New Website - not my own

[Prōdigium]

Been working on this project for some time now, finally getting to the point where products are getting loaded up. Its a incredibly complex system with a million features that had to be integrated, everything from self service RMA (return merchandise authorization) , customer support ticket system to multiple group and tiered prices and even a points reward program.....lots of code work, which I love but seeing it all come together visually is when it gets exciting for me. I just wish this was going to be my website. As its still in development the company logo has been removed but I wanted to share a page that I rather like..



The coolest part of this site is the advanced product filter options that will allow you to drill down all the possible options until your only left with the products that match all your criteria...this took MONTHS to program for the whole site and involves over 400 individual filters, in over 320 categories!! You can see how it works on the left side in this film category. Every category has unique options depending on the products.

Big websites like Amazon have this, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time to create as you need to know and program all your product specs into the system.....my head still hurts from it and I have made hundreds of product spreadsheets in the process. The company that hired me wanted a very user friendly site that lets its customers find what they want quickly...I think that this will deliver on that requirement.



If I can stay on track, this site will come online in about 2 more months. After that I will be looking for a new client so if any screen printing distributors or manufactures are looking for an advanced website my services will be available.

What do you guys think....some critique is welcome, its still in design and time to make some changes.

[blue moon]

I am a big fan of the simple clean interfaces, this looks nice!
My guess is, you'll have to tweak it as it goes live, but so far so good. . .

pierre

[starchild]

What framework do you use.. I'm writing something simular.. I use cakephp..

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

[Prōdigium]

What framework do you use.. I'm writing something simular.. I use cakephp..

I develop on a highly modified version of Magento Enterprise Edition. Magento has been exceptionally well thought out, and it would be insane to reinvent the wheel. Virtually every basic requirement I could every need or want has been thought of in Magento...and what has not been, can easily be coded into it as its open source. If I were only making a simple company website, projects like CakepHP may be ok, but my system is just too complex, it would require months of work to duplicate what comes standard in Magento and that's IF you can factor all the variables that have already been proven in Magento.

This site will also feature integration's to services like CDN's, ERP's or QuickBooks. Its also integrated into my proprietary Prōdigium global logistics engine, which will provide "landed cost" shipping to any country in the world directly from the shopping cart. Plus it has multi-warehouse inventory with smart logistics to split orders between the closest stocked warehouses and order picking slips. To do these in any other program (that I am aware of) would take a team of people months/years to develop. Of course that said, I have been developing my own system for the past 5 years, but by myself with some work outsourced.

My Prōdigium company will launch the platform soon, this site is my first major client and once its been vetted I will open my doors to other distributors. More or less its based on the program I was developing for my Calibrated site that never launched. The features are so powerful that I opted instead to offer what I created as a SAAS service instead of using it for my own business...its just taken a few years longer than I thought it would to get to a release stage. Glad to say I am finally there.

For most people Magento community edition is more than powerful enough and can be deployed in mere days. However its been my experience that most business owners would be foolish to design and operate their own websites, for a modern e-commerce website its a full time job. Magento comes with a HUGE learning curve, as does any program like CakePHP or Joomla, which I also use.

[starchild]

Magento is a Content Management System.  CMS's are built using a framework.. Magneto was built on the ZendPhp framework.. I'm building a CMS for myself using the CakePhp framework..

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

[Prōdigium]

Magento is a Content Management System.  CMS's are built using a framework.. Magneto was built on the ZendPhp framework.. I'm building a CMS for myself using the CakePhp framework..

I am very aware of the terminology. Magento fits perfectly into what I need to do, as mentioned there is no reason to "reinvent the wheel" by trying to build my own from the ground up. For 95% of people there is a perfectly suitable CMS/ERP platform for their needs.

If I tried to create what I get in Magento enterprise using CakePHP it would most likely require years of development, unless I had a huge budget and a team of staff. So I am curious as to why you would want to spend so much effort & time to build your own CMS?

[starchild]

I'm not suggesting you code it yourself my man. I must have missed that you used magento in your original post so I was just asking, but that's because I'm wired to assume that you used some kind of framework. It's what I use so that's where my time is spent..

Magneto is a viable tool in a web developer's arsenal.. I would use it..

Sometimes a writer just want to create his own story, his own novel as I'm sure you appreciate that is how developing an app feels like..

That said.. I would not look to pre built system as a solution for creating a shopworks, an airbnb, trivago or even an etsy. So if I must spend the time I might as well know my database schema/relationships and get comfortable creating the story..

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk