Very interested in purching AC, but have some questions

[MarkI]

Hi,

We are very interested in purchasing AbleCommerce. I have downloaded both the trial version (AC7.0) and an SDK that appears to for AC5.5. After playing with both, I have come up with the following questions:

1. Does the trial version contain enough source code to do modifications beyond minor UI tweaking? I don't see a project file, but have it up and running in Vista using VS2005 as a website.
2. Ideally, I see us creating a C# Web Application and adding AbleCommerce to the solution by adding it as an existing project. Is it possible to turn the trial version download into a project that can be added to another solution? If not, does the full-blown version contain more source code (perhaps a .csproj file) that makes this possible?
3. We would like to add a tag cloud to the UI using tags applied to items in inventory - the more a specific tag is searched on, the larger its font appears in the tag cloud.
4. Can we modify the db and search so that users can append tags to items and then search on these tags?

Ideally I'd like to make a proof of concept with the trial version before making a purchase decision. If that is not possible, information about how the above requests can be done in the purchased version would be welcomed.

Thank you and kind regards,

Mark

[Logan Rhodehamel]

1) The downloadable trial version is identical to the standard purchased version with the exception of licensing. In almost every case, the purchase of the full source code is not required to extend/customize the application.

"AbleCommerce" is the name we apply to the entire application, which includes the aspx web scripts. These scripts are built around our "CommerceBuilder" framework. CommerceBuilder is the name we give to the API - a series of .NET classes that facilitate ecommerce and data layer abstraction

So from a customization standpoint, you are free to link into the API and do pretty much whatever you want, including changing the flow of business logic. The caveat is that the API calls must be from within the web application because some of the classes rely on the HttpContext.

2) I am not sure how well that would work. Reference the note above about the API calls needing to come from within the web application.

Still, there is no requirement that you use our web scripts. You could create an entirely new storefront if you wanted, while still using our admin pages and API.

3/4) We have a keywords field associated with the product - this could be a place for your tags if you wanted. Yes, you would have to customize the search portion to work with the keywords and the cloud format. You need to know percentage of relevance which our default search does not provide.

[MarkI]

Hi Logan,

Thank you for the reply. With regard to your comment about search, " ... you would have to customize the search portion ... ", where would this be done? From my limited poking around the product, it seems search is baked into the API - can one customize it with simply the download, or is the source code needed?

Thank you,

Mark

[lab_n_chemicals]

AC7 is a great platform.

However, there is absolutely no guarantee of anyone posting replies to your questions. You buy the product with 0 (zero) contracted support from AC staff. Any changes to the existing code is always a customization issue. AC does not do customization. However members and AC staff do post excellent material all the time in the forums.

Replies are posted by both AC staff like Logan and some extremely kind non AC members such as Joe Payne and jmestep among others. Be prepared to find most of your answers yourself if don't want to wait and I think you have realized that already.

The platform itself is a great deal for $1200 or so. Its easily worth several times that. No regrets purchasing it at all. So if you are not going to miss $1200 and can do your own coding (or afford someone who can) get it.

[Logan Rhodehamel]

it seems search is baked into the API - can one customize it with simply the download, or is the source code needed?

You don't necessarily need the source code. The search from our API is only called in a handful of places from the retail side. What you would do is create a replacement search function and call this instead. Your replacement search could use any technique you like, a SQL Stored procedure using full text search services, for example.

This would actually be preferable in all cases, even for those who purchase the source. If you modify the source directly, then you have to deal with upgradeability issues.