I'm looking for a fairly robust ecommerce solution that will allow you to pull product information from a self-created and maintained database (i.e., I don't want to have to enter product info into their system using their admin module). Site will be built using ASP and an Access database.

For example, I know this would be possible using PayPal, but I'm looking for a more complete system that will also allow fairly seemless integration into the look and feel of the site.

First-time poster. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Originally Posted by piksl

(i.e., I don't want to have to enter product info into their system using their admin module).

Site will be built using ASP and an Access database.

it seems to me that any good programmer can create a transfer utility to allow you to batch load your database using your existing Access structure. the trick will be if your existing Access database is setup correctly enough for a straight forward import into the structure your store/ecommerce system would need.

i use a php driven system with a MySQL back end and i typically batch load my products after i've worked them up in a spreadsheet or similar.

Thanks audre,
The thing is, I'm looking for a store that uses product info from my database directly (so that importing into "their system" is not necessary). My client will be administrating their product information via a password-protected web interface, and that's no problem... but because of that, I need this Access database that they're updating to be the live source of data for the store.

Originally Posted by piksl

I'm looking for a store that uses product info from my database directly (so that importing into "their system" is not necessary). My client will be administrating their product information via a password-protected web interface, and that's no problem... but because of that, I need this Access database that they're updating to be the live source of data for the store.

finding an 'off the shelf' ecommerce application that just happens to be compatible with your Access database structure seems highly unlikely (billion-to-one maybe??). the indexes that you've used and the way you've designed your database probably have no direct correlation with how someone else (namely the ecommerce software guys) might have created their database.

you might be better off picking an ecommerce solution FIRST and then modifying that ecommerce database structure to suit your needs for your local Access application. and even then, you'd need to dissect all the database access routines and do brain surgery to make them look for the data in a remote location.

in either case, you'll need some very knowledgable code wrangler who is comfortable on both the host and local OSs to make it all tie together like that without compromising your security. i mean, there are a zillion programmers who can hack code but only a few REALLY have enough experience to be successful system integrators.

good luck to you - hope you figure it out :-)

audre

Thanks again. The plus is that I have full control over how I create my Access database, so I can include fields that match what the ecommerce system needs. That's no problem. I just need a solution that will pull data from an outside database.

...and I think I need to clarify. When I say that I need to system to "work with my database," I should be saying, "work with the data my database supplies." I'm not expecting the system to actually hook up with my database. I would like to dynamically build my pages with product info (pulled from the database) written to hidden fields which would then get passed along to the ecommerce system when the user adds to cart. Like I said in my original post, you can do this with PayPal. But I'm searching for a full-featured ecommerce system, not what PayPal is offering. Does something like this exist or am I spinning my wheels?

Everyone I know swears by OSCommerce