database - store question

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1

OK ,

I am so confused a YOUNG web developer has contacted me and asked several question which I gave him my knowledge answers. but what they want does not make sense…

this company wants a store… (as we all know my mind goes to ecwid)

  • track inventory (in store and in public you can see the # avail)
  • track shipping
    ok - ecwid….
    they want people to sign up and submit their designs to them for the store and see the designs they submitted… ok - maybe a wordpress thing unless you guys tell me how to do it in FW…

they want the member to access the same database as the store has to see inventory… wait is that possible (I know not in ecwid because there really is no database) but does anyone know if this is possible to have a member that does not have access to the backend of the store to access the store database?

it took a 1.2 hour conversation to get to this point.

any direction or answers would be welcome!

thanks!

J

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they want the member to access the same database as the store has to see inventory

My immediate thoughts -

Are you in a competitive tendering position for this job? Do you want to do it bearing in mind this goes beyond your comfort zone and skill set.

As to members having access to the same database - I dont think that this is a good idea at all. By all means access to see if products are available to purchase but in this age of JIT supply is it wise that they should know how many/few items are available. It surely would have to be moderated access.

David

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Dave,
Im not up for this job this young guy is and was just asking my thoughts. I dont want it - expecially dealing with him who has no idea of what he is talking about. It came down to him saying he was not sure of what they wanted… ugh…

I totally agree with you with about that they shoudl not have access to the same database.

I was so confused that I wanted to see the forums thoughts about this and if it could actually be done.

J

On Oct 21, 2013, at 2:58 AM, DeltaDave email@hidden wrote:

they want the member to access the same database as the store has to see inventory

My immediate thoughts -

Are you in a competitive tendering position for this job? Do you want to do it bearing in mind this goes beyond your comfort zone and skill set.

As to members having access to the same database - I dont think that this is a good idea at all. By all means access to see if products are available to purchase but in this age of JIT supply is it wise that they should know how many/few items are available. It surely would have to be moderated access.

David

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Actually, this sounds precisely like a mix of the Threadless and Etsy sales models. At Threadless, designers submit designs to the store, visitors vote on these new designs, the winners get produced, and the designer gets a cut of the sales. At Etsy, the designer/producer creates the products they want to sell, and manages their own inventory in the system, but Etsy does the commerce and (I believe) the fulfillment.

Yes, in both cases, they do see the same database, but no, they don’t all see the same fields or have permission to change all of the fields. It comes down to some well-written software that can police these relationships and manage who sees (and can do) what. I could write this store, I doubt sincerely that a newcomer to programming would be able to do it in a way that didn’t expose the store owner to enormous risk. None of the off-the-shelf store solutions I know of allow for this sort of multi-tenant database setup.

Walter

On Oct 21, 2013, at 8:37 AM, Julie Maxwell wrote:

Dave,
Im not up for this job this young guy is and was just asking my thoughts. I dont want it - expecially dealing with him who has no idea of what he is talking about. It came down to him saying he was not sure of what they wanted… ugh…

I totally agree with you with about that they shoudl not have access to the same database.

I was so confused that I wanted to see the forums thoughts about this and if it could actually be done.

J

On Oct 21, 2013, at 2:58 AM, DeltaDave email@hidden wrote:

they want the member to access the same database as the store has to see inventory

My immediate thoughts -

Are you in a competitive tendering position for this job? Do you want to do it bearing in mind this goes beyond your comfort zone and skill set.

As to members having access to the same database - I dont think that this is a good idea at all. By all means access to see if products are available to purchase but in this age of JIT supply is it wise that they should know how many/few items are available. It surely would have to be moderated access.

David

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5

Etsy was my first thought too

I did not know that they did see the same dateabase but in these cases it makes sense
I hope for his case he does have an experieced programmer friend / coworker to reachout to. I could not see him doing this.
I looked for one of those out of the box ones - and found nothing close.

On Oct 21, 2013, at 9:42 AM, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

Actually, this sounds precisely like a mix of the Threadless and Etsy sales models. At Threadless, designers submit designs to the store, visitors vote on these new designs, the winners get produced, and the designer gets a cut of the sales. At Etsy, the designer/producer creates the products they want to sell, and manages their own inventory in the system, but Etsy does the commerce and (I believe) the fulfillment.

Yes, in both cases, they do see the same database, but no, they don’t all see the same fields or have permission to change all of the fields. It comes down to some well-written software that can police these relationships and manage who sees (and can do) what. I could write this store, I doubt sincerely that a newcomer to programming would be able to do it in a way that didn’t expose the store owner to enormous risk. None of the off-the-shelf store solutions I know of allow for this sort of multi-tenant database setup.

Walter

On Oct 21, 2013, at 8:37 AM, Julie Maxwell wrote:

Dave,
Im not up for this job this young guy is and was just asking my thoughts. I dont want it - expecially dealing with him who has no idea of what he is talking about. It came down to him saying he was not sure of what they wanted… ugh…

I totally agree with you with about that they shoudl not have access to the same database.

I was so confused that I wanted to see the forums thoughts about this and if it could actually be done.

J

On Oct 21, 2013, at 2:58 AM, DeltaDave email@hidden wrote:

they want the member to access the same database as the store has to see inventory

My immediate thoughts -

Are you in a competitive tendering position for this job? Do you want to do it bearing in mind this goes beyond your comfort zone and skill set.

As to members having access to the same database - I dont think that this is a good idea at all. By all means access to see if products are available to purchase but in this age of JIT supply is it wise that they should know how many/few items are available. It surely would have to be moderated access.

David

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