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About MetaCart
Overview
Hardware/Software Requirements
Credit Card Processing
Installation/Setup
Support/Add-ins
Browser-based Administration
The MetaCart Demo
Overview
MetaCart eCommerce Shopping Cart System
for Small Businesses and Developers is similar to our Free and Lite shopping
cart applications but is more robust and includes more functionality. It's
code remains fully customizable for easy integration into your website. To adapt the
code to your own site, you will need to know HTML and have some familiarity with
Active Server Pages, VBScript and MS Access databases.
With MetaCart, your electronic storefront will have the
following capabilities:
- Catalogs and products will be fully searchable from every page by category, product name, product description, or price level.
- Database administration and order processing can be accomplished through a separate browser-based interface.
- Processed transactions can be archived
through the same administrative interface.
- Automatic application-based customer,
shipping and warehouse e-mail notification using Microsoft's
Collaboration Data Objects (CDONTS). Sample code for using JMail instead of CDONTS is
also included.
- Credit card number validation using the Luhn Modulus 10 method.
- Encryption of credit card numbers stored in database.
MetaCart allows customers to shop and order online, posts the orders to a database, and allows for manual credit card processing.
See "Credit Card Processing" below for more
information regarding accepting credit card payments.
MetaCart is based on Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) technology hooked to a Microsoft
Access 2000 (*.mdb) database.
After installation and setup, the system
readies your site for eCommerce. Customers can peruse your catalog of
products and add the items they wish to purchase to their "shopping
basket." The customer then enters shipping and payment details and submits
his/her order, which is then processed and posted to the
database.
Hardware/Software Requirements
To use MetaCart, your eCommerce site will need
to be hosted on a web server that supports Active Server Pages, such as Microsoft
NT Server with at least Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 or
Windows 2000 Server with IIS 5.0.
You will also need a good website design and HTML editing program
(such as FrontPage 2000 or 2002, or Visual InterDev 6.0), and Microsoft
Access to create your own database or to edit the one that
comes with the application. MetaCart was developed on a Windows platform
and the demo on the MetaLinks.com site is hosted on a Windows 2000 Server.
For MetaCart to work properly on
your personal computer, you will need to have one of the following operating systems: Windows 98 or Windows NT with Microsoft Personal Web
Server and Windows NT Option Pack 4 installed (you can download the option pack from Microsoft's website); Windows 2000 Professional with IIS; or Windows XP with IIS.
The only requirement for your customers is that their machine accept cookies
since the application uses browser session cookies for some features. The cookies expire when the user
session expires. No cookies are permanently stored on the customer's computer.
Credit Card
Processing
The
application assumes you will do manual credit card
processing. To use MetaCart for credit card processing, you will need an online merchant account with a bank, an
account with a credit card processing agent, and a security certificate for access
to your server's secure socket layer (SSL) for secure transactions.
Thawte and VeriSign are the two largest issuers of SSL server certificates.
Most of these services can be provided by the internet service
provider (ISP) hosting your eCommerce web site. One of the largest
eCommerce hosting companies is Interland, who hosts the
MetaLinks.com site.
For a complete rundown of accepting credit cards online, see
the article, "What You Will Need - Plain and Simple."
Additional Installation/Setup Instructions
Additional installation and setup instructions, as
well as the End-User License Agreement, are
included in the README file, in the MetaCart download package. Use of MetaCart is governed by the terms of this Agreement.
NOTE: The README file also includes
resources for finding answers to the most frequently encountered
problems with installation of ASP-based applications. These involve the
correct directory location of the global.asa file, the proper setting
of permissions on a network or hosted server, and connecting to the database. Please read these
instructions carefully.
Support/Add-Ins
MetaLinks.com provides limited installation and setup support for MetaCart via e-mail
only. Should you discover any bugs in the application, please notify us so we can post any fixes to our master
download file.
Assistance with other types of services, such as programming and design, adding additional functionality, or hooking up third-party
ASP components to MetaCart, are available at reasonable rates at MetaLinks.com. For
developers and other do-it-yourselfers, the code alone is worth
the purchase price.
Browser-based Administration
The
application includes a set of browser-based administration pages. For
security purposes, the pages are not accessible in the MetaCart
demo, but are included in the download package.
The MetaCart Demos
You are encouraged to
try out all the features of our live demos prior to purchasing any of the MetaCart applications to determine if they meet your needs since we do not offer refunds.
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