Re: FlyCat

[mike@minivend.com]

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Quoting Rob Zimmerman (rob@readysite.net):
> 
> Installed the beta 3.12 (SunSparc-Solaris2.5.1/Apache1.3) and have been 
> messing around with the demo FlyCat. Most interesting. Index page doesnt 
> seem to work at this time but using direct url to the catalog pages shows 
> some new ideas. 
> 
> I am wondering if anyone else is playing around with this? What are the 
> plans for this? 

I have been playing around with it a bit. 8-)

Flycat is a way for many (hundreds or more) catalogs to be
put inside one common MiniVend catalog setup. Each item is
self-contained as you POST (or GET) it to the shopping cart,
and the item's data is carried around in the user session rather
than in a products database. It uses a vendor database to 
specify the look and feel of the catalog; the sales tax setup;
the shipping setup; and the MailOrderTo address.

It is intended as a way for an ISP or web services provider to offer
a mom-and-pop catalog service for a few items with fairly easy
administration; or for a company to offer catalog services to a number
of functional groups without having to have a centralized database.
The original concept came from an organization needing to offer 1.5
million different items that are not in a central database, generating
the items "on-the-fly" as they were specified.

It is more a proof of concept than anything else; any menus would need
to be embellished and extended by the user. I don't have the
time nor the inclination to document it as a finished application.

Like UserDB.pm was (I just rolled that in as a supported module with
docs) it is a demonstration of adding your own module to MiniVend and
changing the function of the program. A flycat can coexist quite nicely
on the same MiniVend server with the traditional database-based catalogs.

If you log in as the user "flycat" (default password is "pass")
and go to the URL /cgi-bin/flycat/cartcfg/newcart, you can see a menu
at the bottom which demonstrates some of the functions. The flycat 
user is the default "super-user" for the catalog with the ability
to access the newcart and cartcfg/master_edit menu pages.

-- 
Mike Heins                          http://www.minivend.com/  ___ 
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