I saw the ad on this site for a discount for StoreFront 5.0. I've also been recommended Your Virtual Store and was wondering how many of you use what and if you can recommend one over the other etc.

Speak o tha devil, I just ordered StoreFront SE today (Along with Studio MX!!! w00t!) I really hope it has the maddening amount of commerce related functions that I'm lookin for! Good udzone.com price too! $40 off! I'll let you know my initial impressions when I get it.

Aegis Kleais
New Media Web Developer
(DWMX : IIS5.1 : SQL2K : WXP : ASP[VB/JS])

Sounds good.

The Discount may be a decision factor since I'm really low on cash for this kind of stuff right now.

For once in my life I have jobs coming out of my ears and I'm doing everything I can to stay one step ahead of them. (being new to this field and all)
I know they'll all endup paying for the software and stuff but I want to get something long lasting, which is why a comparison between YVS and SF would be good.

Crud...I think I'm gonna have to get the AE version since it looks like it has the features I'm gonna need.

But I'll still apprieciate your review as far as work flow, ease of implimentation and such.

Whoa! I just got the powerpoint presentation of the AE version and that totally won me over. I'm gonna put in the order ASAP

Post the link up for the presentation so i can have a look plz.

"Get the kettle on, time for a brew"

excuse me ... ¿¿¿is this the do it yourself infomercial hour???

Are you looking for real reviews or are you done with the "crud", "whoa", "Discount may be a decision factor ", and "I think I'm gonna have to get the AE version since it looks like it has the features "

Sorry but i found contradictory your low price reflexion and your AE buyins ASAP

If you are interested in sincere reviews let me know

Everybody should belive in something... I belive i'm having another beer

My bad, we need SQL capabilities, so I'm gonn have to go for the SE Pro version. Should still be gettin it later on today. Prolly take me a week or 2 to learn it inside out

Aegis Kleais
New Media Web Developer
(DWMX : IIS5.1 : SQL2K : WXP : ASP[VB/JS])

sieteyuna
Ease up there sparky. I didn't realize what was exactly involved in the whole package and until I saw how it works from a developer point of view I wasn't sure if I was gonna have to get the whole enchilada.

Don't be so anal.

Hey! Have been using StoreFront SE 5.0 on a shopping cart site for about two months now.

Have been using this with UD4 as have not upgraded to MX yet. The web host runs IIS 5.0 Windows servers and using an Access 2000 database so the need was not there yet to get StoreFront AE to run SQL databases since the expected volume will not be too large at first.

The installation is smooth, the learning curve is fairly simple and the SF getting started documentation on their site is very helpful. Had a tutorial shopping cart site up in a few hours but now working on a production one which is about 75 percent complete.

The SF first 30 days free telephone support was very good and all questions were answered and resolved fast on the phone with some taking a couple of tries due to the environment on the web host. Couple of things that SF should clarify when setting up the remote environment on the web host.

The documentation sounds like you need the web host to create a virtual MSADC folder in your domain root which may be so for workig with the data live on the remote server, and that this was the only way. The host being used did not want to create that folder for security reasons, which is their right since it is their hardware.

However, being a SF newbie and not knowing any better and after talking to SF support it is just as easy to work with the database locally, add products etc., then upload to the web host. Have not missed out on much this way except it takes a little time but to upload but it works.

Was looking at possibly switching hosts until realizing that the virtual folder was not needed but both SF and the web host were helpful. Currently use ReadyHosting and their support has always been good and have used them for about two years now.

Have a couple of other items that newbies should do, change the default database name that SF creates to a harder to identify name so that intruders can not hack into your database if they get past the permissions on the folder. That might not stop them if they get that far anyway but every little thing helps.

For developers with firewall software, leave on the display pop up adds advertising since SF pops up the order confirmation. Took a little time to figure this one and even SF did not know the answer until they were told that the firewall software setting was causing this.

Most of the development is fairly smooth with the hardest part actually populating the database since the old data was in dbaseIV format and had to write some generic SQL to populate the Access database now. Yes Access can read dbaseIV data but not straight, it is as a link so some processing may increase if you leave it as a link.

Will also be setting up the site to use the USPS as the primary shipper and to use PayPal as the credit card processor and that looks fairly easy at this time. Have to get a couple of dll's added to the host and add an extension to UD but that is not a big thing.

This version of SF works fine for the current site, may have to upgrade to AE if the volume picks up or work on another site with larger volume but this works fine. The reporting function is very good and have setup a password protected folder for the business client to get into and run various reports now.

Had to also get a secure certificate to keep the order forms secure but that was simple and used the quick ssl certificate from GeoTrust for that.

Very happy with the product so far. Will try to answer more questions based on the recent startup experience but surely have not run into everything yet. Hope the above review can help. Thanks!