Yes indeed. You can use your current design and simply plug in Cartweaver using the Cartweaver extension suite, if you are editing in Dreamweaver. If you are editing in a codes editor such as HomeSite+ or Eclipse to bring the cart functionality to your current site, it is merely a matter of dropping in some server side includes. The file extension of dynamic pages will have to change from .htm to the extension for your server model (.cfm, .php or .asp).

We don't like to compare in a us vs. them way. Everything has its niche in the marketplace.

The basic concept of Cartweaver and Miva are quite different.

Miva is more of a template driven solution that helps a business owner or less experienced web designer put some product on the web with out having to worry about what the technology is and what is going on under the covers.

Cartweaver is developed for developers. It is very well documented and extensively commented to help web designers get into the application development end of things.

Being in ColdFusion is also quite helpful because it is easier to learn as well.

Which should you use? Well if you have a some product you want to sell on the web, don't have high demands for design flexibility, and once you are done with the site have no interest in developing more e-commerce sites. Miva is a good choice. It's designed to help you through the process and get you up and running, and has proven to be a reliable solution.

If you want to learn application development, or already know application development and want a good framework to start from, or you will be developing multiple sites or a very customized site, Cartweaver is an excellent choice. An added benefit is, if you are new to dynamic application development, you will find developing your first Cartweaver site a great learning experience and will be a better developer by the time you're done.

Which is the right choice? That is 100% up to you.

Cartweaver with the Cartweaver Extension Suite is fully compatible with all the Adobe Dreamweaver "CS" versions and Dreamweaver 8.

If you prefer to hand code, since all source code is included, you will find Cartweaver works very well with HomeSite +, Eclipse or the text editor of your choice.

If you haven't done so already, download the latest Dreamweaver trial from the Adobe web site and give it a spin.

Microsoft Access has come a long way in making it itself a stable database for light-weight applications.

It's a good starting point, but the truth is that Access cannot handle more than 25 or so simultaneous transactions. That is actually not bad for a small web site. However, if your site gets busy you will need to think about moving to something more robust. Access when pushed past its limit can crash in some ugly ways.

We realize that Access may not be the best solution for all sites, and for this reason we provide free database creation scripts for supported enterprise-level databases. See the Server Requirements for individual Cartweaver versions to see which databases are supported.

Best thing to do is get Ben Forta's book - Sam's Teach Yourself SQL in 10 minutes. This book is a very valuable resource you will use a lot. No matter how long you've been at it you can't remember every SQL command. This book will put them at your fingertips.

AllDomains.com - Outstanding control panel. You will never have to depend on someone else to manage your domain again. You can redirect, forward e-mail, change hosts yourself. GoDaddy is also a common choice, but they are a lot more pushy when it comes to trying to sell you other products and services, it can get a bit annoying. Then there is the old stand-by Network Solutions. They used to be difficult to deal with but have gotten much more user/customer friendly.

Microsoft offers SQL Server 2005 Express as a free download. For web site development it has all the functionality you'll likely ever need and sites developed using SQL Server Express are fully compatible with the commercial versions. It also comes with an outstanding database management tool.

An SSL costs between $55.00 and $100.00. There are many reputable, lower cost alternatives available. Here is a brief list:

• GeoTrust
• Entrust


• InstantSSL
• SSL.com

Cartweaver includes all source code, and not encrypted so there is no way to "time out" the application. Because of this no trial version is available. There is a full demo to show how it works though.

Also, feel free to stop by the Cartweaver support forum to see what folks have to say about it. We think you will be pleased with what you hear.

Cartweaver is licensed to the individual developer. That developer can use Cartweaver to develop as many sites as he/she wishes. If there is more than one developer working on the Cartweaver site(s), such as in a work group or team environment, each individual developer would need to purchase a copy. Cartweaver may be used to develop sites for the end user, that is a client who wishes to have a shopping cart, or for the developer's own site. The Cartweaver code in whole or in part may not be resold to other developers for the purpose of web or application development.

This was done to make Cartweaver as affordable and useful to the individual developer as possible, without having to worry about "site licenses".

Cartweaver does not by default support this with good reason. Although connecting to shipping providers may sound like a very cool feature and some cart systems use it as a real selling point, the real-world truth of the matter is it is more often a headache and a maintenance hassle. Shippers quite frequently (with little or no notice) will change something, and if you don't modify your cart to the new specifications, your cart breaks. If the shipper experiences technical difficulties, your cart breaks. If the connection over the web to your shipper becomes interrupted, your cart breaks.

Surely you can see this can be less than an ideal situation. Your cart could end up with a lot of stability issues that you have absolutely no control over. Most merchants and developers have enough headaches without throwing this into the mix. Not to mention, if you want to change shippers you have to redevelop the shipping portion of your cart. And, what if you want to use multiple shippers to get the best pricing available?

Instead, Cartweaver features a flexible shipping matrix that can be dialed in to provide accurate shipping charges and at the same time be reliable and hassle free.

Now, if you still wish to add this functionality, the infrastructure is already in place and would be a fairly straight-forward modification to make.

Yes Cartweaver does support Shared SSLs, but we don't recommend them. Purchasing your own SSL is very inexpensive, between $50 and $100.00. Having an SSL installed to the root directory of your site eliminates many of the possible mapping issues shared SSLs can present. The biggest reason for having your own SSL is customer confidence. With a shared SSL, when a customer clicks on the little gold lock to check out your certificate your host's name appears, not yours... This is more than enough to make a timid shopper bail out. How many sales can you afford to lose in an effort to save fifty bucks?

Hits (meaning reads) on the database aren't really the problem. As far as reading from the database, Access can handle quite a bit.

The problem is writes to the database. Access can only handle so many concurrent database writes. Estimates range anywhere from twenty to twenty-five concurrent writes before Access starts to have problems with data integrity.

Because Cartweaver stores the actual cart data in a "holding table" in the database, this threshold is reached sooner than it would be if the cart were stored in memory as in sessions. This is a worthwhile trade off though, because the cart can persist from one customer visit to the next and we can support shared SSLs.

So, how much traffic can an Access based site take before you have to start to worry?

Although, say twenty five hits, doesn't sound like that much, remember that is concurrent hits. That would be twenty five users writing to the database at exactly the same moment, so this could actually be a pretty busy site and still be OK. A word of caution here though. When Access does reach it's threshold and if it should crash, it can be very ugly! Due to the fact that an Access database is a self contained compiled unit, when it goes it can render your whole database unrecoverable. Not good!

So when should you think about moving to SQL Server or MySQL?

My take on this is, if you feel you have to ask this question, it's probably time to move. Also, it's always better sooner than later, I mean where's the problem in your database being more robust than you need? Finally, SQL Server can be added to your hosting account for very little money. If you or your client are in a position where the extra ten or twenty bucks a month really makes that big of a difference, there are far more serious issues to be addressed than what database you should be using. If you are getting from this that I favor SQL Server or MySQL over Access, you're reading me right. My actual database choices in order of preference are... MS SQL Server, MySQL, then Access. And as for choosing on when to move from Access, I strongly recommend you error on the side of caution and move too soon rather than too late. The net price of moving too late is much higher than the cost of moving too soon.

After your transaction is complete you will receive an order confirmation via email. A link to download your copy of Cartweaver is included in the order confirmation email. The file is delivered in .zip format and is less than one megabyte, so you should have no problem downloading it, even on a dial-up connection.

A term to keep in mind from a legal stand point is "due diligence". You have to do as much as you possibly can, within reason, to be sure your client's data is safe. Here are a few things to consider, for security and to protect yourself.

1. Secure your database.
If you are using MS Access, be sure the database file is located above the web root or in a folder that has web access restricted. If the file is not stored above the root, double-check that the database is in a non-browse-able directory by entering the address of you Access file in a browser. If the browser begins to download the file, you are in big trouble; contact your host immediately to get the permissions properly configured.

If you are using MS SQL server or MySQL, be sure all the proper security protocols are followed and in place. If you are not 100% confident that you know how to secure a SQL database, hire someone to help lock it down for you. It is money well spent.

2. Secure the site with a reputable, well-known SSL provider.
Fortunately there are some recognizable names out there that are still pretty inexpensive, such as GeoTrust.

3. Use custom error pages.
Some error pages generated by the server, may display your data source name, database tables and field names, and other sensitive information right there for the world to see. This is NOT what you want to have happen on a live ecommerce site, that's for sure! Use custom error pages to display a user friendly message that doesn't give away private application information.

4. Don't store credit card data in your database!
This is a big one; pass this data off to your Payment processor and let them deal with it. They have the money to develop the security systems necessary to protect this data and teams of lawyers on retainer to defend them if they get sued. Let them take the risk. Credit card data in your database is a ticking time bomb. Even if you aren't hacked, an unscrupulous employee could still steal this data and get you in a real bind.

5. Implement a "Hold Harmless" agreement.
A Hold Harmless agreement is very important, especially if the client insists on storing Credit Card data. Go over verbally and provide in writing, all the security precautions that you have put in place to protect your customers' data, then get them to sign an agreement accepting your work and releasing you from any and all responsibility and liability from that point on. If your client has you do additional work on the site at a later date, when the work is finished have them sign a new updated agreement. This may seem like a real pain, but consider the cost of the consequences if you don't take this measure.

Following the steps above will help you sleep better at night and makes you look more professional to your clients, which is definitely worth the effort!

Yes we have many non-programmers successfully using and loving Cartweaver. What are your chances of success? Here are the determining factors:

Although Cartweaver makes setting up a shopping cart, and integrating it into your site design about as easy as it can possibly be, there is still a learning curve involved. You will still have to install CFMX developer's edition on your system. Learn how to set up a DSN (data source name) and a few other basic requirements for setting up any dynamic web application in Dreamweaver MX or later. This is just basic ColdFusion/Dreamweaver setup; you will are not be required to learn ColdFusion code, but you will have to be willing to learn some new things.

Learning what you need to know to be able to use Cartweaver to create shopping cart web sites is no more difficult than learning the things you already know. You've had to be come familiar with HTML and CSS. You've had to learn the principles behind HTTP in that you understand how a link works and how a form works. You may not crack open a text editor and write code by hand, but you have gained a basic understanding of how things work in order to be able to design web sites.

If you are of the mind set that you absolutely do not want to learn anything new, you just want to push a couple of buttons and have a site that can sell a few things, then Yahoo Stores or some other template driven solution may be a better choice. You will sacrifice control and creativity in the process, but you will have a store up quickly and the learning curve will be virtually non-existent.

If you want to add a new skill set to your repertoire and are willing to put your thinking cap on for a few days, you will love Cartweaver. And in short order you will be able to add e-commerce development to your list of services.

In reality, anyone who develops web sites is to some degree, a programmer. If you are willing to learn just a few more things, you are already enough of a programmer to be cranking out Cartweaver based shopping cart sites!

If you are already familiar with setting up a dynamic web development environment and creating a DSN (data source name), please skip to the last paragraph. If not, please read on.

There many variables involved in answering this question. So let's qualify things a bit. A shopping cart/eCommerce website is a 'Dynamic Web Application', which means that your site connects to and communicates with a database using an application server be it ColdFusion, PHP or ASP – which can be a bit of a complex process.

Fortunately Cartweaver makes adding eCommerce to your website about as easy as it can ever be! However, there are a few things involved that may be a learning curve for you. To work with Cartweaver, or any dynamic web application, you will need to be familiar with (or at least be willing to learn about) setting up a dynamic development environment by installing a web server such as IIS for ASP, Apache for PHP, or ColdFusion server.

Next you will need to connect to your database by creating a 'DSN' (data source name). If you're using Adobe Dreamweaver, its documentation covers this quite well.

If you are new to dynamic web applications, you may want to go about setting up your development environment first – even before purchasing Cartweaver, just to get your feet wet and learn what's involved. Once you've done the above you are ready for Cartweaver! Truthfully most of the initial learning curve has little to do with Cartweaver itself, there are simply some steps you will need to know and learn for ANY dynamic application.

If your development environment is up and running and you know how to create a DSN to your database, you'll be very pleased with how easy Cartweaver makes it from here on! If you're using Dreamweaver, you can install Cartweaver, using the Cartweaver Extension Suite in a matter of minutes! If you're not a Dreamweaver user, you'll simply copy/paste some files to your website according to the easy-to-follow directions provided. From there, its a matter of configuring categories, shipping rates, and adding products – all of which is fully documented to help you through it all. For more details, preview the documentation »