kyalee Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I'm a relative newbie when it comes to PHP scripting. So far my most complex script has been a contact form for my website. But I'm very skilled in HTML and CSS and do freelance website design. Now I have people pressuring me to create an ecommerce website for them. I'm not looking at a strict time frame, I can take as long as I need to do it, so the really really steep learning curve isn't too much of an issue...probably. I've also made it very clear that I'm not comfortable doing anything that would handle actual credit card transactions. All credit card processing would go through another service. Basically what I would need to do is create a site where people can register an account and place orders, again with all payment going through an outside service. I guess my question is, is it feasible for one person to do that on their own? I don't know what sorts of programming staff they have on hand at most ecommerce websites. I don't mind hard work and I learn best when I have a project at hand to apply the new information too, but if it's totally ridiculous for one person to attempt such a project, I think I'd like to know now. Apologies if this is OT for this forum. I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 It all depends on the level of functionality that is required. For an extremely basic site, it is totally doable. But, even for a basic site, I would be VERY hesitant to have someone with little experience putting it together. We are talking abut monetary transaction. Even if the CC transactions are being taken care of by a 3rd party souce, the site developer is required to create the code needed to connect to that source. And, even putting that aside, the developer is responsible for creating all the code for creating the cart, totally the order with shipping, taxes, etc. One mistake can cause many problems in lost revenue or customer perception. There are many low cost ecomerce ready solutions available. I'd suggest finding one with the features you need and see about customizing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyalee Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Unfortunately, they've tried the ready made ecommerce sites and have yet to find something they like which is why they want something custom. Functionality would probably be very basic. The main requirement is that the site be password protected so that customers need to register an account and log in before being able to see the products. I keep trying to put them off, but them seem to have this idea that I can do anything and since I created their basic website with contact form, clearly I can give them Amazon.com and they don't listen when I tell them that it's so not the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Then see if you can find something with the features they need that you feel you can modify. Unless they are wanting some really non-standard functionality (which it doesn't sound like from your explanation) I find it hard that there is nothing available to meet their needs. More likely they didn't like the "look" of those ready made solutions. But, they are typically built to be customized for the look and feel - which sounds like something right up your alley. I would start by getting a list of requirements from them and I bet you will find that there are plenty of ready-made solutions that fit their needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
machupicchu Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 You most certainly can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbin Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Something involving people's real money could be a bad first project, although it sounds fairly harmless unless you decide to do something weird like store credit card numbers or something ;p. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phparray Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 First anything with e-commerce in the title should automatically up your price tag. Second I would be willing to bet you could handle it. Like other people have said there are a ton of ready made solutions which are easy enough to customize through a template system of some sort. If all they need is basic you could use paypal's tools. You wanted all the payment processing to be handled else where anyway so paypal express checkout sounds perfect. Not to mention most ready made store packages come with the paypal api built right in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyalee Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Something involving people's real money could be a bad first project, although it sounds fairly harmless unless you decide to do something weird like store credit card numbers or something ;p. I think so too. Although technically it would be my second read project. But it's a pretty big jump from simple contact form to ecommerce. But, yeah, I absolutely wouldn't want anything to do with the money. I have considered using paypal. That would let me be more hands off with the money but still do the design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haku Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 I wouldn't recommend it. You are likely to leave security holes in the system, and even if you aren't collecting money - if someone gets into your system, they could potentially figure out how to get stuff sent out even when payment hasn't been received. Use an existing modifiable system. Most of them are modifiable to varying degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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