About MetaCart2

Overview
Hardware/Software Requirements
Credit Card Processing
Installation/Setup
Support/Add-ins
Browser-based Administration
The MetaCart Demos

Overview

The MetaCart2 eCommerce Shopping Cart System for Small Businesses and Developers contains many, but not all, of the features implemented in MetaCart2 for SQL Server. As with our other e-Commerce software applications, MetaCart2's HTML code remains fully customizable for easy integration into your web site. To customize and integrate the application into your own site, you will need to know basic HTML and have some familiarity with Active Server Pages, VBScript and MS Access databases.

With MetaCart2, your electronic storefront will have the same capabilities and functionality as MetaCart, including:

• Catalogs and products are fully searchable from every page by category, product name, product description, or price level.
• Database administration and order processing is accomplished through an integrated 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).
• Credit card number validation using the Luhn Modulus 10 method.
• Encryption of credit card numbers stored in database.

In addition, MetaCart2 also allows for:

• in-state sales tax calculations,
• automated inventory reporting and updating,
• calculation of shipping charges based on weight, and
• support for subcategories under main catalog listings.

Like its predecessor, MetaCart2 was designed for manual credit card processing. See "Credit Card Processing" below for more information regarding accepting credit card payments.

MetaCart2 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 MetaCart2 , 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. MetaCart2 was developed on a Windows platform and the demo on the MetaLinks.com site is hosted on a Windows 2000 Server.

For MetaCart2 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 MetaCart2 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 this 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 and, in the MetaCart2 download package. Use of MetaCart2 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 MetaCart2 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.