 Open Source eCommerce |
Frequently Asked QuestionsQ. Is there a web hosting provider that you recommend? A. Well, if you like CF Shopkart you should really consider hosting it through me. I give away CF Shopkart (and other code) for free because I make money through other services I provide. I don't have time to provide support for software on top of everything else. I make money from custom coding and hosting services. You can get discounted professional level CF hosting that would cost you $12.95+ per month for a low price of $9.95 per month. Click here for more information. If you INSIST on hosting with someone else, then I suggest using Hostek. I have used them for a number of years and have been very pleased with their service. They are fast, reliable, and their support is superior to any other provider I have hosted with. I have no experience with any other hosting provider so I cannot recommend anyone else. When I switched to Hostek several years ago I just stayed because their support is great. ---- Q. I am a Coldfusion Developer. Can I use CF Shopkart for a project I'm working on that I will make money doing? A. Sure! Why not? You can charge for your time! I do :-). Just don't charge for the actual code or resell it. And, no, you do not owe me anything. ----- Q. Is support offered for CF Shopkart? A. Well, yes, and no. I have clients that use CF Shopkart. I offer support to them as well as some people who I sold CF Shopkart hosting with support to not long ago. I do not sell licenses or support at the moment, because I just do not have the time. ----- Q. Is it really free? A. Yes, CF Shopkart is totally and completely free to download and use. No strings attached. ---- Q. Can I redistribute CF Shopkart on my own website? A. No, please just link to this site. I want the traffic to come to my site, not yours, and if it's not coming here then I don't get people looking for Coldfusion Hosting and they end up going somehwere else. The more hosting I get the more free time I'm going to have to develop future version of CF Shopkart and other software I'm currently working on. ---- Q. Can I hire you to do a project? A. You will have to use the contact form to ask me if I'm available for your project. I am usually pretty busy, but there is a chance I might be able to work on your project so it can't hurt to ask ;-) ---- Q. How can I help with the CF Shopkart project? A. Not for CF Shopkart 5.5 or any previous version. The code just is not able to be used for open source development and cooperation due to the way I wrote the code so many years ago. I've learned a lot over the years and I'm rewriting a new version from the ground up. on first release it will be very simple and have hardly any features that the 5.5 version has. The reason I'm rewriting it is for the purposes of making it more of an open source project so that anyone can develop new components and plugins for it. ---- Q. Is the code in the download encrypted (can I modify it)? A. It is not encrypted, and you can modify it all you want. ---- Q. Does CF Shopkart use object oriented programming? A. CF Shopkart existed before Object Oriented Programming (OOP) became widely popular. It existed before CF had CFCs. It existed back when Fusebox was pretty much the only framework many of us CF Developers had ever heard of. I don't use any framework or OOP programming in CF. It's more "old-school". Some of the code is repeated in other files and I use a lot of includes. There have been only a couple CFCs added to it.. I do not defend the current style of programming and I'm moving away from it. That's why I'm not asking for any help with this current version of CF Shopkart. ---- Q. Does CF Shopkart use a certain framework? A. No. Q. Will you be using any certain type of framework or coding method in an upcoming release? A. No. I will never use a framework in any open source code I develop. I realize you might have a preference of coding style you use, and you may be familiar with one or more frameworks. The fact of the matter is, each developer has his/her own preference as to what framework is best and what framework I should use. The only one I am familiar with at this time is Fusebox. I do not care to learn any new framework or specific style of OOP coding. Here is the reason: I write code that just works for my clients. My clients do no care what framework I use or that I use OOP coding techniques. They want me to develop their software fast and they want me to make changes quickly. Therefore, I do not have the time to spend hours learning specific OOP methods you use or reading mountains of framework documentations before I even start coding. This is why I like Coldfusion, because CF is designed to just get you coding and not have to worry about all that nonsense. In my opinion, frameworks and coding methods just take away from that and you end up wasting more time learning something you really do not need. I will be using a new method of CF coding I have been developing over the years in the next version of the shopping cart. There will be a programming guide to read for it. However, the method I will be using is so simple and easy, that you'll be able to figure it all out in a single afternoon. The goal is to make it easy to create components and plugins for CF Shopkart quickly and easily without ever having to mess with the base code. ---- Q. I am a hosting provider and would like to offer CF Shopkart as part of an ecommerce solution. Can I do this? A. Yes, but only if you contact me and we can come to a written agreement over a share of the monthly hosting fee (you can make me an affiliate). CF Shopkart is free for personal use and for Coldfusion Programmers. Support licenses, hosting, and companies like you help to keep the project going, so please contact me if you would like to make an arrangement. ------ Q. I only have one or two products to sell, is CF Shopkart right for me? A. Yes, you can sell just one item from CF Shopkart or a hundred. You can use it to build what is called a 'squeeze page' from which you sell just one item. ------ Q. The image editor I see in the demo doesn't appear in my installation. Why is that? A. The image editor uses cfimageffects.cfc which is not open source and would be wrong for me to distribute with CF Shopkart. At the time of me writing this, it only costs $50, which is a fair price considering you are getting CF Shopkart free. If you host CF Shopkart through me, you will have access to the advanced image editor, but you may not use the cfc in anything else unless you purchase a license from them. You can buy it from Foundeo. Just upload it to your /admin/components/photoeditor/actions/ folder and it will automatically be detected when you go to edit an image. Oh, and CF8+ is required. Also, I do not make any money when you buy this tag, so this is not a gimmick to make more money. It's just that I loved the tag so much I bought it and integrated into the cart. ------ Q. Does CF Shopkart 5.5 run on Coldfusion MX 7? A. Short answer: No. As of Version 5.5, I will only work with CF Server 8 up (I will make exceptions for my existing clients). I am no longer writing code to on MX 7 because there are so many features in CF 8 that I want to use, I just can't take it anymore ;-). That said, currently in 5.5 there are only a few areas that explicity use CF8 features (such as the Catpcha on the Admin front page). You COULD remove those features without much effort, and I was going to put in some checks for CF7 to get around them, but I no longer have access to a CF 7 server to test, and I didn't have the time to do it. If you do get it running CF 7, please share with others what you needed to do. If you need CF 8 hosting, please signup to the hosting service to help support my efforts. ----- Q. Does CF Shopkart run on Linux? A. As of version 5.5, Yes! In fact, I developed CF Shopkart 5.5 entirely on a Linux server running CF8 and Apache. It should work fine, but you have to make all files writable (777) to make the update feature work. You will definately have to make some folders writable. It's take a little more effort to get it working, but it will run on Linux. I don't prefer it, but I'll leave it up to you. ----- Q. Can I use an MS Access Database? A. Yes, I have written some specific queries for MS Access, but be warned that I don't always get around to testing new releases for MS Access until I have some time. So there might be some bugs you run into. I develop with MySQL and CF Shopkart is written mainly for it because that database is widely used and is open source. That said, I will never ever under any circumstances ever recommend that an MS Access database be used with CF Shopkart, but if you insist I won't stop you ;-) ----- Q. I see support for MS Access and My SQL. What about MS SQL? A. No existing version officially supports MS SQL, but people have told me they got it working with MS SQL with little effort. have done my best to write my queries so they are compatible with most databases, but I have only ever used MS Access (rarely) and MySQL. If you need MS SQL you should be able to export the access database to MS SQL. Some utilities will let you export your database from MySQL to MS SQL, but I'm pretty sure they all cost some money. You will have to look around. ----- Q. Can you integrate a payment gateway for me? A. I can try. I have experience integrating many different gateways into CF Shopkart. It supports the most popular ones, but if you need one integrated contact me and I'll see if I have the time to do it. Of course, I will have to charge you for my time. I can't guarantee it will work though. In the past I've had a high success rate, but I have ran into the payment gateways that have horrible documentation, terrible support, and I was unable to get it integrated. I gave up and did not charge the client. ----- Q. I got an error message, what should I do? A. All errors are now logged in the error log located in your control panel. You must be logged in as the Master Admin to see it. You can report an error directly to me with a click of a button. I store them all and can see them, and log what I did to fix it. You can even share what you did to fix something. When ever you submit an error in 5.5 or higher, suggestions may come back if there are any available. It doesn't cost anything to submit errors, and you do not need any kind of special license to do so. Be advised, however, that I do not email anyone back through that system. It is there only so that I can address issues that generate errors and put out updates. ------ Q. I found a bug that doesn't generate an error message, how do I report it? A. Please submit the bug to me using the bug report form found here. ----- Q. Does CF Shopkart support subscription based items and, if so, can I use a payment gateway with that feature? A. Yes, you can sell subscription based items. Version 5.5 now supports subscription payments through Authorize.net, Manerva, and PayPal. I will be adding others when I can. ----- Q. I notice you have a rather large list of blocked IP Addresses in the .htaccess file, what's that all about? A. Those IP Address ranges belong to certain countries from which I have logged a high number of hacking attempts on my own sites and on clients sites. Over the past year I setup 'trap sites' to lure in hackers. I allowed them in to 'hack' CF Shopkart, and I watched them as they did it to see what they were doing. I learned quite a bit in the process, and kept track of which countries these shady characters were coming from. Those countries have just won themselves the honor of being banned from CF Shopkart websites. They are countries that you will probably never receive an order from anyway, and the one or two orders you MIGHT get, are not worth the risks. You can create your own banlist at http://blockacountry.com/... if you don't want to ban any countries at all, just remove them from your install. ----- Q. Is CFShopkart PA-DSS Certified? A. CFShopkart is not PA-DSS Certified, because currently the cost of this is atronomical. The good news: Most hosting providers are PCI-DSS certified (check with your provider) which means that do not need to worry about PA-DSS certification (according to the FAQ if you are PCI-DSS compliant then you are covered). If you download and install CFShopkart on a non-PCI-DSS certified server then you should only use 3rd party payment processors (or simple integration methods). You only need to worry about this type of certification is you are using a payment gateway llike authorize.net where you will take your customers payment information and pass it to Authorize.net for processing. The Coldfusion Hosting I offer is PCI-DSS certified. ----- Don't see your questions? Contact me. |
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