I am trying to understand whether Miva may be a good fit for us and I was wondering what was everyone's opinion on using Miva vs creating your own ASP code for shopping cart etc...

Also, when using Miva, do you still need to create a database or does MIVA capture all of that?

thanks

Hello,

Miva creates all of the tables for you. You enter in each product through the Miva Admin section. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of a shopping cart.

The major advantage to using Miva is that you do not need to create a shopping cart from scratch. You simply enter the necessary information through the admin section and the Miva software builds the store for you. The edit store options allow you to customize almost every aspect of the look of your store, including removing the Miva navigation bar entirely and replacing it with your own custom header. The disadvantage is that you do not have FULL control over the layout and functionality of the store. But as I said, most things you need to do for an ecommerce store can be done through the admin interface. Another advantage is that if something does not work or you are not sure how to configure an option you can contact us and we can work with you to resolve the issue.

The major advantage to using your own custom built shopping cart is that you have full control over the store because you built it. The major disavantage is that you have to build your own shopping cart from scratch. If you are not a developer by nature this can be a difficult task. If you are a developer it wont be as difficult but will be time consuming and you may miss some necessary features. Of course the majority of developers I know like to create everything themselves . Also, since it will be your own creation we cannot offer as much support for the store if it breaks. We will certainly help you determine the nature of any problems but we will not be able to rewrite the code of the store for you.

When I was an ASP developer (about 3 years ago) I built a shopping cart from scratch and it was a lot harder than I thought it was. Of course I was not as proficient at ASP as I am now so it would probably be a bit easier for me to do it today, but I would still consider using Miva to save time and for ease of use.

-Alan

Well said. As far as creating a 'quick' storefront, you really cannot compare Miva to coding from scratch as the Miva administrator gets you started almost immediately.

The Miva metabase is not recommended to be edited outside of the Miva administrator as typically it can leads to dire results, but if you decide to walk down that path, MvTools is the easiest way to do it. MvTools can be read further about at http://papercitysoftware.com/ and HostMySite has had numerous clients utilize MvTools to make major updates to their store.

Miva does everything for you. All you do is follow the wizards.

Is miva the right choice ?
In all honesty, I can give you the right answer, only when I know more about your business. What do you plan to sell ?

I came across your delimma, and I must share my MIVA experience with you and all the others:

Around January 2005, one of my client (a mid size business) decided to put up an online store. I took all the requirements and started my research on whether to do a custom job or just by a package such MIVA. Well, someone already had sugar coated MIVA to my client so we decided to go with MIVA. And by the way JITU, what you claim " MIVA DOES EVERYTHING FOR YOU" is absolutely not TRUE at all. One must invest into buying third party MODULES and then PRAY that these modules would work according to their descriptions. Well, I set the store up and then realized that more than half the needed functionality needed to be implemented by buying the third pary modules. Well, off I went to get those modules such as SHIPPING MODULE, EMAIL CONFIRMATION MODULE, GIFT CERTIFICATE MODULE, WEIGHT NOT DISPLAY MODULE, FREE SHIPPING MODULE, AND FEW OTHERS. Some of these modules would not work properly, and according to HOST MY SITE techsupport "MODULE IS BUGGY, AND IT SHOULD BE DISCUSSED WITH THE MODULE COMPANY".

Well, it has been six month and although the store is up but due MIVA's flaws, I am now personally developing (coding) the store. I believe every business has its own needs but some of these needs share a common solution which MIVA highly LACKS.

We have spent alot of money and time with HOSTMYSITE support and the bottom line is:

*If you desire a solid, fully controlled online ecommerce setup, please have it done from scratch.
*Be aware of those cheap or indian developers (they are indeed knowledgeable but very sloopy) and speedy solutions or shortcuts will only cause more time and money.

By the way, I have also done research and spoken to the sales team at WEBASSIST and even their product lacks some of the functionality. But they did offer consulting for $90 and hour.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of MIVA.

I cannot totally agree with the whole 3rd party module thing. Then depending on your needs is the question that needs to be asked when disucussing 'does miva do everything for you'. I am pretty sure you don't need a thrid party module for these SHIPPING MODULE, EMAIL CONFIRMATION MODULE, WEIGHT NOT DISPLAY MODULE, FREE SHIPPING MODULE,. I have seen these options in miva several times and if it's not an option there are several work arounds one being a thrid party module, but just remember when using them they are exactly that.

A module that has the "capability" to work with but is only "supported" by the manufacture.