I’d like to tackle the theory of AJAXification for a moment, mainly because I was just in the middle of an AJAX-rendered hellish portion of an otherwise OK website.

AJAX is a buzzword and people who even know it are probably some of the few web programmers out there still able to compete over 6-digit salaried jobs.

The simple definition is that AJAX is a browser-side technology — in other words it doesn’t run on the webserver, it runs on your home or office computer — that sends data and fetches data to and from a web server without the need to reload or load the webpage. Only the portion of the webpage that needs to be changed is changed, rather than the whole webpage. It can save time and looks better to the user because the pictures and background of the page don’t need to reload. It can also be a waste of time, as shown in the example below.

With the proper use of AJAX, a web application can swiftly and seamlessly load information and change something on the webpage. Perhaps it can be used to anticipate the user’s next move, load some data on the sly, and have it ready to slip in with some slick javascript maneuver when the user clicks. “Ha, ha! I knew you were going to click that!” This is especially cool when there are fewer choices for what the user might do. Not so great when there is a lot of data to pull from the webserver and not so great when there are too many choices to properly anticipate the user’s next maneuver or when the data being pulled is directly dependent on the user’s input.

The result of AJAX used correctly is a user experience that resembles a desktop application. Google (gmail at least) has it right, and I sure hope their programmers are getting the 6-digit income they deserve.

What annoys me is when AJAX is used to “be cool” — not to enhance the user’s experience.

The application that annoyed me today is the largest area newspapers’ online calendar of events. Perhaps the application ran “slick” in testing with only 5 or 10 events listed. I’m sure it ran very nicely. Especially from their high-tech offices with terrific web service, or even with the servers at the same location.

There’s a mini calendar which shows a bit into next month, and underneath it, starting with “today”, is a huge detailed listing (date, time, name of event, location…) of the area’s events for the next several days.

Each date on the calendar is a link that, when hovered, brings up a floating list of that day’s events. If there were 3 events per day, this would be bright. There’s more like 40. It takes as long to load the floating list as it would to reload the web page. You have to sit there hovering your mouse over the date for what seems like an eternity as it makes a call to the database to pull up and format the day’s events. There’s a nice swirly thing that shows up if you hover over the mini calendar. Without the swirly thing, if I went to the mini calendar to click, I wouldn’t ever know that a “cool” list would eventually pop up. It pops up next to my mouse with a listing so long that when I then move my mouse down the list I eventually hit the bottom of the browser, and the whole AJAXified listing goes away. It doesn’t scroll as I move down. That’s real helpful.

Ok. Well, one could live with that — instead of hovering and getting a hand-cramp, how about clicking on the date. As one would expect, the listing under the mini calendar changes to start with the date selected. However, this incites another AJAXified call to the database to fetch several days’ events and replace the vast majority of the content on the webpage. Again, this data pull results in a long “load time” for the javascript (AJAX) to pull the data. It’s nice that the sidebar dancing ads don’t change, but exactly what time are you saving? Does this make you look “smarter” and “slicker”? Maybe…to the advertisers since you suddenly have nothing to do but stare at their glowing undulating ads.

But let’s say I want to peruse today’s events, and pull up the event details for items I’m interested in in another window, or in another tab, of my browser? Then when I’m done selecting a bunch, I can look through the event’s details…

Because these aren’t real webpage links, it ignores my attempt to open the link in another window. They’re all “javascript links” and when I click them, the entire page goes away, even if I’ve attempted to open it in another window or tab. To get back to the mini calendar or listing, now I have to get the whole page by going “back” in the browser. That’s not the way I want webpages to behave. At all. I’m a tab-oriented person. I let pages load in another tab and look at them when I’m good and ready.

All this time my laptop fan is going nuts, the load on my laptop was increasing, my laptop was getting hotter, and it was a waste to even be on the page. I have better things to waste my time with, like ranting about the abuse of AJAX!

This is just one example of a webpage that needs an AJAX Anonymous support group. Perhaps they never thought through what the user would do, how they would expect it to behave. They created a webpage Frankenstein monster based on what was “cool”. It’s not EASIER. It’s not CHEAPER. It’s their self-aggrandizement at stake. “Look, we have AJAX!” — so what?

It doesn’t help that I went for an interview with that company a year ago and they kept asking me if I knew AJAX and I kept saying “Not Yet.” I still say not yet because I’m still not convinced that anything good would come of it. I’ve seen very very few things that would REALLY be enhanced by the use of AJAX. AJAX is not the killer tool to make a website cool. A website is either cool or not, regardless of the technology behind it. If doing something in AJAX would really make the experience better, go for it. Gmail is cool because it rather closely replicates the experience of a desktop email application. I hardly use it, but when I did, I was suitably impressed, then went back to my own email app.

An online shared calendar doesn’t need to be AJAXified like this one was, though. I would have preferred to load each day’s events in a separate tab, or view event details for selected dates in different tabs so I could keep flipping between them and comparing times and locations to see how many events I could attend.

What this AJAX stuff does to search engine optimization: Since search engines ignore javascript, all that data means nothing to them. Terrific on a private area of a website, horrible in a calendar application.

So, in conclusion, if you’re looking for AJAX because you heard that AJAX is cool, ask to see some good and bad AJAX in action and talk to an expert to decide whether or not AJAX would enhance your users’ experience given what you’re doing on your website.

If you really do know AJAX, please stop people before they ruin their websites with it. You have a moral and ethical responsibility to guide people correctly in how they use their websites.

Please curb your AJAX. Good boy. Sit.

I’ve changed my prices on everything except my hourly rates, as promised.

Now I’ve gone and put a sale on blog additions to the Easy-to-Edit website package.

Whatever it is that you have to speak about, I’ve got the software to help you say it!

Watch the sale page each month for specials. Most specials apply to the Easy-to-Edit package, so get the base package before the price goes up hire — all my prices will slowly be escalating for the next several months, and proposal expiration dates will be strictly adhered to.

http://www.eclectictech.net/wiki/Learn/GeekYourResume

Why didn’t I put this in my blog? I have no idea.

I wrote an awesome article for geeks (and anyone) on the steps & styles needed to build a proper resume. Back in May of ‘06. I guess I was explaining the process to someone and went whole-hog and created an article on my website for it, and I forgot to mention it in my blog for all of Technocrati to see.

With so much competition, your resume is the first thing people are going to see. You want to stand at least head, if not head & shoulders, above your fellow jobseekers. I spent time as a tech recruiter, and I say that probably 50% or more of the geeky job-seeking force needs a serious Resume 101 class. Since you’re not likely to stop playing World of Warcraft long enough to take a class, but still need a job to pay the monthly fees (not to mention electricity and ISP), I’m going to give you a little boot camp (or a boot somewhere else) so you can get up-to-date.

I’ve included Word and Open Office resume templates with my Geek Your Resume article. With style sheets. I expect you all to get off your collective buttocks and look for work. Now.

Good luck out there, soldiers! Make me proud!

Preamble: I have decided I don’t like Gallery2 as my portfolio application. I’m going to be working on moving back to PmWiki for my portfolio in the future — so my latest work is not in my portfolio.

I re-created the Business Exchange Network’s website in December, 2006. The old site may still be available. This is a template rather than custom design, however I custom programmed several features for the site, then donated the instructions on how to do it for other sites back at the application project site. This site incorporates a calendar, member business directory, and each member has a profile page that acts as a mini-website for them. Since a few people in the group don’t have websites, this gives them a real place on the web to call home until they decide whether they want a website.

I helped out at KwicTax, LLC - programming a form on the site, adding required fields, and generally making the form and subsequent information revealed after filling out the form behave properly.

An ongoing client is up to her usual beautiful designs - Apryl of Silverflux Design has been outsourcing programming and general geekery and software installations to Eclectic Tech. This week we finished working on the Serendipity bead store website in Canada. My handiwork is the calendar and newsletter subscription integration.

In-progress Sites

Almost completed: Beth Ward of Jaidens Jewels has requested a website redesign and shopping cart. This work is in progress and if you’d like to see it before it’s finished, feel free to email me.

Almost completed: Chris Zino of Zino Technical Services in Bayville, NY has requested a website design and wiki application — he’s absolutely thrilled to be using a wiki and is already creating pages on the site, and I haven’t even gotten around to training him yet! At the time of the writing, we’re still hashing out the logo for his business, and once the logo is decided we may well be changing the colors on the site, but the site is up, works, he’s in business, and his contact info is there if anyone needs home audio installations, networking installation or repair, computer service, or a dozen other techie services on Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk Counties), he’s your guy!

New Client: I’m under contract for the redesign and reworking of Orange Environment’s website. I’ve started working, but there’s nothing to show yet. Orange Environment is a non-profit that has been working to save the open spaces of Orange County, NY for 25 years. This is their 25th Anniversary website overhaul, and this year they’ll be holding an Earth Day celebration on April 21st. Location(s) TBA. If you see my company name at the bottom of the site, then I’ve made progress enough to go live on my work. Until then, if you want to see the development site-in-progress, feel free to email me.

New Client: My newest client is Middletown Community Health Center (MCHC) who has requested a modernization and more features for their website. Again, if my company name is not at the bottom of the page, you’re looking at their old site. Ask me for a URL for their development site-in-progress. As of the time of writing, I haven’t gotten that far yet but work should begin shortly.

Attention to all customers:

June of last year I raised my hourly fees. This year, I’m going to change my package prices. I’ve priced some exceptionally attractive packages, but I’m losing time and money on the deals.

I’m going to phase in new prices incrementally over the next several months.

Starting February 1st, I’m going to raise all the package prices on the website and any new work proposals that go out will be at the new prices — and that raise in prices will be about 10% per month until approximately November. Proposals always go out with an acceptance clause (”prices are good if you respond within X days”), and starting February 1st, work proposal acceptance clauses will be strictly adhered to. If you call the next month, after your offer has expired, the price will go up.

I will extend a courtesy for proposals that expired in January: Any proposal that expires in January can be locked in at the old rate if you sign a project agreement and submit a deposit before February 15th. Proposals that expired before January need to be re-estimated. Deadlines will also need to be changed, and it will be reflected in your work proposal.

Any customers whose proposals expired before January should request a new proposal for their work. It will give my new proposal system a good test and keep me busy.

Money Saving Tips:

1. If your proposal or project agreement expired before January, request a new proposal or agreement and accept by February 15th or the expiration date, whichever is later.
2. If your proposal or project agreement expires in January, sign a project agreement by February 15th.
3. If you miss the boat, you’ll pay more.

Slashdot rejected my question submission, so I’ll write about it in my blog and see if anyone is interested in answering it.

I have insurance, but I want exactly the RIGHT insurance. My insurance agent says that what I have may very well cover what I do, but is hunting high and low for insurance that will explicitly rather than implicitly cover both the design AND the programming portions of my business without making me broke. All she’s finding are either policies with specific exclusions for web programming, or policies that are exceptionally expensive.

The problem is that every programmer is being lumped together. That means that programmers working on the stock exchange big bucks applications with billions of dollars in transactions a day at risk are being lumped in with smalltime web programming outfits like mine. I’m a programmer on the PmWiki project, and I create custom plug-ins for PmWiki for clients before contributing what I can back to the project, or accept bounties for plug-ins made directly available to the general public. I’ve also made alterations to other plug-ins for other open-source projects, and I’m creating an open source project or three of my own.

Now, I am not belittling the risks to my customers. I know that their business is everything to them, and that’s why I’m looking for insurance. But I don’t play with the big boys and my customers are not forking over the big bucks to cover the overhead I would have to pass along to my customers to cover the big insurance policies.

If I’m installing ZenCart, and ZenCart has a bug, am I covered? I never touched the back-end of the program, but of course every application — open source or otherwise — has inherent bugs and risks. I trust open source because the bugs are squished in a timely manner and I don’t have to pay for upgrades. Would all those policies with programming exclusions cover this?

When a policy excludes programming, I see there being a really fuzzy line between “web design” and “web programming”. Certainly there’s a point at which something is very clearly web programming, but is it programming if I create a script that processes a webform to email the results to my client? Is it programming if I’m creating JavaScript DHTML DOM alterations? What about when I’m working on a design for a Smarty template? There’s pseudocode and even PHP code in there, but it’s all about the design.

In any case, what I want to know from my fellow collaborators in the world is:

What, if anything, do you do about insurance for your web application or programming company?

Do you have any suggestions for underwriters for open source programmers?

If you aren’t insured, have you even considered being insured?

Often the topic of starting a “great” web business comes up, and in my age and wisdom (being both old to be a freelance web programmer, and one of a minority of women in the field) — there’s two ways to go: thinking “in” the box = come up with new brilliant technology, patent it and hire people to program it better and faster than anyone else can so you can quickly market it. If it climbs to the top before it is cloned you become the next target for people trying to out-do your website. This track is getting VERY old, VERY fast. Mainly you and your absolute best friend need to be programmers to do this (think Microsoft, Google…) because you can’t trust anyone with your terrific idea. Also it has to be so ground-breaking that only the best (read: smartest, wise, long-range thinking) of venture capitalists will see the end of the rainbow where the pot of gold sits. If it is easy to get the funding for your idea, someone probably is making it already.

Thinking “out” of the box = coming up with a way to use normal everyday technology to do something that fills — rather than creates — a real need or niche. It’s cheaper, faster, and if it really IS filling a need, it’s going to spread by word-of-mouth, and it won’t be “just a fad”. This technique aims lower and comes in under the radar — no billion dollar baby here — but it’s safer, less stressful, and you don’t have to be a programmer, generally speaking. The programmer is unlikely to run off with your baby if it doesn’t look like a “google killer”.

The problem is that great ideas are easy — the means to really make them work is the harder part (invention = 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration). I’m frustrated with people who want to “share” the rewards of their great web program idea (equity sharing) of up to 50%, but won’t be doing any of the actual work to make it hang together and be practical. If someone comes to me with a truly great idea (and I have NDA’s if they don’t), I can find them a great programming team, but the team will probably want cash on delivery, not equity. More “google killers” die every day than make it. They’re not original ideas, and if a site dies before it makes money, there’s no equity and it’s a huge waste of the programmer’s time.

Imagine that someone turned to you and said, “I have a great idea for a newspaper! I’ll give you the ideas, you develop the newspaper and run it, staff it, write for it, etc. I’ll give you 50%.” That approach frustrates me. People don’t get it. I can translate it to dozens of other fields — “I have a great plan for a house, you just have to build it. Then you can live on the top floor, and I’ll live downstairs. Ok?”

Somewhere in there people are cheapening the act of programming. After all, it’s just bits and bytes, right???

The Internet mimics life in a “survival of the fittest” way. I don’t pretend to know what’s “cool” or “hot” anymore — I work with “useful” I won’t get rich but that wasn’t in my personal game plan. I have my own great or good ideas, some might make me money, some won’t but will look really good on my resume.

Then there’s the flip side of this: If you’re not the head of the programming team and you’ve paid someone to build the google killer — what if it works? Now you have to program new features, fix bugs, etc. You either need to re-hire the same team, or get a programming staff. You go on Craigslist and choose the person who claims somehow to be able to fulfill your great Internet dream, but if you have this beautiful web baby together, are you really ready for that long-term commitment with a total dweeb with no business sense?

I can’t wait to be so busy with people I’ve looked in the eye and shaken the hands of that I can’t afford to even GLANCE at another Craigslist ad. I love my clients dearly, but you don’t know how rare it was that the people I dealt with BECAME clients at all. I certainly wouldn’t want to become business partners with some guy with the “next killer app” idea and had to actually look on Craigslist for a programmer. So wait — your only experience is the front end of websites as a user, and you think you can somehow manage a killer web application programming team? That’s an incredibly poor business move and you’ll get laughed out of the bank. And you want the programmer to work for nothing but equity? That’s spec work.

That brings me to another thing: Have you ever had one of those managers who knows absolutely nothing about what you do? It happens in IT all the time, but much less so in other professions. BUT if you’ve ever heard a nurse bitch that someone “stepped in” as the head of the nursing staff from a business-only background, you might get the idea. In most large corps — and this is a place where Microsoft does NOT get bad rankings — the heads of the corporation have NO IDEA how to produce their main products…much less have a clue what their IT department does sitting at their computers all day.

It’s never a good idea to manage something you don’t understand. Ever.

On that note, are you interested in a basic web programming class?

From a post to a user/developer list I’m on. Since I’ve never seen a great explanation of ANY object oriented programming, I figured I’d give a brief go at it.

Classes are a code structure from the object-oriented-programming side of PHP. A class is beyond a function. The class definition creates an ideal “object” (rather than an actual object, that comes later), and assigns it properties (variables) and methods (functions). Think of “object” in this case as a function on steroids.

Here’s the basic class syntax for how I would deal with shoelaces (I’m using comments for a real life physical action that I don’t feel like emulating in real code) — but note that an “object” isn’t usually a physical object — it could be an email, data, graphics, form buttons, or something even more abstract.

class Shoelaces {
	var $tied = false;
     // maybe we should double-knot them?
	var $double = false;

	function tie_shoelaces () {
		if ($this->tied) { return; }
		// instruction to grab shoelaces here
		$this->pull_tight();
		$this->overhand_knot();
		$this->pull_tight();
		$this->make_loop("right");
		$this->make_loop("left");
		$this->overhand_knot();
		$this->pull_tight();
		if($this->double) {
			$this->overhand_knot();
			$this->pull_tight();
		}
	}

	function pull_tight() {
		// yank whatever is in your hands
		// in opposite directions
	}
	function overhand_knot() {
		// loop item in right hand around item
		// in left hand one complete rotation
		// hold item in right hand again
	}
	function make_loop($side) {
		// creates a loop from the left
		// or right side of the lace
	}
}

Here’s how you use the class within the program flow (this code would be in the master body of your program — or in another function
or class):

// create an object instance — this is a specific local
// copy of the class for this specific instance/call.

$bootlaces = new Shoelaces;
// set the properties
$bootlaces->tied = false;
$bootlaces->double = true;
// tie the shoelaces (call the method i.e. execute the function)
$bootlaces->tie_shoelaces();

Now you should have a doubleknotted shoelace on your boots. This code can easily be reused for $sneakers also. Or even hacked for tying laces on other objects.

Now, the parts people have the hardest time wrapping their brain around:

• Calling it “object” “method” “instance” etc. — It’s a prepackaged set of code (class), functions (methods) and one particular time you call the code (instance — such as $bootlaces or $sneakers). Call them what you want to but remember the standard synonyms so you aren’t confused when you read about them.
• The term “$this” inside the class definition — $this is “$this object” or a place holder for the namespace INSIDE the object. I guess that once you call an instance, PHP translates $this to $bootlaces or $sneakers — it’s a generic “variable” that points back to the parent object and allows you to keep your scope within the object clear.
• Translating this idea to actual code since I wimped out for understanding by using a physical not computing activity, so see a practical real-world paradigm for a class below.

There is no place to run code in the object without defining a function/method. It’s confusing to call it an object method when obviously you’re even using the syntax “function”

I didn’t use it above, but there’s also something called a “constructor method” and in PHP5 there’s a destructor method. All this means is “automatically run this function when I create the class instance” or a destructor is something auto-run when you destroy the object instance (not sure how, I don’t do PHP5 yet — maybe unset()?)

Syntax for a constructor in PHP4 is to name the constructor function the same name as the class name — inside the class definition.

	function Shoelaces() {}

I know this is probably confusing, so feel free to ask questions. Note however that this completely protects the code and variables of the class from colliding with the names of other items in the program. The only name of concern is the class itself. Other people can use your class pretty easily — it makes a very portable chunk of code. There’s more to it, but this is enough to actually get you using this idea if you decide it would make code more efficient.

A real example would be creating an “Email” class where you can set up emails to be sent.

class Email {
  var $to = "";
  var $from = "myname@example.com";
  var $subject = "";
  var $body = "";

  function Set_Params ($to, $subject, $body, $from=$this->from) {
    //assign to class values
    $this->to = $to;
    //etc. ...
  }

// a couple internal functions not used outside the
  function validate_email () {
    //validation in here
  }
  function make_headers () {
    //create headers including From - output to class variable
    $this->headers = $headers;
  }

  function SendEmail() {
    // validate TO & FROM email addresses
    $this->validate_email($this->to);
    $this->validate_email($this->from);
    // create headers
    $this->make_headers();
    // send the email (should add custom From header too)
    mail($this->to, $this->subject, $this->body, $this->headers);
  }
}

$email4Larry = new Email;
// set the properties
$email4Larry->Set_Params(
    "larry@example.com", "Hi, Larry", $body);
$email4Larry->SendEmail();

More some other time if anyone’s interested.

Here’s the deal.

I need a shopping cart for a client. I have basic functionality the shopping cart MUST have. Not necessarily because the client demanded them but because I’m forming a hairbrained notion that these are some type of milestone or rite of passage for shopping carts.

1) coupons & discounts — there’s nothing like putting a coupon with your ad or on an invoice. Even better, giving out coupon codes in your newsletters. Make sure they’re paying attention! Many carts don’t seem to have this. The granddaddy of shopping carts in the open-source world requires being broken TWICE to have coupons (”easy discounts” and “easy coupons” must be added to oscommerce aka OSC to get coupons). Bonus points for coupon support out-of-the-box.

QuickCart & Viart Free have coupons out-of-the-box according to shopping-cart-reviews.com.

2) a template system with under 50 files. OSC fails this test, requiring nearly EVERY file to be changed to consistently alter the HTML appearance features of the website. ZenCart has 95 template files not counting those for the admin panel. Viart Free has 115 template files.

Winner: QuickCart (loaded version) comes in at under 38 — note “page.tpl” is the “main page” of the site. Other template pages MAY NOT NEED TO BE ALTERED! I haven’t figured that out conclusively. But they’re not using something standardized like Smarty so you need some PHP savvy to plow through them.

3) separation — real separation — of logic and design. ZenCart is OK on this one. OSC fails miserably. Viart Free comes out on top — using Smarty templating! WOOT! However note the loss on #2, coming in at 95 template files. Shame on them! Smarty is much MUCH smarter than that!

Viart Free, as I mentioned, uses Smarty, and has a standard “header” “footer”. In spite of 115 files, using Smarty would probably make it a pleasure. I’m upset that there’s no standard “right-sidebar” type formats, but that can easily be added to header/footer files so I’m happy enough.

QuickCart also seems to have real separation of logic vs design, so it’s the 2nd runner up for not using a standard templating system like Smarty.

4) real-world examples that show off the system’s flexibility for customization & style.

This is a tough cookie because people are generally lazy. I looked 3 times at http://www.mals-e.com/home.php because it had some of the better shopping cart examples I’d seen. Custom buttons, horizontal instead of vertical cart display, entirely different layouts. Turns out this is a free hosted service, you don’t install the software, you do have to muck around in your website’s HTML, but it’s really a service that handles the customer’s orders off your site. It allows a lot of flexibility, and he’s hoping you make so many sales that you want the advanced site features, which are not make-or-break deals. I don’t see coupon/discount code entry, so Mal’s service fails #1, but it wins on 2 & 3. How much more separate from the logic can you be?

Viart has an odd quantity feature that involves a drop-down, but that’s probably fixable. It requires clicking a JavaScript pop-up to confirm putting something into your shopping basket, which is awkward. These are awkward, but livable issues, but all the sites I looked at had these issues so no one bothered fixing them.

QuickCart — they don’t have that many sites in English, and they have SO MANY in other languages, I needed to narrow the playing field. So of the English sites, I saw minor promising variants in the cart design itself — something near impossible to do in OSC — as well as at least one site where the overall design was beautifully done very differently from the others. The cart behaved the way I would want a cart to behave. At least one site had web sites up for sale, with a number of options for ordering, which is something I may be doing myself.

5) No restrictions.

Viart Free fails here. Limited to 50 products. It requires a Zend optimizer installation. But it does install on GoDaddy. However, this is not terribly expensive to upgrade at $119, if you go over 10 categories/50 products.

In any case, the winner system from looking at the websites is Mal’s service — but if I eliminate the one host I bumped into during my search for something better, QuickCart did better than Viart.

The winning system today: QuickCart. Several hundred shops are listed, though some are spammers or the domains are now invalid. One problem is that I’ve not seen very strongly customized category views, and that’s an area I’ll need to customize. If you expect to have a very small cart, don’t forget to check out Viart Free. Notable mention for money: SquirrelCart — at about $70 it looks like a good bang for the buck — but I can’t say how it does amongst all the criteria mentioned here, since I couldn’t evaluate it.

Note that many carts were eliminated from the contest for a variety of reasons. #1 price. #2 bad reviews out of the starting box (such as VirtueMart/Joomla! which has been repeatedly reported as having the shittiest support forum, being overly complex, etc. If I want that shit, I’ll go back to OSC).

Ok, so next I’ll be working with QuickCart and I’ll let people know how it goes.

I want to continue to offer e-commerce at a reasonable price, and that reasonable price will not be tagged on oscommerce. Oscommerce will easily be double the price of any other shopping cart going forward. The program is a beast, and as long as it’s been around, it’s turned into a Frankenstein monster.

To extend the program through “contributions” requires hacking it to bits. I installed only one or two modules that installed without having to individually hand-edit program files, but note that these modules completely and utterly REPLACE files from the base oscommerce installation, just as the ones that required hand-editing rendered the program un-upgradable.

This is point #1 in being absolutely and utterly unable to upgrade the package once installed and so-called plug-ins (read: hacks) are added.

This implies that oscommerce does not have “Hooks” - - no points at which contributions can easily be put into the program execution queue without disturbing the original files.

The templating of the program out-of-the-box is absolutely unforgivable. There is no separation of logic and design on the back-end of the program. Each are enmeshed within each other. One contribution forcibly ripped the template code out of the program code and separated them. I’m both grateful that someone went through the trouble and appalled that doing so was needed — again this absolutely breaks the ability to upgrade the program.

I think I’m very spoiled by PmWiki. I never have to hack the program code to add a feature. Ever. That’s Patrick’s duty. Cookbook recipes (plug-ins) are kept separately from the program code. There are an abundance of program hooks to slip custom code into. The base install can be upgraded with or without the recipes being upgraded, with a minimal chance of breaking recipes, since the hooks serve as an API layer in the program, and rarely need to change how they behave.

I’m tempted to write in a shopping cart module, because oscommerce is the exact opposite of everything I’ve learned about a good, extensible and maintainable package.

I will be trying Zen Cart next. I now know enough about oscommerce to install it and even customize it, but I am not able, in any good conscience, to recommend it to a customer, and my price for installing oscommerce must be double what I thought it should be.

I have to apologize to the Frankenstein monster for having insulted him by comparing oscommerce to him. Oscommerce is far more of a hack than one body being combined with another brain.