how to answer?

[jloyzaga]

All,

I have a friend that I installed OSC on. He doesn't get it and I need to show him that all is possible with OSC as per his outline below. He thinks because he can set up an access DB he can do Databases. The following is an email to me wanting to revamp the stock standard OSC site - 90% of what he wants is possible standard. The rest is ludicrous. Can someone help me by sensible answering the issues below (I am extremely losing my temper and need some calm answers to the following note). Some of this is just someone who doesn't understand it trying to make it work like he would write it. How EASY is it to modify OSC to do all of the below and is there a way to get easypopulate to upload more than 300 at a time? Moreover, can anyone answer any of the below calmly and politely without swearing or killing him? I can't so I'm asking for help

Many possible features sound great but complicate the site without being core to the purpose of the site. The purpose of the site is to offer the products for sale on line and support the promotion of the business generally. We need to simplify the structure of the database behind the site. Customer data collected for marketing or to complete a sale can be entered via forms/templates and emailed to the shop. Such data would be stored on the shop’s computer rather than in some table online. Having all product data in one file allow updating accurately with confidence the site’s data. The Infinitas data may include over 10,000 products, we can’t upload these in lots of 300. The current uploading system does not remove bad product data automatically.

I need these 2 sites to generate revenue soon. Recommendations to visit the sites will be driven by customers visiting the shop, my marketing and any clever methods we can implement with search engines. Retention of visitors on the site will be largely due to data completeness and useful information.

I would like to share with you my rambling thoughts on the site structure.

Suggested specifications / site structure.

First page:

Header with logo.

Balad of the Bloke.

Listing of major brands inc: Leatherman, Wenger, Victorinox, Gerber, Simpsons, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Saxon, VB, Bosch, Ardel, Holden, Zippo, Aladdin, Risk, Monopoly, Mag-lite, Playboy, Wahl,

Shop address, phone, fax, email

Links to Chamber of Commerce, etc awards. To open in small window without closing our site.
Links to suppliers with supportive sites. To open in small window without closing our site.
Links to advice pages, to be added later as I create them as separate html documents. eg: How to sharpen a cut throat razor, Corkscrew design, telescope types, etc
View/Search products button.
Review shopping cart button.

Second Page: Product Listing

Down left side of page: Combo Boxes
Category
Gift Guide
Brand
Series
ISBN
Search (description, series, brand option) box.

Most of page:
List of all products filtered as per selection in combo boxes on left side.
Fields to display:
Brand, Product name, Series, Retail Price, Click to jump to individual product page.

Third Page: Individual Product

Display details of product:
Brand, Name, Description, Category, Guide, Series, ISBN, Barcode, Author, Format, Release Date, Price
Image to appear on this page.
Add to shopping cart button to appear on this screen.
Return to listing button.

Forth Page: Shopping Cart
List product added to shopping cart.
Enter shipping details button.
Template to fax credit card details to shop. Phone number of shop to give credit card details over phone.
Complete purchase button.
Cancel purchase button.
Email us button.

I envisage all product data being kept in one file ( csv text file) not imported into tables.
I envisage all product images being stored as separate jpg files in one directory, without other non product images in the same directory.
The row source for the combo boxes to be query returning only unique records from the relevant field in the csv data file.
The product list to be query returning all records in the csv data file, filtered as per the combo boxes.
Each combo box must default to a any/all/wildcard option.
I envisage the individual product page to be ‘populated’ with the results of a query with Where barcode ( or other product ID field) = barcode of the line of the cursor on the Product Listing page.

This is quite different from the assumed structure of the off the shelf shopping cart.
It allows all data to be updated when the csv data file is replaced. Current system of importing products is messy and does not automatically remove redundant products.
It allows the customer to browse through a brief listing of all our products. Many customers will come to the site to have a look, not to source particular items. I want them the see the range we have.
It allows product to list even if some data are missing, ie: Null fields will not exclude the product from listing. We will never have perfect data.
For speed, customers do not wait for images to download for products they are not interested in. many customers are impatient. We may have only seconds to capture the interest of browsing customers.
It allow the product data to change very often, almost daily. The shop database is changing daily and the website should also change often to keep the interest of regular visitors. I need to be able to easily filter product off the website as I run out of stock, etc. Some of the criteria for what product is to be offered on the website will be complicated and best programmed in POSeasy rather than in the shopping cart. Product from suppliers with rapid and accurate delivery service could be listed on our website without it being in stock.

The important marketing feature of Blokey Stuff is the product mix, not the individual products. We do a wide range of stuff for blokes. It is likely that we can supply a gift to suit any bloke. We neen to allow customers to easily scroll through lists of product, so that they might find items of interest they didn’t know they needed.

A site which though not very pretty, is not dissimiliar from what I am suggesting is:
http://www.rowlingstock.com.au/
I like the way product is listed breifly in a long list and by clicking one goes to a detailed description for each item. No images until the product is chosen

[Kristine]

OH My!

[jloyzaga]

see my problem

I figure the formatting is easy - remove right hand column etc etc. I also figure I can empty the DB before each easypopulate upload. Any ideas?

Joe

[Kristine]

yes, you could empty the data base before a new EP, 10,000 products that's alot! You could also use the *all products* contrib to give a text listing of all the products w/out pictures. I think most of what he wants can be achieved. I'm not sure why he only wants 3 pages, thats a tad small for 10,000 products??
I hope you're getting the big $$ for doing all this for him!