Building an E-Commerce Site

[Carl Gilbert]

Hi

I was looking to build an E-Commerce web site using ASP.NET. I work with
VB.NET and know some HTML so I imagine the learning curve for ASP.NET
shouldn't be too steep.

I was looking for the best way to approach this task and came across the
IBuySpy starter pack from Microsoft but felt the design fell somewhat short
of the offerings from something like www.oscommerce.com
I then found www.dotnetnuke.com but this seemed more like information sites
rather than online stores.

Then there's the book approach with something like 'Beginning ASP.Net 1.1
E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional' (ISBN: 1590592549) which looks like
it covers the whole process from start to finish.

The more I think about it, the book seems like a safe bet and just let it
guide me the process.

So, the question is...

Whats the best way to develop an E-Commerce site, with little experience in
ASP.NET, and finish with a stylish, stable and user friendly site?

Any thoughts and advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Carl

 

[DalePres]

I can't find the article this evening, but Microsoft recently published an
article, I believe on the Patterns and Practices site, suggesting not to use
the starter packs for developing real world applications. As they pointed
out, those apps are not robust or secure enough for the real word and the
article author indicated that Microsoft was surprised at how many apps are
showing up modeled after them.

The recommendation is to use the patterns and practices Enterprise
Development Reference Architecture for working examples of more reliable and
secure code. You can start at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;872836.

Hope this helps,

DalePres
MCAD, MCSE, MCDBA

 

[Alan Silver]

I can't find the article this evening, but Microsoft recently published

an article, I believe on the Patterns and Practices site, suggesting
not to use the starter packs for developing real world applications.
As they pointed out, those apps are not robust or secure enough for the
real word and the article author indicated that Microsoft was surprised
at how many apps are showing up modeled after them.

Well, when I last looked at the P+P stuff, they specifically stated that
they encouraged people to use the code!! They offered it as "best
practice" code. I am amazed that they have the cheek to suggest that it
wasn't meant to be used.

Apart from which, sample code *always* gets used, even if you tell
people not to. There's too much temptation for a lazy or inexperienced
programmer to pick up on some working code and use it.