flash and e-commerce

**abcdefgeorge** · 03-17-2002, 11:27 PM

i have not yet purchased flash mx.

but i have a question, is it possible to create e-commerce (with shopping cart) sites using flash mx?

thanks.
george

**JHarlequin** · 03-17-2002, 11:40 PM

I just read something on the MM website about mySQL and Flash MX where someone was going to be building a Flash shopping cart and posting the .fla for our use.
Here is another link that I found that talks about mySQL and Flash. I can't find the one about the .fla but it's there if you wanna look.
http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...h_database.htm

**Squareball2** · 03-18-2002, 12:02 AM

MySQL to PHP to FLASH MX was my guess..

**Squareball2** · 03-18-2002, 12:03 AM

Basically I think you use PHP to talk to MySQL (PHP is SO easy!

)

Then you do loadVariables in Flash to pull in the PHP code..
though i've never tried this.. I believe that is how it works

**FlashHungry** · 03-18-2002, 12:17 AM

Yes you can. You need a backend app and DB to work with like php/mysql. You could also utilize xml for item data and so forth.

**jossifresco** · 03-18-2002, 01:08 AM

Originally posted by abcdefgeorge
i have not yet purchased flash mx.

but i have a question, is it possible to create e-commerce (with shopping cart) sites using flash mx?

thanks.
george

I have developed a shopping cart that works with Authorize.net.

It uses Flash 5.0 as the front-end (much easier now with all the GUI components) and Perl 5 as the middleware.

**MXAlPhA** · 03-18-2002, 01:49 AM

For a shopping cart... umm, you can probably set cookies on the clients computer using fscommand/javascript. Though i would personally prefer to use a session in this case, i think this would be your best choice.

And about the shopping cart with a DB, what's the point? Everytime someone modifies their shopping cart, the DB has to be modified as well? Using Microsoft as the database engine, i think that'll be very stupid. Pick up the latest "PC Magazine", they have a very interesting article about DB's like SQL Server, Oracle, and etc.

**psychlonex** · 03-18-2002, 01:59 AM

Here's one I'm working on (flash5) that is almost entirely flash. I still have some cleanup/smoothing out to do, but it works. Right now it doesn't use cookies/database but that is something I planned to add until I saw the shared object features of MX! Anyway, here it is:
http://www.oasiscollection.com

Psx

**sonwah** · 03-18-2002, 02:04 AM

so as a net consumer, where is my security with an all Flash shopping cart?
Surely you need ssl?
I want to get a cart up and running, but I also want to properly address security issues, it's the customers number one concern in internet transactions.

**psychlonex** · 03-18-2002, 02:22 AM

Hey,
True - use ssl. If you have any backend database connections, you should definitely use ssl, ie loadVariables("https://..."); It shouldn't be any less secure than a secure html page with a form.

Psx

**sonwah** · 03-18-2002, 02:29 AM

is it as simple as that?
I noticed the site you posted didn't have a security certificate, I'm geniunely curious here, I'd love to be able to do the data processing mainly in Flash, I just always assumed it was too risky.

**psychlonex** · 03-18-2002, 02:53 AM

Hey,
The one I did should be secure. My client didn't have a certificate so as a workaround I put a frameset up at his site and then all the swf's and html on the secure server. Once he get's the cert, it should be all set.

Psx

**sonwah** · 03-18-2002, 03:04 AM

so pardon my ingnorance,
but anything sent from Flash to the server (credit card #'s for example) are therefore encrypted?

I saw the security cert on that site too, right click and check properties, I guess the frameset prevents it from being displayed in the bottom right of the browser window.

thanks for your time man

**FlashHungry** · 03-18-2002, 04:34 AM

Originally posted by MXAlPhA
And about the shopping cart with a DB, what's the point? Everytime someone modifies their shopping cart, the DB has to be modified as well? Using Microsoft as the database engine, i think that'll be very stupid. Pick up the latest "PC Magazine", they have a very interesting article about DB's like SQL Server, Oracle, and etc.

Not sure who you are replying to but when I said DB, I was referring to logging the order. Also not sure who in the world would use Microsoft as their db or even server choice for that matter

I always have used mysql or Oracle.

The main thing is if you understand a scripting language like php, perl, etc, then you can do a load with Flash as the frontend.

**psychlonex** · 03-18-2002, 04:55 PM

Sonwah - Yeah I believe so. Just to make sure tho I'd set all your loadVariables to something like:

loadVariables("https://yadayada,"this","POST");

That should keep it encrypted. I imagine if you had the flash on a secure server and just used
loadVariables(http://); it wouldn't be encrypted.

Psx

**abcdefgeorge** · 03-18-2002, 05:36 PM

thanks for all the replies.

george

**Musicman** · 03-18-2002, 06:06 PM

Hi,

just a silly comment... there is not just one shop on the web where the data travels to the web server via a secure link - and from that point is just transmitted to the shop owner via plain email

of course the customer only sees the nice lock in the browser

Musicman

**sonwah** · 03-18-2002, 06:52 PM

Hey Musicman,
is that a fact?
so what the heck is 128 bit encryption then?

*gets more confused*

**deltawolf** · 03-18-2002, 07:05 PM

Or maybe they're added to a secure database and an email is sent to the owner telling them that thisuser signed up and then the owner would see the infromation from the database...Anyways Flash->PHP->MySQL is a good choice...nice and fast

**grandmasterC** · 03-18-2002, 08:04 PM

Hi Everyone,

From what I've read Flash and Coldfusion is what most of the big sites use. I am in the process of trying to build an ecommerce site and want to use a shopping cart system build in Flash and Coldfusion, but the problem is I don't know that much about Coldfusion.

I have been surfing the web trying to find a quality pre build shopping cart system build in Coldfusion, but so far I haven't been able to find one. Does any one know of a quality Allaire or Macromedia approved coldfusion shopping cart that I can buy????

I have been looking at solutions such as http://www.miva.com but these cannot be easily used with flash.

I have ultra dev but there isn't much in the help files about how to build an ecommerce site/ shopping cart.

Any help or suggestions much appreciated,

grandmasterC

Thread: flash and e-commerce

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