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Shopping Software
Training - Facts |
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What happens during an upload?
When "Web|Update Website" is requested the following actions
are performed in sequence.
Checking Catalog...
All the .cat (section information) and most of the .fil (configuration
information) files are generated at this time. The generated
files are saved to the site directory.
Checking HTML pages...
Creative goes section by section and generates the HTML files
for all the sections. The HTML templates used for the cart or
checkout, search page, site map, etc. are also generated at
this time. The generated pages are saved to SiteHTML folder.
Checking brochure pages...
If brochure is enabled the related HTML files are generated
at this phase. The generated pages are saved to SiteHTML folder.
Checking search indices...
Creative generates the index file for online search at this phase.
The search index is saved to the site directory.
Reviewing files...
Creative checks if there were a previous upload and if so determines
which files have changed and should be uploaded (by using the
file dates). This does not happen if you use 'Web | Refresh
Website'.
Sending base files...
Creative creates an ftp connection and uploads the base files
(perl scripts) to the server. When the upload is done a new
ftp session is created and the file permissions are adjusted
as required.
Purging files...
Creative investigates the folders on the server to find any files
uploaded previously but not required at the moment. If such
a file found on the server the file is removed.
Sending catalog files...
The content of the acatalog directory (and the applet files)
are uploaded at this phase. All the HTML files (catalog and
brochure), BLOBs, images and other files are uploaded to the
acatalog directory via ftp (by default).
Uploading Digital Download Files...
If Digital Download is enabled then the DD files are uploaded
in this separate phase. The methods mentioned above (Sending
catalog files) apply here.
Merging incremental updates at the web site
There are a few large data files (search index, customer account
details) used in Creative Ecommerce. It would be quite ineffective
to upload them in case of any small change. Therefore Creative
keeps a copy of these files from the previous upload (if there
were any) and compares to the current one - making updates as
necessary. MergeDiff.pl assembles these files. |
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How much web space is required by an Creative online store?
A formula for estimating
the amount of space you will need at the web site for your catalogue
is as follows:
if p = number of products in the store
and s = number of sections you are planning on using
then
Size of store (in MB) = (0.85p + 15.55s)/1000 + 0.8
The above is based on the Business theme, with compacted HTML
and an average of 30 words per full description. This figure
includes the Perl and Java etc. but does not include images
(which can often form the bulk of the space taken up on a website.)
Disclaimer: These figures are based only on rough estimates
and should be accepted as such. |
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How does Creative interact with a Proxy server?
Creative can be configured to
work with Proxy servers however there are some limitations regarding
the HTTPS (SSL) and FTP connections.
HTTP can be configured to use either the same settings that
are specified for Internet Explorer or they can be manually
set. In either case a username and password may be specified
if the Proxy server requires authentication and the the user
that is running Creative is not themselves authorised to access
the Proxy server.
When using manual settings for HTTP and the site uses SSL then
the HTTPS protocol will use the same Proxy settings as HTTP.
FTP can only use Proxy Authentication if it connects through
a CERN Proxy server. In this mode FTP can only browse sites
and send files, it cannot delete files or set permissions. As
Creative needs to be able to perform these actions it is not
configured to use a CERN Proxy and therefore does not use the
FTP Proxy Username and Password fields.
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Can you recommend any companies for web hosting?
See our web site at www.actinic.co.uk for a list of
service partners that offer hosting. |
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Is
it possible to have two 'acatalog' folders in one website?
It is possible to have two Catalogue sites on one server, but
you would have to purchase two licenses, as Creative is licensed
on a per uploaded site basis. Creative automatically creates
an 'acatalog' directory. Therefore to have two sites exist within
the same web site, one 'acatalog' would have to be placed in
a subdirectory of the web root.
For example you can use a directory structure as follows:-
/htdocs/acatalog/
/htdocs/catalogue/acatalog/
You would also need to make sure the 'CGI Script ID Number'
was different on both sites. |
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I have a firewall on my network/PC. What issues do I need to
be aware of when setting up Creative?
Creative is composed of two parts:
1) An application which runs on a PC the 'Client'.
2) Perl Scripts which run at the web site, the 'Server'.
If there is a firewall between the Client and the Server, then
the following protocols must be allowed:-
· HTTP, port 80, from Client to Server.
· HTTPS, port 443, from Client to Server. Only required if SSL
is enabled.
· FTP, port 21, file transfers between Client and Server. All
connections are established by the Client.
· FTP, port 20, When using Non-Passive FTP the Server connects
to the Client on this port. If the Firewall does not allow incoming
connections for port 20 then use Passive FTP in Creative Ecommerce.
Creative sends all emails from the web server. Emails generated
at the Client are first sent via FTP to the Server and then
emailed using the same procedures as for Customer Receipts.
Therefore Creative does not require a SMTP connection on the
Client.
To be able to access the store and place orders the browser
must allow:-
· Java Script.
· Cookies.
· Java, this is only required when credit card details are collected
via the Creative Encryption Java Applet. |
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Is
it possible to have more than one copy of Creative on a virtual
server?
Yes, provided that the CGI Script ID is different (for a shared
cgi-bin), and there is a separate directory on the server for
the second copy of Creative to create its own 'acatalog' directory
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I can't upload my Creative store to the top level of my remote
directory, even when I reconfigure the web settings it uploads
to a subdirectory every time.
The main Creative store will always be uploaded to the folder
'acatalog'. This is because Creative is designed to be added
to an existing web site, however by using the Brochure pages
you can create a page in the web root which may be used as the
'Home Page'. |
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How
can I manually generate and upload my site?
1. Web | Generate Web Site.
2. Web | Generate Scripts.
3. Copy all generated scripts (i.e. **000001.pl and **000001.pm
files - although the 1 may be different and will refer to your
script ID in Web | Network Setup) from the local Site1 directory
to the remote cgi-bin.
4. Set the permissions of the *.pl files in the cgi-bin on the
remote server to 755 (rwxr-xr-x) using your FTP CHMOD command.
5. Copy all *.gif, *.jpg, *.js, *.cat, Act_*.txt files from
the local Site1 directory to the remote acatalog directory.
6. Copy encrypt.cab and encrypt.zip from the local Creative directory
to the remote acatalog directory (only if the inbuilt encryption
is used for secure credit card capture.
7. Rename all new*.fil files to old*.fil in the local Site1
directory.
8. Copy all *.fil from the local Site1 directory to the remote
acatalog directory.
9. If you are using Brochure pages in Creative, copy SiteRoot_index.html
from the local Site1\SiteHTML subdirectory to the remote folder
above the acatalog folder on the server, this is usually the
web root folder. On the server rename SiteRoot_index.html to
index.html, this is assuming that your top brochure page is
called index.html.
10. Copy all *.html files from the local Site1\SiteHTML subdirectory
to the remote acatalog folder except SiteRoot_index.html.
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E-commerce Features