the site, or to provide you the information.
| | 00:56 |
This instant feedback helps maintain a flow,
and it helps maintain consumer confidence.
| | 01:01 |
So it offers a more professional solution.
| | 01:04 |
None of the large retailers use processors, they all use gateways.
| | 01:08 |
So it helps you fit in with that.
| | 01:09 |
Most have an excellent Fraud Protection
Program and that's very important
| | 01:13 |
with credit card theft and id theft as prevalent as it is.
| | 01:17 |
It's good to do all you can to stop fraudulent transactions,
especially if you have something that is delivered very quickly.
| | 01:23 |
And once that is shipped, you can't get it back. If you find out
that the purchase was a fraud, you are kind of stuck that way.
| | 01:29 |
The funds are automatically deposit in your bank,
which is nice, you don't have to worry about it.
| | 01:33 |
If the transaction took place and it was
approved, it's going to go into your bank account.
| | 01:37 |
It has better bookkeeping features; your merchant account
provides you information that can be used in your bookkeeping
| | 01:43 |
that helps you know exactly when transactions took place.
| | 01:45 |
And lot of that is handled seamlessly.
| | 01:48 |
And again this is the way the "big boys" are operating.
Amazon.com and any other large retailer that you may want a look
| | 01:54 |
at online. At no time do you have to leave
their site to go to a payment processor.
| | 01:58 |
It's very seamless and it gives your
site a more professional look and feel.
| | 02:03 |
Now what are the minuses is to a Gateway?
Because there is no one perfect solution.
| | 02:07 |
Even though there are lot of advantages of using a Gateway.
| | 02:10 |
One, they are more expensive to get involved with initially,
so if you are just setting up a site to sell off a few things
| | 02:16 |
or sell personal handcrafts or sort of things in a small site.
| | 02:19 |
You may not want to absorb that cost upfront, and you may
think, Well, I am not going to be having that many transactions,
| | 02:24 |
where there is a lot of expense down
the road that are going to hurt me.
| | 02:28 |
They do require merchant account.
| | 02:29 |
Again if you have a small site or in the past
perhaps, you have had some credit history problems,
| | 02:34 |
Merchant accounts are usually pretty stringent on credit history,
so there may be an advantage to not having to establish that.
| | 02:40 |
They usually, like we were talking
about, require a good credit history.
| | 02:43 |
So this pretty much gives us a good overview
of the deciding factors of a Gateway.
| | 02:47 |
What are the pluses of the Payment Processor?
| | 02:50 |
Well, they are almost exactly converse to what the Gateway is.
| | 02:53 |
They are less expensive to get involved
in, to sign up and set up.
| | 02:56 |
They do not require a merchant account.
| | 02:58 |
Again there's some expense involved, and some hassle involved.
| | 03:01 |
And perhaps your site is just going to be selling a few things
and you don't want to have to worry about that. They don't require
| | 03:06 |
as good a credit history, and so if that is
important to you then this is the good way to go.
| | 03:12 |
The minuses? They intrude on your branding.
| | 03:14 |
If the pluses aren't weighted heavy enough, these minuses should
be taken seriously into account when deciding which way to go.
| | 03:22 |
Intruding on your branding is a very important thing if
you are trying to establish a very serious growing site,
| | 03:27 |
with a strong branding message. This is a big detractor.
| | 03:30 |
They are visible to your customer; they
have to choose at sometime to go to a PayPal
| | 03:35 |
or to Google or whatever processor you are using.
| | 03:37 |
And usually at that point even if they allow you to
modify the page you go to, to be similar to your site,
| | 03:44 |
you do present a little bit of a shock to your customer,
a change visually, that's something to consider.
| | 03:49 |
They provide delayed feedback; this is
an important feature to any retailer.
| | 03:52 |
Any retailer knows that impulse buying can
be a large part of their profit margin.
| | 03:57 |
Delayed feedback can present a real problem for that.
| | 04:00 |
If they are contacted later saying the transaction
didn't go through because perhaps they typo-ed
| | 04:04 |
their zip code, they could perhaps decide not to buy.
| | 04:07 |
So this one feature could end up costing you sales.
| | 04:10 |
And they offer a less professional solution.
| | 04:12 |
Again like we talked about.
| | 04:14 |
You lose your branding, you jump out to a different site.
| | 04:16 |
It gives impression that this is not a real
professional site; it's more of a 'Mom and Pop' site.
| | 04:21 |
That's not all that bad, but that's not the impression you
want to give across, it's definitely something to look at.
| | 04:26 |
And they don't always make automatic deposits. Some do, some don't.
For example though with PayPal, you have to actually go online
| | 04:33 |
to the PayPal site, request your money, and it may take you
two or three days to get the money deposited in your account.
| | 04:38 |
And you have to physically do this every
time you want to draw funds out of there.
| | 04:42 |
If you are dealing in small transactions and not
frequent transactions this may not be a concern.
| | 04:47 |
But if your business is running on it, this
could be a real deterrent to going this route.
| | 04:51 |
So they offer a more disjointed record keeping.
| | 04:54 |
Again a lot of it requires manual entry or manual transactions
on your part, and they don't really provide you information
| | 05:01 |
that you could use such as in QuickBooks
or with your banking records.
| | 05:05 |
The main thing to think is this is the way the little guys do it.
| | 05:07 |
If you want your site to be perceived as a little guy
site or Mom and Pop site have that feel, then it's okay.
| | 05:13 |
But if you are after more professional feel,
this could disrupt what you are trying to do.
| | 05:17 |
So which fits?
| | 05:19 |
Basically if you want to become a large store, or if you are a
large store, you have got strong branding, lots of transactions
| | 05:25 |
or that's where you want to get to,
then a Gateway is your best choice.
| | 05:28 |
It just provides a better solution for
someone who is trying to go that route.
| | 05:33 |
If it's a small Mom and Pop store, if you are just selling a few
things online, selling things to a particular community parts
| | 05:40 |
or collectables, to people who are
used to doing business that way,
| | 05:44 |
then a Processor maybe fine, that maybe the right choice for now.
| | 05:47 |
So what should you consider?
| | 05:49 |
Choose the one that feels right for your store.
| | 05:51 |
Again if it's a small Mom And Pop store,
going PayPal or one of the processors
| | 05:55 |
like Google that sort of thing is not a bad choice.
| | 05:57 |
There is no one perfect choice, so choose
what's right for a what you are doing,
| | 06:01 |
if you after a more professional feel
than maybe a Gateway is the way to go.
| | 06:05 |
So essentially though, you should view Gateway as
the best choice, and a Processor as an alternative.
| | 06:11 |
The Gateway is more professional way to go, it's more
seamless to the customer, it's better for customer retention.
| | 06:16 |
So unless you have reasons to the contrary,
the Gateway really is the best choice.
| | 06:21 |
If you have to start with the Processor
or if you start with a small site,
| | 06:24 |
and use a Processor, you can move up to a Gateway later.
| | 06:28 |
So it's not a one way street, and so
that maybe a part of your decision,
| | 06:31 |
is, well let's start with the processor
and if that becomes a problem, move up.
| | 06:35 |
Important thing is just to listen to your customer feedback.
If you are losing sales or people complain about having to go
| | 06:41 |
through a Processor, or you get emails saying is PayPal safe,
which believe it or not there's still that perception out there,
| | 06:48 |
listen to your customer feedback and
then change or decide accordingly.
| | 06:51 |
So that kind of goes over what our choices are as far as Payment
Processors or Payment Gateways, and then in the next movie,
| | 06:57 |
we will be talking a little more in
depth about what a merchant account is.
| | 07:00 |
| | 07:03 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Merchant accounts| 00:01 |
Ok, so let's talk for a moment about merchants accounts.
| | 00:03 |
Let's say you have decided to go to Payment
Gateway route and you or your client,
| | 00:07 |
if you are designing a web site for them,
decide you need to get a merchant account.
| | 00:10 |
So, what is a Merchant Account?
| | 00:12 |
It's a bank account that accepts credit card transactions
and then deposits or withdraws money from your bank.
| | 00:19 |
If a credit card transaction is approved,
it puts money in your bank, if it's refunded
| | 00:23 |
or there is a charge back, where the
customer cancels the transaction,
| | 00:27 |
the money is taken out of your account.
| | 00:28 |
It's simply a go between.
| | 00:30 |
It doesn't hold any money in an account.
| | 00:32 |
It passes money to and from.
| | 00:34 |
That's the whole role of a merchant account.
| | 00:35 |
Now, the important thing is it needs
to be an online merchant account.
| | 00:39 |
It needs to be an account or a company
that's very familiar with e-commerce.
| | 00:44 |
A merchant account also exists for
the bricks and mortar businesses
| | 00:47 |
when they process your credit card through the machine
at the teller, it does basically the same thing.
| | 00:52 |
It does a go between transactions just
like this does, but you need to be dealing
| | 00:55 |
with the company who's familiar with
online or e-commerce transactions.
| | 01:00 |
Make sure the branch or individual that
you are talking to knows e-commerce.
| | 01:03 |
Ask a lot of questions.
| | 01:05 |
You can be dealing with a bank that's been
recommended as an online merchant account,
| | 01:09 |
but the individual you are talking to or the branch
you are talking to may not be familiar with it.
| | 01:13 |
Don't be afraid to ask questions.
| | 01:14 |
Ask the manager; ask for someone who specializes in e-commerce.
| | 01:18 |
It will make your life so much simpler.
| | 01:20 |
Now, it can be the same bank what your normally bank with.
| | 01:23 |
But it usually isn't.
| | 01:24 |
Most of your hometown banks or smaller
banks that a lot of us do business with,
| | 01:28 |
aren't that familiar with e-commerce at this point.
| | 01:30 |
Or they don't work with wider array of
gateways and so, it's important to find a bank
| | 01:35 |
or a merchant account that really
understands e-commerce business.
| | 01:39 |
Again, it's important to note that merchant
accounts deal with the actual transfer of funds.
| | 01:43 |
That's all they do.
| | 01:44 |
They don't do checking accounts, they don't do savings accounts.
| | 01:47 |
They just transfer funds back and forth.
| | 01:49 |
How do they work?
| | 01:50 |
Let's look at the flow of a merchant
account and where they fit into the process.
| | 01:54 |
So, first of all we have the payment
gateway, that we talked about before.
| | 01:56 |
Let's say the transaction was complete.
| | 01:58 |
So the Payment Gateway then passes
the okay over to your merchant account.
| | 02:02 |
At that time, the merchant account requests
information from your customer's credit card bank.
| | 02:07 |
The customer's credit card bank then
transfers the funds to the merchant account
| | 02:11 |
and the merchant account transfers the
funds from there to your bank account.
| | 02:15 |
And that's how the transaction works.
| | 02:17 |
Now, let's say you have to refund a customer.
| | 02:20 |
A customer decides to take something back.
| | 02:22 |
What happens then is your merchant account
requests information from your account
| | 02:26 |
and deposits it into your customer's credit card account.
| | 02:30 |
That's the whole role of a merchant account.
| | 02:32 |
That's what it does.
| | 02:33 |
Transfers money back and forth between your
bank and your customer's credit card bank.
| | 02:37 |
That's what it does.
| | 02:39 |
So, how do you choose a merchant account?
| | 02:41 |
Well, if you have chosen gateway, check with them.
| | 02:43 |
They may have a recommended merchant account.
| | 02:45 |
Most of them do, they have ones that they work with frequently.
| | 02:47 |
The advantage to this is you know that they are going
to integrate well, if they recommend each other.
| | 02:52 |
It can go the other way around.
| | 02:53 |
If you have a merchant account, ask them about a Gateway.
| | 02:56 |
Usually what happens is you'll choose a Gateway that fits you
best and then find a merchant account that works with them.
| | 03:02 |
Check to see if your business bank has one that
works with popular gateways and that's important.
| | 03:07 |
You don't want to end up with a proprietary system,
that if you should ever happen to change banks,
| | 03:12 |
then you have to change the merchant account as well.
| | 03:14 |
That's one thing it bodes well for maybe getting
one that's separate from your normal business account
| | 03:19 |
is it gives you more freedom to move and also makes sure that
you can choose one based on your qualifications for e-commerce.
| | 03:25 |
One thing you can do is check with your host.
| | 03:27 |
Some offer very attractive package that
offer both Gateway and merchant account.
| | 03:32 |
Sometimes it's a very good solution and pricing
can be good and your host and your Fateway
| | 03:37 |
and your merchant account are all used to working together.
| | 03:39 |
So, it provides very seamless package.
| | 03:41 |
That's one thing you can look at.
| | 03:42 |
Another is ask around the development community.
| | 03:44 |
Many of the developers that deal with e-commerce frequently,
you can find them online and different news groups
| | 03:49 |
like Adobe news groups, or at the news groups at your Shopping
Cart vendor, you can talk to the community and they are used
| | 03:55 |
to dealing with ones that maybe very well,
very easy to work with and easy to integrate.
| | 03:59 |
So, ask around.
| | 04:00 |
Do you need z merchant account?
| | 04:02 |
Well, if have you have chosen a Gateway, you most likely will.
| | 04:04 |
There are few gateways that sometimes
offer a merchant account service
| | 04:08 |
but in the vast majority of cases,
you will need a merchant account.
| | 04:12 |
And it's always good to choose one
in and know who you are dealing with.
| | 04:15 |
If use a Payment Processor such as PayPal, you probably won't.
Most of the processors have a method of depositing the money
| | 04:22 |
in your account without using a merchant account.
| | 04:24 |
And like Payment Gateways merchant accounts
are just more professional way to go.
| | 04:28 |
It's a better technology, it offers a much better use or
experience for your customer and offers a better experience
| | 04:33 |
for you as far as transferring money
seamlessly and in a timely manner.
| | 04:37 |
In most cases Payment Gateway is just a better way to go.
| | 04:40 |
They make for a more efficient e-commerce package.
| | 04:42 |
Like we talked about, it's a smooth
transition of the funds and communications to
| | 04:46 |
and from the site and to and from your customer.
| | 04:49 |
You don't have to have one, but you really should.
| | 04:51 |
If you are developing a site you want to have a professional
appearance, strong branding message and a good user experience,
| | 04:58 |
a merchant account along with a Payment
Gateway is just the right way to go.
| | 05:02 |
So, now we have talked about a lot of what's behind the
scenes, the SSL, Payment Gateways, the Merchant Accounts,
| | 05:08 |
a lot of things actually they have nothing to do with programming
or web development but it's a very important part of e-commerce.
| | 05:14 |
Now, let's transfer over and start talking
little bit more about developing the site itself.
| | 05:18 |
Let's talk about first of all, what is an e-commerce site.
| | 05:21 |
One of the things we will have to talk about
first is direct versus dynamic web development.
| | 05:25 |
And we'll get into that in our next chapter.
| | 05:27 |
| | 05:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Static vs. Dynamic Sites''Static'' e-commerce sites| 00:02 |
So up to this point we have talked
about what goes on behind the scenes,
| | 00:05 |
making an e-commerce site possible,
the logic behind an e-commerce site.
| | 00:09 |
So let's talk a little bit about the web site itself.
| | 00:12 |
There is basically two kinds of web sites, Static and Dynamic.
| | 00:15 |
So let's take a look at how a Static site fits into
the picture of e-commerce and if that's a good choice
| | 00:20 |
for a site that's going to be selling items on the web.
| | 00:23 |
First of all, what is a "Static" site?
| | 00:25 |
Basically, it's a plain old HTML site.
| | 00:27 |
Many web designers would call it like an online brochure.
| | 00:31 |
There is no real interactivity.
| | 00:33 |
The customer doesn't enter any information or
request any information and most everything,
| | 00:37 |
that's presented to the user is in the HTML document.
| | 00:41 |
It has no database connectivity.
| | 00:42 |
It's not pulling anything from a database or XML files.
| | 00:46 |
It simply displays what's coded on the page in HTML.
| | 00:50 |
And this is what most web designers are familiar with.
| | 00:52 |
It's something that you would you do in
Dreamweaver or GoLive or some other program.
| | 00:56 |
That is just a presentation of static
information and design to the user.
| | 01:01 |
So basically what it does is it just
displays what's in the HTML code.
| | 01:04 |
It's a static presentation of design and text to the user.
| | 01:08 |
Doesn't call any information from a database
or XML files and it doesn't change in anyway.
| | 01:13 |
It's just what's designed is what's displayed.
| | 01:15 |
So how can a shopping cart site be static?
| | 01:17 |
Well, in truth it can't.
| | 01:19 |
What usually happens as you pass off
the data to someone else's dynamic site.
| | 01:24 |
This is what happens in the case of PayPal buttons.
| | 01:26 |
You can put a Buy button on your site.
| | 01:28 |
If someone selects to buy the item shown on the site,
at that time they are actually taken to PayPal site
| | 01:34 |
and anything that's dynamic takes place there.
| | 01:37 |
Truthfully, a shopping site is a dynamic
site but with use of a PayPal buttons
| | 01:42 |
or Google buttons you can actually put
shopping cart functionality on a static site.
| | 01:48 |
How this works is you copy and paste script on your web
page and a PayPal or Google provides this script to you.
| | 01:55 |
It's usually in the case of a <form> tag of some sort.
| | 01:57 |
You fill in your required information that you want passed
and when the user clicks it, it passes this information off
| | 02:03 |
to their site and that's where all the dynamic
things happen, where it processes the transaction.
| | 02:08 |
So how does this work?
| | 02:09 |
Let's look at the steps involved in
putting a Buy button on a static site.
| | 02:14 |
First of all the customer clicks the Buy button, that
you have cut and paste the code from PayPal or Google
| | 02:19 |
or who you may be using on your site, that information
is passed off over to the Payment Processor vendor
| | 02:26 |
and actually, usually that means that they are all in one.
| | 02:28 |
All payment processing and transaction
is all handled by this vendor.
| | 02:32 |
Then that vendor passes off confirmation
of the order to your customer.
| | 02:36 |
Then that vendor passes off information to you, telling
you you have got a sale, usually in the form of an e-mail.
| | 02:41 |
And that's it.
| | 02:42 |
The whole transaction is contained on the vendor's site.
| | 02:46 |
You have passed your customer off to them.
| | 02:48 |
This is a really easy way to add simply
e-commerce capabilities to a Static site.
| | 02:53 |
It just drops in quickly and it can happen quickly.
| | 02:55 |
If you are just selling a couple of things,
this may be a perfect solution for you.
| | 02:59 |
So when is Static a good option?
| | 03:01 |
LIke I said, simple lightweight solution.
| | 03:03 |
You just have one item you want to sell, you just want to put a
button on there and you don't want to go through all the process
| | 03:08 |
of setting up an entire cart application and
database to handle just one or two items.
| | 03:12 |
It's really easy to implement.
| | 03:14 |
You just basically are pasting code into your site,
that's provided to you by a vendor and that's about it.
| | 03:19 |
You don't have to worry about security or handling the payment
transactions because that is all passed off to the vendor's site.
| | 03:25 |
You don't have to worry about any of that.
| | 03:27 |
Like I said PayPal and Google both offer this sort of
service and it's a perfectly good service for those
| | 03:32 |
who have very lightweight needs and it's worth looking at.
| | 03:35 |
So it's quick and easy to set up on your site.
| | 03:38 |
It's an easy way to sell a few things if you
are not looking up really setting up a complex
| | 03:42 |
or a full blown online store but
you just want to sell a few items.
| | 03:46 |
So next, let's focus on a more
robust solution, dynamic web sites.
| | 03:49 |
What that mean's and how they work.
| | 03:51 |
| | 03:53 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Dynamic e-commerce sites| 00:02 |
Now we are going to discuss dynamic e-commerce sites.
| | 00:04 |
And truthfully all e-commerce sites are dynamic, but
what we are talking about here is where your site,
| | 00:09 |
the actual site itself is a dynamic web site.
| | 00:11 |
First of all what is a Dynamic Web Site?
| | 00:14 |
It has database connectivity.
| | 00:16 |
This isn't the only thing involved in dynamic sites.
| | 00:18 |
Dynamic sites also run scripts and do certain
things that have nothing to do with a database,
| | 00:23 |
but in the case of e-commerce sites virtually all
of them are connected to some sort of database.
| | 00:27 |
So that's one of the primary underlying elements of
a dynamic e-commerce website is database connectivity.
| | 00:34 |
Also they use SQL.
| | 00:35 |
Now this isn't to be confused with SQL Server or MySQL.
| | 00:38 |
It's an actual language, it's Structured Query Language.
| | 00:41 |
And this is how applications talk to a database.
| | 00:45 |
Then it uses an Application Language. This could be
ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, .NET, JSP, there are many others.
| | 00:51 |
And this is to call, remember, move, save, and render data.
| | 00:54 |
This is the real work horse of a dynamic
web site, is the Application Language.
| | 00:59 |
It displays data stored in databases, it has that
connectivity, calls information and renders it
| | 01:04 |
so it can be displayed on your user's browser.
| | 01:08 |
It can capture an act on user input.
| | 01:10 |
This is the interactivity part of it.
| | 01:12 |
What to do with their order form once they fill it
out and this is all part of being a dynamic site
| | 01:17 |
and provides an interactive user experience.
| | 01:20 |
The user puts information into the database or into the website
and it response to that information in an appropriate way.
| | 01:27 |
And this is an important point that we are
going to discuss in length a little further.
| | 01:30 |
It helps to make the web remember, and maintain states.
| | 01:34 |
We'll get into that a little bit how about the web being a
stateless environment; and it's an important concept to remember.
| | 01:39 |
Let's look at the elements of a dynamic website.
| | 01:41 |
First of all there is the Browser.
| | 01:43 |
This is what the user uses to see the website, and we
know those as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Mozilla.
| | 01:50 |
This is the interface that the user is looking at.
| | 01:53 |
Next is the Web Server; web server does just that.
| | 01:55 |
It serves up requested web pages.
| | 01:58 |
It just delivers HTML documents out to the
browser. There are many different flavors of that
| | 02:02 |
but that's basically what they do is
they just serves up HTML documents.
| | 02:06 |
Application Server; an application server
as we see it's ColdFusion, PHP, ASP,
| | 02:11 |
.NET and others as the real work horse of a dynamic website.
| | 02:15 |
It does all the compiling of code, transfers of
scripts and information to and from the database.
| | 02:20 |
Next is SQL; that's Structured Query Language.
That's what your application server, or
| | 02:25 |
your application uses the language it
uses to communicate with databases.
| | 02:29 |
Fortunately, SQL is kind of a universal language
regardless of what application server you are using.
| | 02:34 |
Pretty much all of them use a form of SQL and most of
them stick to the SQL standards to talk to databases.
| | 02:41 |
So it's a good thing to learn because
it does really transfer across platform.
| | 02:45 |
Next is Databases; the most well-known on the web
or probably Access, Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL.
| | 02:52 |
So in the next movie we'll look at how they all work together.
| | 02:54 |
How these different elements all have their role in an e-commerce
experience and how they all fit together and how they communicate
| | 03:01 |
with one another, and how they apply to your e-commerce site.
| | 03:03 |
| | 03:05 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Static vs. dynamic sites| 00:01 |
Let's just take a moment and look at how a static e-commerce site
works and then we'll go in and explain how a dynamic site works.
| | 00:07 |
So you can see the differences between them.
| | 00:09 |
So a static website, how it works is here's yourbrowser,
you click on a page, it sends a request to an HTML server
| | 00:17 |
or a web server and that request is then answered,
| | 00:20 |
the web server passes back an HTML formatted
page to thebrowser. And that's it, you are done.
| | 00:26 |
It's important to note that at that point the web server
forgets thebrowser was ever there and vice versa.
| | 00:32 |
There is no connection, continuing connection between
the two. It's a request, a reply and then it's over.
| | 00:38 |
Let's take a look at how dynamic sites work.
| | 00:40 |
You start out the same, you have your browser, it passes
a request off to the web server, and at this point though,
| | 00:46 |
if the page ends in like a .CFML or a .PHP or
a .NET, that means that this is a dynamic page.
| | 00:53 |
The web server doesn't know how to handle that, so what
it does is it passes it off to the application server.
| | 00:59 |
The application server then passes the information, compiles
the code and does what it's supposed to do with that code.
| | 01:04 |
And if there is a database request, a SQL request
in the page, it passes that off to the database.
| | 01:11 |
The database calls the information up out
of the tables that it's being requested
| | 01:15 |
and sends it back to the application server in binary data.
| | 01:18 |
The application server then takes all of
this information, compiles it and parses it
| | 01:23 |
down to an HTML page and passes it off to the web server.
| | 01:26 |
The web server then knows what to do with the page because
it's a standard HTML page and it passes it out to the browser.
| | 01:33 |
Now an important thing to remember though
is after all this is done, it's done.
| | 01:37 |
Again the web server forgets the browser was ever
there and the browser forgets the web server.
| | 01:42 |
And what we call that is Statelessness.
| | 01:44 |
The web is a stateless condition. There is no
client-to-server connection. It's a request,
| | 01:50 |
compile the page, reply and that's the end of the session.
| | 01:53 |
Now, this presents a problem in e-commerce sites.
| | 01:56 |
So how do we make the web remember?
| | 01:58 |
The web is stateless situation; otherwise once the
request is answered it forgets the user is ever there.
| | 02:04 |
How do we remember the customer, how do
we remember what they place in the cart?
| | 02:07 |
These are important things for an e-commerce site
because as we progress from page-to-page, we need
| | 02:12 |
to remember what the customers placed in their
cart and carry that information with this.
| | 02:16 |
Cookies, sessions and client variables to the rescue!
| | 02:19 |
Dynamic web sites have come up with several different methods
| | 02:22 |
to make the web do something it wasn't
designed to do and that is to remember.
| | 02:26 |
Let's see how it works.
| | 02:27 |
So here's your e-commerce site, you decide you want
to buy this happy face and so you click Add to cart.
| | 02:33 |
It's a very common procedure on the web.
| | 02:35 |
So what this does is it places a cookie or a session variable
that carries information about what's been placed in the cart,
| | 02:41 |
perhaps it's the Item ID and this is
remembered in a cookie on your web browser.
| | 02:45 |
Now, what a Cookie is is it's a simple text file,
very small, very benign. Some people are concerned
| | 02:51 |
about cookie is going to hack my system or it can cause problems.
| | 02:54 |
Cookies are very safe in that they are
simple text file, they are not executable.
| | 02:59 |
It's a small little bit of data that then
the server will access on your next page.
| | 03:03 |
What's this do?
| | 03:04 |
Well, let's say you go to your next
page, you see another product you like.
| | 03:07 |
The information you placed previously in the cookie or in
your session variable goes with you, so it's still there.
| | 03:13 |
Once you connect up with the server again it sees the
cookie and then it remembers what you placed in your cart.
| | 03:18 |
At this point, if you add something to your cart again,
you add that to the cookie or to the session variable
| | 03:24 |
and it continues to go with you until you check out.
| | 03:26 |
So this is how we make the web remember, and this is
a big part of an e-commerce site or a dynamic web site.
| | 03:31 |
The advantages of dynamic web site are first
of all, the customer stays on your site.
| | 03:37 |
Remember, when we talked about like the Buy button
on a static site, they leave your site to buy things.
| | 03:41 |
Well, this keeps them on your site.
| | 03:43 |
It provides a better quality user experience for sure.
| | 03:47 |
And also you can control the branding.
| | 03:49 |
You don't all of a sudden present the brand of your
payment gateway, like Google or PayPal, to your customer.
| | 03:54 |
You maintain the branding on your site,
you control and own your customer data.
| | 03:58 |
If you pass off to one of these processors and they have the
databases of the customer records, you lose touch with that
| | 04:04 |
and you have to go through various steps to get it.
| | 04:06 |
Here you control it, it's in your database, it's on your site.
| | 04:09 |
This allows you also to control and track
inventory in a much smoother way, because again,
| | 04:14 |
there is a constant connection between
your site and your database.
| | 04:17 |
A standalone environment is under your control and that's
an important feature if you want to grow a larger site
| | 04:22 |
with a lot of transactions, a lot of products going.
| | 04:25 |
Also you are free to modify and improve it and move it.
| | 04:28 |
If the host you are currently under isn't serving your
needs you have the ability to take your entire site
| | 04:33 |
and your application, your database and move it somewhere else.
| | 04:36 |
If you are tied into a payment processor
like a Buy button you are pretty much stuck
| | 04:40 |
with PayPal or Google, that's who processes that.
| | 04:43 |
You don't have control to move it, and you also
lose a lot of control over the look and feel.
| | 04:47 |
So it's more control for you and a better customer experience.
| | 04:50 |
So really in all but a very few cases,
a dynamic e-commerce site is really the way to go.
| | 04:56 |
| | 04:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Which application language to use| 00:02 |
In this movie we are going to talk
about choosing an application language.
| | 00:05 |
Now this is a very important decision but it's a big subject.
| | 00:09 |
So what we are going to be doing in this movie
is just giving a general overview or comparison
| | 00:13 |
of the various application languages to
help you choose what may be best for you.
| | 00:17 |
But we won't to be able to go into all the information
about actually programming in these languages.
| | 00:23 |
There are some excellent choices at the
lynda.com Online Training Library to help you
| | 00:26 |
with that and you should certainly check that out.
| | 00:28 |
But for now, let's just talk about an overview of
the languages and what might work best for you.
| | 00:33 |
First of all, we are just going to talk
about the most common web app languages.
| | 00:37 |
There are other ones that are available or used, but we will
talk about the ones that are supported by the most hosts
| | 00:43 |
or servers out there and ones that
you're most likely to be choosing from.
| | 00:47 |
First of all there ASP, ColdFusion, PHP, JSP, .NET.
| | 00:53 |
Choosing one of these is a long term decision, so choose wisely.
| | 00:57 |
It's not something that you want to have to learn
several languages in and it's quite an effort to learn even one.
| | 01:01 |
So choose one that you are going to want to
stay with and the one that you will understand.
| | 01:05 |
So let's talk about each of these and see what
the pluses and minuses of these languages are.
| | 01:09 |
First, let's talk about Traditional or Legacy ASP.
| | 01:13 |
It's based on Microsoft VB Script, also JavaScript.
| | 01:17 |
It's a Microsoft Windows only application language.
| | 01:20 |
It's not supported on Linux servers or Mac servers.
| | 01:23 |
Fortunately there are a lot of Microsoft Windows
servers out there, so it's wide spread use.
| | 01:27 |
It has good support in Dreamweaver.
| | 01:29 |
Dreamweaver displays ASP pages very well, and also
has wide spread host support, but I say for now.
| | 01:36 |
The reason that is is that Microsoft
has basically pulled the plug on ASP.
| | 01:40 |
There is no further support or development, nor
have they opened it up to the open source community.
| | 01:45 |
Even though there is a huge amount of support for
it and it lasts a long time, it is a dying language.
| | 01:50 |
And so if you are just learning a new application
language, ASP may not be your best choice.
| | 01:55 |
If you already know it, it will be around for a long time.
| | 01:58 |
So you will be okay for now.
| | 02:00 |
But it's not a good long-term option if you are learning a new
language, and that's something definitely worth considering.
| | 02:05 |
So let's see what else is available to us.
| | 02:07 |
So now let's look at ASP.NET.
| | 02:09 |
ASP.NET is Microsoft's replacement for the Legacy ASP.
| | 02:13 |
It's a Windows only platform, but again, that's okay
because there is wide and spread host support for it.
| | 02:19 |
Microsoft development tools were the preferred way to
edit ASP.NET using Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer.
| | 02:25 |
.NET 2.0 has really no support in Dreamweaver, and Dreamweaver
supports the earlier versions of .NET but not very well.
| | 02:33 |
So really Dreamweaver is not the best
platform or tool to develop .NET,
| | 02:37 |
so if you are a Dreamweaver user, this is definitely a deterrent.
| | 02:41 |
There is a steep learning curve for a newbies for ASP.NET.
| | 02:45 |
It's actually very dissimilar compared to other web development
languages, it's very Microsoft-centric, but it is very powerful,
| | 02:51 |
very wide spread support, has a large development
community, and it has many platform features.
| | 02:56 |
These are features that are outside of an
actual scripting or just code language.
| | 03:00 |
It also has a lot of other features that plug
into it that are part of the Microsoft platform.
| | 03:05 |
And those can actually be real-time
savers for larger applications.
| | 03:10 |
ASP.NET is a good long-term solution,
but it's quite a commitment.
| | 03:14 |
It's a steep learning curve and it also going
to be very committed to the Microsoft platform.
| | 03:19 |
Next let's talk about ColdFusion.
| | 03:20 |
ColdFusion is a tag based language similar to HTML
because of this it's easier to learn and fortunately,
| | 03:27 |
if you already know HTML, you have
been designing Web pages for a while,
| | 03:30 |
then you'll be able to see what ColdFusion is
doing a little better because of being tag based
| | 03:35 |
and a little more explanatory about what's going on.
| | 03:37 |
But that doesn't mean it's not powerful.
| | 03:38 |
It's based on Java and it's a very
powerful language and very scalable.
| | 03:42 |
It's cross platform, works on Windows,
Mac, Unix, and Linux as well as Java.
| | 03:47 |
So it is wide spread host support and there is more all the time.
| | 03:50 |
It's easy to integrate with Flash and
has excellent support in Dreamweaver
| | 03:54 |
and there is also a plug-in for the
Eclipse platform called CFEclipse.
| | 03:57 |
So we have some excellent development tools to work on it.
| | 04:01 |
The thing about ColdFusion is, like ASP.NET,
| | 04:04 |
it's more than just decrypting language or coding language.
| | 04:07 |
It's more of a development platform.
| | 04:09 |
There are a lot of things going on or tags that you can use.
| | 04:12 |
That will provide services that you may have
to actually program in another language.
| | 04:16 |
This is again a leg up and also for
rapid development of larger applications.
| | 04:21 |
There are native drivers to work with all popular databases, this
would be Access, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and including Oracle.
| | 04:28 |
So this means that this language is very scalable.
| | 04:31 |
The databases can go all the way
up to enterprise level databases.
| | 04:34 |
And it's free to developers.
| | 04:36 |
What I mean by this is, there is a downloadable version for
developers from Adobe that can be used for local development
| | 04:42 |
and has all the features of a full server install.
| | 04:45 |
ColdFusion is a good long term option.
| | 04:47 |
It's easy to use, easy to learn, has wide spread support, very
scalable, very powerful so there is really no dead ends with it.
| | 04:54 |
And it also integrates very well to Flash
and other things in the other Adobe programs.
| | 04:59 |
Now let's look at PHP.
| | 04:59 |
It's script-based.
| | 05:01 |
It's a very popular open source language.
| | 05:04 |
It's cross platform, Windows, Mac, Unix, Linux, JAVA.
| | 05:08 |
It's very wide spread host support. Internationally.
| | 05:11 |
It's probably the most supported language
internationally, and works very well with MySQL.
| | 05:16 |
They are just really made to work with one another.
| | 05:19 |
But that supports other databases as well.
| | 05:21 |
Problem with PHP, if you are new to code, it is definitely
a steeper learning curve because it is more cryptic.
| | 05:27 |
It's not self-explanatory. You can't just look
at the code and figure out what's going on.
| | 05:31 |
You have to dive into the scripting a little heavier.
| | 05:33 |
There is just more of the learning curve involved.
| | 05:36 |
The combination of PHP and MySQL is solid, fast and stable.
| | 05:41 |
It's a good platform for strictly web development, a
lot of large vendors use it, and it's again very popular.
| | 05:47 |
So there is a lot of support.
| | 05:49 |
It lacks some of the platform advantages of ColdFusion and .NET.
| | 05:53 |
It's strictly a code language for developing applications.
| | 05:56 |
It doesn't have a lot of plug-ins or the pre-developed
platform features the ColdFusion and .NET have.
| | 06:03 |
But it is a long-term option.
| | 06:04 |
PHP certainly isn't going anywhere.
| | 06:06 |
It's very widely-supported.
| | 06:08 |
It's under continual development in the open source community.
| | 06:11 |
If you did make the choice to go PHP, it would not be a bad one.
| | 06:14 |
Others? What other languages are we talking about?
| | 06:16 |
JSP is one.
| | 06:18 |
it's a subset of Java programming language.
| | 06:21 |
There is limited host support.
| | 06:22 |
Most of the time JSP is used for more enterprise level
applications mostly in intranets instead of in the web itself.
| | 06:30 |
So actual hosts that host JSP sites are more
limited. It's relatively small development community.
| | 06:36 |
The reason being is that there is an extremely
steep learning curve being a subset of Java.
| | 06:40 |
It's a difficult language to grasp if
you're not used to that sort of thing.
| | 06:44 |
But it is very robust stable platform.
| | 06:46 |
Huge enterprise applications are built on JSP.
| | 06:49 |
It just may not be the best choice for someone looking to
come from designing HTML sites and moving into dynamic sites.
| | 06:57 |
So it may not be the best long term option for web
developers, but it certainly is a good development language.
| | 07:03 |
Perl and CGI you may have heard of those.
| | 07:05 |
They are really less relevant now with the web.
| | 07:07 |
They used to be very relevant until the other
application languages like PHP and ColdFusion came along,
| | 07:14 |
a lot of your formed functions like e-mailing forms
and that sort of things used to handled in Perl or CGI.
| | 07:19 |
Some of your earlier carts used to be handled in Perl or CGI.
| | 07:23 |
But it just isn't as relevant now.
| | 07:25 |
Then there is JavaScript. JavaScript is a very popular,
| | 07:28 |
especially now with AJAX but it's
really not a development language.
| | 07:32 |
It's more of an augmentation to HTML and application
languages. It's not really an application language itself,
| | 07:37 |
but you'll hear a lot about it and it' a good
chance you'll use some of it on your site;
| | 07:41 |
but this is not the language the site will be developed in.
| | 07:44 |
How do I choose?
| | 07:45 |
How do you select a language that works best for you?
| | 07:48 |
Well, first of all, you go with what you know.
| | 07:51 |
If you already know PHP or ASP or ColdFusion or .NET
then it's pretty much no-brainer that's what you go with.
| | 07:56 |
So you don't have to present yourself with a new learning curve,
you can get into developing your shopping cart application.
| | 08:02 |
Or choose the one that clicks.
| | 08:04 |
Do some research, go to your local bookstore
or your local Barnes & Noble or whatever
| | 08:08 |
and crack-open a few books on the
how to books on these languages.
| | 08:12 |
Read them over.
| | 08:13 |
If one clicks, if you kind of say, "Oh, I get
that," then that's probably the one for you.
| | 08:17 |
The primary choices that I'd recommend that
you look at would be ColdFusion, PHP or .NET.
| | 08:23 |
These are widely supported languages.
| | 08:25 |
They are in continuous development and improvement
and they are going to be around a long, long time.
| | 08:30 |
Also peer support is important.
| | 08:31 |
So if you are in an area or you work with a number of
ColdFusion developers or PHP developers then just the fact
| | 08:38 |
that you have this peer support may
make that language a good choice for you
| | 08:42 |
because you have friends or peers
you can call on to give you hand.
| | 08:45 |
This is an important point.
| | 08:46 |
Do not let your host dictate your choice.
| | 08:49 |
Many times we hear people say, "Well, I'd like to go
with this language but my host supports that language."
| | 08:55 |
The thing is it's very easy to switch hosts.
| | 08:57 |
Choose the language that's best for you and then find a
host that supports it rather than the other way around.
| | 09:03 |
Main thing is don't be fearful.
| | 09:05 |
You can accomplish a lot with just the basics in these languages.
| | 09:08 |
You don't have to jump in to 700-page book and learn the
entire language before you can start becoming productive.
| | 09:14 |
In the shopping cart application, especially if you use
a commercial application to begin with, you actually have
| | 09:19 |
to learn very little of the language to be able to get started.
| | 09:22 |
But it's good to make the commitment to learn the language
because as you go then you become more and more proficient.
| | 09:28 |
You can modify the code to fit your
individual needs or your client's needs.
| | 09:32 |
So it's a good thing to want to learn a language but don't
be afraid of just learning the basics and getting started.
| | 09:38 |
| | 09:40 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| SQL (Structured Query Language)| 00:02 |
Now let's take a minute to talk about SQL.
| | 00:04 |
SQL stands for Structured Query Language.
| | 00:07 |
This is the universal way to talk to databases.
| | 00:10 |
It's a simple elegant language that does what we call CRUD-
create, read, update and delete data to and from databases.
| | 00:19 |
That's it's sole purpose.
| | 00:20 |
It's not an application development language. The application
development languages use SQL to communicate with databases.
| | 00:27 |
Therefore, it's a universal way to talk
to databases, that's a real plus in that.
| | 00:31 |
You have one common denominator in your development platform.
| | 00:35 |
You talk to databases the same way and whether you're
talking to MySQL database or Microsoft SQL Server
| | 00:42 |
or Access, we use SQL to communicate with all of these.
| | 00:45 |
So let's look at an example of a SQL statement and
to see what an elegant and simple language it is.
| | 00:51 |
This is what's known as a Select Statement.
| | 00:53 |
You are saying SELECT and the star (*) there means All.
| | 00:56 |
So it's all fields from the table that you will declare.
| | 00:59 |
FROM would be from employees. Let's say you have
a table in your database it's about employees.
| | 01:04 |
So it's telling the database to pull
the information from that table.
| | 01:07 |
A WHERE clause means where employee name,
this would be a field in that table, equals Fred.
| | 01:12 |
So Select All From employees where the name is Fred,
and it's just that simple and elegant of a language.
| | 01:18 |
Now it can get very powerful with joins and other things,
but that goes beyond what we need to talk about.
| | 01:24 |
It's just good to know that it's a powerful, elegant,
simple way to communicate universally with databases.
| | 01:30 |
Now it is integrated or implemented a little differently in
each language, but the SQL is pretty much the same for all.
| | 01:37 |
Some databases have made little augmentations
to SQL. Microsoft has done that with SQL Server.
| | 01:43 |
But overall a good solid SQL statement
is going to work with all databases.
| | 01:47 |
Take the time to get acquainted with it.
| | 01:49 |
You don't need to learn the language completely
but it really helps to know enough about it,
| | 01:53 |
to where you can look at a SQL statement and
get a good idea of what's being done there.
| | 01:57 |
Check with database query builders.
| | 01:59 |
Microsoft Access has a excellent query builder that helps you
visually build SQL statements and you can see what happens.
| | 02:06 |
You check on references online, if you type-in SEQUEL statements
or SQL statements or language and Google you will get lot
| | 02:13 |
of hits, there are a lot of good references online.
| | 02:15 |
Dreamweaver also has a Record Set Builder
that actually creates SQL commands for you.
| | 02:20 |
It doesn't get too complex, but it does create simple queries for
you and so it is a visual way to create SQL statements there.
| | 02:27 |
And most of all I'd highly recommend
that you get the book on SQL,
| | 02:31 |
it's a small $14-15 book that
you can order at Amazon or wherever.
| | 02:36 |
It's Sam's Teach Yourself SQL in Ten Minutes by Ben Forta.
Great little reference book to have by your computer.
| | 02:43 |
What I did with mine is I cut the spine off
of it and took it down to an Office Depot
| | 02:47 |
and had it spiral bound, so it would open flat on the desk.
| | 02:50 |
It's a great little tool to have right there while you are
working, and if you need to build a SQL command or you want
| | 02:56 |
to know what the one you are looking at does, the
book is right there. It's a quick easy reference.
| | 03:00 |
| | 03:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Hosted vs. stand-alone sites| 00:00 | Now let's say for a minute after going through where we've
gone through already in this title, you're saying, "Wow. This
| | 00:06 | is way more complex than I thought it was. I just need a store up.
I have more things to sell than just a couple of things so
| | 00:12 | a Buy button solution isn't going to work for me, but I
really don't want to have to go through setting up a site,
| | 00:18 | a standalone site on my server. I just want
to put up the store as quickly as possible."
| | 00:22 | There are hosted solutions that will allow you to do this.
| | 00:25 | There are turn-key, offsite store providers, you can create
a store on their servers. Yahoo! stores, Google, eBay,
| | 00:32 | all have this service available.
| | 00:35 | It's hosted on the vendor server.
| | 00:36 | They're usually template-driven,
| | 00:38 | so they have a limited design through an online admin.
| | 00:42 | And you can add products and images and your description
and that sort of thing again through an online admin.
| | 00:47 | All transactions are handled on the vendor or by the vendor on
their servers so you don't have to worry about merchant accounts
| | 00:53 | and all that sort of thing.
| | 00:54 | One of the real downsides to this is the customer is taken from
your site to your store, which is actually on the vendor's server.
| | 01:01 | The services vary, so check with the vendors. Hosted solutions
may not work for everybody, but it's certainly an option,
| | 01:07 | and if you don't want to go through the complicated
process or the learning curve involved in building
| | 01:12 | a standalone store this may be a solution
for you. So it's worth checking out anyway.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. DatabasesDatabase overview| 00:01 |
In this chapter, we are going to talk about databases.
| | 00:03 |
You may be saying, "Well, I am a web developer or web designer,
| | 00:07 |
why should I worry about databases?"
Because databases are really big subject,
| | 00:12 |
there are people who specialize in it and it
can be an entire field of training to itself.
| | 00:17 |
Well, a good answer of that is, you drive a car you
don't need to know how to build an engine, do you?
| | 00:22 |
No. But it's good to know how to care of it.
| | 00:25 |
So, same thing with databases.
| | 00:27 |
It's good to know enough about them, to know how they integrate
in with an e-commerce system and how to maintain them,
| | 00:33 |
what's the best way to care for them
and get information from them.
| | 00:37 |
So, some knowledge about databases is very important. That's
what we will be covering in this chapter because when you look
| | 00:44 |
at databases really for an e-commerce
application, it is the foundation.
| | 00:48 |
It all starts with a database.
| | 00:51 |
All the information for the store comes from the database
and orders and customers and then goes to the database.
| | 00:57 |
The way the database is built is the
foundation, and jacking up the house is no fun.
| | 01:02 |
What I mean by that is, if the database isn't built correctly and
as the application is built on top of it and over time you find
| | 01:09 |
out the series of flaws in the database,
it's very difficult to go back and change it.
| | 01:14 |
It's much better to have a good database upfront to begin with.
| | 01:17 |
Even if it's overbuilt for what you intend on doing initially,
it's always better to have a good database as your foundation
| | 01:24 |
and maybe built a light application on top of it, but
at least you know you can extend and go beyond that.
| | 01:29 |
We will be looking at flat file and relational databases,
what that means and how that affects your decision.
| | 01:35 |
Also database files as opposed to database servers.
| | 01:38 |
Stability, scalability, extensibility, data integrity
and referential integrity, those are lot of words.
| | 01:45 |
But it's important to get a good grasp or have a concept
of what those mean and how it impacts your application.
| | 01:50 |
Speed is important.
| | 01:52 |
It's becoming more important all the time
as people have higher and higher bandwidth.
| | 01:56 |
They just don't want to wait for pages.
| | 01:58 |
So you don't want your database to slow your application up.
| | 02:01 |
Load capacity is also important.
| | 02:03 |
If your site is going to get real busy, you have
to have a database that's capable of handling that.
| | 02:08 |
Security is certainly an important topic.
| | 02:10 |
The database you use has to be secure.
| | 02:12 |
We've talked about how important that is and
we'll go into it even more as we progress along.
| | 02:17 |
So database is a big subject, but we'll briefly
cover the things you should know about them
| | 02:22 |
and what you should look for when
choosing a database for your store.
| | 02:25 |
First of all, what is a database?
| | 02:27 |
Database is simply a structured system for storing data.
| | 02:31 |
A Comma Delimited text file could be considered a database.
| | 02:34 |
Even an Excel Spreadsheet is basically a simple database.
| | 02:38 |
Microsoft Access is certainly well known.
| | 02:40 |
MySQL, MS SQL and Oracle are all used on the web.
| | 02:45 |
Oracle is a very high-end database, very
expensive, but it's also very scalable.
| | 02:49 |
Most of the time on the web what you are going to be looking
at is Access, MySQL or MS SQL Server. But big, small, free,
| | 02:57 |
expensive, the job is basically the same for all and that is
storing data and making it accessible to your application.
| | 03:04 |
So let's look at database types.
| | 03:06 |
First let's look at flat databases.
| | 03:08 |
What is a flat database?
| | 03:09 |
Well, an Excel spreadsheet would be
a perfect example of a flat database.
| | 03:13 |
That is a single table that holds structured information.
| | 03:16 |
It has one dimensional array of data.
| | 03:19 |
It's basically columns and rows in this one table.
| | 03:22 |
It can be deceptively powerful.
| | 03:24 |
You can store a lot of information, and a flat file
database is certainly a good tool and used a lot.
| | 03:30 |
But it's probably not the best choice for an e-commerce
application because it does have limitations.
| | 03:36 |
One of the big limitations that a flat
database has would be duplicate information.
| | 03:40 |
For example, let's say our first name here, Bob, has two emails.
| | 03:45 |
How do we enter that?
| | 03:46 |
Well, we either have to have another column or another line for
Bob which would be duplicate Bob Byer and then his email address
| | 03:53 |
or we have a duplicate column that would
be Email 2 and then you have an email.
| | 03:57 |
What if he has three emails?
| | 03:58 |
Email 3. You can see how a single flat database can
continue to grow out with duplicate information.
| | 04:05 |
So it becomes more and more cumbersome as the application grows.
| | 04:09 |
A great solution to this problem, are relational databases.
| | 04:12 |
What is a relational database?
| | 04:14 |
It's a database that contains multiple
tables that are interrelated.
| | 04:18 |
Here we have an example of our customer Bob and he has an order.
| | 04:23 |
The order is stored, instead of in the same database or the
same table as his name and information and email information,
| | 04:30 |
another table is created for orders.
| | 04:32 |
We can see there is a relationship between
the column of Customer ID in both tables.
| | 04:37 |
So that when you look up the information, you
can pull the information from both tables.
| | 04:41 |
The records in one table, otherwise,
are related to records in another.
| | 04:45 |
The data is interdependent and the structure
allows multiple records without duplicate data.
| | 04:50 |
What I mean by that is we can have one customer record, Bob
for example, and let's say he comes back and orders many times.
| | 04:57 |
Well, the orders table will contain multiple orders
for Bob, but his customer record just has one record.
| | 05:03 |
He is not in there multiple times,
so we eliminate the duplicate data.
| | 05:07 |
This is definitely a more robust, scalable
solution and 99% of all e-commerce applications
| | 05:13 |
out there use relational databases
because it's just the right way to go.
| | 05:17 |
Now, let's talk for a minute about
the different types of databases.
| | 05:21 |
First of all there is database files.
| | 05:23 |
Database Files are simple DB files, text file and Excel
spreadsheet, XML data would be considered a file-based database.
| | 05:31 |
A complex database file would be a
Microsoft Access, FileMaker Pro, Quattro Pro.
| | 05:37 |
These are all database files that are relational and
have multiple tables, but still in a executable file.
| | 05:43 |
The database stored here is in a single
compiled file. That can be a plus and a minus.
| | 05:49 |
First of all, you can upload and download like any other file.
| | 05:53 |
They are usually associated with a proprietary program or a
user interface like Access or Quattro Pro or FileMaker Pro.
| | 05:59 |
So you have the tool and the database working
together and then it saves it as a file.
| | 06:04 |
There is minimal security built into these systems.
| | 06:07 |
That's definitely a downside for them.
| | 06:09 |
Now database files are used on the web, it's very common.
| | 06:12 |
Microsoft Access is the one that's used
most, but it does have some downsides.
| | 06:18 |
So for a more robust solution, we have database
servers such as MySQL, MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL,
| | 06:26 |
and Oracle are all well-known on
the web and very powerful solutions.
| | 06:31 |
It's server based, not file based.
| | 06:33 |
There's an entire server dedicated to serving your database
information and not just a compiled file on your host server.
| | 06:41 |
It has robust security.
| | 06:43 |
Virtually, all of these systems have very good
security systems built right into the server.
| | 06:47 |
High speed, these are definitely
faster than a file based database.
| | 06:51 |
Also high load capabilities, and that's very
important that if your site is going to be busy,
| | 06:55 |
a file based database can reach its limits very quickly,
but the servers can be scaled to whatever the needs maybe.
| | 07:02 |
Advanced features are available such
as Views and Stored Procedures.
| | 07:05 |
This gets pretty complex and pretty advanced,
but a lot of the time consuming queries
| | 07:10 |
or things that a database does can be
built into the server itself instead
| | 07:15 |
of in your applications, which speed things up quite a bit.
| | 07:18 |
There is greater data integrity and your data
is more secure, it's safer and it's backed up better.
| | 07:23 |
So it's time to choose.
| | 07:24 |
You have database servers as opposed to file databases,
flat file databases as opposed to relational databases.
| | 07:31 |
Which is going to work best for you, and that's
what we're going to talk about in the next movie.
| | 07:35 |
| | 07:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Choosing a database| 00:01 |
Okay. So now it's time to choose your database.
| | 00:04 |
Again, as we've said before, it's an important decision.
| | 00:07 |
It's one that you are going to live with for a long
time because to difficult to migrate from one database
| | 00:11 |
to another once you've already established it in
your application and have a lot of records in it.
| | 00:16 |
So it's better to make the right decision early on.
| | 00:18 |
So, let's narrow the field a little by looking at what
aspects of a database are important to an e-commerce site
| | 00:24 |
and then comparing the databases available
to us and make the best selection possible.
| | 00:28 |
First of all we need a database that's
capable of handling the load.
| | 00:32 |
The web can put in a tremendous load on a database for
a busy site, a lot of hits, a lot of concurrent users,
| | 00:38 |
a lot of activity, so it has to be capable of handling that.
| | 00:41 |
Does it have a web host support?
| | 00:43 |
There are some very good databases out
there that would be excellent choices
| | 00:46 |
for a website, but they don't have widespread host support.
| | 00:50 |
So it narrows your options.
| | 00:51 |
So that's something worth considering.
| | 00:53 |
So again, portability. Can you take it
with you to other servers or if you decide
| | 00:57 |
to have later on have a dedicated server of your own?
| | 01:00 |
Can you have your database that's portable to that environment?
| | 01:03 |
Scalability. Can you build on the structure of the
database that you have, and how large can it scale?
| | 01:10 |
A very busy site, databases can get really huge.
| | 01:13 |
You want to have something that can scale if need be.
| | 01:16 |
How manageable is it?
| | 01:17 |
Some databases are more difficult to manage,
takes more training, some of them very easy.
| | 01:22 |
So that's an important thing to look at when choosing a database.
| | 01:25 |
Also stability. You don't want a database that crashes that's for
sure. Brings your whole site down and brings everything to stop.
| | 01:32 |
So you want to have something that's
very stable and very easy to manage.
| | 01:36 |
Definitely you want a fast database,
and speed is a relative thing.
| | 01:40 |
If you have a small Mom and Pop site that just is
selling a couple of items, speed is not as important.
| | 01:45 |
If you have a large site with a lot of products and
it's very busy then speed is a very crucial choice.
| | 01:51 |
No matter what database you choose, make sure that it's secure
| | 01:54 |
that you can protect the information
in it and keep it from identity theft.
| | 01:59 |
Again, we've talked about database files. Really of all these,
| | 02:03 |
Microsoft Access is your only real-world
choice. FileMaker Pro, Quattro Pro are good,
| | 02:09 |
and for example FileMaker Pro has become
a much better application for intranets.
| | 02:14 |
The problem is as you want databases that are
supported by the widest possible variety of hosts
| | 02:20 |
and really the only file based database
that answers that is Microsoft Access.
| | 02:25 |
You want wide spread use, you want it to be well-known
and user-friendly and Access certainly has that.
| | 02:30 |
Access is like we are talking about
before acceptable for low traffic sites.
| | 02:34 |
Speed is okay, but it does degrade quickly
as your traffic increases on your site.
| | 02:39 |
Again, it's a compiled file and this is
the downside of a file-based database.
| | 02:44 |
If your database crashes you've lost all of your data.
| | 02:48 |
That's the real downside of using a file-based database.
| | 02:51 |
Microsoft Access is not a bad choice, but this is
a problem with it and again it's Windows only.
| | 02:57 |
It can only be hosted on the Windows Server and so it does
narrow your server choices some, that's not a big problem.
| | 03:03 |
The good thing about Access is it is
fairly easy to migrate to database servers.
| | 03:08 |
Access has an upsize utility built within the program
itself that migrates your data in the database
| | 03:14 |
over to Microsoft SQL Server. Then we'll talk about database servers.
| | 03:18 |
Consider the current web support, there's some good
database servers that do some really incredible things
| | 03:24 |
but they are not that well supported on the web.
| | 03:26 |
So we need to consider how well supported they are.
| | 03:29 |
MS SQL Server and MySQL are really the most
widely supported database servers out there.
| | 03:35 |
Virtually, all of your Windows-based hosts have MS SQL Server
and nearly every serious host out there supports MySQL.
| | 03:44 |
Those really give you the widest options.
| | 03:47 |
So let's look at MS SQL Server. Very wide support.
| | 03:51 |
It's a huge developer community for MS SQL Server and so
if you need a database expert to help you on your database
| | 03:59 |
as you move along, it's very easy to find developers for it.
| | 04:02 |
It has many powerful enhanced features.
| | 04:05 |
For example, stored procedures and things
you build into the database that speed
| | 04:09 |
up repetitive tasks instead of having
it out at the application level.
| | 04:13 |
It's very fast, very stable and it
has very good security features.
| | 04:17 |
One of the current developments which makes MS SQL Server a good
choice is there is a free developers Express version available.
| | 04:25 |
So you can develop your MS SQL Server locally and test
it locally, and it's free to the developer to do so.
| | 04:32 |
The Express version will actually serve
as a small public database if you want to.
| | 04:37 |
Their site says it's not recommended, but it is
actually a better choice than an Access database.
| | 04:42 |
It's a good in between choice.
| | 04:44 |
Also it has a very good GUI Admin, GUI standing for
Graphical User Interface, that can be downloaded.
| | 04:50 |
It is Windows platform only, but again very wide support and
so MS SQL Servers a very good choice for a e-commerce database.
| | 04:58 |
Next let's look at MySQL Server.
| | 05:00 |
MySQL Server has extremely wide support.
| | 05:03 |
It's a open source database and has
excellent international support.
| | 05:08 |
It has a huge developer community world-wide.
| | 05:11 |
No problem finding developers that are familiar with it if
you need someone with more database expertise to help you out,
| | 05:17 |
more powerful enhanced features now with version 5.0 and above.
| | 05:20 |
Previous versions didn't have the enhanced features
like Stored Procedures and Views and the sort of thing.
| | 05:26 |
They were developing it, but it just wasn't there yet.
| | 05:29 |
It couldn't be considered what I
would call a good relational database.
| | 05:32 |
But now with version 5.0 and going forward,
it certainly has advanced features required
| | 05:37 |
in larger, even enterprise level databases.
| | 05:40 |
So it's become not only a widespread choice
but a very good solid choice as well.
| | 05:46 |
It's super fast and stable; in comparison tests it has been
for quite some time one of the faster databases out there.
| | 05:51 |
So it's a good choice for that. It has good
security features, which is extremely important.
| | 05:56 |
It's open source which means there is a large community behind
it and there're continual improvements going on with it,
| | 06:02 |
and most hosts are very good at staying up with
these improvements as new version releases come out.
| | 06:08 |
It is multi-platform which is a big plus as far as your site
being portable to different platforms or to different servers.
| | 06:15 |
There is versions for Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac, and also
has a wide variety of different GUI tools that are both free
| | 06:22 |
or commercial that you can choose to administer your database.
| | 06:25 |
And a good thing about these tools is they can administer your
database locally on your own site and connect across the web
| | 06:31 |
to your host server site and administer that
database as well and there is a wide choice of these.
| | 06:36 |
What about other databases?
| | 06:38 |
One of the ones we've mentioned before,
remember we've mentioned about ones
| | 06:41 |
that are excellent databases but just
don't have wide enough support yet?
| | 06:44 |
PostgreSQL definitely is one of those.
| | 06:47 |
It's an excellent database.
| | 06:49 |
If your host does support it, it may be an option.
| | 06:51 |
The downside is that it just hasn't been adopted nearly as much
as MySQL and so you may want to shy away from it for this reason
| | 06:59 |
because it does limit the portability of your site.
| | 07:02 |
Oracle is a very, very good enterprise level
option, but it's also extremely expensive
| | 07:08 |
and a lot of your large commercial sites use Oracle.
| | 07:12 |
But for the average web developer with most websites,
Oracle is not really an option because of the expense of it.
| | 07:19 |
So, conclusions, which one really works for you?
| | 07:22 |
Well, first of all like we are talking about we need to
make real-world choices, what's really supported out there?
| | 07:27 |
What really makes sense for the best portability
and the best security and the best scalability?
| | 07:33 |
Microsoft Access is okay for small or low traffic
sites and one of the advantages of Microsoft Access is
| | 07:40 |
that it does scale to MS SQL Server if it needs to be.
| | 07:43 |
Then Microsoft SQL Server is an excellent
choice if you are hosted on a Windows Server.
| | 07:48 |
There is a lot of support for it and
it's a very fast stable database.
| | 07:52 |
MySQL. I would say 5.0 and above
is an excellent cross platform choice.
| | 07:57 |
Previous versions of MySQL, I would probably recommend
MS SQL Server over that, but from version 5.0
| | 08:04 |
and above on MySQL is definitely a good choice.
| | 08:08 |
So there are your choices.
| | 08:09 |
It narrows it down to pretty much
three choices, which works best for you.
| | 08:13 |
Microsoft Access, if you have a small low traffic site, it
has the advantage of being able to be migrated if you need to.
| | 08:19 |
If you feel these sites are going to be busy right out of the
gate then you have the choice between MS SQL Server and MySQL.
| | 08:26 |
You really can't go wrong with either
one of those selections and with any one
| | 08:30 |
of these choices you have a good foundation from which to build.
| | 08:33 |
| | 08:35 |
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|
6. SecuritySecuring the database| 00:01 |
Let's talk for a minute about securing your database. No matter
what database you choose, security is of a paramount concern.
| | 00:08 |
So depending on the database you choose,
there are different security measures,
| | 00:11 |
but you have to make sure that you know them and take them.
| | 00:14 |
So let's talk about first of all, Data Source Names.
| | 00:17 |
We will talk about how this fits in
your application a little more later,
| | 00:20 |
but basically the Data Source Name is how your
server connects your application to your database.
| | 00:26 |
This is basically a name that you give to the
server that the server stores and when you call
| | 00:31 |
that name, it knows which database to look at.
| | 00:34 |
So you want to make sure that it's unique.
| | 00:36 |
You don't want to use something like your website
name or address for your Data Source Name.
| | 00:41 |
You want to make it hard to guess.
| | 00:43 |
So make it something kind of cryptic.
| | 00:44 |
It also has a username and password.
| | 00:46 |
Now you can create a Data Source Name without a
username and password but this is a big mistake.
| | 00:52 |
Make sure that you make it as difficult to get your
Database as possible, so use a username and password
| | 00:58 |
and again make sure that's something unique and hard to guess.
| | 01:02 |
Don't use anything obvious like, kid's birthdays
or your site name or this sort of thing.
| | 01:07 |
Make sure it's not obvious and it's something that it's
difficult for a potential hacker to try to figure out,
| | 01:13 |
and also change them if you feel they are being compromised.
They are not that difficult to change. You may have to go in
| | 01:18 |
and do a search and replace with something like this in
your application but if you feel it's been compromised,
| | 01:23 |
it's worth the effort to change your Data Source
Name because then you re-securing your database.
| | 01:27 |
We will talk more about DSNs later and how they
work in your application but it's enough to know now
| | 01:33 |
that you will need a Data Source Name
to talk to your database and you have
| | 01:37 |
to make sure it's secure by using unique usernames and passwords.
| | 01:41 |
Okay, database file security.
| | 01:43 |
We are talking about Access databases.
| | 01:45 |
Now the main thing here is that it can be downloaded.
| | 01:48 |
If a person guesses the location or the name of your
Access database, they can pull your entire database down.
| | 01:54 |
So, that's a real downside to a file based database.
| | 01:57 |
So, choose unique name. Again something that's very
difficult to guess or somebody can't guess the name
| | 02:03 |
of your database and then try to download it.
| | 02:05 |
Also place it above the root of your
site, ff your host server allows that.
| | 02:09 |
What do I mean by that?
| | 02:11 |
We can see here that there is a folder called
wwwroot and below that is where your site is.
| | 02:17 |
Many hosts will allow you to store things above the root
| | 02:20 |
and for example here we have a database
folder and then your database in it.
| | 02:24 |
The advantage to that is anything outside of the root folder
on your server is completely inaccessible from the web.
| | 02:31 |
Nobody can browse to it, so there is no way that
they can get to your Access database and download it.
| | 02:36 |
So this is a definitely, a good location for that.
| | 02:39 |
If your server doesn't allow that then place
it in a location where it can't be browsed.
| | 02:44 |
You can have a folder even inside the root of
your site and have it secured by your host,
| | 02:49 |
so that it requires a username and
password to access that folder.
| | 02:52 |
May be, you have hit one of these accidentally on the web or
all of a sudden, it will ask you for username and password.
| | 02:57 |
That's what the user will see if they try
to access your database in a secured folder.
| | 03:02 |
So again with a good username and password, it secures that
location and your database is secured inside that folder.
| | 03:09 |
Just remember, if they can't get to it, they can't steal it.
| | 03:12 |
So make sure if you are using an Access database, see
they are above the web root or in a secured folder
| | 03:18 |
so that there is no way you can browse to it.
| | 03:20 |
If you know the name of your database and its
location, and type it into your web browser
| | 03:24 |
and you see the database, you know you have trouble.
| | 03:27 |
Make sure you can't get to it.
| | 03:29 |
Also save backups.
| | 03:30 |
One of the big problems, and this isn't as much of a
security as it is data security and not losing your data.
| | 03:36 |
Frequently make backups.
| | 03:38 |
It's not only good security measure, but
it's a good data security measure as well.
| | 03:42 |
So if you have a database server like MySQL or SQL Server,
what kind of security measures,do we have for that?
| | 03:47 |
Well, they are more secure by nature.
| | 03:49 |
They are on a separate server.
| | 03:50 |
They are not the file that can be downloaded.
| | 03:52 |
So that makes them more secure to begin
with and a lot depends on your host.
| | 03:56 |
So, make sure that the host stays
up with the latest database updates,
| | 04:01 |
also make sure that they have all the security measures enabled.
| | 04:04 |
Ask them about that. Don't be afraid to call
your host and ask very specific questions
| | 04:08 |
about how well their databases are secured
and what type of precautions they take?
| | 04:13 |
Also ask them about their backup policies and a database
server can crash just like a web server and if it does crash,
| | 04:19 |
what have they done to secure a good
quality backup of your information?
| | 04:23 |
So the golden rules of database security?
First of all do not store credit card data,
| | 04:29 |
pass it off the gateways under an SSL security.
| | 04:32 |
A good point to remember is on a shared server, on a web host,
| | 04:36 |
no database is 100% secure.
| | 04:39 |
Someone at your host has access to your
data. People you don't know have access to it
| | 04:44 |
and as far we go to rule number 3; that is repeat number 1.
| | 04:48 |
So now that we have talked about securing your database,
it's also important that we secure the website itself
| | 04:52 |
and that's what we will discuss in the next movie.
| | 04:54 |
| | 04:55 |
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| Securing the website| 00:00 | Just as important as securing your database is also securing
the website itself. So let's talk about what we need to do that.
| | 00:07 | Main thing is to protect your customer's data. The first line
of defense we have talked about early on this title would be
| | 00:13 | your SSL Certificate. It's extremely important that you have
that on the site and your entire site be under your SSL security.
| | 00:20 | A secured Data Source Name. Again we will talk about how to
implement a Data Source Name a little bit later but make sure
| | 00:27 | that you choose a name that's unique and then it's secure
and pass safe URL variables. Now what do I mean by that?
| | 00:30 | If we were to look at the screen capture of the lynda.com site,
| | 00:34 | you see there is circle in blue there after the filename is a question
mark and then a variable that's passed? This is a very common way
| | 00:42 | to pass requests and information from one page to the next
in a web application. Just make sure that you never put
| | 00:50 | sensitive data in that. You certainly wouldn't want to pass
someone's credit card number in that variable or their username or
| | 00:56 | this sort of thing. Make sure that whatever you pass in
there, it is just a benign ID and then the sensitive data
| | 01:02 | would be stored off in the database somewhere.
| | 01:04 | Again, no prices, no passwords, no database table or field
information as well. It's important not to have prices there.
| | 01:12 | Early on- sometimes people still remember
this and ask about security of PayPal-
| | 01:16 | early on they used to pass prices in the URL off to the PayPal
site. At that time a hacker could go into the URL, save it out,
| | 01:25 | change the price, put it back in the browser and pass that to
PayPal and some people actually had their goods stolen this way.
| | 01:32 | Naturally, PayPal responded quickly to this and has
patched that bug a long time ago but you certainly
| | 01:37 | wouldn't want to make that same type
of bug available in your application.
| | 01:41 | Same goes for form fields. They are little harder to hack, but
they are available. A good programmer can pull a form field and do
| | 01:48 | the same sort of thing. So again you wouldn't want
to pass sensitive data across the web in a form field.
| | 01:54 | Another important thing to consider is Custom Error Handling.
If the database or an application throws an error the server
| | 02:00 | will generate an error page. Often those pages have sensitive data
like your username and password or your Data Source Name on it.
| | 02:07 | So make sure that those error pages aren't shown to the public.
Make sure you have a custom error page that would just say,
| | 02:13 | "This application has an error, contact the Webmaster" or
something to that effect. Make sure that it doesn't display
| | 02:19 | any of the sensitive data. So that's about it. That's
a good overview of what you can do to secure your site.
| | 02:25 | There is some things that can be done that are actually
part of the programming language itself and I would
| | 02:29 | encourage you to look at those when you checkout the different
languages, but for an overall view that's what's involved
| | 02:35 | in securing your website.
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|
7. Shopping CartsBuilding a custom cart vs. buying off the shelf| 00:00 | Now we've discussed many of the elements involved in a Shopping
Cart Application, you come to the decision, are you going to build
| | 00:07 | one yourself or buy an off-the-shelf program?
| | 00:09 | Well, first of all,
| | 00:10 | decide what you want. If it's a very simple application,
for example like adding a PayPal or a Google Buy Button,
| | 00:17 | this is definitely a 'do it yourself' type project. You can get
the code you need from their site and paste it on to your site.
| | 00:23 | It's a very simple process. But a full-blown shopping cart application
with an online Admin is a huge project. There is extensive coding
| | 00:32 | and database knowledge required and these kinds of applications
have hundreds of files and thousands of lines of code.
| | 00:38 | So you are talking about quite a project here.
| | 00:41 | Most of the time what a good decision is is to buy and build.
Look for a good customizable commercial shopping cart application.
| | 00:47 | One that serves as a good jump-start, a good learning
platform and gets you operational as quickly as possible
| | 00:54 | but it's customizable so later if you need add
functionally, you can as you learn how to do so.
| | 00:59 | So in the next movie, we will be talking about
choosing a good shopping cart application.
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| How to choose a shopping cart| 00:00 |
Now let's talk about process of choosing a commercial
shopping cart application that you will use.
| | 00:05 |
First of all, choose your point of entry.
Which of the following best describes you,
| | 00:10 |
this is very important to consider how you want to proceed.
| | 00:13 |
If you are number one, and you say "I'm a Designer and I don't
know anything about dynamic web development and I don't want to.
| | 00:19 |
I just want a shopping cart."
| | 00:21 |
Most commercial shopping cart applications require some
learning curve, some knowledge of servers and databases.
| | 00:28 |
If you don't want to be faced with that,
then that's an important consideration.
| | 00:32 |
Now number two, you say, "I am a Designer and I don't know
anything about dynamic web development but I want to learn.
| | 00:38 |
I know it will be valuable to me."
| | 00:40 |
Then number three is, "I know little code and
now I want to start doing e-commerce sites."
| | 00:46 |
Then number four, you say "I am a hardcore coder, and
I want to develop my own shopping cart application."
| | 00:51 |
So depending on which type of developer you are?
| | 00:54 |
What kind of choices do you make?
| | 00:55 |
What are your points of entry?
| | 00:57 |
Now first of all if you are number one, and you
don't want to know code, you don't want to see it,
| | 01:01 |
you don't have the time for it, then a hosted solution
like Yahoo Stores or Google or eBay or the PayPal
| | 01:08 |
or Google Buy button is probably the best choice for you,
because it's very easy to implement, requires really very little
| | 01:14 |
or no coding knowledge, and it doesn't require any
knowledge of databases and servers, and that sort of thing.
| | 01:21 |
So that's probably the way you would want to proceed.
| | 01:23 |
Number two, it's important to have enough time. There is some
learning curve involved in commercial shopping cart applications.
| | 01:30 |
And so you don't want to be on a really tight deadline.
| | 01:33 |
If you have got a client or a customer or yourself that
wants to get a few things on a web, and wants it done now,
| | 01:39 |
then number one is probably the best choice, and
that would be a hosted solution or a Buy button.
| | 01:44 |
Because there is going to be some learning curve involved and
there is going to be some time involved in coming up to speed,
| | 01:50 |
So you may want to go ahead, and choose that and then when you
have more time, venture into a commercial cart application.
| | 01:57 |
Number three, would definitely be a commercial cart application.
| | 02:01 |
It will get you up to speed.
| | 02:02 |
It will serve not only as a good platform to begin with but
also be an excellent learning experience for you as well.
| | 02:09 |
Number four, that's a much more technical subject,
and is beyond what would we would cover in this title,
| | 02:15 |
but I would recommend you check out some books
on the application language you have chosen.
| | 02:20 |
There are some really good technical manuals that
will help you learn the things you need to learn.
| | 02:24 |
We won't really be covering that in this title.
| | 02:27 |
When it comes to choose your cart,
what things should you consider?
| | 02:30 |
First of all, is it easy to work with?
| | 02:32 |
They all have some learning curve, but you don't
want to present yourself more than necessary.
| | 02:37 |
Is it well documented?
| | 02:38 |
One of the big advantages of a commercial shopping cart
application is it does serve as a good learning tool.
| | 02:43 |
So you want good documentation.
| | 02:45 |
Is it well supported?
| | 02:46 |
If you get stuck, can you get help?
| | 02:48 |
Does it have a good reputation among the development community?
| | 02:52 |
Ask around, and see what some of the ones that are
commonly used and what people's favorites are.
| | 02:57 |
This can really help you choose a good one.
| | 02:59 |
Is it a Dreamweaver Extension and
integrated in some way with Dreamweaver?
| | 03:02 |
If you are a Dreamweaver developer
this may be very important to you.
| | 03:05 |
Is it source code only?
| | 03:06 |
There are literally hundreds of shopping carts
applications available on the web that are source code only.
| | 03:12 |
Some of these such as osCommerce are available in the open
source community, and they are certainly good to work with,
| | 03:18 |
but you pretty much have to know code to be able to use them.
| | 03:21 |
How about both Dreamweaver integration and source code?
| | 03:25 |
That way you have everything you need to get started
easily, but you can also dig into the source code,
| | 03:30 |
and make modifications and progress as time goes on.
| | 03:33 |
Do they depend on template layouts?
| | 03:35 |
Is your design governed by the application?
| | 03:37 |
Most designers don't want this.
| | 03:39 |
They want to have your own control over
the website, and the look and feel.
| | 03:43 |
So you need to look at whether the shopping
cart application is template driven or not.
| | 03:47 |
Is it customizable?
| | 03:48 |
Is it easy to fit into your design,
and also into your growing needs?
| | 03:52 |
What platform does it use?
| | 03:53 |
What databases does it support?
| | 03:55 |
Does it support the ones you have decided are best for you?
| | 03:58 |
So now it's time to make a decision.
| | 04:00 |
We have talked about all the options that you have as far
as servers, and platforms, and what to look for in a cart.
| | 04:05 |
So it comes down to the point where
you narrow down which platforms,
| | 04:08 |
and which programs and which cart you are going to use.
| | 04:11 |
So let's briefly talk about that and narrow this down.
| | 04:14 |
First of all platforms, there are basically
two development platforms, the PC and the Mac.
| | 04:18 |
Either one serves as a very good platform.
| | 04:20 |
For the rest of this exercise, we will be using
the PC, but you could very well use the Mac.
| | 04:25 |
Next we will choose a database.
| | 04:27 |
For database servers, the primary
choices are MySQL and SQL Server
| | 04:31 |
and the other choice would be an Access
database, a file-based database.
| | 04:35 |
For the rest of this exercise we will be
using Access, for a couple of good reasons.
| | 04:39 |
One, it's the easiest to implement and two, it does offer the
ability to scale to the other server databases quite easily.
| | 04:47 |
Access has a built-in scaling tool, where you can move a
database over to SQL server, and MySQL has a migration tool
| | 04:55 |
that migrates an Access database
to MySQL 5.0 very easily as well.
| | 04:59 |
So it serves as an easy platform to get started on.
| | 05:02 |
It's easier to learn and once you are ready
you can move to a server-based database.
| | 05:06 |
For a real world situation though, if you are asking yourself,
| | 05:10 |
"Oh I think my site's going to be
pretty busy, can Access handle it?"
| | 05:13 |
If you are asking yourself that, you probably should go to a
server-based database, simply because it's a more robust solution
| | 05:20 |
and your data is sure to be more safe.
But for the exercise we will use Access.
| | 05:24 |
Next we need to choose the language.
| | 05:26 |
As we have talked about the main choices you
have are .NET, ASP, PHP and ColdFusion.
| | 05:31 |
For this exercise we are going to go ahead, and use
ColdFusion because frankly it has the easiest learning curve.
| | 05:36 |
I want to show you how to get a quick start.
| | 05:38 |
Another advantage is it's cross platform.
| | 05:40 |
Its not Windows only but it works on Mac, UNIX
and many others, so it's a good choice to you.
| | 05:45 |
So we will focus on ColdFusion for the reminder of
this exercise. Then it's time to choose the cart.
| | 05:50 |
If you are Dreamweaver developer and integration with
Dreamweaver is important to you, there are basically two choices
| | 05:55 |
in the marketplace right now that have a good reputation among
the developer community and that's WebAssist and Cartweaver.
| | 06:02 |
Then if you want a source code only cart,
there is literally hundreds of choices.
| | 06:06 |
If it's not important for you to have it
integrated with Dreamweaver with server behaviors
| | 06:10 |
and such things, you just want to place the code into your site,
| | 06:13 |
there are far too many choices for us to discuss here.
| | 06:15 |
You can do a Google search or ask around the community and see
which ones have a good reputation and maybe choose one of those.
| | 06:21 |
For the remainder of this exercise we will
be using Cartweaver, for a few reasons.
| | 06:25 |
One, I wrote the program so I am very familiar with it, and
also it has a good reputation among the developer community.
| | 06:31 |
We will be using the ColdFusion version
although it does support PHP and ASP.
| | 06:35 |
We want to have that so you can have the
easiest start into an e-commerce site.
| | 06:38 |
So we will be using Cartweaver with ColdFusion,
an Access database and the PC platform.
| | 06:44 |
Now before we actually start implementing
things, it would be good to go out to the web,
| | 06:47 |
and kind of take a tour through an
e-commerce site and an e-commerce admin,
| | 06:51 |
what you see in the browser, and we
will do that in the next chapter.
| | 06:54 |
| | 06:55 |
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8. Basic Elements of a Shopping CartE-commerce essentials| 00:01 | Before we go out to the web and look at an online example,
| | 00:03 | let's recap what the components of an e-commerce site are.
| | 00:07 | First of all we have the front-end, that's where
the customer shops and buys and places their order.
| | 00:12 | You have the store/catalog portion of your website,
| | 00:16 | which gives them the opportunity to browse through
your merchandise, read about it, find out about it.
| | 00:20 | You have the Shopping Cart. So when they decide to buy something
or that they are interested in, they can place it in their cart,
| | 00:25 | take it with them so to speak and be able to make comparisons
later and then taking orders, that is where they checkout.
| | 00:31 | They fill an order form and progress through that process
| | 00:34 | and finally product delivery.
| | 00:36 | Online this means allowing the customer to choose what sort of shipping,
| | 00:40 | it allows the customer
| | 00:41 | to decide how they want the product shipped
| | 00:43 | and also letting them know how much it's going to cost.
| | 00:46 | Then there is the backend of the site.
| | 00:48 | This is where the merchant is administering the store itself.
| | 00:51 | You have the Stock and Inventory.
It's important to be able to track inventory
| | 00:55 | and also so-called enter stock, that is enter
| | 00:58 | new products online or maintain them.
| | 01:01 | Update them.
| | 01:02 | This is an important of any backend admin.
| | 01:04 | Also shipping, deciding how to ship
| | 01:06 | and what it's going to cost and having control over that.
| | 01:09 | And then Customer Service. Be able to look at
your orders, look at customers, look them up and
| | 01:14 | answer questions in case you
| | 01:16 | receive an email or a call from a customer.
It's important to be able to access that information.
| | 01:20 | And then accounting and banking.
| | 01:22 | Be able to see how many orders you have,
what's selling well, what isn't.
| | 01:26 | It's important to have that information available to you.
| | 01:28 | So let's go out and look at some examples on the web.
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| The store and the catalog| 00:01 |
First, we're going to take a look at the
Store or the Catalog portion of our website.
| | 00:04 |
First of all, the thing to keep in
mind is here's your chance to sell.
| | 00:08 |
This is where you display the products, you need to display
it well, have good clear images, educate and sell the customer.
| | 00:14 |
Really take this opportunity to put in
good explanations, give them a reason to buy.
| | 00:19 |
Effective, well written copy is very,
very important. This really equal sales.
| | 00:25 |
If you aren't a copywriter, then get one.
| | 00:27 |
Good, effective copy is extremely important, especially in the
web where they don't have an opportunity to pick up and feel
| | 00:33 |
and touch the merchandise, you have to
have them mentally feel that product.
| | 00:37 |
A good example you might want to look at is Lands' End website.
| | 00:41 |
The copywriters for Lands' End do a tremendous job of
really making you feel the product and that's important.
| | 00:48 |
A short description usually when you have your initial search
page, result come back, and you have a short description.
| | 00:54 |
This is your opportunity to really sell
hard because it gives them the incentive
| | 00:59 |
to then go to a details page for the long description.
| | 01:03 |
A long description does really tell them all that you can about
the product, really get them to mentally feel that product
| | 01:10 |
and have good images so they can take a look at it.
| | 01:13 |
This is your chance to really sell
your merchandise to the online shopper.
| | 01:17 |
Categorize and organize your information.
| | 01:19 |
If they can't find product, they can't buy it.
| | 01:22 |
So make sure you spend time really looking at
what's known as your information architecture
| | 01:27 |
or how you divide up your store, how you categorize it.
| | 01:30 |
If you go into a big department store, it's very well laid out.
| | 01:34 |
Customers know where to find the merchandise.
| | 01:36 |
It's equally important even more so online, because
you don't want your customers having to click
| | 01:41 |
around trying to find things. Make it easy to find.
| | 01:44 |
Cross selling is important as well.
| | 01:46 |
If they're looking at one item and they're
interested in it, don't waste that opportunity
| | 01:50 |
to show them things that they may also be interested in.
| | 01:53 |
Amazon.com and sites like this have taken
advantage of this with very good results.
| | 01:58 |
And most importantly be friendly,
informative and really encourage them to buy.
| | 02:02 |
This is your opportunity to sell it
in the store portion of your site.
| | 02:06 |
So don't waste that opportunity. Once you have them on your
site, inform them, engage them, and encourage them to buy.
| | 02:13 |
So let's go out to the web now and take a look at an example.
| | 02:17 |
Here we're going to be using an example of
a demo store on the Cartweaver.com sight,
| | 02:21 |
but I also encourage you to take a look at the many sites
on the web that do an excellent job of selling product.
| | 02:26 |
Take notes, jot down what you like, what you don't
like and really try to integrate that into your store
| | 02:32 |
and do the best job you can to selling the merchandise.
| | 02:34 |
What we're going to be looking at here though is the
basic process involved and elements you should look for.
| | 02:40 |
One, as we see over here the merchandise
is categorized into logical order
| | 02:45 |
and that's important for you to do on your site as well.
| | 02:48 |
Then when the user clicks, taken to a results page.
| | 02:51 |
This is very common where it gives a small thumbnail
image and a brief description about the product.
| | 02:57 |
This way the customer can quickly scan the information that
they are looking at and make decisions on what interests them.
| | 03:05 |
At that point the customer can then click;
then we will be taken to a details page.
| | 03:10 |
The details page is your opportunity to tell the shopper more
about the merchandise, display it well with a larger image,
| | 03:17 |
and give them the opportunity to choose what they want.
| | 03:20 |
For example, with boots, they choose what size they want.
| | 03:24 |
It's important that this copy is well
written, so it really sells the merchandise
| | 03:27 |
and informs them enough to make the buying decision.
| | 03:31 |
So this gives us a good overview of the store portion of the
site. There's basically a search, a result and a details page.
| | 03:39 |
Now it's important that when you develop your site spend
a lot of time on design and information architecture.
| | 03:47 |
It should be really easy to find what you're
looking for, the way your site is broken up,
| | 03:51 |
so they can drill down and find the products they're looking for.
| | 03:54 |
It should be extremely easy and it should
be self-explanatory, and be very obvious.
| | 03:59 |
You don't want them to have to hunt for merchandise.
| | 04:02 |
And make sure that the design of the site is appealing and really
agrees with or appeals to your target audience, your customer.
| | 04:10 |
The design and navigation of your site is
just as important as the technology behind it.
| | 04:15 |
So keep that in mind as you go forward.
| | 04:17 |
| | 04:18 |
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| The cart| 00:01 | Now, let's take a look at the cart. Key thing to keep in mind is
keep it easy to select, shop, and buy. We want to give our customers
| | 00:07 | a visual confirmation when they add something to their cart.
We want to make it easy for them to view the cart at any time.
| | 00:12 | They want to be able to compare the contents.
| | 00:15 | Take a look at the cart, then return to shopping so
they compare items and make inform buying decisions.
| | 00:20 | Always show totals.
| | 00:21 | Customers make decisions not only on the product itself,
but how much they can afford to spend. So make that easy for
| | 00:27 | them as well. We want the customers to be able
to put things back, make changes, add quantities,
| | 00:32 | take things out. So make it easy for them to do that as well.
| | 00:34 | Allow them to continue shopping.
| | 00:36 | They look at the cart, don't like what's in it, aren't ready to
continue. Allow them to do that to go back into the store section
| | 00:42 | in your site and continue shopping.
| | 00:44 | Again, make the whole process as easy and as obvious as possible.
| | 00:48 | You don't want your customers they have to try
to figure out how they get around your store.
| | 00:53 | So now let's take a look at an example.
| | 00:55 | Here we're back in the demo lab again where we left off in the previous
movie, and let's say we've decided that we want to buy these boots.
| | 01:00 | So at this point, we choose the size and Add to Cart.
| | 01:06 | You can see here that we have a visual confirmation that we've
added something there to the cart. If we want to at this point,
| | 01:11 | we could go to the cart and look at it.
| | 01:13 | Also as a second reassurance or confirmation,
you see up here where it says one item is in the cart
| | 01:19 | and allows us to View Cart
| | 01:20 | or Checkout at this time.
| | 01:21 | So we'll continue shopping.
| | 01:23 | Let's say we buy another pair of boots
| | 01:28 | and Add to Cart. Again, we've confirmation that this
item has been added, and we also have confirmation that
| | 01:33 | there are two items in our cart.
| | 01:35 | That way is the customer goes through the shopping experience,
they always know what's in their cart and what's going on.
| | 01:41 | At this point let's go out and view the cart.
| | 01:43 | Here we see the items that are in the cart listed,
| | 01:46 | and a brief description about them.
| | 01:47 | How much they cost,
| | 01:49 | the quantity that we are ordering. What the total price is.
| | 01:52 | We also see a subtotal.
| | 01:54 | So far if a customer shopping based on how much their budget is,
| | 01:57 | they can usually see that if they're still
within their budget and make decisions accordingly.
| | 02:01 | We want application to be able to be updated.
| | 02:04 | Let's say want two pairs of these.
| | 02:06 | See how quickly it can be done, it's updated. The important
thing is, is to make this entire process as easy as possible for
| | 02:13 | your customer, so that when they are ready to
continue shopping, they can go back to shopping
| | 02:18 | or at this time they may decide to checkout
and that's what our next movie will be about.
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| Checking out| 00:01 |
Now, let's take a look at the checkout process.
| | 00:03 |
This is the time we are going to
start taking customer information.
| | 00:06 |
So it's important that we invoke our SSL
at this time to make sure that they feel safe
| | 00:10 |
and secure about giving us that personal information.
| | 00:14 |
Make the whole process self-explanatory.
| | 00:16 |
You don't want the customer to have
to try to figure out what to do.
| | 00:19 |
You want to make it easy to buy as possible.
| | 00:23 |
Also tell them what you need.
| | 00:24 |
You want to avoid confusion.
| | 00:26 |
A key thing to keep in mind at this point
is if you confuse them, you loose them.
| | 00:30 |
Cart abandonment is a big issue.
| | 00:32 |
You have to make this process as
easy and as seamless as possible,
| | 00:36 |
so you don't lose your customer right
when they are ready to buy from you.
| | 00:39 |
If they make a mistake, let them know about it,
but let them know what to do as well.
| | 00:44 |
Make it easy to buy again.
| | 00:47 |
Your best customer is customers you already have.
| | 00:49 |
Repeat buys is big business.
| | 00:52 |
So make that easy to do as well.
| | 00:54 |
Provide a log in, so that they can
just log in when they come back.
| | 00:57 |
If they forget their password, make
it easy to retrieve that information.
| | 01:01 |
The main thing is make every step easy.
| | 01:04 |
Make credit card entry easy.
| | 01:06 |
If they make a mistake, make sure you inform them
that there was a mistake, the process didn't go through.
| | 01:10 |
This is an advantage again like we talked about earlier about
using gateways, because you can give them instant feedback
| | 01:16 |
that that process didn't go through
and maybe they entered something wrong.
| | 01:20 |
Make this part of the process as
easy and as seamless as possible.
| | 01:24 |
Finally, confirm the order and say thank you.
| | 01:27 |
Once the process goes through and they click the Buy
button, bring up a confirmation page that shows them
| | 01:32 |
that the purchase has gone through, thank
you very much and your product is on its way.
| | 01:37 |
Now let's go out and take a look at this process.
| | 01:39 |
Here we are again at the again demo store where we left
off before where the customer was shopping, remember,
| | 01:44 |
and found a couple of pairs of boots that they are interested in.
| | 01:47 |
So let's say at this point we want to checkout.
| | 01:50 |
So we click Checkout and we are taken to an Order Form page.
| | 01:53 |
You will see the key elements here.
| | 01:55 |
First of all if they are returning customers, make
sure it's easy for them to log in at this time.
| | 02:00 |
The key thing about that is they can log in and we
can populate the order form down here with information
| | 02:06 |
that we already have making it very easy for them.
| | 02:08 |
They don't have to fill that out again.
| | 02:10 |
Again, if they've lost their password,
we make it easy to retrieve
| | 02:13 |
or if they are new customer they can just
continue on down here and fill out the form.
| | 02:18 |
You see here where it says required fields
and then the asterisk by the fields.
| | 02:22 |
It's important that we let them know what we need from
them and if they make a mistake, for example let's go ahead
| | 02:28 |
and just click Next without filling out anything and we
see the customer gets instant feedback of what went wrong.
| | 02:35 |
The fields are highlighted that needed to be
filled out, they are required, that weren't.
| | 02:40 |
We want to have this kind of confirmation in case
of a problem all the way through the cart system.
| | 02:44 |
So for now, let's say you are a returning
customer and just enter a username and password.
| | 02:49 |
| | 02:55 |
Here, we can see the system remembered us, it says "Welcome
back Bob" and all of our information is filled out in our form.
| | 03:00 |
So we are ready to proceed.
| | 03:02 |
This is a good feature to provide, because it
eliminates the tedious part about filling out a form.
| | 03:06 |
They can go through the checkout process quickly.
| | 03:08 |
Now let's choose Next.
| | 03:11 |
Here we are taken to the Order Confirmation page,
where everything is laid out very clearly for us.
| | 03:16 |
The totals of what's in our cart.
| | 03:18 |
Assure that we have the right shipping
information, the right address information.
| | 03:22 |
If it's wrong, we give them the opportunity
to go back to the form and fill it out again.
| | 03:27 |
We show all the totals including shipping and we also
let them select shipping in case they want it shipped
| | 03:32 |
by a different method or a faster method such as overnight.
| | 03:35 |
If all this is correct, then we allow them
to enter the credit card information.
| | 03:40 |
Notice here that we allow them to
enter the credit card holder name.
| | 03:43 |
Part of the fraud prevention systems of many credit cards,
| | 03:46 |
you have to match up the name of the
card holder with the card number.
| | 03:49 |
If the card holder's name is different, for example let's say
Bob is using his wife's card, the transaction won't go through.
| | 03:56 |
So right now we will enter a name, choose
a card type, enter the card number.
| | 04:05 |
Since this is a demo we can enter any number,
expiration date. And see here we require the CCV code?
| | 04:17 |
Well, the important thing is not only do we require it,
but we explain what we mean in case they don't know.
| | 04:22 |
After the information is all filled out,
we place the order and we say thank you.
| | 04:28 |
We show them what the order total was.
| | 04:30 |
We confirm that the order has gone through.
| | 04:32 |
We give them the order number in case they
should have to call up for any questions
| | 04:36 |
and they can feel confident that their product is on the way.
| | 04:39 |
| | 04:40 |
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| Online store administration| 00:01 |
Now, we will take a moment to take
an overview of the store Admin.
| | 00:04 |
This is where we basically take care of the store's back
room, where we do common tasks. Enter company information,
| | 00:11 |
we stock merchandise, track inventory, setup and arrange
display, figure our shipping, add in what kind of types
| | 00:18 |
of shipping we accept, what shipping charges are,
what type of tax should be charged for what states.
| | 00:23 |
This is where we handle the orders, then shipping and
fulfilling the orders and also where we manage the customers.
| | 00:30 |
The key thing is is when we look at the
Administration or the back-end of a e-commerce website,
| | 00:36 |
it has to be as easy for the merchant to control
as it is for the customer to shop on the front-end.
| | 00:42 |
So let's take a look at the Admin back-end and just kind
of click through the features and we will get into those
| | 00:48 |
in detail a little further on, but
it would be good to take an overview.
| | 00:51 |
Here we are at the log in page of the Admin.
| | 00:54 |
It's important that the Admin be secure.
Naturally you don't want just anyone taking a look
| | 00:59 |
at what's in the back-end of your store.
| | 01:02 |
So we have a Secure Log On available.
| | 01:05 |
Now that we have logged in we can see there is
a real quick display of any orders that we have
| | 01:14 |
to verify or any orders that we may have received.
| | 01:17 |
Just gives us a quick overview, because obviously
this is something the merchant is most interested
| | 01:22 |
in is, do I have any orders?
| | 01:24 |
Let's click through the menu over to the side
here of the different aspects of the store.
| | 01:28 |
Naturally, the merchant is going to want to take care
of Products, Add New products, look at Active Products
| | 01:34 |
or Archived Products. Otherwise to put them on the shelf or
take them off the shelf whether they are available or not.
| | 01:39 |
Here we are looking at Orders, we can search by date or the type
of order it is, whether it's Verified, Pending, Canceled orders.
| | 01:46 |
We can look at history and find orders of different types.
| | 01:50 |
We can also manage customers. The important thing is to be able to
easily find the customers especially if you receive a phone call
| | 01:57 |
and someone who has any questions and you have
to look up a customer and make it easy to find.
| | 02:02 |
Categories. This is an important part of the back-end
of the store because it's how we merchandise our store.
| | 02:07 |
We need to break up our store in a logical order, many
call it Information Architecture, but also it would be just
| | 02:14 |
like bricks and mortar store,
dividing your store up into departments.
| | 02:18 |
So the shoppers know where to look for
their merchandise and can easily find it.
| | 02:23 |
Options. What these are is the unique features of products.
| | 02:27 |
As we can see Size, Inseam, Shoe Size, Waist, Color.
| | 02:32 |
These are the things that make
individual products, individual products.
| | 02:36 |
So we need to be able to add in and edit these at any
time because our merchandise and our inventory may change.
| | 02:43 |
Shipping/Tax settings of course is important, what type
of shipping we offer. Otherwise what methods there are,
| | 02:49 |
what settings we have, the weight ranges
and also what taxes we may charge.
| | 02:54 |
| | 02:56 |
Also global Store Settings are important.
| | 02:59 |
Who gets to use the back-end, who has the access to it, what
kind of company information we store, what countries we service.
| | 03:05 |
What type of credit cards we take.
This is information that we fill out,
| | 03:09 |
that's global information that really
guides how the store operates.
| | 03:13 |
Another important feature is to make
it really easy to click around.
| | 03:16 |
Again, as I said earlier, it's just as important for the
merchant to be able to easily find their way around the Admin
| | 03:23 |
and to Administer the store as it is for the
customer to use the front-end to the store.
| | 03:27 |
As a final feature, we make sure that they can log out.
| | 03:31 |
This seems like a simple thing, but in a small business where
several people are using the same computer, we want to make sure
| | 03:37 |
that the session is killed and that other
people don't have access to the back-end,
| | 03:42 |
if they don't have a proper log in. And then for a conclusion,
| | 03:45 |
later on in this title, we will take a good
in-depth look at each section of the Admin.
| | 03:49 |
How to actually add products and we will step through the
process so you will be very familiar with how the Admin works.
| | 03:54 |
| | 03:55 |
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|
|
9. Case Study: Using ColdFusion and CartweaverSetting up the development environment| 00:01 |
Now we are going to set up a Local Development Environment.
| | 00:03 |
Use the Local Develop Environment,
not only to develop your application,
| | 00:06 |
but to test it locally, and this is really important.
| | 00:09 |
Why develop and test locally?
| | 00:11 |
Well, first of all, you get to see the results as you go,
you don't have to upload to the server that test your pages
| | 00:17 |
to actually run them. You can do that locally.
| | 00:19 |
It's faster, easier, convenient to do that way.
| | 00:22 |
There are no connectivity problems.
| | 00:23 |
You don't have to wait for files to upload
or download or worrying about if they are
| | 00:26 |
in sync, and you know it works before you upload.
| | 00:30 |
This is really important. Because if you upload to your host and
it doesn't work, well, where is the problem? Is it on your host?
| | 00:37 |
Is it in your code? You don't know exactly, so it's
better to know where it works before you upload it.
| | 00:42 |
This will make you very popular with
the host and your fellow webmasters.
| | 00:47 |
If you upload code that should happen to run a continuous loop
or some kind of coding problem that crashes your server, well,
| | 00:55 |
you will become immensely unpopular with your host
and your fellow webmasters that are on that server.
| | 01:00 |
So if you develop locally, you don't have to worry about that.
| | 01:03 |
So it simplifies things and gives you peace of mind.
| | 01:06 |
It also helps you troubleshoot your server environment.
| | 01:09 |
If it works locally and you have tested it and you have looked at
it and you know it works, and then you upload it to your server
| | 01:15 |
and then it doesn't work, you know it's not your code.
| | 01:18 |
You know there is something wrong on the server, and
the configuration; maybe it's your Data Source Name,
| | 01:22 |
maybe the host hasn't set up your environment correctly, maybe
it put you on a server that isn't running ColdFusion. Who knows?
| | 01:29 |
But you know it's not your code, you know there is something
wrong with the server, and then you can work from there.
| | 01:35 |
So any trouble to set up a local test
environment, any learning curve you need to go
| | 01:39 |
through to get there initially, it's well worth it.
| | 01:42 |
So what do you need to do?
| | 01:43 |
First you install and set up the Web Server,
in this case we will be using ColdFusion;
| | 01:47 |
it could be Apache or whatever you are going to be using.
| | 01:50 |
Install the Application Server. In this case again it will be
ColdFusion, and fortunately ColdFusion installs the Web Server
| | 01:57 |
and the Application Server all in one shot, so it makes
it much easier, but if you are doing PHP or another type
| | 02:03 |
of application, you need to install that Application Server.
| | 02:07 |
Next you install and set up your database, which we will
do as we begin to develop our site. And then you test.
| | 02:14 |
The process, like we have talked about, depends on what platform
| | 02:17 |
and what language you are using, but
the basic steps are all the same.
| | 02:20 |
You need to go through the same process no matter what platform
you are on or which application language you are using.
| | 02:27 |
So right now we are going to download and install ColdFusion
Developer's Version from Adobe, and then we will install it,
| | 02:32 |
and then we will run the ColdFusion Administrator to test
our install, to make sure everything worked correctly.
| | 02:37 |
So okay, let's go do that now.
| | 02:39 |
First we open our browser.
| | 02:42 |
We are going to go to Adobe, the Products Page,
ColdFusion- see the address here, Adobe/Products/ColdFusion.
| | 02:51 |
This takes us to the ColdFusion page, and what we are going
to do is do the Get started now - Download a free trial.
| | 02:57 |
Actually we are not going to be downloading the free trial, we
will download the developer's version, but the link is the same.
| | 03:03 |
You will be taken to the Login page.
| | 03:06 |
If you don't already have an Adobe login, now is the time to
create it. It's a good thing to do; you stay in touch with Adobe
| | 03:12 |
and you can download trial versions and
so it's a step you should go through.
| | 03:15 |
We will go ahead and login.
| | 03:22 |
Here we are taken to the Trial Downloads page.
| | 03:26 |
Scroll down a little bit and you will see that we can download
the ColdFusion Developer's Edition, and this is the one we want.
| | 03:32 |
So select the one you need for your platform,
we will be doing Windows, and then hit Download.
| | 03:39 |
Here is our ColdFusion Installer.
| | 03:41 |
Choose the language, and here is the
installation process we will be going through.
| | 03:45 |
Fortunately, ColdFusion Installer just lights up
each section as you go through the Installer.
| | 03:50 |
You will always know where you are in the Install process.
| | 03:53 |
So click Next, accept the terms.
| | 03:56 |
Now, if you had purchased this copy of ColdFusion,
you would enter your serial number here.
| | 04:01 |
But here we want to set up the Developer's Edition.
| | 04:04 |
Again, the Developer's Edition of
ColdFusion is a fully functional server.
| | 04:08 |
It just serves to one IP address, that is your local system.
| | 04:11 |
Other than that it has all the features
of a full-blown install of ColdFusion.
| | 04:16 |
So we will select that, then click Next.
| | 04:19 |
Here under Server configuration, we will
leave it in this standard configuration.
| | 04:24 |
Notice it says to install ColdFusion
MX as a self-contained server.
| | 04:29 |
It has a smaller version of actually JRun, which
is a Java Server, that it installs on its own.
| | 04:34 |
So the nice thing about this is that
ColdFusion is installing your Web Server
| | 04:38 |
and your Applications Server all at
once, Makes it a very easy set up.
| | 04:42 |
So click Next, and then just say OK,
leave everything in its default setting.
| | 04:48 |
Make a note of this location; CFusionMX7, that's the
folder it will be on and you will need to know that later.
| | 04:55 |
Next, and here we see the built-in
web server development use only.
| | 05:01 |
That's what we want to do, that creates
the Developer's Edition of this.
| | 05:05 |
So then we click Next, and away we go.
| | 05:08 |
Now you will want to enter your password for your
administrator, and since it's a local development version,
| | 05:14 |
you don't have to get too cryptic. Just
type in something you are going to remember.
| | 05:18 |
Let's just do admin, and then confirm admin, and then click Next.
| | 05:26 |
Same thing here, I always- again
for the local development edition,
| | 05:30 |
you just use the same thing, admin and admin, click Next.
| | 05:35 |
It shows everything that's available,
you can kind of take a look at that.
| | 05:40 |
The important thing to remember is it installs it for
Port 8500;. We will be using that later in Dreamweaver,
| | 05:46 |
so make a note of that as well, and
then Install, and there it goes.
| | 05:51 |
So we go through the installation program.
| | 05:53 |
| | 05:57 |
Now the installation is done.
| | 05:59 |
We will want to launch the Configuration
Wizard, so go ahead and click Done.
| | 06:03 |
Here is where we type in the admin password that we used.
| | 06:07 |
Just admin, and it goes into the configuration.
| | 06:12 |
Alright, now the configuration is done, and we click OK.
| | 06:16 |
This just takes us to an Overview page, and it maybe
a good idea to go through some of these things to kind
| | 06:23 |
of familiarize yourself with ColdFusion and what it can do.
| | 06:27 |
But for right now we want to make sure it's working correctly.
| | 06:29 |
First of all, this page came up, so
we know the install was successful.
| | 06:33 |
Also, go ahead and click on ColdFusion
Administrator and it takes you into the Administrator.
| | 06:38 |
If this is working, then you know your
ColdFusion installation was successful,
| | 06:44 |
and you have a local development
environment, you are ready to go.
| | 06:46 |
| | 06:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Installing the Cartweaver Extension Suite into Dreamweaver| 00:01 |
Now we are going to download and install the Cartweaver
Extension Suite, then we are going to integrate Cartweaver
| | 00:06 |
into Dreamweaver. It's one of the advantages
of Cartweaver and as well as WebAssist
| | 00:10 |
that it can actually integrate into
the Dreamweaver editing environment.
| | 00:14 |
So it makes it much easier to get started,
because you work with server behaviors,
| | 00:17 |
like you are used to working with in Dreamweaver.
| | 00:20 |
So we are going to purchase and download Cartweaver
ColdFusion, and then extract the Zip File,
| | 00:24 |
find the Cartweaver extension file, install that, and
then review it in the Dreamweaver Extension Manager.
| | 00:31 |
So let's do that now.
| | 00:33 |
Now we go to our web browser, open that, and we
will go to the Cartweaver site. Choose Products.
| | 00:42 |
In this case, we are going to be choosing the ColdFusion version.
| | 00:45 |
It's important, no matter who's extension you are using
or program you are using, that you take some time to look
| | 00:50 |
around the site, read what their
requirements are, read what the features are,
| | 00:53 |
become very familiar with the product that you are buying.
| | 00:55 |
So we will add this to Cart, check our quantity, and again,
| | 01:00 |
this process is the same no matter who's
program you maybe using, and checkout.
| | 01:05 |
It's a standard purchase procedure.
| | 01:07 |
Just fill out the form.
| | 01:09 |
The way this works and the way most online programs work is
after you purchase you will receive a confirmation email,
| | 01:16 |
which will then provide a link that will take
you to the download location for the site.
| | 01:20 |
So we will assume that you have purchased
Cartweaver and downloaded it,
| | 01:24 |
and here we see we have the Cartweaver
extension ZIP file on our desktop.
| | 01:28 |
Now, the first thing you will want to do is create a new Folder,
| | 01:31 |
and what we are going to do now is extract the
contents of the ZIP folder into that folder.
| | 01:41 |
| | 01:44 |
Browse and find that, say OK, and
Extract, and click Finish, close this up.
| | 01:58 |
And here's the files that are included in the download.
| | 02:01 |
It will be good to take the opportunity
to click around through here.
| | 02:05 |
One of the things I really encourage you to do
is read Licensing Agreement and read the manual.
| | 02:11 |
This is a very extensive PDF manual. Most of these applications
come with a manual, and you will save yourself a lot of grief
| | 02:18 |
and trouble if you just take the time to open it up
and read it, or preferably print it out and read it
| | 02:23 |
at your leisure. But take the time to read the manual.
| | 02:26 |
Alright, now we are going to install
Cartweaver Extension into Dreamweaver.
| | 02:31 |
So you choose the Cartweaver CF MXP file, double
click, and you see it opens the Extension Manager.
| | 02:39 |
So you accept the terms, it installs, and
it says it has been installed successfully,
| | 02:45 |
and it will go to your copy of Dreamweaver
and show that it's installed.
| | 02:49 |
That's it. Cartweaver is now installed into Dreamweaver.
| | 02:55 |
Let's take a quick look at Dreamweaver now.
| | 02:57 |
Now that we have opened Dreamweaver, we can see up here in
the Menu, there is a new entry in the Menu says Cartweaver,
| | 03:07 |
so that shows that it is successfully
installed and the Extension is ready to use.
| | 03:11 |
Next we will talk about setting up our site, and
then installing the Cartweaver Extension into a site.
| | 03:16 |
| | 03:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up the site| 00:01 |
Now let's set up a development site in Dreamweaver.
| | 00:03 |
First of all, we want to create a new ColdFusion site.
| | 00:06 |
Now, we want to go through this trial run before
installing Cartweawer into an existing site.
| | 00:11 |
Reason being is, it's better just to install
it in a brand new site with no files in it,
| | 00:16 |
so that you will see what files are installed by Cartweawer,
get a chance to get a feel for what's there, how it works,
| | 00:23 |
and it makes it much easier than trying
to install it into an existing site,
| | 00:27 |
where there is already files and everything in there.
| | 00:28 |
So avoid the temptation to jump right in like that.
| | 00:32 |
Just create a brand new site in Dreamweaver, set
it up for ColdFusion, install Cartweawer into it,
| | 00:38 |
and make sure it works, and get a feel for what's there.
| | 00:40 |
Once you feel comfortable with that and have a good lay
of the land, so to speak, then you can install Cartweaver
| | 00:46 |
into an existing site because you will know what to expect.
| | 00:49 |
We'll set up a new site, make sure that all the settings
are correct for ColdFusion, which we will do that,
| | 00:55 |
and prep the site for Cartweaver by adding
any folders that we may need or whatever.
| | 00:58 |
So let's do that.
| | 01:01 |
We will open Dreamweaver.
| | 01:02 |
We will go to the Files panel, go down to Manage
Sites, and then over and say create a New Site.
| | 01:10 |
Let's go ahead and give this an obvious name.
| | 01:13 |
Now what you will enter in here is the actual
URL of the eventual site that you will be using.
| | 01:20 |
Right now we will just put and then continue on. And say, Yes, I
do want a server technology, because we will want to choose one.
| | 01:32 |
Then we choose the technology we will be using,
which is ColdFusion, and then click Next.
| | 01:38 |
We want to test locally, remember we
talked about the importance of that.
| | 01:42 |
We don't want to have to upload and test on a server
because it enters in too many unknown variables;
| | 01:47 |
it's always better to test locally, make
sure it works, and then do the upload.
| | 01:51 |
So now let's go and find where to install it.
| | 01:54 |
We need to search and find, remember, we made a note
of where ColdFusion was at, the CFusionMX7 folder.
| | 02:01 |
Open that, and go to the wwwroot folder.
| | 02:05 |
It's important to put our site in that
folder, because when we test locally,
| | 02:10 |
ColdFusion needs to find our site, and
this is the folder that it looks in.
| | 02:14 |
Now, we will want to create a new site,
so go ahead and create a new folder.
| | 02:18 |
It's always best to do it without any spaces.
| | 02:23 |
Open that, and then select that, and
here is the mapping to our new folder.
| | 02:29 |
Click Next.
| | 02:31 |
Now remember earlier when I said write down that number, 8500?
Right here it says localhost, and then the name of our folder.
| | 02:39 |
One thing that Dreamweaver doesn't do when you select a
ColdFusion site that it should do, but we have to do it for it,
| | 02:45 |
is in order to test locally you have to type in the following,
:8500. That's the port that ColdFusion is running under,
| | 02:54 |
and if we don't have that in there,
we can't hit F12 in Dreamweaver,
| | 02:57 |
it won't be able to find the ColdFusion
Server, we will just get errors.
| | 03:00 |
So make sure that you put in the localhost :8500.
| | 03:05 |
If you don't do that and you forget to do that, then you go out
and you test and it doesn't work, that will be the problem.
| | 03:11 |
So let's test that URL, and we see that it
worked out correctly so we are good to go.
| | 03:16 |
Then click Next. And yes, I want to use a remote server?
| | 03:22 |
No, I don't.
| | 03:23 |
In this case we will say no, and we are ready to go.
| | 03:26 |
Click Done.
| | 03:28 |
Our site set up, click Done, and it creates the site over here.
| | 03:32 |
Now, one thing that we will want to do, just for development
and testing here locally, is go ahead and create a new folder,
| | 03:39 |
and let's just call it Database for right now.
| | 03:41 |
That's where we are going to put our Access file.
| | 03:45 |
Now again, when we upload it to the server, we will have
to upload it to where the host has set up a secure location
| | 03:51 |
for our database, but for locally, we will
just store it in this Database folder.
| | 03:56 |
That's it. Our site is setup and
we are ready to install Cartweaver,
| | 04:00 |
and look at the extension, and we will do that in the next movie.
| | 04:03 |
| | 04:04 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Installing the Cartweaver application into a new site| 00:01 |
Now let's install Cartweaver into
the site that we have just created.
| | 00:04 |
The process we will do is, first we will take a
tour of the extensions of the Cartweaver menu,
| | 00:09 |
and we will also look at how Cartweaver installs
items in the Snippets panel and what that means to us.
| | 00:14 |
Next thing we will do is install the Extension itself, which
would include all the files and everything into our site.
| | 00:20 |
Take a look around at the files, and we will open an Application
file, and this is where all our set up and settings are done.
| | 00:27 |
Then we will step through the site configuration.
| | 00:29 |
It's a very straightforward process. That's one of the advantages
of using an application that integrates with Dreamweaver;
| | 00:35 |
it's very much a familiar workflow. You are in the Dreamweaver
environment, you don't have to jump out and do a lot
| | 00:41 |
of code, so it's a much quicker start for us.
| | 00:44 |
So okay, let's do that now.
| | 00:45 |
So here we are in Dreamweaver, back in
the site we just created, the blank site.
| | 00:51 |
See the Database folder where we had it.
| | 00:53 |
Now what we want to do is, we will notice up here in the
Menu Bar that there is a new menu item called Cartweaver.
| | 00:59 |
There is items here; there is the Install itself, Support,
| | 01:02 |
and some links that can help us if we
need help, and the Install Cartweaver.
| | 01:06 |
You will see these are grayed out. Those will
appear once it's installed into the site.
| | 01:11 |
Also, we go to the Snippets panel, you will
notice there is a folder in here, Cartweaver.
| | 01:16 |
We open that and look at the ColdFusion folder.
| | 01:19 |
All the same functionality that is here in
the Menu is also here in Snippets panel.
| | 01:27 |
That way whether you prefer to drop code into a page if
you are in the code environment, or if you want to stay
| | 01:33 |
in the Dreamweaver visual environment, you can do it either way.
| | 01:36 |
Okay. So now, let's go ahead and
install Cartweaver into the site.
| | 01:40 |
We will choose, and notice that the site is already selected.
| | 01:45 |
The important thing throughout the installation
process are these little question marks.
| | 01:49 |
Just like the documentation, take time to read through these.
| | 01:52 |
If you have any question about what's
supposed to go into a particular blank,
| | 01:56 |
take time to click these questions
marks and they will inform you.
| | 01:59 |
It's always best and easiest if you read the documentation and
use what help is available, instead of just charging ahead.
| | 02:07 |
It's very tempting to do so because you are in a hurry, you
want to get your site set up, but it's better to take the time
| | 02:12 |
to read the documentation, answer your questions. It will save
yourself a lot of headaches and tech support a lot of headaches,
| | 02:18 |
and it just makes the whole process easier and friendlier.
| | 02:22 |
The Application folder. This is for if you are going
to have the store in its own directory on a site,
| | 02:28 |
but right now we are just going to leave that blank,
because we are going to install everything right
| | 02:32 |
into the root directory, which is
really the preferred way to do it.
| | 02:35 |
The Database folder. You can see we created a place
to put the Database, so let's go ahead and name that.
| | 02:43 |
Next, we have the Database Filename, since we are using Access.
| | 02:46 |
If you are not using Access, go ahead and put any old
name in here, and it will install Access into your folder
| | 02:52 |
or into your site, but you can just ignore that and connect to
whatever server you are using, whether it's MySQL or SQL Server.
| | 02:58 |
But in this case we are using Access, so we will give it a name.
| | 03:01 |
Again, be sure to give it a name that's unique. You
don't want people to guess what your database name is,
| | 03:06 |
and try to download it, so let's just use a unique name.
| | 03:09 |
But for right now, I will give it something you should never
give it. And Install Selected Files In Site, you say OK.
| | 03:19 |
Recreate your Site Cache.
| | 03:22 |
| | 03:25 |
It shows it installed correctly, so click Close here.
| | 03:28 |
Now we see that all the Cartweaver
files are installed into your site.
| | 03:33 |
You will notice that the Access database is installed
in the Database folder like we wanted it to be.
| | 03:37 |
If you look here in the cw2 folder, this is actually where all
the functionality files are installed and you may want to click
| | 03:44 |
around and take a look at those, just out of
curiosity to see how the application is build.
| | 03:50 |
First thing you will want to do though is complete
the set up, although it's installed into our site now,
| | 03:55 |
it's not setup, so it's not going to work correctly yet.
| | 03:57 |
So we open the Application.cfm file.
| | 04:00 |
If these were the ASP or the PHP
version, it would be application dot
| | 04:04 |
whatever we are using, in this case it's CFM for ColdFusion.
| | 04:08 |
So let's go ahead and open that.
| | 04:10 |
Now, if we open it up in Design View,
you will notice it's a completely blank page.
| | 04:15 |
So don't let this worry you if you are already in
Design View when it opens because if you look at it
| | 04:18 |
in Code View, it shows that there is quite a bit going on.
| | 04:22 |
This is actually the portion of the site that sets up
the variables, but we won't have to enter that as code.
| | 04:28 |
What we will do now is go over to the Application tag, and under
the Server Behaviors panel here, you will see a Cartweaver Setup.
| | 04:39 |
So let's go ahead and double-click that,
and the Setup Server Behavior comes up.
| | 04:43 |
This will do all the setup that we need to
do to create connections to the database,
| | 04:48 |
and name the files the way we want it to be named,
everything you need to do takes place in this Setup panel.
| | 04:54 |
So first we will create a Data Source Name.
| | 04:57 |
Now, we have talked about Data Source Names; again that's
the name that your server uses to identify your database
| | 05:02 |
so that your application is connected to your database.
| | 05:05 |
At this point this can be any name you choose,
| | 05:07 |
because you haven't really created the Data
Source Name yet. We will do that in a moment.
| | 05:11 |
You need the database to do that and
that's way we haven't done it yet.
| | 05:14 |
Up till now we haven't had a database to point to.
| | 05:17 |
But let's go ahead and give this a name.
| | 05:19 |
Again, it should be a unique name. You don't want to give
it a name that would be really easy, like your site name
| | 05:24 |
or something, that would be easy to guess, make it unique.
| | 05:27 |
But again, right now we will just do this.
| | 05:30 |
Here is Username and Password, and again if you
have any questions, make sure you just go ahead
| | 05:35 |
and click on these questions marks and use the context Help.
| | 05:39 |
So right now- again, I am using very obvious names here for the
sake of this demonstration, but you want to have that as cryptic
| | 05:49 |
and hard to guess as you can, and then perhaps
jot them down so you don't forget them.
| | 05:54 |
Next, we click to the Website.
| | 05:56 |
These URLs are setup for the site URL and then also for SSL URL.
| | 06:01 |
Right now we will leave those blank, but what you would put
in here, and it's shown very well, is the name of your site.
| | 06:09 |
During the setup and development locally this can
be left blank, but when you get ready to upload it,
| | 06:14 |
it is better to put in the absolute
path, the http://www.yoursite.com/.
| | 06:19 |
Put in the absolute path to your website in that location.
| | 06:23 |
The SSL URL would be basically the same thing, only the
difference would be it would be https://www.yoursite.com/.
| | 06:30 |
One of the things that we can do,
Cartweaver does support Shared SSLs,
| | 06:35 |
so you would put the SSL location here that your host gives you.
| | 06:38 |
But again, I highly recommend that you get your own SSL.
| | 06:42 |
They have become very affordable,
between $40 and $80, always below $100.
| | 06:49 |
Again like we talked about before, when the user clicks the
padlock and it brings up information about whose site it is,
| | 06:55 |
on a shared SSL it shows that it's your host and
not you. This would shake consumer confidence.
| | 07:01 |
How many sales can you afford to lose
to save $80? Always get your own SSL.
| | 07:06 |
So the SSL URL would be again just https://www.yoursite.com/.
| | 07:15 |
But for now we will leave that blank.
| | 07:17 |
Here are the Presentation files.
| | 07:19 |
These are the files that are going to be installed, and
for right now we will leave them in the default settings,
| | 07:25 |
and for this site I would prefer that you that as well. It
just makes it easier so we can work with the same files.
| | 07:30 |
When you actually install this into an existing
site, the good thing about naming these files,
| | 07:35 |
something other perhaps than what their default name is, is
that you may already have a name, Details.cfm or for some reason
| | 07:43 |
in your site and you don't want to overwrite
these files. So you can give these unique names.
| | 07:47 |
If you don't have name or files by these names on your site,
go ahead and just leave them in their default settings.
| | 07:54 |
Image folders, right now we will just leave those in
its standard setting, and I would actually recommend
| | 07:59 |
that you do this. Leave it in its default setting.
| | 08:02 |
This is not all the images or assets of your
site. That remains the same as what you have.
| | 08:07 |
This is simply where Cartweaver will store the thumbnail and
full-sized product images when you upload them using the Admin.
| | 08:16 |
So just leave that in their default setting.
| | 08:18 |
Miscellaneous, Application Name.
| | 08:20 |
Now, ColdFusion gives every application
or every site that it serves off
| | 08:25 |
of a particular server a name so it identifies it uniquely.
| | 08:29 |
So you want to give your application a name.
| | 08:32 |
You should want to make that a unique name because you
don't want your site name to be the same as somebody else's.
| | 08:40 |
It could cause some confusion on the server.
| | 08:42 |
Set Local. What this does is you will see all
these selections, right now we are selecting English
| | 08:48 |
because it's an United States site, but if this site were in
England or somewhere else, if you set the Local to that country,
| | 08:54 |
then what will happen is you don't have to go
in and change dollar to pound signs or to Euros,
| | 08:59 |
by selecting your location, this is done automatically for you.
| | 09:03 |
Your Mail Server address. Right now
we will just leave that as localhost,
| | 09:07 |
but you will have to get that from your host. Usually its mail, dot,
| | 09:10 |
whatever the name of your site is,
dot com, but it maybe something else.
| | 09:14 |
Check with your host to make sure that you know what that is.
| | 09:16 |
Payment Processor, right now we are going to leave that as None,
but we can, as you can see we can see the default settings here,
| | 09:23 |
or the ones that are supported by default,
but right now we will leave that to None.
| | 09:26 |
The reason for doing that is during testing you don't want to
have to worry about interacting with the payment processor,
| | 09:33 |
specially if its in a local site, because then
it won't be under SSL, you could get errors.
| | 09:37 |
So during the development and testing
process, just leave this set to None.
| | 09:41 |
Enable Error Handling, this is very important.
| | 09:43 |
Remember we talked about if a site on your host should
happen to throw an error, something goes wrong with the server
| | 09:50 |
and it can't complete a request, it will kick out an error
page. That error page will have vital information for you
| | 09:56 |
to debug your site, but it's certainly something
you don't want to share with your general users.
| | 10:02 |
But during development, we want to uncheck that, we don't
want that because during development if an error is thrown,
| | 10:08 |
we want to know what's happening, so
uncheck that for the initial install.
| | 10:12 |
Click OK, and that's it. Cartweaver
is fully installed in your site,
| | 10:16 |
all the files are installed, and we
are ready to setup and start testing.
| | 10:20 |
Important thing to remember is after you are all done with setup,
| | 10:22 |
you will notice that you have made
changes to the Application.cfm page.
| | 10:26 |
If we look at the code, it has inserted the information
that we have told it already for us in this cf module tag,
| | 10:33 |
so what we want to do is just simply save
this file. That way all the configuration
| | 10:40 |
that we have just entered is saved and we are ready to go.
| | 10:42 |
So after this we will set up a Data Source Name,
so that we will have our database connection,
| | 10:46 |
and then we will test our installation.
| | 10:48 |
| | 10:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up the DSN (Data Source Name)| 00:01 |
Now before we can proceed to begin
to develop our site and test it,
| | 00:04 |
we need to set up our local Data
Source Name, so we will do that now.
| | 00:07 |
We will need to set up a DSN in ColdFusion.
| | 00:10 |
Now, we will need to remember the Data Source Name that
we used when we set Cartweaver up in the first place,
| | 00:14 |
so remember we had a Data Source Name of testdsn,
and then we had to use password of admin and admin.
| | 00:22 |
That's why it's important when you set this up,
| | 00:24 |
make sure you write it down so you have
it available during these following steps.
| | 00:28 |
So we will do the setup in Dreamweaver interface itself.
| | 00:30 |
We will set up the Data Source Name in ColdFusion
Admin, and then while we are in the Admin,
| | 00:35 |
we will test the Data Source connection,
and if it says okay, we are good to go.
| | 00:39 |
So let's do that now.
| | 00:41 |
So here we are in Dreamweaver where we left off.
| | 00:43 |
So what we will do is we will go to the Application
panel and we will choose the Database Tab.
| | 00:48 |
There are two steps to do this. One is Specify an
RDS login. That helps Dreamweaver find ColdFusion.
| | 00:56 |
So we will click on that.
| | 00:58 |
Remember when we set up ColdFusion we used the simple password of
admin? That's what we will use here to gain access to ColdFusion.
| | 01:05 |
So we say OK.
| | 01:08 |
Then click on the Bindings panel.
Doing this you see it shows the databases
| | 01:13 |
that ColdFusion already recognizes, so we know its working.
| | 01:16 |
So we click on the Bindings panel, scroll down and
we want to create a Data Source, so let's click that.
| | 01:22 |
What it will do now is it will automatically link to the
ColdFusion Administrator and we just use admin, and here we are.
| | 01:32 |
You will see there is quite a bit of settings available to us,
but right now we will just take Data Services and Data Sources,
| | 01:38 |
and this is where we setup our Data Source Names.
| | 01:41 |
Now remember, we had a Data Source Name of testdsn.
| | 01:46 |
We want to choose which driver we are using.
| | 01:48 |
ColdFusion has quite a few native
drivers for various different databases.
| | 01:52 |
In this case we will just want to be using Microsoft Access.
| | 01:56 |
We click Add, and here we have our Data Source Name.
| | 02:00 |
We need to go find the file.
| | 02:02 |
| | 02:04 |
What's going on here is it's installing
the Java Runtime Environment.
| | 02:07 |
If you haven't already installed it, ColdFusion needs this
to run the Java Applets; it helps you search for files.
| | 02:13 |
So go ahead and let it just run through
the installation and Accept.
| | 02:17 |
If you already have a Java Runtime Environment
installed then it will skip this process and go right
| | 02:23 |
to showing you the files that are on your system.
| | 02:26 |
| | 02:30 |
Now we see that's a complete installation.
| | 02:32 |
Again, if you already have the Java Runtime Environment
installed on your system it won't go through this.
| | 02:37 |
Otherwise the first time you access this
panel, you will need to install this.
| | 02:42 |
So we are all done, we finish up.
| | 02:44 |
After the Java Runtime is installed, you will see this.
| | 02:49 |
Now, if the Click to Install icon is still showing, you may
need to refresh your browser, so go back and just Refresh.
| | 02:57 |
If that doesn't work, then click Back once, and then just
simply browse again and then the proper folders will come up.
| | 03:05 |
It gives a chance to install that Java Runtime Applet.
| | 03:08 |
Now, that the Applet is installed, we can go and find our
database. And remember, it's under the CFusionMX7 folder.
| | 03:16 |
We go down to the WWWroot and we find our site.
There it is right there, and we find our Database folder,
| | 03:24 |
and we select our database, and we click Apply.
| | 03:27 |
Now that we have found that, we skip this,
it is not a system DSN, it is a file DSN.
| | 03:33 |
Right now for local development what we will do is we will
just use the default username and password that we are using.
| | 03:40 |
Again, when we set it up to upload to our server,
our host will create a username and password for us,
| | 03:47 |
but since we already have one here,
we will just use this one to connect.
| | 03:50 |
It won't make any difference between the two environments.
| | 03:52 |
So we Submit, scroll down, and there it has
been added to our list of Data Source Names.
| | 03:59 |
We see status OK.
| | 04:01 |
If we want to test it, just go here to the little green
check mark and click and it will refresh and test,
| | 04:07 |
and hit the database, and if it's
connecting correctly you will get the OK.
| | 04:11 |
If it's OK, that means our Data Source
Name is tested and set up and ready to go.
| | 04:16 |
And now we are ready to test our Cartweaver installation,
and that's what we will be doing in our next movie.
| | 04:21 |
| | 04:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Testing the installation| 00:00 | Now we have got Cartweaver installed, we have the
site setup, we have local Data Source Name setup,
| | 00:05 | we want to test the installation.
| | 00:07 | Let's see if it all works. What we are going to do is
| | 00:10 | we will open the Cartweaver site in Dreamweaver
| | 00:13 | and we will open our index.cfm file
| | 00:15 | and then we will preview it in a browser and look around.
| | 00:18 | And then we will also the Admin page and make sure that works.
| | 00:21 | If everything opens up and it's functional,
| | 00:23 | we know we are set up,
| | 00:25 | everything's done correctly
| | 00:27 | and we are ready to continue to develop our site.
| | 00:29 | So let's go do that.
| | 00:31 | So here we are in Dreamweaver,
| | 00:33 | where we were before, the application.cfm file.
| | 00:36 | We don't really need that any more. If it's
still open, so just go ahead and close that out.
| | 00:39 | What we want to do is open our index.cfm file.
| | 00:42 | What this is is just kind of a placeholder home page.
| | 00:47 | When Cartweaver installs,
| | 00:48 | it gives you examples of all the different search tags available on it.
| | 00:52 | I definitely encourage you to click around through this, after we setup
| | 00:55 | our test environment, just to see how this all works.
| | 00:58 | First of all, we want to see if our installation of ColdFusion
| | 01:01 | and our Data Source Name and everything is working.
| | 01:03 | So in Dreamweaver,
| | 01:05 | simply click F12 or Preview in Browser.
| | 01:10 | I always like to use keyboard shortcuts because they are
so much quicker. But we want to preview this in Firefox,
| | 01:14 | so we'll go ahead and do that.
| | 01:16 | And there it is.
| | 01:17 | The simple fact that this page displays without error
| | 01:21 | means everything is set up correctly.
| | 01:22 | We can do a little clicking around if we want,
it's bringing up the results of the test information.
| | 01:27 | That's in the initial install. So everything is working and that's great.
| | 01:31 | Right here, Cartweaver Admin,
| | 01:32 | it show the link that we need.
You might want to put this in your Favorites,
| | 01:36 | just because then you can go to the Admin
whenever you want to and test locally.
| | 01:39 | But right now, let's go ahead and click here
| | 01:42 | and that takes us to the Admin page.
| | 01:45 | Initially, the database is set up just to use admin and admin.
| | 01:48 | Naturally, you want to change that before you go live.
| | 01:53 | And there we are.
| | 01:54 | We are in the site administrator right now.
| | 01:56 | So what this shows is that the installation was good,
the data Source Name is setup and working,
| | 02:03 | ColdFusion is working, you are connected to the database,
because a lot of the information is pooled from the database.
| | 02:07 | So your installation is done and ready to continue to developing.
| | 02:11 | But before we do that,
| | 02:12 | in our next movie what we are going to do is to just
go through the code that has been installed in your site
| | 02:17 | and get an understanding of how the code actually works,
how the pages are built, how the site is structured.
| | 02:22 | It will be very helpful if you have a good look at that
| | 02:25 | and have idea of how everything works and
that's what we'll do in our next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Code structure| 00:00 |
Now that we have everything installed on our site and setup,
tested and working, it's good to stop for a minute now
| | 00:06 |
and take a look at the structure of how the
Cartweaver application is installed into your site.
| | 00:11 |
It's important to know how the files work together.
| | 00:13 |
First of all, there is a key concept that's used and that
is separating functionality from design and we'll see how
| | 00:19 |
that works. And it's important too that you are
not forced into some sort of template arrangement.
| | 00:24 |
By separating functionality from design, the design is up
to you. The functionality is placed into your design instead
| | 00:29 |
of you trying to fit your design
around some preconceived template.
| | 00:33 |
Then we'll show the power of server side
includes with ColdFusion custom tags.
| | 00:39 |
This is really one of the key ways to accomplish this,
where we do separate functionality from design.
| | 00:44 |
We'll play around with the files a little bit, kind of
get the concept. Once you get your head around with the way
| | 00:49 |
that this is put together then it becomes very easy to
integrate this into a site that you have already designed.
| | 00:55 |
We'll do a quick install of a search
behavior, just to show how to use the menu
| | 00:59 |
to install individual tag instead of all at once, like we did.
| | 01:03 |
And we'll also install a Results function out of the Snippet
panel, simply by dragging a piece of code on to a page.
| | 01:09 |
And then we'll take time to see how it all fits together.
| | 01:12 |
Again, it's important to do this, to go through this exercise
so you have a firm grasp of how the application works
| | 01:18 |
because it's most important that you want to be
able to fit the functionality into your design.
| | 01:23 |
So let's do that now.
| | 01:24 |
Okay, here we are in Dreamweaver again.
| | 01:26 |
We have got our Cartweaver site open
and we can see all the files.
| | 01:30 |
Let's go ahead and maximize this for a minute, so we
get a little better idea of what we are looking at.
| | 01:35 |
These are all the files installed. These files here are
what we call presentation files. What does that mean?
| | 01:42 |
Okay, if we'll look at this, as we saw before,
there is quite a lot going on on this page.
| | 01:48 |
But if we look at the code, we see there is not nearly
as much code as we'd expect for that much functionality.
| | 01:55 |
The reason is, we see these CF module tags
here, that's a form of server side include
| | 02:00 |
and it includes functionality on to our page for us.
| | 02:03 |
What they are actually calling is pages that are stored here
in the CW2 folder. These are the actual functionality files.
| | 02:12 |
And this is a lot of the code that creates this
functionality and you're welcome to look around through those
| | 02:19 |
and the nice thing is you'll find a lot of this code very
well commented. It tells you what's going on at all times.
| | 02:25 |
But it's little too deep for this topic to get into what's going
on here but if you are interested in learning more ColdFusion,
| | 02:32 |
these files can actually be a good learning tool.
| | 02:36 |
It's just important to get the concept of
separating functionality from design at this point.
| | 02:42 |
| | 02:43 |
We'll close out of that.
| | 02:44 |
Let's look at another page, this is a Details
page. You can see a lot of the code put together.
| | 02:51 |
Again if we look at the Code View, all
that functionality is being done right here.
| | 02:56 |
Basically, we are using this 'include' to
include all this details functionality.
| | 03:02 |
To get an idea of how that works, let's go ahead and step
through the exercise of actually doing this to a new file.
| | 03:07 |
So let's create a new file.
| | 03:08 |
We want to make sure it's a dynamic page
and it's ColdFusion and we'll hit create.
| | 03:18 |
Let's go ahead and save that and
we can say test search and save it.
| | 03:27 |
And we see here it's pretty much a standard HTML page, but
we've named it .CFM so that we can make it a dynamic page.
| | 03:37 |
So we go in to Design View again.
| | 03:39 |
Let's go up to the Cartweaver menu, click
there and go over to Search Navigation.
| | 03:45 |
| | 03:47 |
See this gives us all the different choices, an Action page.
The Action page would be the page that the Search menu goes to.
| | 03:54 |
And the standard one that we use is
Results.CFM, so let's go ahead and enter that.
| | 04:00 |
And what kind of search do we want it to be? Do we want
to search on keywords, categories or secondary categories?
| | 04:07 |
And let's go ahead and just search on categories.
| | 04:10 |
And for now, what type of search we
want, form or navigational links?
| | 04:14 |
We'll just go ahead and leave it for form. And I encourage you to
play around with this, install different searches on your pages,
| | 04:20 |
see what happens. The main thing is to really investigate what's
available to you so that you can best fit it into your design.
| | 04:28 |
So we say OK.
| | 04:29 |
And there we see we have a search box. If we look at the
code, we can see it's just added this code right here,
| | 04:36 |
this module which is a form of server side include. It calls this
file and passes the various results to it, so we look at design.
| | 04:46 |
Let's go ahead and save this.
| | 04:48 |
Now let's hit F12 to test it.
| | 04:51 |
We see there. Now this is being populated by categories
that are already in the database and we'll talk
| | 04:56 |
about how to add those to through the Admin later.
| | 04:58 |
Now we click Clothing and we hit Search.
| | 05:01 |
It'll go over to the Results page,
because that's the target and there we go.
| | 05:04 |
It pulled back results.
| | 05:06 |
That's how easy it is to add functionality to this system.
| | 05:10 |
Now let's do another exercise. Let's create another page.
| | 05:16 |
Dynamic, ColdFusion and lets save this. Just call
it resultstest and let's go over to Snippets panel.
| | 05:30 |
This is a snippet, go and click on
that and again the same process
| | 05:34 |
or the same code is here that's available here in the menu.
| | 05:38 |
It just depends on how you like to work.
| | 05:41 |
So let's go ahead and look in Code View
and say we want it between our body tags.
| | 05:46 |
And let's just simply add the results code. That's it.
| | 05:54 |
We look in the Design View, we see it's calling the results.
| | 05:57 |
That's how easy it is to add functionality.
| | 05:59 |
Now you could have all of your design above it and below it,
| | 06:03 |
you simply select where you want this
functionality to be placed and place it on your page.
| | 06:08 |
That's the concept between separating functionality from design.
| | 06:12 |
You drop this functionality right into the middle of your
design and it doesn't dictate what the design around it is.
| | 06:18 |
You as the developer or the designer decide on that.
| | 06:23 |
| | 06:25 |
So again, let's quickly just take a look at the Files panel.
| | 06:31 |
Open it up. Again I really encourage you take the time to
look at the structure and the way this is all put together.
| | 06:37 |
You'll see that there is a lot of code and a lot things
going on and there is a lot to learn if you want to look
| | 06:43 |
at the different files and see how it's
all brought together and how it works.
| | 06:46 |
And because the code is very well commented,
this can also act as very good learning tool
| | 06:51 |
to teach yourself how to learn more about ColdFusion.
| | 06:54 |
It's important that you look through these
files and really see how it works all together.
| | 07:00 |
Now just briefly, I'd encourage you to open the
Index.CFM file and hit F12 and open that in the browser.
| | 07:09 |
Take a few minutes and click around because
now you have a fully functional site.
| | 07:15 |
You can select things, you can add things
to your cart, you can look at the cart,
| | 07:18 |
you can continue shopping. All of the functionality is there.
| | 07:21 |
Now, naturally you wouldn't want to upload the site like this
to your website and we'll talk little bit about design later,
| | 07:28 |
but all the functionality is there so click around, get the
feel of it and you are ready to begin designing your site.
| | 07:34 |
| | 07:35 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A word about design| 00:01 |
In this movie we are going to talk about
integrating Cartweaver into your site design.
| | 00:05 |
We have talked quite a bit about branding, and how
important that is that your site is unique to you.
| | 00:09 |
So let's talk about integrating the
Cartweaver functionality into your design.
| | 00:14 |
It's important that you separate form from function.
| | 00:17 |
The design and the functionality
side are really two separate things.
| | 00:21 |
Naturally they have to coincide and agree in the way they
look and feel, but if we separate those as much as possible,
| | 00:27 |
it makes it easier to have a design work very
well and have the functionality fit into that.
| | 00:33 |
So really view your site as a wrapper around the
functions and this wrappers should have the look
| | 00:39 |
and the feel that you want to really brand your site.
| | 00:41 |
One way to do that is use CSS. Because it's
easy that way to modify things on the fly
| | 00:48 |
until you come up with a consistent look and feel.
| | 00:50 |
Place your functions into a layout.
| | 00:53 |
Design a layout, a look and feel that you are
comfortable with, and then place functions into it.
| | 00:58 |
In our practice site we just went ahead and placed the functions
into the site so that we get a feel of how Cartweaver worked
| | 01:04 |
in the different functions, but now it's
time to put those functions into your layout.
| | 01:09 |
Then modify things for a good consistent
look and feel throughout.
| | 01:13 |
So now let's jump out to Dreamweaver and see how this is done.
| | 01:16 |
Okay, so now that we are in Dreamweaver,
we are in the same CWTest site
| | 01:20 |
or the Cartweaver test site that we were working on before.
| | 01:23 |
I have placed a file in here called YourStoreDesign, so let's
open that. And let's preview this in the browser by hitting F12.
| | 01:31 |
We can see it's just a blank design
with the header, body and a footer.
| | 01:36 |
We will show how to integrate the functionality into this design,
| | 01:39 |
and then change the functionality so
that it's consistent with this design.
| | 01:44 |
So let's do that.
| | 01:45 |
First of all, let's place some Cartweaver functionality here.
| | 01:50 |
First we will put in the Search Navigation.
| | 01:55 |
We will select Category and Secondary
Category, we will leave it as a form,
| | 02:00 |
and we will just select this page as the target page. Say OK.
| | 02:05 |
I have dropped the functionality in.
| | 02:07 |
Now let's go ahead and put the Results functionality in.
| | 02:10 |
So we place Results.
| | 02:14 |
Now due to a current bug in the Dreamweaver API, this
doesn't render immediately, so what we need to do is go ahead
| | 02:20 |
and save this file. Save, close it, and then simply reopen
the file so that Dreamweaver will now render the include.
| | 02:29 |
Hopefully in the next version they will have this corrected.
| | 02:32 |
Now we have included the functionality.
| | 02:34 |
Let's go preview this in the browser.
| | 02:36 |
We see it has placed it, and we can
search, narrow down our search,
| | 02:41 |
but the problem is there is not much design here
going on, so let's see what we can do about that.
| | 02:45 |
Let's go back to Dreamweaver.
| | 02:47 |
What we will do is attach the Cartweaver CSS file.
| | 02:52 |
We will attach this and Save.
| | 02:55 |
Now let's preview by hitting F12 again.
| | 02:58 |
We see some design is attached since we have attached the
CSS file, but the design doesn't agree with the design
| | 03:04 |
of your site, so let's see how to correct that.
| | 03:08 |
We will go here to the CSS panel, find the Cartweaver CSS file.
| | 03:13 |
We can click down through the different commands.
| | 03:16 |
Let's find the Even Row, and let's reset that to just White.
| | 03:23 |
Then let's take the Odd Row and reset that to our Yellow.
| | 03:33 |
We can see that it has opened up the CSS file.
| | 03:36 |
So go ahead and click on that and then save it.
| | 03:40 |
Yes. Now let's preview in the browser. Refresh.
| | 03:45 |
And we can see that now the design is
starting to agree with the design of our site.
| | 03:49 |
That's how easy it is to update.
| | 03:51 |
This is by no means a lesson in CSS. That's a very broad subject.
So what I would recommend is you take the opportunity to go
| | 03:59 |
to lynda.com, the Online Training Library, and look through
some of the following titles: Dreamweaver Essential Training,
| | 04:06 |
Dreamweaver Dynamic Development, Fireworks Essential Training,
| | 04:10 |
and a couple of the CSS titles,
CSS for Designers and CSS Site Design.
| | 04:15 |
There is a tremendous amount of good material here to really help
you design a good-looking site, and how to integrate the site
| | 04:22 |
so that is has a good consistent design throughout
the presentation files and the functionality files.
| | 04:27 |
So hopefully this has given you a hint to how easy it is to
update your site, to make sure it has a consistent design,
| | 04:33 |
so it has your brand, and has a good look for your customers.
| | 04:36 |
| | 04:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. Deploying the Shopping CartChoosing and preparing the host| 00:01 |
Now that we have everything set up, installed, running locally
and you've tested it, and you're ready to upload it to a host,
| | 00:08 |
there's an important decision of choosing the host and
making the proper preparation for uploading your site.
| | 00:14 |
First of all, most important thing is choosing a host.
| | 00:17 |
Now you may already have a host that
you've hosted static sites with
| | 00:22 |
but this is an entirely differently
animal, it's a dynamic website.
| | 00:26 |
So there are some things you need to check out.
| | 00:28 |
First of all, do they support the language
you're using, in this case ColdFusion?
| | 00:33 |
As we've said before don't let the
host choose your language for you.
| | 00:37 |
Make sure that the host supports what you've chosen.
| | 00:41 |
Make sure they support the database you're using.
| | 00:44 |
Make sure they support SSL and if they have any
recommendations. Again as we've covered in the SSL chapter,
| | 00:51 |
there may be some real advantages to acquiring
an SSL from the host if it's a reasonable price
| | 00:57 |
because they're very familiar with setting it up.
| | 00:59 |
So you eliminate a lot of the possible confusion
of transferring the certificate data to the host
| | 01:05 |
because they're used to dealing with this particular certificate.
| | 01:08 |
It's definitely worthwhile to ask them for recommendations.
| | 01:13 |
How is the Data Source Name set up?
| | 01:16 |
How is their support?
| | 01:17 |
And make sure you check them out.
| | 01:19 |
They may have really glowing terms on their
sites talking about how great their support is
| | 01:25 |
but when you call them, does someone answer the phone?
| | 01:28 |
And how long does it take that to happen.
| | 01:30 |
Do they supply user forums that you can go to and ask questions?
| | 01:34 |
Do they have email support?
| | 01:36 |
Support is probably one of the single most
important things you can possibly have
| | 01:40 |
with a host when you're hosting a dynamic website because
if you run into problems, like we've talked about before,
| | 01:47 |
where you say it's working locally but not working on the host,
you need to have a responsive host that will help you work
| | 01:55 |
through the problems you may be
having to get your site working.
| | 01:58 |
So support is absolutely key.
| | 02:02 |
Ask about their infrastructure and
what their backup policies are.
| | 02:05 |
For an e-commerce site where you've got a lot
| | 02:07 |
of customer information, you certainly don't
want an error on their end to loose your data.
| | 02:12 |
So make sure they have good backup policies.
| | 02:15 |
Ask your peers or your cart vendor.
| | 02:17 |
People who are doing e-commerce or cart vendors usually
have good sites that have a good reputation among their users
| | 02:24 |
that they know they can refer you to safely and
get good service so it's important to ask around.
| | 02:31 |
Just remember the cheapest is not always the best. In fact
it seldom is, but the most expensive is not always the best.
| | 02:38 |
Again ask around, check around, check their
support and make your decisions that way.
| | 02:44 |
Don't let price be the total guiding force on this.
| | 02:48 |
Remember you are in the driver seat.
| | 02:52 |
The host doesn't determine what language you use
and if their service isn't good, go elsewhere.
| | 02:59 |
Don't feel like you're locked into a host.
| | 03:01 |
That's probably the easiest thing to change in this
entire scenario is to move things over to another host
| | 03:07 |
that has responsive Tech Support and good infrastructure.
| | 03:10 |
So what do we need to get set up and really get going?
| | 03:14 |
We need to get the following information from your host.
| | 03:17 |
You need to find out if they provide an
Admin application, which a lot of them do.
| | 03:21 |
If they do, I strongly encourage you to take time
to learn it, to go through it, ask questions,
| | 03:27 |
really understand how to administer your site.
Find out how the Data Source Name is set and by whom.
| | 03:34 |
Many a times if they offer an Admin back-end you're
able to set your own Data Source Name by logging in
| | 03:39 |
and going through basically the same process as
we did in ColdFusion Administrator when we set
| | 03:44 |
up the Data Source Name locally,
but you just do that on your site.
| | 03:48 |
If they need to set up the Data Source Name find out what
procedure they require and how you get the information
| | 03:54 |
because remember the Data Source Name on your
website has to be exactly the same Data Source Name,
| | 03:59 |
username and password as you use in your application.
| | 04:03 |
| | 04:05 |
Finally, where to store the database?
| | 04:08 |
Where is the secure location they have for database
storage, for a file base like an Access database?
| | 04:14 |
Do they allow you to store above the root or do
they have a folder that they can secure for you?
| | 04:19 |
Make sure you find this out ahead of time, so you know where
when you finally upload your site, where to place the database.
| | 04:26 |
| | 04:27 |
Finally get the FTP information that you need
from the host that you select so that you can go
| | 04:32 |
into Dreamweaver, set it up correctly and upload your site.
| | 04:37 |
Once all that is done and you've gathered
this information, you're ready to upload.
| | 04:40 |
And that's what we'll be discussing in the next movie as how
to set up Dreamweaver and then upload your site to your server.
| | 04:46 |
| | 04:48 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Uploading the site| 00:01 |
Now, everything is all set up and you
have installed a Cartweaver into the site.
| | 00:06 |
Tested it locally, it's all working.
| | 00:09 |
It worked on your design.
| | 00:10 |
You have a nice designed site and you are ready to upload it.
| | 00:13 |
You have selected your host and you are all ready to go.
| | 00:16 |
So now what we do we do?
| | 00:18 |
Well, we use Dreamweaver's FTP to upload the site.
| | 00:21 |
First of all we will create and
test Dreamweaver's remote location.
| | 00:25 |
Remember, we left that black when we
went through the process initially.
| | 00:28 |
Then we will open in the Site View and simply Upload the site.
| | 00:34 |
It's just that easy.
| | 00:35 |
So let's jump over to Dreamweaver and do that.
| | 00:38 |
Okay, now in Dreamweaver let's go
ahead and set up our remote location.
| | 00:43 |
So, we will Manage Sites here in the Files tab and do Edit and
if you are in Basic at this point, go ahead and click on Advanced
| | 00:57 |
and then click on- which gives you this menu so you
can go right to what you are going to be working on.
| | 01:03 |
And then click on Remote Info.
| | 01:05 |
Now you can see, I have already filled mine out here but what
you would do at this point is select FTP from the dropdown.
| | 01:12 |
Right now, you would probably have
it set as None. So click on FTP
| | 01:16 |
and then this menu will show and
we will fill in that information.
| | 01:20 |
So fill out your FTP host information.
| | 01:23 |
Some times it needs FTP. at front of it.
| | 01:26 |
Sometimes it doesn't.
| | 01:27 |
Sometimes you use a IP address rather than a named address.
| | 01:31 |
Check with your host for this information, they
should have provided you with this information.
| | 01:36 |
Next, the Host directory and this would
mean if you have access to above the root,
| | 01:42 |
naturally like the httpdocs here, you would
want to have this in the directory so you go
| | 01:48 |
down below the root where you want to load this site.
| | 01:50 |
Again, get this from your host for a location of
where you are actually going to upload the site.
| | 01:56 |
Then your username and password. Might as well click that to
save, just so you don't have to enter your password every time,
| | 02:02 |
unless you are on a shared system and
you don't want to share that information.
| | 02:05 |
But if it's on your own PC, it's easier just to save it.
Then after that we click Test and that's what we want to see.
| | 02:15 |
That Dreamweaver's connected successfully and we are ready to go.
| | 02:19 |
So click OK and then OK again.
| | 02:25 |
Click Done and now we have connection to the server.
| | 02:29 |
So let's go ahead here and expand the File View.
| | 02:33 |
It gives you a split pane between the Local Files and up
here, the little plug-in, click on that and it will connect
| | 02:42 |
to your site. And here we are.
You will notice right now it's empty.
| | 02:47 |
It doesn't have any files in it.
| | 02:49 |
So the quickest way to do it at this
point is just click on the main directory
| | 02:53 |
and on the blue arrow and say, do you want to put the entire site?
| | 02:59 |
And then we say of course, you do.
| | 03:01 |
| | 03:04 |
And we'll put the site.
| | 03:06 |
| | 03:12 |
And now when that's done you will see over in
the Site pane that all the files are there.
| | 03:18 |
So now your site is uploaded.
| | 03:20 |
Now before you can actually go to the
site and click on any files and test it,
| | 03:26 |
now that the database has been uploaded, we
need to set up a Data Source Name on the server.
| | 03:31 |
Once that's done, then we can test to see if our application
is working on the server as well as it is locally.
| | 03:38 |
We might want to mention briefly, notice the
database, we just have it in a Database folder.
| | 03:42 |
This would be the configuration if your
host would be able to secure this folder.
| | 03:49 |
Otherwise, you may have to FTP in and place it
above the root of your site in a different location
| | 03:55 |
and then come back into this part of site to upload your files.
| | 04:00 |
So check with your host how they have
that configured because make sure you want
| | 04:04 |
to put your database in a folder where it can't be browsed.
| | 04:08 |
But we'll assume right now that this
is a secure folder and all is good.
| | 04:13 |
So, next we will set up the Data Source Name on our host and
then we will be able to test our application on the server.
| | 04:20 |
| | 04:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up the host DSN| 00:01 |
Now that we have uploaded the site, we need to enable our
Host DSN so that we can test the application on the server.
| | 00:09 |
So there is two different ways how it could be done.
| | 00:11 |
One the host will setup a DSN, this is where they handle it and
you just provide them with the information. So if that's the case,
| | 00:19 |
make sure you read the FAQ's on your host site.
Find out what they require, what they need.
| | 00:24 |
Contact Tech Support if there is any questions about that
and email them the information or use the form they provide.
| | 00:31 |
What they'll need is your Data Source Name and
especially if you are not on a Windows server,
| | 00:37 |
if you are perhaps on a Linux server, make sure
that you gave them exactly where your Data Source is
| | 00:42 |
because some servers are case sensitive, some aren't.
| | 00:45 |
So make sure that the case is correct just in case. And then
a username, password and the location of your database.
| | 00:55 |
Don't assume they already know this, just because
they are require it to be above the web root.
| | 01:00 |
Make sure you know exactly where it is.
| | 01:01 |
So the tech working on your particular case knows where it's at.
| | 01:06 |
Next, what if you set it up? This is in case
they have a back-end Admin that you log into.
| | 01:13 |
That's a case you login to your host
account Admin, locate the DSN setup.
| | 01:18 |
It's usually very clear, very well laid
out, but almost every host is different.
| | 01:23 |
So if you have any questions, check with the
Tech Support to see if you have any questions
| | 01:28 |
and make sure you know how to setup the Data Source Name.
| | 01:31 |
Setting up a Data Source Name through an Admin
on your Web site is going to be very similar
| | 01:37 |
to when we setup the local ColdFusion Data Source Name.
| | 01:40 |
So just for you to have that in mind, let's review that.
| | 01:43 |
Here you recall, we have the Data Source tab in ColdFusion.
Well the process of setting up a Data Source Name on your server,
| | 01:53 |
whatever back-end they use,
is basically going to be the same thing.
| | 01:56 |
You are going to want to select or give them the name, whatever
that is and in this case, we are going to select Access Profile.
| | 02:12 |
If it was one on the others, if you are using MySQL,
| | 02:16 |
SQL server, you would select these others drivers, but in
this case we are using Access and in this case you enter Add.
| | 02:23 |
They usually have a Browse service, just like this where
you would actually surf to and find where your database is
| | 02:32 |
in your site and point to it and once that's done you would also
at this point make sure you do enter a username and password.
| | 02:41 |
So the ColdFusion requires that password to be
passed in order to gain access to your database
| | 02:47 |
and make sure you use the same username and password you used
| | 02:50 |
when you initially setup your Data Source
Name in your application and that's about it.
| | 02:57 |
It's just that simple, either provide the information to your
host or you log on to your Admin and set it up for yourself.
| | 03:06 |
Once your Data Source Name is setup then you are
ready to actually go on to the site and test it
| | 03:12 |
and see if everything is working and that's what we will do next.
| | 03:15 |
| | 03:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Testing and troubleshooting| 00:01 |
Well now that we have got everything setup,
and we have the site uploaded to the server,
| | 00:06 |
we want to start testing and troubleshooting, and make sure
that it works as well on the server as it does locally.
| | 00:12 |
So naturally the first thing you want to do is once again
just click around the local site and place an order.
| | 00:19 |
Just go through the entire process, check out
the Admin, log into the Admin, click around,
| | 00:24 |
make sure everything is working on the local system.
| | 00:27 |
That way you will know when you upload to your host that it
should be working if everything is configured correctly.
| | 00:34 |
And if it's all okay, let's test it on the host server.
| | 00:38 |
What we will do there is do the same procedure just
click around, use the site, see if everything works.
| | 00:44 |
If it works locally, it should work online.
| | 00:47 |
If it doesn't don't start messing with the code or don't
have the host to tell you to start messing with your code.
| | 00:55 |
If it works locally you know the code is good,
you know your application is working.
| | 01:01 |
It just has to be some kind of setting
on the server that's causing the problem.
| | 01:06 |
And if there is a problem check your Data Source Name. Maybe
you entered it incorrectly, it's not connecting properly.
| | 01:13 |
Remember at this point so far we
don't have Error Handling enabled.
| | 01:17 |
So if an error is thrown, ColdFusion will
throw an error that you can see what's going on
| | 01:22 |
and maybe it will say something about your Data Source Name.
| | 01:24 |
Use that information to help you or
your host to sort out the problem
| | 01:29 |
and I will show you what a error
page looks like here in a minute.
| | 01:33 |
Okay, so if everything is okay then you enable Error Handling,
re-upload that page and you are ready to go, your site is live.
| | 01:42 |
So let's go through the process of testing your site.
| | 01:45 |
Now, we will open our browser and first
let's go ahead and go to our local homepage.
| | 01:54 |
When we see everything works, we can
click around and go to the Details page.
| | 01:59 |
We can add an item to our cart, we can update the
cart, we can go to Checkout, we see the form shows up
| | 02:08 |
and we will go ahead and go through the order process.
| | 02:11 |
So everything seems to be working just fine on the local site.
| | 02:15 |
Let's go ahead now that we have uploaded everything
and we have our Data Source Name hooked up on the site.
| | 02:21 |
Let's look at our homepage on the host and there it is.
| | 02:26 |
You see that it works fine, that's good.
| | 02:28 |
Let's go through the process again, just like we did locally.
| | 02:33 |
Make sure that you go through the Checkout.
| | 02:37 |
Go ahead and see if it throws errors properly which it should.
| | 02:41 |
Go ahead and log in to an Admin.
| | 02:43 |
So right now we have the test users,
so we will just test and log in
| | 02:50 |
and we will see it pre-populated
our form just like it's supposed to.
| | 02:55 |
Go ahead and hit Next, takes us to the Confirmation page.
| | 03:00 |
But you will notice something is missing.
| | 03:02 |
Notice down here there should be a
place where it asks for the credit card.
| | 03:07 |
The way Cartweaver is set up is that
during testing this is hidden
| | 03:11 |
because entering the credit card
information is not necessary at this point.
| | 03:16 |
In the next video we will setup the
payment gateway and enable this portion
| | 03:20 |
so that the user can actually enter credit card information.
| | 03:25 |
For now, let's go back to the local
site and let's do a little experiment.
| | 03:33 |
Here is the homepage. Let's go back to Dreamweaver
for a minute and let's open the Index.cfm page.
| | 03:44 |
We will open it in Code View.
| | 03:48 |
Then we will go in here and purposely mess up one of these tags.
| | 03:53 |
It's searching for this item right here this page.
| | 03:57 |
Let's just enter something there which
we know doesn't exist and save it.
| | 04:02 |
Now, let's go back and refresh our page and see what happens.
| | 04:08 |
There is the error that ColdFusion gives us and we
can see it tries to help us find what the problem is.
| | 04:17 |
It's saying that it could not find the include template and
then the name and there will be other information down below.
| | 04:24 |
| | 04:26 |
Most any error that ColdFusion throws,
it will give you helpful information to try
| | 04:30 |
to help you figure out and to debug your application.
| | 04:34 |
So let's go back to Dreamweaver, fix this what we have
broken here and save it, go back and hit Refresh again.
| | 04:47 |
All fixed.
| | 04:49 |
So Error Handling being disabled during
the development process is a big hand,
| | 04:54 |
because it can help you figure out what's going wrong.
| | 04:57 |
ColdFusion has very helpful error messages.
| | 04:59 |
Most application development languages do
provide error messages that help you figure
| | 05:04 |
out what's going wrong and help you to debug your code.
| | 05:07 |
But now we have tested locally, we have
tested on the server, everything is working.
| | 05:17 |
One last step. As we mentioned before we certainly didn't
want that error information to be displayed to the user
| | 05:27 |
if something went wrong on the server. Perhaps the database
connection is down, there is some kind of a server problem
| | 05:32 |
and our site for some reason throws an intermittent error.
| | 05:36 |
We don't want to expose that information to the user.
| | 05:39 |
So let's go back to Cartweaver setup by opening
the Application.cfm page like we did before,
| | 05:46 |
go into the Server Behaviors panel and opening Cartweaver Setup
and we can click through and what we want to find out is
| | 05:57 |
the first thing we want to find is the Presentation files.
| | 06:00 |
We don't want to re-upload those.
| | 06:02 |
We already have those in the site.
| | 06:04 |
So go ahead and uncheck Create.
| | 06:06 |
What that will do is it will ignore this
portion of the behavior and just leave the files
| | 06:11 |
that are on your site alone, which is what we want.
| | 06:15 |
So click Miscellaneous and go and enable the Error Handling.
| | 06:22 |
All you have to do now is save it and make sure you
save this file and now click on it and upload it.
| | 06:35 |
| | 06:36 |
No need to put dependent files.
| | 06:37 |
Just that one is fine.
| | 06:44 |
There.
| | 06:45 |
Now, let's go back out to the browser.
| | 06:49 |
In fact let's open Index.cfm again.
| | 06:54 |
Look at the code. We will do the same thing we did before.
| | 06:59 |
We will force it to throw an error.
| | 07:07 |
Now, see that? Now with Custom Error Handling engaged
it brings up an error page that we have designed.
| | 07:17 |
Naturally, you would want to design a better than this, but
it's a page that we have designed that simply lets someone know
| | 07:23 |
that an error has occurred and to contact somebody about it.
| | 07:27 |
It doesn't expose any of your private information.
That's why we want to definitely have that as one
| | 07:33 |
of the last steps during our setup process to make
sure that that Custom Error Handling is engaged.
| | 07:39 |
Other than that we close that out.
| | 07:44 |
Your site is updated and it's active and you are ready to go.
| | 07:49 |
In the next movie what we will do is setup our payment gateways.
| | 07:52 |
At that point once the payment gateway
is setup, you are ready for business.
| | 07:56 |
| | 07:59 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up the payment gateway or processor| 00:00 |
Now that we have uploaded our site, tested everything,
we know that everything is working technically,
| | 00:06 |
that the pages are all working and the
connection of the database is good.
| | 00:10 |
Now it's time to enable the payment method portion of our site.
| | 00:14 |
As we talked about it before, this is an
important step; it's a main part of the security.
| | 00:19 |
You are passing off this credit card information to the payment
method handler, be that a gateway or a payment processor.
| | 00:25 |
If you are just coming in on this title,
make sure you go back and take a look
| | 00:30 |
at what we discussed that. It's very important information.
| | 00:32 |
But the key thing is we set one of these payment methods
up, we passed off the credit card information to them,
| | 00:40 |
they process the credit card in a
secure way and we get our money.
| | 00:44 |
So that's a good thing.
| | 00:46 |
So first of all, set up an account with the vendor. Decide
who you are going to use and set up an account with them.
| | 00:54 |
A good way to decide who you are going to use is to check
which payment vendors are supported by the application,
| | 01:01 |
in this case Cartweaver. Different
applications support different vendors.
| | 01:06 |
Once you choose a vendor, you get your
account set up and then read the manual.
| | 01:11 |
Maybe not a manual, it may be an FAQ, may be an online page.
| | 01:16 |
But take the time now to read that
information instead of wasting it later.
| | 01:22 |
Usually the vendor is more than happy to help you get
things set up correctly and so take advantage of that.
| | 01:28 |
It'll save you a lot of trouble and time later,
if you just take a few minutes out during the setup
| | 01:33 |
to find out how your system works and what you need.
| | 01:36 |
Next, get your account authorization information.
| | 01:39 |
This may be a key, it may be a username and password, in the
case of PayPal it's an email that you supply them but whatever
| | 01:46 |
that authorization information is that's what you
are going to need to setup in our application,
| | 01:51 |
so that the integration with the gateway will work.
| | 01:54 |
So get that information.
| | 01:57 |
Then we set up and upload our site, so we open the
Cartweaver setup, remember its in the Application.cfm page,
| | 02:04 |
we will be doing that in a minute, and then you select the
payment method and you open and modify the payment method file.
| | 02:11 |
What happens when you select the
payment method and we'll show you this,
| | 02:15 |
is that it drops the corresponding file into your folder.
| | 02:20 |
Then you open and modify your payment method file.
| | 02:22 |
We'll show you how to do that in a moment in Dreamweaver.
| | 02:25 |
| | 02:27 |
Then after that's all done. The setup is done, you sync your
site, otherwise you make sure that you upload the new files
| | 02:34 |
and the modified files to your website and
then you are ready to test the transaction.
| | 02:39 |
That's done differently with different gateways or payment
processors. Most gateways allow you to test the transaction
| | 02:46 |
by setting- and I'll show you in a minute-
that by setting your file to a test mode.
| | 02:53 |
PayPal unfortunately doesn't do this, so with PayPal what
most do is set up a product that you sell for like a dime
| | 03:01 |
and then you buy a product from yourself and
go through the process and make sure it works.
| | 03:06 |
But most of the real-time gateways all allow you to set
things in a test setting and run some test transactions through
| | 03:13 |
and we'll show you what that is in
one of the files here in minute.
| | 03:16 |
Let's go set up a payment method in Dreamweaver.
| | 03:20 |
So here we are in Dreamweaver, we open up our
Application.cfm file again and we click on Cartweaver Setup.
| | 03:29 |
But before we do that, let's go down
here for a minute to the CW2 folder.
| | 03:34 |
Open that and then you see a CW tags folder, open that
and you'll notice that there's a lot of tag files in here.
| | 03:44 |
But when we are done you'll notice that there be an
additional folder and file and what happens when you run
| | 03:50 |
through the Server Behavior that installs the
payment method, is it then installs those files
| | 03:55 |
into your site and they are ready to be uploaded.
| | 03:57 |
So it's important to know that this is how that's handled
and you will need to upload those files to your site.
| | 04:03 |
So again let's go up to the Cartweaver Setup, open it up.
| | 04:09 |
Go here to Presentation again and
make sure that this is unchecked.
| | 04:12 |
Remember we don't want to overwrite any
files that we have already installed.
| | 04:16 |
Go to Miscellaneous and you'll see that
our Payment Processor is set to None.
| | 04:22 |
Well now, let's go ahead and set it to Authorize.net.
| | 04:26 |
You will notice that these are the supported
gateways that are supported by default.
| | 04:31 |
There's additional gateways available on the Cartweaver site
as downloads, but these are the ones that are available.
| | 04:37 |
But make sure that you check what gateways
are available with any application you use.
| | 04:42 |
Because you can choose any gateway you want, but it's much
easier to choose one that's supported by the application,
| | 04:48 |
that way you don't have to do some custom coding
in order to integrate with a different gateway.
| | 04:52 |
So for right now, we'll choose Authorize.net and say OK.
| | 04:58 |
It says we have selected it and to read the documentation and
setup and we'll show you how to set it up here in a minute.
| | 05:07 |
| | 05:09 |
Now you'll notice, like we talked
about before- I have to Refresh this-
| | 05:15 |
and you'll notice now there is a folder called ProcessPayment.
| | 05:23 |
And in the folder there is a CWInc-
which means includes- AuthorizeNet.cfm.
| | 05:30 |
This is a file that the Server Behavior is placed in
the site that will handle the Authorize.net transaction.
| | 05:37 |
So for now, let's open that. Again it looks like a blank
page if we are in Design View. Let's look at Code View.
| | 05:45 |
| | 05:47 |
This is where we get back to read the manual again.
| | 05:50 |
Everything you need to know about integrating this
and setting this up is right here in the instructions.
| | 05:55 |
So read that over and the key thing is right here
in the User Settings, you will place your username
| | 06:05 |
and password that Authorize.net provided you.
| | 06:09 |
And notice we said before right here that there is a
TestMode variable, and we have got to set it to True.
| | 06:16 |
That's the setting that Authorize.net expects. When we are
ready to actually go live, we'll open this page again
| | 06:24 |
and set that to False and that means it's
live and we are actually taking transactions.
| | 06:29 |
Right now we'll leave that to True, and you would want to
put your user name and password log in here and then save
| | 06:36 |
that file. And again save the Application.cfm file.
| | 06:42 |
| | 06:46 |
Now that's saved, let's go ahead and open up the site and to
make sure we get everything that we've done to this point,
| | 06:55 |
instead of just trying to upload the
files, let's go ahead and Synchronize.
| | 07:00 |
We'll synchronize the entire Test Site
and put newer files to Remote.
| | 07:06 |
Let's click Preview. Now what that's going to do, it'll
read the site and find differences and it will make sure
| | 07:17 |
that we upload all the files that we have edited.
| | 07:20 |
The reason we are synchronizing instead of
uploading files is we may miss something.
| | 07:24 |
It's better to allow Dreamweaver to synchronize the site to make
sure that we upload everything that we've edited to this point
| | 07:30 |
and all of the new files and settings are put up to the server.
| | 07:34 |
So now we see the synchronization is ready
and we just click OK and we are done.
| | 07:44 |
So now let's do something to show that this has taken affect.
| | 07:49 |
Let's open the index.cfm page, we'll go ahead and test locally
first. And we'll click through the process like we are going
| | 07:58 |
to place an order and you see now down at the bottom of the
order page, is where we accept credit card applications.
| | 08:06 |
This section of the site is no longer hidden,
it's available so that the user can fill
| | 08:11 |
out the credit card information and place the order.
| | 08:14 |
Right now, since we have it set in TestMode, we can run a
couple of test transactions through to make sure our settings
| | 08:19 |
with Authorize.Net are correct, that we have entered our
information correctly, and if all goes well then we'll be taken
| | 08:25 |
to the Confirmation page and it'll be good to go.
| | 08:29 |
So that's about it.
| | 08:30 |
We are all setup, we have our payment gateway
setup, we can run some test transactions
| | 08:36 |
and after the test transactions,
we would reopen the AuthorizeNet file.
| | 08:44 |
Go to Code view, then go down here and set this
TestMode to False, save the file, re-upload it.
| | 08:57 |
At that point your site is live, your payment authorization
is enabled and you're ready to take your first order.
| | 09:05 |
| | 09:08 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. Setting Up the StoreAdmin walk-through| 00:01 |
Now that our site is all setup and
ready to go, naturally what we need
| | 00:04 |
to do is add products, configure the Admin, that sort of thing.
| | 00:08 |
Now if you are using an Access database this actually
could be done off-line while your site is still local
| | 00:16 |
because once it's all setup you can upload
the Access database file already populated.
| | 00:22 |
But if you are not using an Access database, you are
using MySql or SQL Server, you would need to do this
| | 00:28 |
after the site is updated or uploaded because you need to have
access to the actual database instead of using a local one.
| | 00:35 |
Because you wouldn't have to redo this after uploading your site.
| | 00:40 |
So let's go ahead and log into the Admin.
| | 00:44 |
| | 00:48 |
Here we still have the default admin and
then admin as the Username and Password.
| | 00:52 |
Naturally, that's going to be one of
the first things we want to change.
| | 00:55 |
We want to change it to something that can't be guessed.
| | 00:58 |
But let's go ahead and login.
| | 01:01 |
What we're going to do in this movie is just look around the
Admin, see what's available, what kind of options are there
| | 01:08 |
for you and what to look for and then in the following movies we
will actually go through some of the steps like adding products,
| | 01:16 |
checking orders, options those sort of things.
| | 01:18 |
We will actually go through some of the actual setup steps.
| | 01:21 |
But first of all let's just take a tour of the Admin.
| | 01:24 |
The first thing that you should realize, or the first thing
you should use is right here, the little question mark.
| | 01:31 |
If you notice this brings up a separate webpage
and it's a complete context sensitive Help system.
| | 01:38 |
You can either click through and read, or the Help system
will automatically jump to whatever page you are on.
| | 01:49 |
So there is a lot of information here.
| | 01:52 |
So if you are wondering well what does this page do?
| | 01:54 |
What should I be setting up here?
| | 01:56 |
The Help system is a very good resource
in helping you make decisions.
| | 02:02 |
So now let's go panel by panel.
| | 02:04 |
The first panel is the Products. We have a link to Add New
Products and we will do that in another movie here soon.
| | 02:14 |
You can check on Active Products, these are
the products that are currently on your website
| | 02:19 |
and being sold and you can check Archived Products.
| | 02:23 |
Right now we see we don't have any.
| | 02:25 |
The difference between Active and Archived
Products is the way Cartweaver is setup is
| | 02:31 |
if a product has orders placed against it,
you can't delete the product.
| | 02:37 |
| | 02:39 |
In fact if you go down here, and we will
get into this little more in detail later,
| | 02:42 |
but this will show if there are no orders against the product.
| | 02:47 |
Once a product has an order against it
you don't want to delete the product
| | 02:50 |
because that will create orphan records in your database.
| | 02:53 |
So you won't be able to delete it, you'll archive it.
Otherwise you will hide it from view here
| | 02:58 |
and hide if from the web, but it will still be in your database.
| | 03:02 |
| | 03:04 |
Then Orders. You can search for your orders by date,
or by the various categories that they fit into.
| | 03:11 |
Pending is orders that have been placed in
the system but you haven't fulfilled them yet.
| | 03:16 |
Verified Orders, if you're using Paypal as
your gateway, a Verified order is an order
| | 03:22 |
that gateway has already responded back and said
that it's okay, that the credit card was good.
| | 03:28 |
Shipped Orders will be any orders that you have shipped.
| | 03:32 |
Right now we don't have any records
because this is a brand new database.
| | 03:34 |
Naturally we don't have shipped any orders.
| | 03:36 |
Canceled and Returned.
| | 03:39 |
As time goes on, you will be able to search on
these different records based on if you want
| | 03:44 |
to know how many orders you have shipped and that sort of thing.
| | 03:49 |
Customers, you would be able to customer search.
| | 03:52 |
So you can search by the first letter of the
last name, by zip code or by order number.
| | 03:59 |
So if a customer calls in, it's very easy to find the
customer just by using one of these three search items.
| | 04:08 |
| | 04:09 |
Next is Categories.
| | 04:10 |
We will spend some time on this in the
future movie because it's extremely important
| | 04:14 |
to categorize your products well so
it's easy for your customers to search.
| | 04:19 |
It's this information that is used to develop
the menu system used on the front-end.
| | 04:25 |
So your information architecture or dividing up your products
| | 04:29 |
in a good logical manner is extremely
important and we will talk about that as well.
| | 04:34 |
Options. Options are the various items
that differentiate one product from another.
| | 04:40 |
For example, you may have a pair of blue jeans.
| | 04:44 |
Well blue jeans maybe the name of them but the options
are the Size, the Length, the Cut, maybe the Color,
| | 04:53 |
these are all product options and we will be adding those in
and then you can divide up your products in a natural way.
| | 05:01 |
| | 05:02 |
Shipping and Tax. We want to setup our Shipping Methods, what
our Settings there going to be, what our Weight Ranges are,
| | 05:09 |
when we are shipping by weight and our Tax Extensions.
Because you want to setup your taxes for the states,
| | 05:15 |
if you have to charge sales tax into or not
and all that's available under this tab.
| | 05:21 |
Stores Settings and this will be the first thing that
we do is when you setup who has access to the Admin.
| | 05:28 |
Naturally this is one that you want to
change so that it is not admin any more.
| | 05:32 |
We will create that.
| | 05:34 |
You have Company Information, what countries
you ship to or credit cards you accept
| | 05:39 |
and all that information is the general global Store Settings.
| | 05:43 |
Again when you are ready to leave it's always best to logout.
| | 05:48 |
That way it kills the session and if someone uses your
computer after you, they won't have access to the Admin.
| | 05:55 |
So in upcoming movies we will through each one of those tabs.
| | 05:57 |
We will add products, we will look at customers.
| | 06:00 |
We will add company information and shipping information to
give you an overall view of how to administer your store.
| | 06:05 |
| | 06:07 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Changing the store password| 00:01 |
Now, that your site is all setup, uploaded and ready to go,
it's time to go into the Admin and set the store settings,
| | 00:07 |
begin adding products and doing all the administration
to really get your store in order and get ready to go.
| | 00:14 |
The number one thing, you need to do
is to change the username and password.
| | 00:19 |
As we mentioned before in fact it's right here,
and you want them to leave that off of your page.
| | 00:24 |
The problem with a distributed or a commercial
application, and since this is the default setting,
| | 00:29 |
everybody ends up with this username and
password for their Administration to begin with.
| | 00:35 |
If you don't change it, there are a lot of
people out there that know your password.
| | 00:39 |
So the first thing you do is login
and go to the Store Settings tab.
| | 00:53 |
The first thing you'll do is go the Admin
Users, and let's go ahead and change this.
| | 01:04 |
If you have multiple Admins, it's good,
| | 01:08 |
you could use general Admin or you could use a
role that someone's playing or put their names.
| | 01:13 |
It's just for record keeping and it doesn't
really matters as far as how you login.
| | 01:18 |
Then we select a username and password.
| | 01:21 |
A few words about that.
| | 01:22 |
You want to make sure that, first of all
it's hard to guess and you might want
| | 01:27 |
to use different combinations of letters and numbers.
| | 01:30 |
Don't use your address or your son's
birthday or something that people can guess.
| | 01:35 |
Make sure it's something that you can remember, but also
make sure it's something that's very difficult to guess,
| | 01:40 |
because if someone gains access to the Admin of
your store, this is a web page, it's on a web.
| | 01:45 |
It is accessible.
| | 01:46 |
If someone guesses how to get in, they can really cause problems.
| | 01:50 |
They can delete the products out of your store, change records.
| | 01:53 |
This isn't vital company information as far as your bookkeeping or
accounting records, but it is your customer and order records.
| | 01:58 |
So, you want to protect it as best you can.
| | 02:01 |
So, choose a really good username and password.
| | 02:04 |
Right now, I will just use Test1, Test2.
| | 02:13 |
But, naturally like we said, you want to make
sure that it's much more secure than that.
| | 02:18 |
Also, don't use the same word for username
and password. Why narrow down the possibilities.
| | 02:25 |
Make sure that they are different so it's even harder to guess.
| | 02:28 |
Okay. Let's, go ahead and add that.
| | 02:31 |
Now that that's been added,
| | 02:32 |
you want to delete this.
| | 02:35 |
| | 02:36 |
That's basically closing a back door.
| | 02:38 |
Now, you're back-end is secure and safe
and you can feel confident that other users
| | 02:44 |
of Cartweaver aren't going to be able to get into your site.
| | 02:47 |
This is very important with any commercial application
because the default setting is a default setting for everyone.
| | 02:53 |
So, you don't want to leave things at the default.
| | 02:56 |
So now that that's done, we can logout.
And if someone comes along to tries that...
| | 03:01 |
| | 03:08 |
You see? It's gone. They can't get in.
| | 03:10 |
Your site is secure.
| | 03:12 |
So now that we've done that, in the next few movies, we will
go back into the Admin and actually do some of the store setup.
| | 03:18 |
We will setup the Store Settings.
| | 03:19 |
We will add some products and show you how the back-end works.
| | 03:22 |
That's what we will be doing over the next few movies.
| | 03:24 |
| | 03:25 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Global store settings| 00:01 |
In this movie we will continue on with the company settings.
| | 00:04 |
So let's log in to our Admin again, and you see now we're using
our new username and password that we set in our last movie.
| | 00:18 |
Log in and we will continue with our Store Settings. You will
notice here this red warning. It says, Change your company email.
| | 00:26 |
It's currently set to the Cartweaver default.
| | 00:28 |
It's very important to do that. You don't want the
folks at Cartweaver getting your sale modifications,
| | 00:34 |
so that's one of the first things we will do.
| | 00:35 |
We have already done the Admin, so
we will go to the Company Info.
| | 00:39 |
You want to change this information to your company settings.
This information is used to populate your company information
| | 00:49 |
on your email notices that go out to the customers.
| | 00:52 |
So you will definitely want to make sure that you use
contact information that you want your customers to use.
| | 00:58 |
This email is what your customers can respond to and
it's also the email that receives sale notifications.
| | 01:06 |
So let's go ahead and just change that right now.
| | 01:09 |
| | 01:15 |
And we update that and you see the notification goes away.
| | 01:20 |
The reminder goes away because you have
changed it and we're all to go to go that way.
| | 01:24 |
Next we go to Countries. Currently in Cartweaver we
have United States, U.S. Territories and Canada setup,
| | 01:34 |
with the countries and all the various states or provinces.
| | 01:39 |
But it's extremely easy to add countries
and provinces. For right now let's go ahead
| | 01:44 |
and add the U.K. We use the standard country code
for that country, if you don't know what that is,
| | 01:51 |
look it up and a good resource for that would be the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Country Code page.
| | 01:59 |
Here is the address here and you can go to this and as you can
see, all the country codes are listed and you can scroll through
| | 02:07 |
and find the one that you are looking for and at that point if
you are adding a particular country, you know the country code
| | 02:16 |
and the correct name for the country and these are the standard
codes used by the different postal departments worldwide.
| | 02:24 |
And the Sort Order shows the order in which the country
will show up in the menus on the front-end of the side.
| | 02:31 |
Here we have the U.S. as the sort order of 1 and U.S. Territories
is 2 and Canada is 3, but if most of your sales are going to be
| | 02:41 |
in the U.K., naturally you would want to edit
those, where it comes up in the top of the menu.
| | 02:45 |
But right now let's go ahead and put it 4.
| | 02:49 |
Here we see Location, let's just leave this at New
Country and we will show you what this menu does
| | 02:56 |
in a minute, but leave it to New Country and we add it.
| | 03:01 |
Okay now, if we scroll down at the bottom,
| | 03:03 |
we'll see that we have added U.K., but we also see
that there are no active states for this country.
| | 03:09 |
Some countries don't have states, so it's okay to leave
a country like this, in fact, the U.K. is one of them,
| | 03:15 |
but for right now, let's go ahead and just put a test.
| | 03:26 |
So let's say that's the name of a province
and we want to show up first in the list
| | 03:31 |
and then we will select what country we want
this state to go to or this region to go to
| | 03:37 |
and we will say right now, the U.K., and we click Add.
| | 03:42 |
And if we scroll down, we see it's been
added, and we can continue to add states
| | 03:48 |
for whatever country that we are dealing with.
| | 03:50 |
For right now, we want to go ahead and delete
that because the U.K. doesn't have states.
| | 03:56 |
Next let's go ahead and go to credit cards.
| | 04:02 |
We see right now we already have all the major credit
cards listed, and if we wanted to add a new credit card,
| | 04:07 |
we would add it here or we can change the code names.
| | 04:12 |
If for example- these are the standard code names for these
credit cards- but if we are dealing with a payment gateway
| | 04:18 |
that requires a different code name for a credit card, we can go
in and edit that here so we agree with what they are expecting.
| | 04:25 |
But this is pretty standard, so you will probably just
be allowed to leave that as is. If there is a credit card
| | 04:30 |
that you don't want to accept like Discover,
American Express or something like that,
| | 04:35 |
you will just click on here and Delete and Update the cards.
| | 04:38 |
Now let's go to Ship and Order Status.
| | 04:41 |
These can't be edited, they are actually part of the program,
| | 04:46 |
but you can't change what order they appear
in, if it's your preference. We allow that.
| | 04:53 |
And then finally Order Settings.
| | 04:55 |
| | 04:57 |
Two important settings here; Allow Back Orders,
and you have the choice of Yes and No.
| | 05:02 |
If it's set to No, you do not allow back orders.
| | 05:06 |
When an item in your store reaches an inventorying count of 0, it
will then be removed from the Web, it will not be visible anymore
| | 05:13 |
and it will remain hidden until you
restock, you go in and add inventory.
| | 05:18 |
We'll show how to do that when we edit the Product menu later.
| | 05:21 |
For the Show Upsell, again, it's a Yes and No
setting. And as you remember on the Details page,
| | 05:29 |
it recommends other items you might be interested in.
| | 05:32 |
If for whatever reason you don't want to have that
feature, you can turn that feature on and off right here.
| | 05:38 |
Then you choose whatever settings you want and then Update.
| | 05:41 |
And that's it, those are your main store settings, those
are the settings that are used through out the store
| | 05:47 |
and guide how products are displayed, what countries
you displayed and how your users contact you.
| | 05:53 |
In the next movie, we will explore the
Products tab and we will show you how to add
| | 05:58 |
and delete products and how to edit and update them.
| | 06:01 |
| | 06:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Product options| 00:01 |
In this movie, we are going to be talking about product options.
| | 00:04 |
Product options are in the actual subsets of the product
themselves, such as size, color, and in that sort of description.
| | 00:11 |
It's important that you add this information
into your Admin before you start adding products,
| | 00:16 |
so take a good look at your product
line and decide what you will need.
| | 00:19 |
The Options tab is over here in the Cartweaver Admin, but
before we do that, let's take a quick look at the front-end
| | 00:27 |
to get an idea of what we mean by what the product options are.
| | 00:31 |
So we will search on clothing, click Details
and here is the Product Options right there.
| | 00:39 |
For this particular one, we just have Size.
| | 00:43 |
We look at some others.
| | 00:45 |
We can have the Size and the Color and also the Cut.
| | 00:51 |
So, you can add an unlimited number of options to each product.
| | 00:55 |
The main thing is just keep it succinct, keep it very
descriptive, just like you would find in an department store.
| | 01:01 |
With that in mind, let's go back to the
Admin and look at what we already have.
| | 01:06 |
Here we have Color, so we see if we have added colors in, and
you will notice that we have the Sort Order of the colors,
| | 01:13 |
so that's the order they appear in the dropdown boxes
and you will also notice that we have Delete and Archive.
| | 01:21 |
And you will see some are grayed out and some aren't.
| | 01:25 |
The reason is is the ones that are not available are already
associated with products, and so to delete them or archive them
| | 01:34 |
would then break those products, so you would have to unassociate
them with the products before you can edit them in this way.
| | 01:40 |
Let's go ahead and add a new color.
| | 01:43 |
| | 01:51 |
And it's that easy.
| | 01:53 |
So you can go through the inventory of your products and
just add the colors that you need. There is also a Cut,
| | 01:59 |
Size and then we can add new options as well.
| | 02:04 |
If we add a new option...
| | 02:10 |
now see we have added it and it shows up in the menu.
| | 02:14 |
So then now we can add different lengths,
| | 02:17 |
| | 02:30 |
and so forth.
| | 02:31 |
So you can see it would be very easy to build out all
the options that are associated with the products.
| | 02:35 |
Now the combination of options that make a product unique,
each unique product is called a SKU, a stock keeping unit,
| | 02:43 |
and when we get into adding products,
we will explain that a little further.
| | 02:46 |
It's basically the same metaphor that a department
store uses to divide up its product, so it's very common
| | 02:52 |
and we'll discuss that when we talk about products.
| | 02:55 |
So for now, that covers how options are
added to the back-end and also how they work
| | 03:00 |
with the products and how they work on the front-end.
| | 03:03 |
In the next video, we'll talk about
how to categorize our products.
| | 03:06 |
| | 03:07 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Categorizing products| 00:01 |
Now let's take a moment to talk about categories.
| | 00:03 |
Categories is how you break up your
product into searchable bites.
| | 00:08 |
A good example is take a look at a department store.
| | 00:12 |
How the department store is divided up
into sections, housewares, clothing,
| | 00:16 |
bedding, toiletries, furniture, this sort of thing.
| | 00:20 |
Those would be main categories.
| | 00:22 |
Subcategories to that would be like children's, women's,
men's and by searching through departments and categories
| | 00:30 |
in the departments or sub-departments, you
can find exactly what you're looking for.
| | 00:35 |
It's the same kind of logic online.
| | 00:38 |
People are used to thinking that way about products so if they
go online and they search that way, it's a familiar situation.
| | 00:45 |
So let's look at how to categorize our products.
| | 00:48 |
We have our Main Categories and Secondary Categories.
| | 00:52 |
For a moment, let's jump out to the front-end
again and see how this works in an actual search.
| | 00:56 |
First of all, in a regular link search, we
see that we can search on the main categories
| | 01:02 |
or all categories or we can refine our searches.
| | 01:06 |
For example, we can choose Clothing, and then choose
Children's and it'll bring back clothing that is for children.
| | 01:17 |
If we go back, we can also search on Clothing
and say for Men's, and it will bring that back.
| | 01:25 |
Or if we search for Clothing with no secondary
categories or if we search on Clothing
| | 01:33 |
and All categories, it will bring back all clothing.
| | 01:38 |
If we divide up our store in a logical bite sized chunks
that our customers can easily find what they're looking for,
| | 01:46 |
in a metaphor that they're used to dealing with, that's
like departments and sub-departments or categories into sub-
| | 01:52 |
categories, they can easily search through our store.
| | 01:55 |
And the user experience in finding product is very important.
| | 02:00 |
So even though categories are very easy to add, put a
lot of forethought in how you categorize your products.
| | 02:07 |
And this needs to be done really before you start adding
products because if you add a lot of products to your store
| | 02:13 |
and find it's not well organized then you have to go
back through all your products and re-categorize things.
| | 02:18 |
It can become very time consuming.
| | 02:20 |
So it's better to sit down with a piece of paper,
logically map out how you want to categorize your products
| | 02:27 |
and index your products for your customers to find and
then go about building categories and secondary categories.
| | 02:34 |
So, for right now let's go ahead and add a category.
| | 02:40 |
| | 02:48 |
We can add that and now that
we're getting a number of categories,
| | 02:51 |
let's go ahead and change the sort order of them. And then Update
and now see we have added a third category in a sort order.
| | 03:03 |
So if we go to the front-end again, refresh this, you can see
it's been added to the menus and also added to the dropdowns.
| | 03:13 |
So we influence the way our front-end is displayed and
categorized instantaneously by adding things to the back-end.
| | 03:21 |
Same goes for the secondary categories.
| | 03:23 |
You can see the one's that we have already.
We can add more. And if we wanted to we can go in
| | 03:36 |
and adjust the sort order of these as well.
| | 03:40 |
So adding categories to your store is extremely easy but the logic
behind it and the user experience take some time and forethought.
| | 03:48 |
You want to do it right so it's
easy to navigate through your store.
| | 03:52 |
So now in the next video we'll talk about shipping and
taxes and after that we'll go to adding products themselves.
| | 03:59 |
| | 04:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shipping cost setup| 00:01 |
Now let's talk about adding shipping and tax to our store.
| | 00:04 |
In the Cartweaver Admin, you will see its right here.
| | 00:08 |
First of all let's go out to the front-end and
see where this actually fits into the process.
| | 00:13 |
Here we are at our cart.
| | 00:15 |
We have added several things to our cart
and we say okay, it's time to checkout.
| | 00:19 |
Now let's just login as a previous user.
| | 00:22 |
| | 00:28 |
We see we have got all our information.
| | 00:30 |
Now where tax fits into the picture is right there, the state.
| | 00:35 |
Currently the way it works now on the web is you
are required to pay sales tax for orders originating
| | 00:41 |
in the state which you have a physical presence.
| | 00:44 |
That way if you have a single location and let's say for an
example in California, then this order would be charged tax.
| | 00:51 |
If this order was from Idaho you wouldn't have to
charge tax, unless you have a presence in Idaho as well.
| | 00:59 |
That's the way the laws are now and they
have been that way for quite a while.
| | 01:03 |
But it's always good to keep an eye on it
because you never know what is going to change
| | 01:07 |
and Congress naturally does have its eye
on this as a potential revenue source.
| | 01:13 |
So it's good to stay up with it, but
currently that's the way it works.
| | 01:17 |
So then we click and let's go ahead and
change this to Alabama because I know if-
| | 01:23 |
set some tax for that one. And we will click Next. And
now we see, it has totaled everything up, the Subtotal.
| | 01:30 |
It has added some tax and we have our Total.
| | 01:33 |
Now the shipping is here.
| | 01:37 |
These are shipping methods available and in the back-end of the
store we have setup prices for this shipping methods and ranges,
| | 01:45 |
weight ranges, and we see it's charging what the default is,
but it can be changed and you can see the Shipping changed.
| | 01:56 |
So let's now go to the back-end and see how this is setup.
| | 02:01 |
First of all we have the Settings tab and then in
the Settings tab we have Enable Shipping, Yes or No.
| | 02:08 |
This simply enables whether we charge anything for shipping and
in some cases we may just decide to build the cost of shipping
| | 02:15 |
into the price and not worry about adding shipping charges.
| | 02:20 |
We have charge of Base Fee, which I will explain how
that works in a minute, but we can say Yes or No to that.
| | 02:26 |
We can charge by Weight Ranges and
we can charge the Location Extension.
| | 02:31 |
What a Location Extension is it allows
us to really dial-in the shipping.
| | 02:36 |
We can add an additional percentage to
states based on their distance from us.
| | 02:42 |
In that way we can dial-in the amount
that we are charging to correspond
| | 02:46 |
to the more expensive shipping as things go further away.
| | 02:49 |
By using these different methods you can build a matrix
that can really dial-in your shipping very precisely.
| | 02:56 |
By default Cartweaver handles all the shipping internally.
| | 02:59 |
There are extensions available that allow you to
tie in directly to a shipper such as UPS and FedEx.
| | 03:05 |
Those connections are getting more
and more reliable all the time.
| | 03:09 |
The downside of those is if there is a connection
problem or they have a problem in their servers,
| | 03:14 |
it breaks your site and you have no control over it.
| | 03:17 |
Or if they change something then your site has to be updated.
| | 03:21 |
This used to happen a lot but it's getting less and less frequent
as they refine their APIs and standardize a little bit more.
| | 03:28 |
So things are getting better, but you have to weigh
whether that's the way you want to go or if it's better
| | 03:34 |
to have control over the shipping within your own site.
| | 03:36 |
For now we will just talk about having
control within your own site.
| | 03:40 |
So now that we have set our Settings the way
we want, let's go ahead and look at Methods.
| | 03:46 |
Methods are just simply the different ways that we ship.
| | 03:49 |
We can set different carriers, different types of shipping
with each carrier and charge a Base Rate for those carriers,
| | 03:56 |
that's the flat fee that's charged on every order for
those carriers, and we can set carriers for each country.
| | 04:03 |
We can also set the Shipping Order for those.
| | 04:06 |
It's very easy to add.
| | 04:08 |
We can add a method and then we can choose
which country that method applies to.
| | 04:15 |
What the Rate is, what the Base rate
is, and what the Sort Order will be.
| | 04:20 |
Once we have setup the methods, then we can go to Weight Ranges.
| | 04:25 |
A Weight Range simply says that if something shipped
UPS Ground between 0 and 5 Pounds, add this rate.
| | 04:36 |
This rate will be added on top of the Base Rate for that method.
| | 04:41 |
So it would be the total of this amount... and this amount.
| | 04:48 |
So you can see how it'd be very easy to add up as we go.
| | 04:53 |
It's always good at the top end of the Weight Range,
| | 04:56 |
to set a really high, ridiculously high number.
| | 04:59 |
So you know you won't exceed it.
| | 05:01 |
Also at the bottom Weight Range to make
sure that it's 0 so nothing is underneath it.
| | 05:07 |
It's also important as you can see to enter the
weight ranges so there are no gaps between them.
| | 05:14 |
So nothing falls through the cracks and
therefore it doesn't get charged an amount.
| | 05:18 |
So a little forethought is necessary here but as
you can see it's very easy to setup and you can see
| | 05:25 |
that we also set those up for each nation or each country.
| | 05:29 |
| | 05:32 |
Then we go to Tax and Shipping Extension.
| | 05:35 |
Here we can see that we have setup tax for Alabama
as we saw in the order that I was preparing to place
| | 05:41 |
that once I switched it to Alabama, tax was added to the order.
| | 05:45 |
The Shipping Extension, for each state as we work out away
from our home state, we can increase this Shipping Extension.
| | 05:53 |
So the shipping charge has actually increased by that amount.
| | 05:57 |
It will take a little playing with to get this
dialed-in but once it's done it can be very accurate
| | 06:02 |
and you can have complete control over what the
shipping costs are and setup your own zones so to speak.
| | 06:09 |
| | 06:12 |
And that's about it.
| | 06:14 |
Again with a little forethought, thinking ahead and
setting this up and testing it a little bit, we see
| | 06:20 |
where we can dial-in exactly what we are charging
for shipping and have really good control over it.
| | 06:25 |
Now in the next movie we will go
to actually adding some products.
| | 06:29 |
| | 06:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding products| 00:00 |
Now that we have our categories, options and
shipping and all this set up and ready to go,
| | 00:06 |
it's time to start adding products our database.
| | 00:09 |
So let's take a look through the Products section.
| | 00:12 |
The first again, let's go out to the front-end
and see how this all works. We see we can search
| | 00:20 |
on our category, this is the short description.
| | 00:23 |
The important thing about a short description;
naturally this is just some Greek text here,
| | 00:28 |
but the important thing about the short description is imagine
the first question that customer would ask about a product.
| | 00:36 |
This gives them a little bit information that immediately
tells them whether they are interested in the product
| | 00:41 |
and really sells it to them, makes them want to know more.
| | 00:44 |
That's its whole job. Don't make it
to short, don't, make it too long,
| | 00:49 |
try to anticipate what's the customers might
want to know immediately and give that to them.
| | 00:54 |
It entices them then to want to look at
the picture and go to the Details page.
| | 01:00 |
The Details page, then can provide a larger image,
give them a better look at it and tell them all about it.
| | 01:07 |
All the information that a customer needs to be sold
on the product and to make an informed buying decision.
| | 01:13 |
And then the product details can be
selected and it can be added to cart.
| | 01:18 |
So now, let's go back to here and let's jump over to the Admin
section and look at the Product section and how it works.
| | 01:28 |
First of all we can look at products that already exist,
| | 01:32 |
their name and whether we want to edit
them and all the details about them.
| | 01:37 |
| | 01:43 |
So now let's add a product and we'll
talk about each field as we go.
| | 01:48 |
So you make sure, you categorize your products
properly and really give the customer what they need.
| | 01:54 |
Let's add a new product, the first field here is ID.
| | 01:59 |
The database automatically generates an ID in the
background that's used to search on the product.
| | 02:05 |
What this ID is actually used for, is perhaps the vendor
that you buy this product from may have an actual SKU number
| | 02:12 |
for their product or a product ID for the categories of
products and so that's something you are probably going
| | 02:19 |
to be looking the product up or referring
to the product quite frequently.
| | 02:23 |
And so that's the ID that you would
want enter in this in the field.
| | 02:27 |
So let's do that. And then enter the name, the sort
order, whether we want it to appear on the web or not.
| | 02:48 |
Initially it's always a good idea to set this to No.
| | 02:51 |
That way you can edit the product, and change it, take a look
at it and have it all set up before it appears on the web.
| | 02:58 |
But in this demo, we'll just go ahead and leave that to Yes.
| | 03:01 |
Shipping charge- whether you want to charge shipping
for this product or not, we'll go ahead and put Yes.
| | 03:06 |
Now we want to add the categories that it'll be under.
| | 03:11 |
And we can click on Toys because we are going
to be adding, as you can see, a rubber chicken.
| | 03:15 |
But if you have a several categories that it fits
into you can select multiple by Control-clicking
| | 03:21 |
or if you change your mind Control-click again to deselect.
| | 03:25 |
Any product can be related to any number
of categories and secondary categories.
| | 03:30 |
This provides a very wide range of
search capabilities for each product.
| | 03:35 |
Then let's look at the secondary
categories and we'll select Tub Toys.
| | 03:40 |
Now Product Options, since we are just selling
one of these rubber chickens, we don't have a blue
| | 03:48 |
and a green and a red one, we just have the one,
| | 03:50 |
you can leave this blank. Some products only have one
option or one SKU, it's just the one rubber chicken.
| | 03:58 |
Or if we had multiple colors, we would select Color and then have
multiple options; but right now, we'll just leave this blank.
| | 04:07 |
Again, the short description is your hard sell.
| | 04:10 |
You tell the customer what you think they are going to want to
know about this product right upfront in order to make a decision
| | 04:16 |
or interest them into making a decision or
going to find out more details about it.
| | 04:21 |
For right now, we'll just put some Greek text in there and then
the long description is telling them all about the product,
| | 04:31 |
everything you think they will need to know to
make an informed decision to buy the product.
| | 04:38 |
Now it's important to note here for a moment, as we talked
about before, copywriting is very very important at this point.
| | 04:48 |
If you are not a copywriter or your client isn't
a copywriter, it may be a good idea to get one.
| | 04:54 |
Take a look at some of the copy written
at some of the better retailers online,
| | 04:58 |
it really entices you to buy the
product, mentally describes the product.
| | 05:03 |
Remember on the web you can't touch and feel the product,
you can only see a picture and read the description.
| | 05:10 |
So, those two things really have to do the job because there is
no tactical input. You can't pick it up, feel it, and touch it.
| | 05:17 |
So it's very important that the customer has all the information
they need and you really get across the feeling of the product.
| | 05:24 |
And sometimes that's not an easy thing to do.
| | 05:26 |
So it's something that you should consider
when you are putting your store together.
| | 05:30 |
So we have all this information ready to
go and we want to add our product images.
| | 05:36 |
So let's click here.
| | 05:38 |
So, initially we'll add our product images and so we
click on Thumbnail and then lets browse and find the image
| | 05:46 |
and use the one we want for the thumbnail, so we
say okay, we want that one and we upload that image.
| | 05:54 |
The reason it did that is because in testing this, I'd already
uploaded the images, but I want to show you how to add them.
| | 06:01 |
So it's just overwriting the image.
It'll overwrite the image of the same name.
| | 06:05 |
Now let's go ahead and select a large image and we browse,
and we find our image and upload it and then we upload image.
| | 06:17 |
Again it's asking me, if I want to overwrite it because
in the database there is already an image by that name
| | 06:23 |
and that's very frequent. You may want to
replace an image that you currently have.
| | 06:27 |
So you go ahead and say OK, if you want to do that.
| | 06:29 |
It lists the ones you have selected, we want that one
and we see we preview the image and then for Thumbnail,
| | 06:39 |
let's select that one and then we will select that image.
| | 06:43 |
And we say OK, close the window. When we get back to our
Product page, we scroll down and we see we've added the images
| | 06:51 |
for the product to our database and to the web.
| | 06:55 |
So let's go ahead at this point. It's very important
to remember to do this because this is web-based.
| | 07:00 |
After you've gone through all this work of lining out your
product, writing your description, make sure you add the product.
| | 07:09 |
If you were to leave the page at
this point, you'd lose your work.
| | 07:12 |
So always remember to click the Add Product button.
| | 07:16 |
And there we have it added.
| | 07:19 |
Now once the product is added to the
database then you have to add a SKU.
| | 07:24 |
This is a stock keeping unit.
| | 07:26 |
All products must have at least one SKU; you may have a line of
clothing that has several SKUs, all different sizes and colors.
| | 07:33 |
In this case, we just have one rubber chicken, but we still
need to have a SKU so go ahead and add that. And on web.
| | 07:47 |
You can add several SKUs to a product and hide
some of the SKUs from the web and show others.
| | 07:52 |
It's a good thing to do that perhaps if you have new items
or you are going to stock soon, you can go ahead and add them
| | 07:57 |
to your database but hide them from the website.
| | 08:00 |
But here we add it, then we go ahead
and add the price, say $10. Sort Order.
| | 08:08 |
You could leave these blank. Sort Order because since
there is only one, but let's go ahead and put 1 anyway.
| | 08:14 |
Weight, this is for the shipping. It adds to the total
weight of the order, and lets say it's just one pound
| | 08:22 |
and again it's important that an item be in stock.
| | 08:26 |
If you mark in your store settings that you don't
want to have back orders, when it reaches zero,
| | 08:33 |
this item will drop from the web and no
longer be visible until you restock it.
| | 08:37 |
If you have set your store to allow back orders, that won't
matter. But let's go ahead and say we have 50 of these in stock
| | 08:43 |
and then as each one is ordered, it'll be removed from stock.
| | 08:47 |
You can look at your products at any
time and see how your stock is doing.
| | 08:51 |
And when it's all done, we add the SKU and there we go.
| | 08:56 |
Now we have the opportunity to add more SKUs if we want.
| | 08:59 |
But this is all we have for this one.
| | 09:04 |
So now let's go out to the website here, we refresh.
| | 09:07 |
And we have that category of toys.
| | 09:11 |
So lets go ahead and click on that and there is our product with
the description and there is our rubber chicken all ready to go.
| | 09:19 |
So the back-end of Cartweaver allows adding products and
editing products, where the merchant can have total control
| | 09:26 |
about what's being displayed on their site, what's
being sold, the pricing, the shipping, at all times.
| | 09:33 |
| | 09:34 |
All of the steps involved here is very easy. What it
requires is some forethought ahead of time, good copywriting,
| | 09:40 |
good categorizing, really lining
out your store to be user friendly.
| | 09:46 |
That's far more important and actually takes
more time than the actual maintenance itself.
| | 09:50 |
In the next video, we'll go here to the Customers tab,
and discuss how to handle customers and orders.
| | 09:57 |
| | 09:59 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Customers and orders| 00:01 |
Now, we've come to the point where we
have entered products into the database.
| | 00:04 |
We have categorized our products, we have entered descriptions,
we have set them to appear on web and we are open for business.
| | 00:11 |
So now we need to take a look at orders and customers.
| | 00:16 |
When you come to the homepage of the Admin, you will notice
that the most recent orders are showing here and it shows
| | 00:22 |
that we have three orders and we have one
unverified order and one order ready to ship.
| | 00:30 |
| | 00:31 |
What categorizes these is the order state.
| | 00:34 |
If we look at the Orders tab over here, we can search
for them by date, or by these different order states.
| | 00:41 |
A Pending order is an order where we have had
the order placed, but the payment isn't verified.
| | 00:47 |
The only time this really comes into effect
as if we are using a payment processor.
| | 00:53 |
Over here, an Unverified order is an order we have
received, but we haven't heard back from the processor.
| | 00:58 |
Remember, they don't process orders in real-time. We hear
later whether or not the credit card has gone through or not.
| | 01:05 |
So we would check on these, to see how they are progressing.
| | 01:09 |
As soon as we hear from the processor,
by then posting to the post back page,
| | 01:13 |
the database will automatically update
the Unverified order to a Verified setting
| | 01:20 |
and then it would go down here to Orders to Ship.
| | 01:23 |
Orders to Ship means that the order has been placed and the
payment has gone through and it's time to ship the order.
| | 01:30 |
We also have settings over here for Canceled and Returned.
| | 01:33 |
Perhaps let's say, an Unverified order sits here for a
while and then we received notice from the payment processor
| | 01:40 |
that the credit card payment didn't go through and
then we contact the customer and the customer says,
| | 01:46 |
they don't want the order, which by the way
is one of the reasons why it's better to go
| | 01:51 |
at the real-time gateway, as we have discussed before.
| | 01:54 |
But at that point what we would do is we would
go ahead and set this order, let's do that now.
| | 01:59 |
We would view the order, and we would set it from Pending to
Canceled, and we would want to enter the date that we did that so
| | 02:09 |
for our records. And if we wanted to, we could put a
note in here saying that the payment didn't go through
| | 02:15 |
or customer canceled the order or whatever and
then we scroll down and we Update the Order Status.
| | 02:22 |
Now, if we turn to the Home page, we see
that it's gone and it's no longer there.
| | 02:27 |
But it shows most recent orders, we have no Unverified orders.
| | 02:32 |
Now, we go down here to the Order to Ship.
| | 02:36 |
This one, we know the payment has been processed.
| | 02:39 |
The credit card was good; we have received payment for it.
| | 02:42 |
So we go ahead and ship the product.
| | 02:44 |
At that point we can set it to Shipped.
| | 02:47 |
It shows how the customer wanted it shipped.
| | 02:52 |
We set the date that it was shipped
and say, we shipped that out yesterday.
| | 02:57 |
We can enter the Tracking ID of the carrier
that we used, and the actual Shipping Cost.
| | 03:06 |
The advantage of that field is if we look down
here, we see how much was charged for shipping.
| | 03:14 |
| | 03:17 |
Now if we enter the actual amount, if it's significantly
less, then we probably should adjust our shipping matrix,
| | 03:23 |
or if it's more, we definitely should adjust our shipping matrix.
| | 03:27 |
This helps us keep tabs on where we are
at to see if there is any adjustments.
| | 03:31 |
Let's say, it was $42, so we are right in the range
where we wanted to be. And then we say, ok, Update Order.
| | 03:39 |
| | 03:41 |
Again if we go back, we see that there is
no Orders to Ship, no Orders to Verify,
| | 03:47 |
but these are still showing as recent
orders, but they have already been acted on.
| | 03:50 |
So that's how we look at orders,
it's very easy to search on them,
| | 03:55 |
find them and see what the state is,
or reset the status of the order.
| | 04:01 |
Next, let's look at Customers.
| | 04:04 |
We search for customers, we can search by the
letter of their Last Name, or we can pull All.
| | 04:13 |
We can search by Zip Code or we can search by Order Number.
| | 04:18 |
The advantage of this is, is if we have a customer
who calls in and want some information about an order,
| | 04:23 |
we can ask them what their zip code is or if
they have a order number or their last name
| | 04:27 |
and quickly find their record in the database.
| | 04:30 |
Right now let's pull back All, because in this
demo we just have a couple of customers. Pull back.
| | 04:37 |
We see that we list them alphabetically, we have
their emails, so if we want to email them something,
| | 04:42 |
we just click on that and we have that available.
| | 04:44 |
We have the phone number, if we need to give them a call
to check something and so let's click on the customer.
| | 04:51 |
We see we have the full customer record here, with their billing
addresses, their name, their email and their shipping address.
| | 05:00 |
We also have a complete record of
everything they have ordered from us.
| | 05:03 |
So it allows us to see if this particular customer has bought
from us multiple times, and if we have any questions about any
| | 05:10 |
of these orders, we click the View button
and we can then be taken to the order record.
| | 05:15 |
So we can see it's all pretty straightforward,
easy to keep track off.
| | 05:20 |
We can search on our customers and the orders and the main
thing is this, one that helps us keep track of our customers,
| | 05:27 |
process our orders and also search for the
records if they should call with any questions.
| | 05:33 |
So that gives us a good, overall look at the Administrator
of Cartweaver and it's important, no matter what application
| | 05:42 |
you should decide to use, that it has a good online
administrator for your clients or for the merchants.
| | 05:49 |
A web designer or a developer doesn't want to be involved
in the day-to-day operations of their client's business.
| | 05:56 |
The merchant needs to control that, just like the backend of
their store and a good administrator offers that capability,
| | 06:02 |
where they can add, delete products, take care of customers,
take care of orders, categorize their store and organize it
| | 06:10 |
and it puts all that power in the hands of the
merchant, which is really where it belongs.
| | 06:14 |
In our next chapter, we will talk
about customer service and policies,
| | 06:18 |
which we should have clearly stated
and easy to find on our website.
| | 06:22 |
| | 06:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. Customer SatisfactionCustomer service and policies| 00:01 |
In this movie, we are going to talk
about customer service and policies.
| | 00:04 |
Now, this may seem like kind of a boring subject
and again, you are thinking well as a web designer
| | 00:09 |
or web developer what does this have
to do with me? That's the merchant.
| | 00:13 |
Well, again, you are responsible for helping them design
and develop their website and the content that goes on it.
| | 00:19 |
So it's very important to have this in mind.
| | 00:21 |
First of all, let's talk about actual customer service.
| | 00:25 |
Actually customer service is even
more important online that it is
| | 00:29 |
in a bricks and mortar store. Why?
Because there is no face to face.
| | 00:34 |
The customer has to trust that you are there.
| | 00:36 |
They haven't walked into your store.
| | 00:37 |
They haven't touched the merchandise.
| | 00:39 |
They haven't met any people.
| | 00:41 |
So you have to add a real personal touch to your website.
| | 00:44 |
Make them feel comfortable.
| | 00:46 |
They have to trust that you are out there.
| | 00:48 |
That there is actually people on the other end of the line.
| | 00:50 |
There is no physical location to
walk into and get comfortable with.
| | 00:54 |
So your website has to really take that into account.
| | 00:57 |
Give them a email, phone number, address, perhaps a user forum,
as many possible ways to get a hold of you and communicate with you.
| | 01:07 |
To really reassure the customers that you are there,
that you are there for them, you will provide service.
| | 01:13 |
That you are a trustworthy person to do
business with or business to do business with.
| | 01:20 |
Again, if you have an email, think about adding an
auto-responder on there with contact details in it.
| | 01:27 |
What this does is if they send off an email with
a question, it just doesn't go often to cyberspace
| | 01:33 |
and wait for somebody to have the time to answer it.
| | 01:36 |
Most people don't have a full-time staff that immediately
answer emails but an auto-responder tells the customer,
| | 01:43 |
we have received your email and we are going to be
looking at it soon and we will get in touch with you.
| | 01:48 |
It makes them feel that it's worked.
| | 01:51 |
Again, it's all about reassuring the customer and
making them feel good about doing business with you.
| | 01:56 |
One of the ways you can do this is an About Us page.
| | 02:02 |
Again, they don't get a chance to meet you personally.
| | 02:06 |
So, if you take the time to share interesting
or personal information on an About Us page.
| | 02:11 |
Let them get familiar with your company.
| | 02:13 |
Let the customers get to know you and give them
different causes or interests that you maybe involved in.
| | 02:20 |
Just get the personality behind the company.
| | 02:24 |
If they feel that they know you then they will
feel better about doing business with you.
| | 02:29 |
So share this information.
| | 02:30 |
It's really important.
| | 02:31 |
For a good example of this, let's go ahead and hop
out to the web and take a look at lynda.com site.
| | 02:39 |
If you go her site right up here, top menu, top
center very easy to find is an About us section.
| | 02:47 |
We click on that.
| | 02:49 |
It has a brief about us.
| | 02:50 |
Tells us little bit about the product and the company, and how
long they have been in business but it also says View more.
| | 02:57 |
If you click there you actually get some personal information,
some background about the company, and you can click through
| | 03:04 |
and read articles that talks about the people,
talks about what's going on in the company.
| | 03:09 |
All this serves to make the customer feel more
comfortable with the company they are dealing with,
| | 03:15 |
that it's not just an entity but there is people involved.
| | 03:18 |
It's all about customer service and then
feeling good about doing business with you.
| | 03:22 |
So next let's talk about privacy policies.
| | 03:27 |
This is extremely important.
| | 03:29 |
Again, they don't know you personally.
| | 03:31 |
They haven't walked in and met you.
| | 03:33 |
So people are worried about identity theft.
| | 03:36 |
Universally, people hate spam.
| | 03:38 |
What are you going to do with their information?
| | 03:40 |
What are your privacy policies?
| | 03:42 |
So you need to tell the customers
exactly how you use their information.
| | 03:47 |
Be very forthright about it and spell it out in a privacy policy.
| | 03:51 |
If you send emails to your customers, allow them to opt out.
| | 03:56 |
Don't be insistent or don't become a spammer yourself.
| | 04:00 |
Never ever share your customer's
information without their permission.
| | 04:06 |
Most companies are getting to the point where they don't share
that information at all and they let the customer know that,
| | 04:13 |
but if you are going to share the customer's information,
tell them who it would be with and ask their permission
| | 04:19 |
and if they deny their permission, definitely don't share it.
| | 04:25 |
Post a formal policy statement and make it easy to find.
| | 04:29 |
Again, don't make them hunt around for it. Make it
very easy to share this information with the customers
| | 04:34 |
so they can feel good about doing business with you.
| | 04:37 |
Remember, your policy statement is an informal contract.
| | 04:41 |
It's a promise, so live by it.
| | 04:43 |
If you tell them you are not going to
share their information, then don't.
| | 04:47 |
A lot of companies will pay company's
money for their list of customers.
| | 04:52 |
So there is a temptation to betray this trust but that
kind of thing will definitely come back to bite you later.
| | 05:00 |
Post your policy statement and live by it.
| | 05:02 |
For a good example, let's go back to lynda.com and then
scroll down and right here on the footer of the site,
| | 05:11 |
so that it's on every single page of the site,
it's clearly stated, their Privacy Policy.
| | 05:19 |
You click there and here it is very clearly laid
out exactly what lynda.com's privacy policy is.
| | 05:29 |
There is no question.
| | 05:31 |
It's easy to find and it tells exactly
what the company policy is.
| | 05:37 |
That's extremely important and right next to it we can
see there is a 'Contact Us' link that takes to a form.
| | 05:43 |
So if it a person has any questions it's very easy for them
to contact the company and say, "Well, what about this or that?"
| | 05:50 |
You make this communication of the customer
to talk to the company as easy as possible.
| | 05:56 |
So they are dealing with a company that's forthright
and will treat them with respect and honor their wishes.
| | 06:02 |
Next, let's talk about a return policy.
| | 06:05 |
Again, it's important that we have a clear
return policy and that we spell that out.
| | 06:09 |
Make it easy to find and read and again, it's pretty much the
norm to take the opinion that the customer is always right.
| | 06:17 |
Arguing with the customer about things
very seldom pays off very well for a company.
| | 06:22 |
That's why so many companies like the Bon-Macy's or Lands' End
or Nordstrom and all these have really gotten a good reputation
| | 06:29 |
by just saying whatever you say, we are here to serve you
and that kind of attitude really pays off on the web as well.
| | 06:39 |
There is the unfortunate reality of a charge
back and let's take a minute to talk about that
| | 06:44 |
because it is an important point about online business.
| | 06:47 |
Doing business online, the customer has the ability to
simply contact their credit card company and charge back
| | 06:54 |
at any time, and that is reverse the transaction.
| | 06:58 |
Unfortunately, sometimes this is abused.
| | 07:00 |
Customers will sometimes charge back after
they have bought product and received it
| | 07:05 |
and it's very difficult to do anything about that.
| | 07:08 |
You can launch a grievance or a challenge with your payment
gateway, but it's very difficult to turn one of these around.
| | 07:16 |
Basically, you have to look at them as a cost of doing business.
| | 07:20 |
Sometimes you will just get a charge back.
| | 07:22 |
Frequently, what those are is if someone
has used a credit card that's not theirs
| | 07:26 |
and then the credit card owner finds out about the transaction.
| | 07:30 |
They will quickly contact their credit
card company and do a charge back.
| | 07:35 |
That's perfectly understandable and that's all
part of identity theft that happens right now.
| | 07:40 |
It's something that online retailers just
have to deal with, so take a look at that.
| | 07:46 |
Figure you will have some business that goes this way. maybe
only one percent of your business or less. but it's a cost
| | 07:53 |
to doing business just like in a bricks and mortar
store has to deal with shop lifting or shrinkage.
| | 08:00 |
Online we have to deal with charge backs.
| | 08:02 |
But factor that in and take a good
look at your charge back ratio.
| | 08:08 |
If you are getting a lot of them, then you
need to tighten up either your policies
| | 08:13 |
or more importantly your authorization
settings through your gateway.
| | 08:18 |
You can set your security tighter so that screens the payments
or the transactions better, but take a good look at this.
| | 08:24 |
It's important to keep charge backs in mind.
| | 08:27 |
A clear return policy can actually save your money.
| | 08:32 |
What that means is if you clearly state what your return policy
is, most people try to be honest and they will abide by that.
| | 08:41 |
They will contact you the way that you ask
them to and this can actually save people
| | 08:47 |
from just getting frustrated and doing a charge back.
| | 08:50 |
So make sure your policies are clearly stated
because it's important to the customer for trust
| | 08:55 |
and it can actually save your money,
and don't hide from the issue.
| | 09:00 |
Don't just not post it on your website.
| | 09:02 |
Think about it, put a policy on your website and deal with
it because this is definitely part of doing business online.
| | 09:09 |
Again, let's take a look at lynda.com for an example,
| | 09:13 |
and if we scroll to the bottom again,
very clear Terms and Conditions page.
| | 09:22 |
| | 09:25 |
Now your's can be a little more formal or informal
than this but take to time to write up a good one.
| | 09:31 |
Take time to look at these statements that your competitors use.
| | 09:38 |
That's a good starting point if you
are not familiar with what's required.
| | 09:41 |
So to sum things up, when it comes to customer service and your
policies, for your policies, make sure you state them clearly.
| | 09:50 |
Make them easy to find so the customer doesn't have to
search around for them and be easy to communicate with.
| | 09:57 |
Make contact information readily accessible throughout the site.
| | 10:01 |
Not just on one page but in the footer of
the site, have different contact links.
| | 10:06 |
Make it very easy to communicate with you.
| | 10:09 |
Be informative and be friendly.
| | 10:11 |
Remember these people don't have an opportunity
to meet you personally or walk into your store.
| | 10:16 |
So you have to have that personal communication,
| | 10:19 |
relayed to them by the way your site is
designed and the way your copy is written.
| | 10:24 |
So keep this mind throughout the process.
| | 10:26 |
Most importantly, let the customer know that
you care and appreciate their business.
| | 10:32 |
By having an About Us page and clearly stating your policies,
| | 10:36 |
you help the customer feel comfortable
about doing business with you.
| | 10:39 |
| | 10:41 |
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:01 | Well, I hope you enjoyed this title and now feel ready to dive into
e-commerce. Just remember selling online is like selling anywhere else.
| | 00:08 | It's all about the customer. Provide
a good experience, good presentation,
| | 00:13 | be friendly and informative. The rest is all just technology
to get there. So go get started, have fun and thanks a lot.
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