Hi there knowledgeable ones! I'm new so 'Howdi!"

 

I was preparing to use Avactis on 'Pay-as-you-host' when they decided to pull the application due to the ssl requirements of the app. I asked them for an alternative and they pointed me to Magento (interestingly not listed at Hotscripts)

Why do you think this is such a big issue with them?

 

The attraction of Avanctis is how it can be adapted to a site - never done it myself yet - but it does look amazing! Also theres the attraction of 'white-labeling'

 

I have yet to research Magento more fully... can anyone give it the thumbs up!?

Magento is, in my opinion, by far the best e-commerce platform out there. Hotscripts is in no way a good measure of whether an application is any good.

 

Magento comes in two versions. The free community version, or the fully supported enterprise version which costs something like £12,000 a year.

 

I use the free version. It is quite tough to setup, but very, very, VERY powerful.

Welcome to WDF!

 

Avactis is a decent cart system so if it fits your needs why hot host it on your own site? It's not without it's niggles (what cart doesn't have niggles!) but it performs well. The big issue for me was that the cart generates some HTML TABLE code from scripts and not via templates, and you can't generate all LABEL values properly. That aside developer support is good and that's is cruicial for any online ecommerce venture.

 

Magento, as ErisDS said, is powerful. It's really aimed at the "enterprise" level site, hosting requirements are quite strict as well so VPS or Dedicated hosting is recommended.

 

There are plenty of shopping cart systems around that can be customised to match any design or other requirement. Some are easier than others to modify than others.

 

I'd suggest looking through all the carts you see at Hotscripts to see which ones match your needs, or if you have a spec list and budget I'm sure people will recommened a few to look at.

Thanks for your comments and welcome! I forgot to put the email alert thingy on and so thought I had no replies... how wrong I was!

 

I have downloaded the community edition Magento as I was impressed with the bumpf on their site. The powerful bit did come across when checking out their site (as did the bucks side of things.. ouch!)... I have yet to appreciate the VERY powerful elements - sounds good though.

This brings me nervously to the question - why is it tough to set up? - should I be afraid or very afraid!? If there are logical steps - simple to implement - then that would be great....

Thanks for your comments and welcome! I forgot to put the email alert thingy on and so thought I had no replies... how wrong I was!

 

I have downloaded the community edition Magento as I was impressed with the bumpf on their site. The powerful bit did come across when checking out their site (as did the bucks side of things.. ouch!)... I have yet to appreciate the VERY powerful elements - sounds good though.

This brings me nervously to the question - why is it tough to set up? - should I be afraid or very afraid!? If there are logical steps - simple to implement - then that would be great....

 

If you want to use the standard theme it's very easy to implement. It takes no more than an hour. The problems start to appear when your client wants something a little bit more special. Things that may seem very simple to do will give you the biggest headaches. Trust me, you will curse the Magento developers a lot at the beginning. You will probably get paranoid and think that they made it so hard to customize just to make more money by charging for support (200 per hour or something like this). And maybe you wouldn't be so paranoid after all...

If you want to use the standard theme it's very easy to implement. It takes no more than an hour. The problems start to appear when your client wants something a little bit more special. Things that may seem very simple to do will give you the biggest headaches. Trust me, you will curse the Magento developers a lot at the beginning. You will probably get paranoid and think that they made it so hard to customize just to make more money by charging for support (200 per hour or something like this). And maybe you wouldn't be so paranoid after all...

 

Thanks for the encouragement with the fact you say the standard theme is very easy (phew!) - now its time for me to mosey on down and become acquainted with the furry monster that is Magento! er... just opened it and faced with a demo page and thats it - no instructions on how to link a site (!) ....... could you point me in the right direction..?! Perhaps a new post is called for!

I haven't really dug into Magento that much but have a trawl around their user forums, knowledgebase and documentation as you'll find most newbie questions are answered there.

 

Also for a mission critical site it's well worth taking out a support contract, if something goes wrong on a live site and you can't fix it you could be out of action for days/weeks and kill your business overnight

Also for a mission critical site it's well worth taking out a support contract, if something goes wrong on a live site and you can't fix it you could be out of action for days/weeks and kill your business overnight

 

Unless your clients earn mega-money I'd take the risk and if something goes that wrong you can always find and pay some Magento-specialists to sort it out!

Edited January 29, 201016 yr by ErisDS

Unless your clients earn mega-money I'd take the risk and if something goes that wrong you can always find and pay some Magento-specialists to sort it out!

Love the optimism

Love the optimism

 

I have confidence in myself that I can fix anything Magento throws at me. But I also know there are plenty of people out there that know it better than me and will happily take my money if I were to get stuck.

 

I don't imagine it would ever happen, and I certainly am not going to spend hundreds or thousands on an insurance policy! I'm a dev, I solve problems, it's what I do!

I have confidence in myself that I can fix anything Magento throws at me.

 

I solve problems, it's what I do!

Spoken like a true professional