Miva Merchant setup

[technoknow]

I'm looking at

http://www.webaxxs.net

for hosting an ecommerce site.
I've also looked at LaHostNet.com which uses the LACartXL shopping cart system.
LaHostNet has a $300 setup fee if you want to have unlimited products listed. Why doesn't

http://www.webaxxs.net

say anything about the number of products?
The LACartXL has 40 "skins" to use for the design of the store, I haven't been able to see any demo's for the Miva Merchant software. How much control of the design do you have?
I have HTML, JavaScript, VisualBasic, ActionScript, some PERL, and some Java experience.
Thanks for your help,
Jim

 

[foxdev]

Miva Merchant ultimately gives you a lot of control (there are umpteen thousands of sites using the software), but sometimes it takes a combination of strategies to do it. MM now runs in a "compiled" mode; full-source access is no longer given, though you can buy a developer's bundle that includes the compiler and some source.

Merchant's strength - and its limitation - is that it is designed to be a module-driven system. The upside: there are many hundreds of third-party modules available that do all sorts of stuff, and most are pretty cheap (see mvcool.com for a partial list). Some of these modules turn MM into a template-driven system, allowing you to modify the templates (or create new ones) and therefore give you control over nearly all of the formatting.

Out of the box, there are no "skins" or templates with MM. You'll have to create your own. MM has no product limitations; we've run stores with 12,000+ products.

Hosting: We started on Webaxxs about 4 years ago, and it is an OK place to see if you want to stick with MM. For a store that you depend on, though, I'd recommend

http://www.hostasaurus.com

or

http://www.driftwood.net

as these places specialize in Miva Merchant hosting. They cost more, but they are very dependable when things go wrong.

Given your experience and willingness to tinker, why not consider Candy Press (candypress.com)? We have one of our stores using it, and it's easy to modify. The payment-handling is a bit limited (it only supports a few gateways out of the box), but its $50!

--------------
art prints

http://www.artlot.com

 

[technoknow]

Thanks foxdev, I've started using Miva Merchant. I'm sure I'll be asking you more questions. Maybe I'll get good enough that I'll be able to help you answer questions on this forum.
TechNoKnow

 

[foxdev]

Everyone will encounter various "wrinkles" in using this, or any, ecommerce package. I'm sure whatever lessons you learn will be useful to others in solving similar problems.

--------------
art prints

http://www.artlot.com