Lagondaforum

Subject: Prototype on-line Club spares ordering facility

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Hi Folks,

Some of you may be aware that the Lagonda Club is re-doing the web site. In conjunction with this work, I have taken responsibility for building an on-line spares shop. People might like to browse my prototype ordering facility at http://www.lagondaclub.co.uk/spares/acatalog/

The site is not yet ready to be used commercially; prices, descriptions and stock levels bear only a passing resemblance to what the club actually sells. However, it does provide a good indicator of what I intend to do with the site when it does eventually go commercial. Up till then everything will be subject to change. For example, at the moment users do not have to log in to do test parts orders and when the site is live, only Lagonda Club members will be allowed to order parts.

Feel free to browse. You can even do some test orders but be aware that you will not receive any deliveries from items that you select. Nor will you have to pay for them in real money. However I process all test orders. I would very much like readers to try the on-line shop out and provide me with feedback on the tool, NOT the stock of parts available.

There is still a huge amount of personal work to do to get the site working exactly as I want it to, so at this stage send me comments or observations in a private email, though of course compliments may be posted on this forum!

The commercial e-commerce software package I have used here is really good!

Colin M34

Subject: Re: Prototype on-line Club spares ordering facility

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Hi Colin,

What's the e-commerce package then?

The shopping cart appears to be in Perl?

David

Subject: Re: Prototype on-line Club spares ordering facility

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Hi David,

It's from Actinic http://www.actinic.com/ . I chose it because it integrates very well into the Club spares Sage line 50 system which is used for the accounts. Both use MS Access databases. As far as I know, it makes extensive use PERL scripts.

During my career at BT Labs at Martlesham Heath, I managed to avoid getting too deeply embroiled in writing these things. Instead I focussed much more on studying the dynamics of the liberalised telecom market place. Nowadays, as demonstrated by the availability of Commercial Off The Shelf software (COTS) such as Actinic, no-one can avoid middleware in one form or another, and BT makes great use of Indian software developers. So do Actinic and their back office support team in India is excellent. My main development activity is to configure the Actinic features, and it is veryconfigurable. My favourite control is 'revert to factory settings' .

I have enjoyed learning how to use this tool. It behaves nicely and complements the pleasure I get from working on and driving my vintage cars. There is a lot more to learn (with both things).

Colin M 34