Please don't think of this as a crosspost. I didn't get the answer I
expected in .....asp.general, so I've posted it in here.

Laphan <news@DoNotEmailMe.co.uk> wrote in message news:...
Hi Guys

I know this has probably been asked more times than Google indexes sites,
but I respect the feedback from the NG and want your honest opinions.

I've been given the task of doing a higher level of ecom/shopping cart
system than what I usually do and need to look to doing it via the tried and
tested ways rather than my combo of frames, asp and javascript routines that
have held me in good stead, but this one is a serious job.

It's going to be in the same vein as ebuyer and empire-direct on a slightly
smaller scale, but the whole thing has to be CMS from the start, as my past
projects have always been basically from scratch each time and I need to be
more professional and resourceful with my coding.

I had to use frames before to store the movement of the order in my
Javascript model, the downside to this was my inadequacy with Javascript
other than straightforward client-side (it always seems flaky to me if it is
used anything more than client-side) and the mandatory way of popping out
the https to an external window to show the padlock is also fraught with
disaster. Like I said before I want to go back to the tried and tested
methods rather than my own blazing cross-compatible nightmare.

So to this, I need to understand how you manage the order as it passes from
page to page. I've seen snippets that use Cookies, which I always thought
weren't a reliable option, due to the unnecessary security issues that
browsers now put in place, Sessions, which I've been told were developed by
witches who worship the devil, or DB tracked (somehow). What is the method
used by such as ebuyer and the ilk?

I want to do it all in ASP, as I do have experience in this and trying to
learn another language before this job is done is going to be fraught with
disaster. The DB will probably be SQL Server, although I do have a job
before it that I was going to use Access so as to initiate a guinea pig
stepping stone - eh?

So your feedback on the best footings to go by would be very much
appreciated.

Also do you ever use Visio to design the layout of things such as this, or
is this one of those fancy tools that nobody ever uses because pen and paper
rule every time?

Many thanks.

Laphan