MS Commerce Comparison (long)

This WebDNA talk-list message is from

1998


It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 17419
interpreted = N
texte = So a customer of mine shows up yesterday dragging two PCs into the office (which is almost against house rules) begging for help getting his new site to work. You see, his boss bought into the can't go wrong buying Microsoft mentality. It was an interesting day to play with MS products to see how they stack up. For the most part, I can assure everyone on this list that you made the right decision when you bought WebCatalog!The Microsoft solution relies on a backend SQL database with pages and pages of code (per web page) of ASP (Active Server Page) to know how to talk to SQL. This is at the same time a HUGE benefit, and a major hindrance verses WebCatalog. The Downside is editing the ASP. His homepage is almost 30 pages of ASP scripting. (A similar page in WebCatalog consists of 3 includes and 7 lines of html. (the includes build the side menu, the page bottom, and a specials menu that is configurable via a web page)The significant advantage is SQL. WebCatalog keeps all of its databases in RAM. We generally consider this one of the strongest selling features of WebCatalog. Let's face it, this is FAST. But when WebCatalog falls flat on it's face is enterprise integration and scalability. By using SQL, you can set up a dedicated SQL server machine, then tie webservers as front ends to it. You're thinking to yourself, but I don't get that much traffic. Does your webserver ever fail or crash? With 2 webservers as frontends to a common database you are going to realize significantly less costly downtime. Also, you can take one webserver offline to perform maintenance, or software upgrades, then reactivate it, and poof no downtime upgrades!Next on the SQL advantage list is file synchronization. I can't stress this enough, WebCatalog is not ready for prime time when it comes to getting a large company's databases online. (IMHO) The concept of exporting a text file, and uploading it to a webserver on a periodic basis is a joke. While my friend was here we set up two SQL servers, one for my office (he is co-locating servers here) and one for his office. His SQL server can directly (via ODBC) talk to his accounting system. He had some accounting system data on his office SQL server already, so we set up a similar empty table (think database) on the new web SQL server, clicked transfer database, and 1 minute later had a perfect copy uploaded and online. Let me reiterate for those of you who missed it... No exporting data, No ftp, No closedatabase command, No worries about overwriting disk data with ram data, NO DOWNTIME. 3 minutes later, we used a wizard to have the machine update each other every 4 hours. No human required, no scripting required. (remember, this ties directly into their accounting system, so if they add an item, or change a price it automatically goes to their staging server then to our server in 4 hours. Now you are sitting there shaking your head saying just make a web frontend, and you can change stuff on the website live and online. The days of double entry databases is coming to a rapid close. Why should I be forced to add an item to my accounting system and my website? Why should I change prices in two systems? (not to mention the tools that WebCatalog comes with (i.e. DatabaseHelper) is a joke itself (side note to PCS-call me when you want a outline of how the database helper should work, I'll gladly give you an outline :) Also, in case you some how missed it, we need to get away from uploading text files, and then shutting databases, then reloading. Too slow, too inefficient, sometimes too problematic. Hey, Don't think I'm here just bashing away at WebCatalog, I'm not jumping ship any time soon, I'm not learning ASP! WebCatalog's scripting is second to none. (IMHO) But when you want my $1500 for an upgrade to WebCat 3.0, well then, make mine ODBC! Brian B. Burton BOFH - Department of Redundancy Department --------------------------------------------------------------- MMT Solutions - Specializing in Online Shopping Solutions 973-808-8644 http://www.safecommerce.comP.S. Still VERY interested in having a WebCat Get Together. Should I organize, or does PCS want to? Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:

    
  1. Re: MS Commerce Comparison (long) (John Hill 1998)
  2. RE: MS Commerce Comparison (long) (Olin 1998)
  3. MS Commerce Comparison (long) (Brian B. Burton 1998)
So a customer of mine shows up yesterday dragging two PCs into the office (which is almost against house rules) begging for help getting his new site to work. You see, his boss bought into the can't go wrong buying Microsoft mentality. It was an interesting day to play with MS products to see how they stack up. For the most part, I can assure everyone on this list that you made the right decision when you bought WebCatalog!The Microsoft solution relies on a backend SQL database with pages and pages of code (per web page) of ASP (Active Server Page) to know how to talk to SQL. This is at the same time a HUGE benefit, and a major hindrance verses WebCatalog. The Downside is editing the ASP. His homepage is almost 30 pages of ASP scripting. (A similar page in WebCatalog consists of 3 includes and 7 lines of html. (the includes build the side menu, the page bottom, and a specials menu that is configurable via a web page)The significant advantage is SQL. WebCatalog keeps all of its databases in RAM. We generally consider this one of the strongest selling features of WebCatalog. Let's face it, this is FAST. But when WebCatalog falls flat on it's face is enterprise integration and scalability. By using SQL, you can set up a dedicated SQL server machine, then tie webservers as front ends to it. You're thinking to yourself, but I don't get that much traffic. Does your webserver ever fail or crash? With 2 webservers as frontends to a common database you are going to realize significantly less costly downtime. Also, you can take one webserver offline to perform maintenance, or software upgrades, then reactivate it, and poof no downtime upgrades!Next on the SQL advantage list is file synchronization. I can't stress this enough, WebCatalog is not ready for prime time when it comes to getting a large company's databases online. (IMHO) The concept of exporting a text file, and uploading it to a webserver on a periodic basis is a joke. While my friend was here we set up two SQL servers, one for my office (he is co-locating servers here) and one for his office. His SQL server can directly (via ODBC) talk to his accounting system. He had some accounting system data on his office SQL server already, so we set up a similar empty table (think database) on the new web SQL server, clicked transfer database, and 1 minute later had a perfect copy uploaded and online. Let me reiterate for those of you who missed it... No exporting data, No ftp, No closedatabase command, No worries about overwriting disk data with ram data, NO DOWNTIME. 3 minutes later, we used a wizard to have the machine update each other every 4 hours. No human required, no scripting required. (remember, this ties directly into their accounting system, so if they add an item, or change a price it automatically goes to their staging server then to our server in 4 hours. Now you are sitting there shaking your head saying just make a web frontend, and you can change stuff on the website live and online. The days of double entry databases is coming to a rapid close. Why should I be forced to add an item to my accounting system and my website? Why should I change prices in two systems? (not to mention the tools that WebCatalog comes with (i.e. DatabaseHelper) is a joke itself (side note to PCS-call me when you want a outline of how the database helper should work, I'll gladly give you an outline :) Also, in case you some how missed it, we need to get away from uploading text files, and then shutting databases, then reloading. Too slow, too inefficient, sometimes too problematic. Hey, Don't think I'm here just bashing away at WebCatalog, I'm not jumping ship any time soon, I'm not learning ASP! WebCatalog's scripting is second to none. (IMHO) But when you want my $1500 for an upgrade to WebCat 3.0, well then, make mine ODBC! Brian B. Burton BOFH - Department of Redundancy Department --------------------------------------------------------------- MMT Solutions - Specializing in Online Shopping Solutions 973-808-8644 http://www.safecommerce.comP.S. Still VERY interested in having a WebCat Get Together. Should I organize, or does PCS want to? Brian B. Burton

DOWNLOAD WEBDNA NOW!

Top Articles:

Talk List

The WebDNA community talk-list is the best place to get some help: several hundred extremely proficient programmers with an excellent knowledge of WebDNA and an excellent spirit will deliver all the tips and tricks you can imagine...

Related Readings:

Questions on Mac WC 3.0.5b13 (2000) Non-repeating Random Numbers (2002) 'does not contain' operator needed ... (1997) [WebDNA] CentOS 8 (2020) japanese characters (1997) Math (1997) user submitted data REPOST (2000) [WebDNA] php -> WebDNA: Can I do this with [tcpconnect]? (2013) New Plug-in and Type 11 errors (1997) [OT] - See my site? (2004) Reminder... (2003) Solution to Back button (2000) Gettting IPAddress (2001) WebCat2: Items xx to xx shown, etc. (1997) OT: Hello to the list (2004) Grouping search fields, etc. (1997) Feature req. (2002) Search (1997) [if] (2003) WebCat 4 Unix/Linux for sale (2003)