RE: FN-FORUM: Small Job required for website

date posted 31st January 2006 15:31

'out-of-the-box' solutions a great skeleton to start from, though like =
you
stated, most clients requirements are far from 'out-of-the-box'..

If I had the time id develop my own ecommerce solution, template driven =
too,
but time is limited and oscommerce suites my needs quite well, its still =
a
nightmare when someone wants some complex changes tho, all those files =
to
edit.....

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of Andy
Macnaughton-Jones
Sent: 31 January 2006 15:49
To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
Subject: RE: FN-FORUM: Small Job required for website


We've found that most of our e-commerce clients don't want an out of the =
box
solution as there's always something that they want to handle =
differently -
strange shipping rules, BOGOF, product properties that work differently =
to
how things are coded. So we wrote our own that works differently to the =
out
of the box solutions - it's template based (but only so far as xslt
templates defining how different sections of a page are laid out), it =
uses
CSS to style how the pages look and because of this each solution can =
look
completely different if the client wants to differentiate themseleves =
from a
"normal" e-commerce site. And because of how we developed it, we have an
intimate understanding of how it works so customisation and bespoke
functionality is straightforward.

It's not a =A340/120 solution, but you get what you pay for, some people =
just
want a "buy it now via paypal" button which is fine, but others need to =
run
their webstore as if it's a proper store with stock, fulfilment, order
processing and so on.

Cheers
Andy

Andy Macnaughton-Jones
Senior Partner IWD2 LLP
Cedar House
Endican Lane
Thornton-le-Moor
North Yorkshire
DL7 9FB

(t) 0870-765-8926
(f) 0870-765-8927
(m) 07956-863517
(e) [EMAIL REMOVED]

IWD2 : Corporate I.T. for the SME


-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of DF =
Office
Mail
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 3:33 PM
To: Andy Macnaughton-Jones
Subject: RE: FN-FORUM: Small Job required for website



---
I must say tho, oscommerce is a fantastic out of the box app for people =
with
no experience but it's a swine to develop for, the code is uber messy, =
its
crying out for templates and class based coding..

ash
---
--
Thing is, theres always someone who will under cut you and do a naffy =
job of
it too, but clients will almost always go for the cheaper price if they =
are
not experienced in these matters.

ash
--

Totally agree twice. We've got our own code libraries that we've =
developed
over the years, but it's no-longer worth offering custom solutions for =
carts
as it's hard to compete on features with any of the open source stuff. =20

I'd say as far as back office freelancers:

"The problem with freelance BACK OFFICE is there are too many =
freelancers,
and too many COWBOYS"... Making it difficult for those of us with 10+ =
years
experience to quote a decent fee for a decent, fully waranted, secure =
and
maintainable solution.



--
Freelancers, contractors earn more with Prosperity4 Call 0870 870 4414 =
or
visit www.prosperity4.com and benefit from Inland Revenue approved =
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today.

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--=20
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